Fueling for Workouts and Racing

Fueling for Workouts/Races
Basics are 200-300 calories per hour consisting of 50-70grams of carbs and 300-1000+ mg of sodium.  The carbs and sodium vary because every athlete is different and also every workout is different.  A highly aerobic ride you will need less carbs as you are using less carbs.  A lighter athlete is burning less carbs than a bigger athlete.  Sodium I feel is needed more by people who sweat a lot (like myself) and in very hot races like most in Houston.

Articles on Fueling and Carbohydrates:
http://www.thirdcoasttraining.com/blog.php?s=training-race-day-fueling-strategy
http://sportsci.org/jour/0101/bmd.htm
http://www.poweringmuscles.com/article.php?id=61
http://sharepoint.worcester.edu/external/evescio/Beginner%20Tri%20Program%202007/Triathlon%20Sports%20Nutrition%20to%20Improve%20Performance.htm

I recommend 4 main products in this area EFS by First Endurance, new Roctane Drink by GU, Infinit custom make your nutrition and CarboPro.  

Articles on Sodium:
http://weshobsonperformance.com/articles/nutrition/sodium.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2492002/
http://www.slowtwitch.com/Training/General_Physiology/The_Math_of_salt_loss_1093.html
http://ironman.com/training/nutrition/electrolytes-in-the-ironman-nutrition-and-hydration-plan#axzz1kPkCv62c

With most of these you will probably need some sort of sodium supplement which I suggest Athlytes by MST and Thermotabs.  I usually do not worry about supplementing sodium during my daily training as much as I do long weekend workouts and during my races.



Recovery
This is super important and needs to be done in the 30minute window directly after your workout is completed.  I suggest something with some protein in it to help rebuild any torn down muscle tissue and some carbs to further replenish your glycogen and get you back to a normal state.

I recommend Honey Milk, Ultragen by First Endurance, Gu Recovery Brew and Fluid.

Performance Enhancement
I will not bore you with all the technical stuff but the ingredients in the following two stacks are very similar and have been shown to do a lot of cool things for endurance athletes (runners and cyclists in particular).
This is less important than the previous two but if you have the funds it is worth looking into.
1. First endurance OptygenHP and PreRace
http://www.firstendurance.com/pdf/optygenhp_2.2.pdf & http://www.firstendurance.com/pdf/pre_research_packet_1.4.pdf
Check them out on www.firstendurance.com under products and they have videos.
2. MST Cre-02, Citruvol - Ultra and Cordygen5
http://www.millenniumsport.net/

I have been on Citruvol and Cordygen5 in the past and think it had good results.  After doing some research I am adding the Cre-02 coming up very soon. I have also ordered the first endurance stuff to take immediately following the end of the MST stack to compare but again the ingredients are virtually the same and the feedback from users is amazing.



Daily Vitamins
Most of us do not have perfect diets thus need daily vitamins. I have found two dailys that focus on endurance athletes and have a lot of good feedback from triathletes and runners specifically.
First Endurance produces MultiV, Millennium Sport produces MVP and SixNutrition puts out a monthly vitamin supplement that is only for men.
http://www.firstendurance.com/pdf/multiv_research_2010.pdf
http://sixnutrition.com/
http://www.millenniumsport.net/


If you do everything above this can get quit expensive trust me I know cause I have been trying a bunch of this stuff out to be able to put out this list.  I do have deals with most of the companies above to help with the cost and any Team Apex members can take advantage of them.  IF you want something above and are not on the Team I can probably still beat retail so let me know.

Any Team Apex member who wants to come to me with a budget I can help pick and choose what is best for you.  If you have no budget go to the First Endurance website do some research and pick out almost everything they have and let me know so I can order it for you at a discount.  It is the easiest and maybe the best products out there cause they are back by tons of research (even if its their own) and are focused on endurance athletes.