April 16, 2025 • 34 mins
OVERVIEW
Stephanie Howe, PhD is back for Part 2 of the sports nutrition podcasts she recorded with Coach Adam Pulford. An elite ultramarathon runner who won Western States, CTS Coach, and the provider for CTS Nutrition Coaching services, Stephanie works with cyclists, runners, triathletes, and more. In Episode 244 of "The Time-Crunched Cyclist Podcast", Stephanie and Coach Adam Pulford lay out evidence-based, practical sports nutrition recommendations for race day, including a checklist for planning your raceday nutrition, how to adapt your plan when things go wrong, how to come back from a bad stomach, and more.
TOPICS COVERED
- Creating a race day eating and drinking plan
- Planning ahead with aid stations, feed zones, drop bags, etc.
- How 'palate fatigue' stops athletes from consuming more food.
- How to come back from an upset stomach during a race
- How much sodium do you really need?
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HOST
Adam Pulford has been a CTS Coach for nearly two decades and holds a B.S. in Exercise Physiology. He's participated in and coached hundreds of athletes for endurance events all around the world.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
From the team at CTS.
This is the Time Crunch Cyclistpodcast, our show dedicated to
answering your trainingquestions and providing
actionable advice to help youimprove your performance even if
you're strapped for time.
I'm your host, coach AdamPulford, and I'm one of the over
50 professional coaches whomake up the team at CTS.
In each episode, I draw on ourteam's collective knowledge,
(00:30):
other coaches and experts in thefield to provide you with the
practical ways to get the mostout of your training and
ultimately become the bestcyclist that you can be.
Now on to our show.
Now onto our show.
Welcome back, time Crunch fans.
(00:54):
I'm your host, coach AdamPulford.
I'm back today with CTS ProCoach Stephanie Howe to discuss
more about nutrition andhydration, and this time we'll
focus on race day planning.
So, steph, welcome back.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Yeah.
So a quick recap from aprevious podcast is that a big
part of the planning process forrace day is figuring out what
works in training before weactually get to our big day.
So we start with science, weuse proven guidelines and ranges
of intakes to start with, andthen we dial it in for
(01:27):
individual needs, includingbeing adaptable, which I want to
talk about today.
So let's pick it up from thereand if there's anything else
that you want to add on to thatrecap from last week, is there
anything that you want toinclude?
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Yeah, I think.
I mean we talked about startingwith 60 grams of carbohydrate
and when you're thinking throughthe application of that, like
looking at what products havedifferent grams of carbohydrates
so you can come up with thatamount, and that kind of like
dovetails into today we'retalking about how to actually
plan that out.
So that's something to considertoo is like the different
(02:08):
products and their different um,I guess sources of of uh
carbohydrate and how muchcarbohydrates in it.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Exactly, exactly.
And so what I tell my athletesis we want to keep what worked,
we've changed what didn't workand now, as we enter in that
race day, we want to start bringout the calculators, we'll
bring out the race map, we lookat where the aid stations are at
and we'll we'll do some mathand in good planning, and so in
(02:38):
that way, I think you know,assuming we have the grams and
calories per hour calculated, Istart looking at what do I need,
total on the day for the givenduration, right, how many total
grams of carbohydrate, how manytotal calories and how that
works into my options, my maybethree or four options, like you
(03:00):
said, don't choose 20 optionsbut the things I've been using
in training.
And then I'm going to be like,well, how do I carry all this?
Where are the aid stations atwhere I can pick it up?
Will I have a crew out there ifit is a long race, something
like that?
So where do you start?
How do you start to frame thisup for people who maybe they've
(03:20):
never done like a six hour racebefore and they're like holy
crap, I'm so confused.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Yeah, I mean, you laid it out really well.
The first thing I start with ishow long is it going to take
you and give yourself a range,because we can predict but we're
really bad at forecastingoutcomes sometimes in terms of,
like, race times, raceperformance.
So give yourself a little bitof a range, so if you are out
there a little bit longer, youdon't undercut your fuel because
(03:49):
that's you're probably going toreally want it.
So if you think it's going tobe like, let's say, a six hour
race, I would give yourself arange from like five to seven
hours perhaps, and that might bea little bit more for a cycling
race, but for running, you know, generally an hour on either
end is is realistic.
So start there.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
It's realistic here too, because between GI issues,
mechanicals and emotionalbreakdowns, anything can happen
out there.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Yeah, yeah and it and it does.
So we talked about last episodeof figuring out your grams per
carbohydrate.
That feels best.
So hopefully you kind of havean idea of that as well and I
think again, plan for themaximum amount, knowing that you
might have to adapt that alittle bit along the way, which
we'll talk about.
(04:35):
But if I know I'm going to takelike five to seven hours, I
know that I feel good at 60grams an hour you can figure out
how many products you needoverall.
So that's kind of like thesecond step.
The next step then is figuringout where are my aid stations,
how far in between the aidstations, to determine how much
(04:58):
you need to carry.
So in ultra running there'susually we just like snack and
run, so there's usually an aidstation every like hour or two.
In cycling I'm not sure if it'sthat frequent, but planning out
for like when you can pick upyour fuel I think is important
and knowing like how much youneed to take and again, give
(05:19):
yourself a little buffer there,because you don't want to have
like an hour where you run drybecause that's going to do a few
things One, you're going tobonk, likely, and two, that
actually increases the risk forGI upset, because when you
aren't getting like a steadystream of fuel, the blood flow
tends to go to your muscles,away from your stomach, and then
when you do try to refuel,usually it sloshes around in
(05:42):
there a bit.
So plan for a little bit morethan you think you need.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Yep, I think that's always good, because when things
go sideways, having that extragel or having a little bit extra
in the bottle, it's alwaysbetter than running dry or going
into camel mode in between theaid stations.
But in that way I think, mostlike ultra, you know, mountain
bike, ultra, gravel eventsthey're going to have aid
(06:09):
stations anywhere between 90minutes for the fastest sort of
people and, you know, threehours or so for most people.
What you can plan on mostly andI think in that way too, that's
the applicability there is, youknow how much fluid can the
(06:29):
average person carry?
It's usually a couple ofbottles.
Sure, they have the hydrationpack option as well, but I also
think that you know, whateveryou want to carry and if you're
just going to finish, do yourthing.
But Ruddy and I talked aboutour Leadville planning.
We just scratched the surfaceon some of this.
Fueling is when you're makingyour best race day plan.
(06:50):
You want to carry stuff that'sgoing to keep you well-fueled
and safe, but you don't want tobring a kitchen sink because
then you start to do way morework and become very inefficient
because you're just working toohard, because you're carrying
so much shit.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Carrying so much shit and the decision fatigue of
what shit to take in is a thingtoo.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Yes, yes.
So in that way, this planningis to help you get really
efficient and dialed on this.
So now we've got the totals,We've got where the aid stations
are.
Roughly, we know you can snackall day if you're an ultra
runner, 90 minutes to threehours if you're a cyclist what
about?
So?
Where do we go from there?
Stephanie and I will say raceslike Breck Epic, for example.
They'll give you the littledrop bag options too.
(07:41):
So if you don't have a crew,you don't know, maybe, exactly
where that aid station is, butyou want to carry a kitchen sink
, you can put that in a Ziplocbag and throw it out there.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
And I think this goes back tolike you've practiced with, like
, let's say, three to fourdifferent products, so you know
what you're going to use.
I like to keep it simple,though.
Again, we don't want to have tomake a lot of decisions, we
don't want to do more thansimple math, and so knowing what
you need like in putting it ina Ziploc bag, making it easier
(08:12):
for yourself, so you just pickup what you need and go I think
that's a really great way toplan.
The other consideration is that,although we're pretty good at
like trying to plan ahead,sometimes we don't actually know
how we're going to feel at hourfive and the ultra running like
at least for me.
I'm like pretty bad atforecasting like, oh yeah, I'm
(08:32):
going to want the like lemonlime gels at like hour six and
like I don't want those at all.
So when I, when I think aboutplanning like that, I kind of
pre-planned what I think I'mgoing to grab, but also give
myself an option to grab likeanother thing, and I call them
things because it just doesn'tmake it like that difficult.
So I know I need five thingsbetween this aid station and
(08:55):
this aid station, and I justmake sure that I grab those, and
the best way to do that, if youput them in charge of that,
like, remind me to take fivethings here.
That's their job.
Hopefully they don't fail you.
If you don't have a crew, justwrite it with, like a Sharpie on
either the drop bag or you know, if you have something that
you're keeping track of yourpace or the mileage or whatever
(09:19):
it is, just so that you don'thave to like memorize everything
ahead of time.
So some way that you're keepingtrack.
Ideally you're punting that offon, like your crew, so they
have a job to do for you.
But, yeah, making sure that youhave enough packed, but giving
yourself some flexibility tochange that plan if you need to.
(09:39):
If it's like suddenly like okay, I need to switch to all sports
drink because I'm not able toget gels down, like have that be
a viable option for yourself.
So make sure to set it up soyou have your sports drink as
well.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Yep, yep, no, that's, that's super good and I think,
to that end and that's part ofbeing adaptable, which I think
is crucial uh, to to figure outwhat's going to go good on race
day and what's not, two thingsto that is, I think, adding in
real food, like we talked aboutin part, one.
That's extra kind of sustenanceto weave in.
(10:16):
It also makes you happy whenyou just get like a usually like
a crunchy salty chocolate thingEvery once in a while.
Chips, salt and vinegar chipsbring me back to life, yes, and
like practice that and grab likea little bit of small things as
you're heading out of the aidstation.
Just make yourself happy, right.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Yep, yep, huge fan of that, and for a couple reasons.
One, you just get a littleextra which is like just like a
bonus.
Think of it as like a littletailwind pushing you out of the
aid station.
Two, it helps prevent palatefatigue, or it makes you look
forward to then taking inanother gel, because you just
had a bunch of like really good,like salty crunchy, whatever it
(10:55):
is.
And then, three, some of thosehave other things in them, like
sodium, or you know, if you'retaking in some Coca-Cola it'd
have a little caffeine.
So you're getting in maybe someother things that your body
might be craving.
But I like that.
Get out of the aid stationfeeling a little bit happier.
That's a great goal.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
For sure, and we didn't mention this in our
training part one podcast.
But how to do that in training?
Is gas stations right For uscyclists?
We basically roll up to our gasstations just like cracked with
salt lines all over each otherwearing spandex and we go in and
just like raid the place.
I love it Drink our Cokes andhave our chips and then off we
(11:36):
go.
So like practice eating thatkind of stuff in training,
that's going to go real good onrace day.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Yeah, and you can do that in ultra running too, like
I mean, in France it's nicebecause there's the refuges
where you can just like bring alittle money and do that.
But also we carry these nicelittle backpacks around all the
time, so just like shoving somefood in there.
It's a great way to do it.
No-transcript, get your fueldown, but just like really
(12:40):
trying to force it, that's notgoing to end well.
So when you're in thatsituation, thinking about what
sounds good is a good way tostart, because generally not
much sounds good.
So if there's something thatsounds maybe it's not even good
but it sounds like the leastworst thing like, oh, I could
crunch in some chips or somesalty broth or like some
pretzels, like, get that andnibble Again.
(13:04):
You don't want to just likedown.
Uh, you know.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Like what if I wanted a pizza?
What if I was craving?
Speaker 2 (13:09):
pizza.
Well, okay, this has been, thishas been.
You're like speaking to meright now, um, so, in my recent
race, um, no, uh, I I do think,if you're craving pizza, like
that's fine to have some pizzaand like we talked about it,
just maybe not the whole entirepizza and like we talked about
it, just maybe not the wholeentire pizza, but just like a
couple bites.
See how that sits, maybe even awhole slice of pizza, but just
(13:32):
like thinking of that kind offood is something to nibble on,
because obviously you don't wantto take in too much.
That's going to sit in your gutand cause the opposite problem,
but taking in little bits offood is a really great strategy
and maybe you take that with youout of the aid station.
So, for example, I did this racea couple of weeks ago and
cheese sandwiches were soundingreal great and so every time I
(13:54):
saw my career, I'm like I'lltake another cheese sandwich
please, and I couldn't eat thewhole thing just sitting there,
but I would take a few bites andthen I would take it with me
and just like shove it in mypack or, like you know, you
could put it wherever you need,I don't know, in cycling shoving
your shorts.
Maybe that might be weird, butwhatever, get extra salt on it.
That's a great strategy.
And then if it's sitting well,then you can, like you know, in
(14:17):
like another half an hour, havea few more bites.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
But that's the way to do it, rather than to just like
down something and then regretit in like 20 minutes later down
something and then regret it inlike 20 minutes later, yeah,
yeah, and some of this goes withexperiential knowledge, but
some of it is just like beingaware, being smart and using
some common sense.
If you do international, likestage racing for example, and
you're blowing through aidstations and you know the stuff
(14:42):
in South Africa is not going tobe the same stuff in North
America, is not the same stuffin Central America, right.
But being able to like gothrough and scan and be and be
like so potatoes with salt, forexample, little potatoes with
salt, amazing, right.
Just don't eat all the potatoesbut like take the potato, dunk
it in salt and go.
Also, there's like littlelittle gummies with that are
(15:06):
like woven with fruit, okay,they're super sweet, right, and
it just like sometimes that canbe really good.
I would say try these things, beopen and adaptable.
But again, small portions asyou go, even if you don't know
what it is.
But I think the small portionsprobably airing a little bit on
the salty and crunchy side ofthings in the aid station, cause
(15:29):
we normally don't carry a bagof pretzels with us when we're
training Right, Try those andjust like, be adaptable.
be open to that.
Don't be so structured and likeI'm going to go liquid for 30
hours.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
I think that's a really great skill to hone in on
is like the scan and like agreat way to think about that is
, before you come into the aidstation, just kind of do like a
little check-in with yourself,like, have I been drinking, have
I been eating?
What sounds good, what isn'tworking?
That gives you an idea, whenyou go into the aid station,
what you're going to look for.
So like wow, I'm just liketotally over the sweet stuff,
(16:06):
okay, I'm going to look for.
So like wow, I'm just liketotally over the sweet stuff,
okay, I'm going to look forsomething salty.
Then when you go in there,that'll help you scan and just
grab a couple of things, likeAdam said.
Just like, try a little bit, beopen to it.
Like maybe they don't have yourexact thing, but maybe they
have something that is like kindof similar and that'll probably
do the trick.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
So we mentioned palate fatigue a couple of times
.
We know it's a thing, but likescientifically, what and how do
we mitigate it?
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Yeah.
So when you're taking in a lotof sugar over a long period of
time, you do get some like it'sbasically just getting sick of
the sweet flavor.
So your taste buds are justgetting tired and that's like
the start of where digestionhappens is in our mouth.
And so if that's getting, ifthat's the first line and it's
like done, tired of sweet, yourtaste buds are like
overstimulated from all of thesweet, then it's like, ah, done,
(16:54):
tired of sweet, your taste budsare like overstimulated from
all of the sweet.
Then it's going to be reallyhard to continue to fuel because
that's like the first point ofcontact.
And so, to avoid palate fatigue,we kind of mix it up.
And that's a good thing to doin your planning is to think
about where am I, where am Igoing to get something different
, when can I get somethingsavory or salty, or even just
(17:15):
like a different form of sugar,so like a Stroopwafel versus a
gel, versus a chew?
That's going to be a little bitdifferent, or flavors too.
Sometimes that can help avoidpalate fatigue.
So you alternate like a morelike sour, like lemon, lime, and
then maybe you go to like apassion fruit or something like
that, but it really does help.
(17:37):
It sounds silly, but it can.
It can extend your fueling umlike uh desirability if you will
uh over several hours, versusjust like vanilla gel, vanilla
gel, vanilla gel.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
And then it's like, wow, I can't do any vanilla gels
anymore gel, vanilla gel, andthen it's like, wow, I can't do
any vanilla gels anymore.
Yeah, I still can't have um,goo espresso gels.
I did some race where it wentright.
That's all I had for four daysin a row, didn't itting, and
well, um, so we've been speakingabout like a lot of ultra stuff
and I want to mention that,like even in road, or or like
(18:15):
the three to four hour sort oftime period where we're where
we're going real fast, some ofthis can still happen, and maybe
more like the four or five hoursort of road race.
But somewhere in there youstill got to have to figure out
probably where to get a feed Ifyou're somewhere between that
three and five hour race, andoftentimes that's, that's on the
fly.
So we're not going to stop,we're not going to have the
(18:36):
luxury of doing the scan andhaving a potato chip or
something like that.
So when it comes to making agood plan on race day for like a
one day road race or somethinglike that, you probably have one
or two feeds and, based on someof that experiential knowledge
of like I know that my palategoes or I need this at three
(18:57):
hours, you got to tell that toyour feed person and you have to
know how to grab it on the flyand sometimes we just tape it to
a bottle.
So we grab the bottle, we havethat extra gel or whatever the
thing is that we need, rip itoff, put it in our pockets, put
it in our cage and away we go,and that's as simple as it is on
the road racing side of things.
(19:18):
Now, if we're doing stage races,we can get a grab.
We can get a feed with the Museset and stick little paninis in
there, or pickle juice Somepeople love that Anything that
you need to feel comfy, put thatin the Muse set.
Now, if you're not going likefull ham and you're like Adam,
(19:41):
there's no way I can grabsomething on the fly.
But it's still a stage raceformat and you still want to go
your fastest.
Sure, roll up, put a foot down,grab your bag, grab your thing,
whatever and then efficientlymove out of the feed zone.
Don't waste a ton of time there.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Yeah, yeah, that's.
That's a good point of likebeing efficient, because time
can add up real quickly in anage station.
I also wouldn't overlook theimportance of planning for a
short let's three to four hoursa shorter race.
Who are we, because theintensity is so high, right?
So actually thinking about thatand knowing like I'm going to
(20:11):
be going hard and that's where,in training, like hopefully
you've tried different forms,different flavors, et cetera.
When you're, when you're doinglike high intensity workouts,
because it is more polarizing,so when you're going a little
bit slower, it's easier to takedown something that maybe isn't
like the perfect flavor or form,where you're going really hard,
(20:32):
it really matters.
So I think you know, in thatthree to four hour race, like
yeah, you definitely want toplan that and like know what's
going to work and think ahead sothat you can like get that gel,
like Adam said, and put it inyour pocket.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
Yeah, a hundred percent.
And I think you know wementioned, uh, pre-race and the
kind of the 36 or 24 to 36 hourbeforehand, and then, uh, we
scratched the surface on likeone to two hour before race.
That before part is so muchmore important on the three to
four hour sort of high octanesort of thing, because, um, in
(21:08):
the way of, because sometimesyou might be going so hard, it
might be so technical, thatyou're just going to rely upon
energy stored on your body.
That's why I say it's superimportant to top things off and
roll into the shorter race readyto go.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
But one thing I'm thinking about.
We haven't touched much on this, and I would say there's a good
reason for it.
But sodium we haven't talkedabout intakes of sodium at all.
So let's take just a couple ofminutes and talk about sodium.
Do we need it?
How much do we need it?
How do we know how much we needand when we need more?
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Yeah, so we we, we do need sodium because it is part
of like, like, I guess, the theabsorption of glucose.
So a lot of our glucose isbeing absorbed through an active
transporter that's using energyand it's exchanging a glucose
for a sodium, and so when we'resweating and we're losing a lot
of sodium, that can disrupt thatbalance of intracellular and
(22:10):
extracellular sodiumconcentrations.
That said, it's really easy toovercomplicate it and overthink
it, because we know that we doneed some sodium.
But most sports products havesodium in it, most foods have
electrolytes in it Actually allfoods do and so if you are just
fueling and not taking in purelywater, you are getting sodium
(22:33):
and electrolytes.
And so for most people, ifthey're not doing like a, let's
say, plus 10 hour race it's notsuper hot out that's probably
going to be a good startingplace and you don't need to
overthink it or like overcontrive of like taking salt
here or getting, you know, salttabs or whatever it is.
So that's generally the rule ofthumb that I start with.
(22:56):
Now, if somebody is a reallysalty sweater and how do you
know that Well one you could doa sweat sodium test, but that's
not realistic for everyone.
The best way is like do youfinish a ride and have salt
lines all over your face?
If so, then yes, you'reprobably a salty sweater.
If you don't notice that, thenyou probably are just like
within the normal range.
(23:16):
Like I finish a run and my sonis like what's on your legs?
What are these white things?
I'm like, yes, I am a saltysweater, but that said, you know
that doesn't mean you need toreplace one to one.
Your sodium losses forperformance.
If you're a salty sweater, youwant some sodium.
But look at your products thatyou're taking in.
(23:37):
They most likely have somesodium and we're looking for
somewhere between like the 200to 800 milligram range-ish.
Again, it doesn't have to beperfect Someone who's a salty
sweater.
They're going to be at thathigher end.
So between 500 to a thousand,somebody who's in the lower or
middle range, maybe 200 to 500.
(23:57):
But again, I tend to notoverthink that because sweat
rates vary, sweat sodium ratesvary, products you're taking in,
vary environmental conditionschange this.
If you're trying to actuallycalculate it out, there's going
to be so many errors involved.
So I just go back to theproducts, making sure you're
getting some and if you know youneed a little bit more than
(24:19):
yeah Plan to have like a gelthat has a higher concentration
than another product.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Yeah, a hundred percent, and I think too, you
want to again suss this out intraining ahead of time, but our
messaging on sodium has kind ofchanged and evolved over time.
I think the biggest thing isit's in a lot of these products.
Roll the package over and justmake sure it's there.
Have some general idea of youknow is it on the 300 or the 800
(24:47):
milligram side of things and besure that you're just putting
that in.
I if you're a salty sweater,you don't need to put it all in
that you're putting out.
So don't think that it's aone-to-one replace.
And I would say, based on theresearch and what I know, high
sodium intake during exercisehas no applicability to
(25:09):
performance Meaning.
If I jack myself on sodiumduring something, it's not
Sodium bicarb beforehand has alittle bit, but that's on the
acidity and buffering side ofthings.
Probably don't need to getthere for today.
But overall the message onsodium is you don't need to
overdo it.
If you're taking some of theseknown products that Stephanie
(25:30):
mentioned in our first podcast,it's all good, it's baked into
the equation.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Yep, yep, a hundred percent Yep.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Okay, so a couple more, just like maybe quick
questions, quick tips and advice.
When things go sideways, whenthings go wrong, how do we?
How do we fix it?
So if, if somebody is thinkingto this and they're like Hmm,
maybe I need to get Stephanie toconsult with me, but I've had
(25:59):
GI issues in the past, when thathappens four hours deep in an
eight hour race, how do I fixthat?
How do I undo it?
Speaker 2 (26:17):
susceptible.
Don't stick with your plan oftrying to force gels in if they
aren't working.
So it's time to like pivot andthe first thing you want to keep
in mind is like don't stopfueling.
That's like the RIP You're like, that's like a, just like this
downward spiral of like you're,you're bonking, you've got GI
upset.
You stop fueling.
Okay, so it's like pivoting.
To like got GI upset, you stopfueling.
(26:37):
Okay, so it's like pivoting tolike smaller bits of, hopefully,
something different.
So if you're between aidstations and all you have is
your sports product, I wouldjust back off on the volume and
try to get little bits in.
So think of just like nibblingand that can be a gel.
You know you could.
You don't have to take a fullgel, it's a little bit messy,
but maybe you take like just asip of the gel or half of it and
(26:58):
that can really help to justnot overwhelm your gut when you
get into the aid station.
Get something different.
This is where you do the scanand maybe you spend a little
extra time of getting somedifferent products and different
products that you're going totake with you.
So, um, you know, trying tojust like change it up on the
(27:19):
fly and going back to what yousaid earlier, adam, of like,
thinking about, like, thesituation where like oh yeah,
this worked well for me before.
Like I had this chocolate panof chocolate and it was
delightful.
Like, okay, it may not bedelightful, but maybe you're
able to get it down.
So, I think, be adaptable.
Don't stop eating.
But also, just like, keep thequantity smaller, because that,
(27:41):
on an upset stomach, a big bolusof sports drink or sports fuel
is not going to feel good.
The other thing, if it's, ifthat's still not helping, I
would just back off theintensity just a hair.
What that does is, just, itputs less stress in your gut.
Some blood flow can return.
That can really do magic.
And if you're worried about,like you know, losing time,
(28:04):
you'll probably make it up lateron when you're able to start
pushing again.
So, just like, back it off justa hair, try to eat or drink a
little bit, small sips, and thensee if that can turn it around.
And I've gone as far as like inaid stations putting Coke in
bottles, you know.
Like, be that adaptable of like, okay, I'm going to get
(28:24):
something in and I might be haveto be creative here, but it's
much better to get let's say thewrong thing in than nothing in.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Yep, yep, yep Agree with that.
So how about when?
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Yep, yep, agree with that.
So how about when uh eat anddrink a little bit, and
generally that will help thecramp you can take in sodium if
that's like part of the problemof like overstressing the body?
So you haven't had any sodium,which would be kind of weird if
you were fueling, but maybe youwere just taking in water and
not enough fuel.
So same thing applies of likeslow it down, eat and drink a
(29:19):
little bit, and that usuallywill help, at least maybe
mitigate the cramping.
It might not totally go away,but it should help to mitigate
it.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
Okay, maybe final one , when it all changes is uh, I'm
doing a long gravel race.
Plan is 60 and cloudy, but allof a sudden the clouds go away,
the sun comes out and juststarts baking down and it's
humid, so I'm just sweating aheck of a lot more.
What do I do now?
Speaker 2 (29:48):
Okay, you're going to need a little bit more water,
so think about that at the aidstations and maybe what you do
is make sure you finish yourbottles before you get into the
aid station and maybe you get alittle bit extra there.
Also, changing up the type offuel you're taking in sometimes
is important when it's hot, somaybe you go to like more
(30:09):
liquids or maybe like moreliquid gels versus like things
that you can eat or flavor wise,like more of the sweeter
flavors tend to be better in thecool weather.
Of the sweeter flavors tend tobe better in the cool weather
and the hotter flavors tend tobe better, or, sorry, the salty,
sour, less sweet flavors tendto be better in the hotter
weather.
So you can think about that.
(30:29):
And then also just being aware,like if you're sweating a ton,
you're losing more sodium,you're losing more just sweat in
general, and so trying toreplace that, I think if it's a
really long race, like, let'ssay, over six to eight hours,
maybe you think about youreffort versus pace as well,
because that's going to be abigger stress in your body.
(30:52):
And then the last thing is andthis isn't really nutrition
related, but keeping your bodycool.
And then the last thing is andthis isn't really nutrition
related, but keeping your bodycool.
So if you can get ice on yourbody, yeah, or just dump water,
that's actually going to helpyour gut too, and it's going to
help keep your core temperaturedown.
And when your core temperatureis happy, your body and brain
and muscles are happy as well.
(31:13):
So that's like probably thenumber one thing to do.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
Yep, and in that way of planning anytime that heat
does happen, I mean, the numberone thing is try to stay cool as
much as possible Ice socks, icedousing with water and just
make sure that you're changingyour plans so that you have
enough water to where you canstill stay hydrated and you're
not dousing yourself with yourpotable drinking water.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Yeah, you don't want to dump your drinkable water on
yourself.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
Yes, exactly.
Well, this has been awesome,stephanie.
I think we'll leave it therefor today, because that gives a
lot of people the tools todevelop their race day planning
a lot more.
But if they have any specificquestions or if they're like man
, um race day planning a lotmore.
But if they have any specificquestions or if they're like man
, stephanie seems to knoweverything.
How do I, how do they get intouch with you to book a consult
(32:05):
or or listen to you more orread more of your articles?
How do people connect with you?
Speaker 2 (32:11):
Yeah, um, my email is as how it train rightcom, and
I'm actually taking on a few newnutrition athletes right now
over the next month or two, sothis is a great time to get in
touch.
Otherwise, I'm fairly active onInstagram Stephanie Marie how.
My website is Stephanie Mariehowcom.
Been on some various podcasts,I think, just like kind of a
(32:34):
splattering over, mostly in theultra running space, but also
just some for endurance athletes.
Um, generally, my name is inthe title, so if you look that
up, um, you'll probably findsome things.
Uh, but, yeah, I, I'm reallyhappy to talk through nutrition.
I kind of geek out on this oflike the science, but then the
(32:55):
application part.
I think it's really cool toblend the two, so I'd love to
talk more.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
Couldn't agree more Well.
Well, folks, if you're lookingfor a certified nutrition coach,
uh, now's the time, and we willlink to your email, stephanie,
as well as websites and how tobook a consult in our show notes
, as well as any applicablepodcasts to follow up with.
So, stephanie, thank you somuch again for joining us and
(33:22):
sharing your knowledge with ouraudience.
I think everyone's going to geta lot out of this.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Yeah, thank you for having me.
It's great to chat with you.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
Thanks for joining us on the Time Crunch Cyclist
podcast.
We hope you enjoyed the show.
If you want even more actualtraining advice, head over to
trainrightcom backslashnewsletter and subscribe to our
free weekly publication.
Each week you'll get in-depthtraining content that goes
beyond what we cover here on thepodcast.
That'll help you take yourtraining to the next level.
(33:54):
That's all for now.
Until next time, train hard,train smart, train right.
From the team at CTS.
This is the Time Crunch Cyclistpodcast, our show dedicated to
answering your trainingquestions and providing
actionable advice to help youimprove your performance even if
you're strapped for time.
I'm your host, coach AdamPulford, and I'm one of the over
50 professional coaches whomake up the team at CTS.
In each episode, I draw on ourteam's collective knowledge,
(00:30):
other coaches and experts in thefield to provide you with the
practical ways to get the mostout of your training and
ultimately become the bestcyclist that you can be.
Now on to our show.
Now onto our show.
Welcome back, time Crunch fans.
(00:54):
I'm your host, coach AdamPulford.
I'm back today with CTS ProCoach Stephanie Howe to discuss
more about nutrition andhydration, and this time we'll
focus on race day planning.
So, steph, welcome back.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Yeah.
So a quick recap from aprevious podcast is that a big
part of the planning process forrace day is figuring out what
works in training before weactually get to our big day.
So we start with science, weuse proven guidelines and ranges
of intakes to start with, andthen we dial it in for
(01:27):
individual needs, includingbeing adaptable, which I want to
talk about today.
So let's pick it up from thereand if there's anything else
that you want to add on to thatrecap from last week, is there
anything that you want toinclude?
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Yeah, I think.
I mean we talked about startingwith 60 grams of carbohydrate
and when you're thinking throughthe application of that, like
looking at what products havedifferent grams of carbohydrates
so you can come up with thatamount, and that kind of like
dovetails into today we'retalking about how to actually
plan that out.
So that's something to considertoo is like the different
(02:08):
products and their different um,I guess sources of of uh
carbohydrate and how muchcarbohydrates in it.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Exactly, exactly.
And so what I tell my athletesis we want to keep what worked,
we've changed what didn't workand now, as we enter in that
race day, we want to start bringout the calculators, we'll
bring out the race map, we lookat where the aid stations are at
and we'll we'll do some mathand in good planning, and so in
(02:38):
that way, I think you know,assuming we have the grams and
calories per hour calculated, Istart looking at what do I need,
total on the day for the givenduration, right, how many total
grams of carbohydrate, how manytotal calories and how that
works into my options, my maybethree or four options, like you
(03:00):
said, don't choose 20 optionsbut the things I've been using
in training.
And then I'm going to be like,well, how do I carry all this?
Where are the aid stations atwhere I can pick it up?
Will I have a crew out there ifit is a long race, something
like that?
So where do you start?
How do you start to frame thisup for people who maybe they've
(03:20):
never done like a six hour racebefore and they're like holy
crap, I'm so confused.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Yeah, I mean, you laid it out really well.
The first thing I start with ishow long is it going to take
you and give yourself a range,because we can predict but we're
really bad at forecastingoutcomes sometimes in terms of,
like, race times, raceperformance.
So give yourself a little bitof a range, so if you are out
there a little bit longer, youdon't undercut your fuel because
(03:49):
that's you're probably going toreally want it.
So if you think it's going tobe like, let's say, a six hour
race, I would give yourself arange from like five to seven
hours perhaps, and that might bea little bit more for a cycling
race, but for running, you know, generally an hour on either
end is is realistic.
So start there.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
It's realistic here too, because between GI issues,
mechanicals and emotionalbreakdowns, anything can happen
out there.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Yeah, yeah and it and it does.
So we talked about last episodeof figuring out your grams per
carbohydrate.
That feels best.
So hopefully you kind of havean idea of that as well and I
think again, plan for themaximum amount, knowing that you
might have to adapt that alittle bit along the way, which
we'll talk about.
(04:35):
But if I know I'm going to takelike five to seven hours, I
know that I feel good at 60grams an hour you can figure out
how many products you needoverall.
So that's kind of like thesecond step.
The next step then is figuringout where are my aid stations,
how far in between the aidstations, to determine how much
(04:58):
you need to carry.
So in ultra running there'susually we just like snack and
run, so there's usually an aidstation every like hour or two.
In cycling I'm not sure if it'sthat frequent, but planning out
for like when you can pick upyour fuel I think is important
and knowing like how much youneed to take and again, give
(05:19):
yourself a little buffer there,because you don't want to have
like an hour where you run drybecause that's going to do a few
things One, you're going tobonk, likely, and two, that
actually increases the risk forGI upset, because when you
aren't getting like a steadystream of fuel, the blood flow
tends to go to your muscles,away from your stomach, and then
when you do try to refuel,usually it sloshes around in
(05:42):
there a bit.
So plan for a little bit morethan you think you need.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Yep, I think that's always good, because when things
go sideways, having that extragel or having a little bit extra
in the bottle, it's alwaysbetter than running dry or going
into camel mode in between theaid stations.
But in that way I think, mostlike ultra, you know, mountain
bike, ultra, gravel eventsthey're going to have aid
(06:09):
stations anywhere between 90minutes for the fastest sort of
people and, you know, threehours or so for most people.
What you can plan on mostly andI think in that way too, that's
the applicability there is, youknow how much fluid can the
(06:29):
average person carry?
It's usually a couple ofbottles.
Sure, they have the hydrationpack option as well, but I also
think that you know, whateveryou want to carry and if you're
just going to finish, do yourthing.
But Ruddy and I talked aboutour Leadville planning.
We just scratched the surfaceon some of this.
Fueling is when you're makingyour best race day plan.
(06:50):
You want to carry stuff that'sgoing to keep you well-fueled
and safe, but you don't want tobring a kitchen sink because
then you start to do way morework and become very inefficient
because you're just working toohard, because you're carrying
so much shit.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Carrying so much shit and the decision fatigue of
what shit to take in is a thingtoo.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Yes, yes.
So in that way, this planningis to help you get really
efficient and dialed on this.
So now we've got the totals,We've got where the aid stations
are.
Roughly, we know you can snackall day if you're an ultra
runner, 90 minutes to threehours if you're a cyclist what
about?
So?
Where do we go from there?
Stephanie and I will say raceslike Breck Epic, for example.
They'll give you the littledrop bag options too.
(07:41):
So if you don't have a crew,you don't know, maybe, exactly
where that aid station is, butyou want to carry a kitchen sink
, you can put that in a Ziplocbag and throw it out there.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
And I think this goes back tolike you've practiced with, like
, let's say, three to fourdifferent products, so you know
what you're going to use.
I like to keep it simple,though.
Again, we don't want to have tomake a lot of decisions, we
don't want to do more thansimple math, and so knowing what
you need like in putting it ina Ziploc bag, making it easier
(08:12):
for yourself, so you just pickup what you need and go I think
that's a really great way toplan.
The other consideration is that,although we're pretty good at
like trying to plan ahead,sometimes we don't actually know
how we're going to feel at hourfive and the ultra running like
at least for me.
I'm like pretty bad atforecasting like, oh yeah, I'm
(08:32):
going to want the like lemonlime gels at like hour six and
like I don't want those at all.
So when I, when I think aboutplanning like that, I kind of
pre-planned what I think I'mgoing to grab, but also give
myself an option to grab likeanother thing, and I call them
things because it just doesn'tmake it like that difficult.
So I know I need five thingsbetween this aid station and
(08:55):
this aid station, and I justmake sure that I grab those, and
the best way to do that, if youput them in charge of that,
like, remind me to take fivethings here.
That's their job.
Hopefully they don't fail you.
If you don't have a crew, justwrite it with, like a Sharpie on
either the drop bag or you know, if you have something that
you're keeping track of yourpace or the mileage or whatever
(09:19):
it is, just so that you don'thave to like memorize everything
ahead of time.
So some way that you're keepingtrack.
Ideally you're punting that offon, like your crew, so they
have a job to do for you.
But, yeah, making sure that youhave enough packed, but giving
yourself some flexibility tochange that plan if you need to.
(09:39):
If it's like suddenly like okay, I need to switch to all sports
drink because I'm not able toget gels down, like have that be
a viable option for yourself.
So make sure to set it up soyou have your sports drink as
well.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Yep, yep, no, that's, that's super good and I think,
to that end and that's part ofbeing adaptable, which I think
is crucial uh, to to figure outwhat's going to go good on race
day and what's not, two thingsto that is, I think, adding in
real food, like we talked aboutin part, one.
That's extra kind of sustenanceto weave in.
(10:16):
It also makes you happy whenyou just get like a usually like
a crunchy salty chocolate thingEvery once in a while.
Chips, salt and vinegar chipsbring me back to life, yes, and
like practice that and grab likea little bit of small things as
you're heading out of the aidstation.
Just make yourself happy, right.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Yep, yep, huge fan of that, and for a couple reasons.
One, you just get a littleextra which is like just like a
bonus.
Think of it as like a littletailwind pushing you out of the
aid station.
Two, it helps prevent palatefatigue, or it makes you look
forward to then taking inanother gel, because you just
had a bunch of like really good,like salty crunchy, whatever it
(10:55):
is.
And then, three, some of thosehave other things in them, like
sodium, or you know, if you'retaking in some Coca-Cola it'd
have a little caffeine.
So you're getting in maybe someother things that your body
might be craving.
But I like that.
Get out of the aid stationfeeling a little bit happier.
That's a great goal.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
For sure, and we didn't mention this in our
training part one podcast.
But how to do that in training?
Is gas stations right For uscyclists?
We basically roll up to our gasstations just like cracked with
salt lines all over each otherwearing spandex and we go in and
just like raid the place.
I love it Drink our Cokes andhave our chips and then off we
(11:36):
go.
So like practice eating thatkind of stuff in training,
that's going to go real good onrace day.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Yeah, and you can do that in ultra running too, like
I mean, in France it's nicebecause there's the refuges
where you can just like bring alittle money and do that.
But also we carry these nicelittle backpacks around all the
time, so just like shoving somefood in there.
It's a great way to do it.
No-transcript, get your fueldown, but just like really
(12:40):
trying to force it, that's notgoing to end well.
So when you're in thatsituation, thinking about what
sounds good is a good way tostart, because generally not
much sounds good.
So if there's something thatsounds maybe it's not even good
but it sounds like the leastworst thing like, oh, I could
crunch in some chips or somesalty broth or like some
pretzels, like, get that andnibble Again.
(13:04):
You don't want to just likedown.
Uh, you know.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Like what if I wanted a pizza?
What if I was craving?
Speaker 2 (13:09):
pizza.
Well, okay, this has been, thishas been.
You're like speaking to meright now, um, so, in my recent
race, um, no, uh, I I do think,if you're craving pizza, like
that's fine to have some pizzaand like we talked about it,
just maybe not the whole entirepizza and like we talked about
it, just maybe not the wholeentire pizza, but just like a
couple bites.
See how that sits, maybe even awhole slice of pizza, but just
(13:32):
like thinking of that kind offood is something to nibble on,
because obviously you don't wantto take in too much.
That's going to sit in your gutand cause the opposite problem,
but taking in little bits offood is a really great strategy
and maybe you take that with youout of the aid station.
So, for example, I did this racea couple of weeks ago and
cheese sandwiches were soundingreal great and so every time I
(13:54):
saw my career, I'm like I'lltake another cheese sandwich
please, and I couldn't eat thewhole thing just sitting there,
but I would take a few bites andthen I would take it with me
and just like shove it in mypack or, like you know, you
could put it wherever you need,I don't know, in cycling shoving
your shorts.
Maybe that might be weird, butwhatever, get extra salt on it.
That's a great strategy.
And then if it's sitting well,then you can, like you know, in
(14:17):
like another half an hour, havea few more bites.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
But that's the way to do it, rather than to just like
down something and then regretit in like 20 minutes later down
something and then regret it inlike 20 minutes later, yeah,
yeah, and some of this goes withexperiential knowledge, but
some of it is just like beingaware, being smart and using
some common sense.
If you do international, likestage racing for example, and
you're blowing through aidstations and you know the stuff
(14:42):
in South Africa is not going tobe the same stuff in North
America, is not the same stuffin Central America, right.
But being able to like gothrough and scan and be and be
like so potatoes with salt, forexample, little potatoes with
salt, amazing, right.
Just don't eat all the potatoesbut like take the potato, dunk
it in salt and go.
Also, there's like littlelittle gummies with that are
(15:06):
like woven with fruit, okay,they're super sweet, right, and
it just like sometimes that canbe really good.
I would say try these things, beopen and adaptable.
But again, small portions asyou go, even if you don't know
what it is.
But I think the small portionsprobably airing a little bit on
the salty and crunchy side ofthings in the aid station, cause
(15:29):
we normally don't carry a bagof pretzels with us when we're
training Right, Try those andjust like, be adaptable.
be open to that.
Don't be so structured and likeI'm going to go liquid for 30
hours.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
I think that's a really great skill to hone in on
is like the scan and like agreat way to think about that is
, before you come into the aidstation, just kind of do like a
little check-in with yourself,like, have I been drinking, have
I been eating?
What sounds good, what isn'tworking?
That gives you an idea, whenyou go into the aid station,
what you're going to look for.
So like wow, I'm just liketotally over the sweet stuff,
(16:06):
okay, I'm going to look for.
So like wow, I'm just liketotally over the sweet stuff,
okay, I'm going to look forsomething salty.
Then when you go in there,that'll help you scan and just
grab a couple of things, likeAdam said.
Just like, try a little bit, beopen to it.
Like maybe they don't have yourexact thing, but maybe they
have something that is like kindof similar and that'll probably
do the trick.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
So we mentioned palate fatigue a couple of times
.
We know it's a thing, but likescientifically, what and how do
we mitigate it?
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Yeah.
So when you're taking in a lotof sugar over a long period of
time, you do get some like it'sbasically just getting sick of
the sweet flavor.
So your taste buds are justgetting tired and that's like
the start of where digestionhappens is in our mouth.
And so if that's getting, ifthat's the first line and it's
like done, tired of sweet, yourtaste buds are like
overstimulated from all of thesweet, then it's like, ah, done,
(16:54):
tired of sweet, your taste budsare like overstimulated from
all of the sweet.
Then it's going to be reallyhard to continue to fuel because
that's like the first point ofcontact.
And so, to avoid palate fatigue,we kind of mix it up.
And that's a good thing to doin your planning is to think
about where am I, where am Igoing to get something different
, when can I get somethingsavory or salty, or even just
(17:15):
like a different form of sugar,so like a Stroopwafel versus a
gel, versus a chew?
That's going to be a little bitdifferent, or flavors too.
Sometimes that can help avoidpalate fatigue.
So you alternate like a morelike sour, like lemon, lime, and
then maybe you go to like apassion fruit or something like
that, but it really does help.
(17:37):
It sounds silly, but it can.
It can extend your fueling umlike uh desirability if you will
uh over several hours, versusjust like vanilla gel, vanilla
gel, vanilla gel.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
And then it's like, wow, I can't do any vanilla gels
anymore gel, vanilla gel, andthen it's like, wow, I can't do
any vanilla gels anymore.
Yeah, I still can't have um,goo espresso gels.
I did some race where it wentright.
That's all I had for four daysin a row, didn't itting, and
well, um, so we've been speakingabout like a lot of ultra stuff
and I want to mention that,like even in road, or or like
(18:15):
the three to four hour sort oftime period where we're where
we're going real fast, some ofthis can still happen, and maybe
more like the four or five hoursort of road race.
But somewhere in there youstill got to have to figure out
probably where to get a feed Ifyou're somewhere between that
three and five hour race, andoftentimes that's, that's on the
fly.
So we're not going to stop,we're not going to have the
(18:36):
luxury of doing the scan andhaving a potato chip or
something like that.
So when it comes to making agood plan on race day for like a
one day road race or somethinglike that, you probably have one
or two feeds and, based on someof that experiential knowledge
of like I know that my palategoes or I need this at three
(18:57):
hours, you got to tell that toyour feed person and you have to
know how to grab it on the flyand sometimes we just tape it to
a bottle.
So we grab the bottle, we havethat extra gel or whatever the
thing is that we need, rip itoff, put it in our pockets, put
it in our cage and away we go,and that's as simple as it is on
the road racing side of things.
(19:18):
Now, if we're doing stage races,we can get a grab.
We can get a feed with the Museset and stick little paninis in
there, or pickle juice Somepeople love that Anything that
you need to feel comfy, put thatin the Muse set.
Now, if you're not going likefull ham and you're like Adam,
(19:41):
there's no way I can grabsomething on the fly.
But it's still a stage raceformat and you still want to go
your fastest.
Sure, roll up, put a foot down,grab your bag, grab your thing,
whatever and then efficientlymove out of the feed zone.
Don't waste a ton of time there.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Yeah, yeah, that's.
That's a good point of likebeing efficient, because time
can add up real quickly in anage station.
I also wouldn't overlook theimportance of planning for a
short let's three to four hoursa shorter race.
Who are we, because theintensity is so high, right?
So actually thinking about thatand knowing like I'm going to
(20:11):
be going hard and that's where,in training, like hopefully
you've tried different forms,different flavors, et cetera.
When you're, when you're doinglike high intensity workouts,
because it is more polarizing,so when you're going a little
bit slower, it's easier to takedown something that maybe isn't
like the perfect flavor or form,where you're going really hard,
(20:32):
it really matters.
So I think you know, in thatthree to four hour race, like
yeah, you definitely want toplan that and like know what's
going to work and think ahead sothat you can like get that gel,
like Adam said, and put it inyour pocket.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
Yeah, a hundred percent.
And I think you know wementioned, uh, pre-race and the
kind of the 36 or 24 to 36 hourbeforehand, and then, uh, we
scratched the surface on likeone to two hour before race.
That before part is so muchmore important on the three to
four hour sort of high octanesort of thing, because, um, in
(21:08):
the way of, because sometimesyou might be going so hard, it
might be so technical, thatyou're just going to rely upon
energy stored on your body.
That's why I say it's superimportant to top things off and
roll into the shorter race readyto go.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
But one thing I'm thinking about.
We haven't touched much on this, and I would say there's a good
reason for it.
But sodium we haven't talkedabout intakes of sodium at all.
So let's take just a couple ofminutes and talk about sodium.
Do we need it?
How much do we need it?
How do we know how much we needand when we need more?
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Yeah, so we we, we do need sodium because it is part
of like, like, I guess, the theabsorption of glucose.
So a lot of our glucose isbeing absorbed through an active
transporter that's using energyand it's exchanging a glucose
for a sodium, and so when we'resweating and we're losing a lot
of sodium, that can disrupt thatbalance of intracellular and
(22:10):
extracellular sodiumconcentrations.
That said, it's really easy toovercomplicate it and overthink
it, because we know that we doneed some sodium.
But most sports products havesodium in it, most foods have
electrolytes in it Actually allfoods do and so if you are just
fueling and not taking in purelywater, you are getting sodium
(22:33):
and electrolytes.
And so for most people, ifthey're not doing like a, let's
say, plus 10 hour race it's notsuper hot out that's probably
going to be a good startingplace and you don't need to
overthink it or like overcontrive of like taking salt
here or getting, you know, salttabs or whatever it is.
So that's generally the rule ofthumb that I start with.
(22:56):
Now, if somebody is a reallysalty sweater and how do you
know that Well one you could doa sweat sodium test, but that's
not realistic for everyone.
The best way is like do youfinish a ride and have salt
lines all over your face?
If so, then yes, you'reprobably a salty sweater.
If you don't notice that, thenyou probably are just like
within the normal range.
(23:16):
Like I finish a run and my sonis like what's on your legs?
What are these white things?
I'm like, yes, I am a saltysweater, but that said, you know
that doesn't mean you need toreplace one to one.
Your sodium losses forperformance.
If you're a salty sweater, youwant some sodium.
But look at your products thatyou're taking in.
(23:37):
They most likely have somesodium and we're looking for
somewhere between like the 200to 800 milligram range-ish.
Again, it doesn't have to beperfect Someone who's a salty
sweater.
They're going to be at thathigher end.
So between 500 to a thousand,somebody who's in the lower or
middle range, maybe 200 to 500.
(23:57):
But again, I tend to notoverthink that because sweat
rates vary, sweat sodium ratesvary, products you're taking in,
vary environmental conditionschange this.
If you're trying to actuallycalculate it out, there's going
to be so many errors involved.
So I just go back to theproducts, making sure you're
getting some and if you know youneed a little bit more than
(24:19):
yeah Plan to have like a gelthat has a higher concentration
than another product.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Yeah, a hundred percent, and I think too, you
want to again suss this out intraining ahead of time, but our
messaging on sodium has kind ofchanged and evolved over time.
I think the biggest thing isit's in a lot of these products.
Roll the package over and justmake sure it's there.
Have some general idea of youknow is it on the 300 or the 800
(24:47):
milligram side of things and besure that you're just putting
that in.
I if you're a salty sweater,you don't need to put it all in
that you're putting out.
So don't think that it's aone-to-one replace.
And I would say, based on theresearch and what I know, high
sodium intake during exercisehas no applicability to
(25:09):
performance Meaning.
If I jack myself on sodiumduring something, it's not
Sodium bicarb beforehand has alittle bit, but that's on the
acidity and buffering side ofthings.
Probably don't need to getthere for today.
But overall the message onsodium is you don't need to
overdo it.
If you're taking some of theseknown products that Stephanie
(25:30):
mentioned in our first podcast,it's all good, it's baked into
the equation.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Yep, yep, a hundred percent Yep.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Okay, so a couple more, just like maybe quick
questions, quick tips and advice.
When things go sideways, whenthings go wrong, how do we?
How do we fix it?
So if, if somebody is thinkingto this and they're like Hmm,
maybe I need to get Stephanie toconsult with me, but I've had
(25:59):
GI issues in the past, when thathappens four hours deep in an
eight hour race, how do I fixthat?
How do I undo it?
Speaker 2 (26:17):
susceptible.
Don't stick with your plan oftrying to force gels in if they
aren't working.
So it's time to like pivot andthe first thing you want to keep
in mind is like don't stopfueling.
That's like the RIP You're like, that's like a, just like this
downward spiral of like you're,you're bonking, you've got GI
upset.
You stop fueling.
Okay, so it's like pivoting.
To like got GI upset, you stopfueling.
(26:37):
Okay, so it's like pivoting tolike smaller bits of, hopefully,
something different.
So if you're between aidstations and all you have is
your sports product, I wouldjust back off on the volume and
try to get little bits in.
So think of just like nibblingand that can be a gel.
You know you could.
You don't have to take a fullgel, it's a little bit messy,
but maybe you take like just asip of the gel or half of it and
(26:58):
that can really help to justnot overwhelm your gut when you
get into the aid station.
Get something different.
This is where you do the scanand maybe you spend a little
extra time of getting somedifferent products and different
products that you're going totake with you.
So, um, you know, trying tojust like change it up on the
(27:19):
fly and going back to what yousaid earlier, adam, of like,
thinking about, like, thesituation where like oh yeah,
this worked well for me before.
Like I had this chocolate panof chocolate and it was
delightful.
Like, okay, it may not bedelightful, but maybe you're
able to get it down.
So, I think, be adaptable.
Don't stop eating.
But also, just like, keep thequantity smaller, because that,
(27:41):
on an upset stomach, a big bolusof sports drink or sports fuel
is not going to feel good.
The other thing, if it's, ifthat's still not helping, I
would just back off theintensity just a hair.
What that does is, just, itputs less stress in your gut.
Some blood flow can return.
That can really do magic.
And if you're worried about,like you know, losing time,
(28:04):
you'll probably make it up lateron when you're able to start
pushing again.
So, just like, back it off justa hair, try to eat or drink a
little bit, small sips, and thensee if that can turn it around.
And I've gone as far as like inaid stations putting Coke in
bottles, you know.
Like, be that adaptable of like, okay, I'm going to get
(28:24):
something in and I might be haveto be creative here, but it's
much better to get let's say thewrong thing in than nothing in.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Yep, yep, yep Agree with that.
So how about when?
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Yep, yep, agree with that.
So how about when uh eat anddrink a little bit, and
generally that will help thecramp you can take in sodium if
that's like part of the problemof like overstressing the body?
So you haven't had any sodium,which would be kind of weird if
you were fueling, but maybe youwere just taking in water and
not enough fuel.
So same thing applies of likeslow it down, eat and drink a
(29:19):
little bit, and that usuallywill help, at least maybe
mitigate the cramping.
It might not totally go away,but it should help to mitigate
it.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
Okay, maybe final one , when it all changes is uh, I'm
doing a long gravel race.
Plan is 60 and cloudy, but allof a sudden the clouds go away,
the sun comes out and juststarts baking down and it's
humid, so I'm just sweating aheck of a lot more.
What do I do now?
Speaker 2 (29:48):
Okay, you're going to need a little bit more water,
so think about that at the aidstations and maybe what you do
is make sure you finish yourbottles before you get into the
aid station and maybe you get alittle bit extra there.
Also, changing up the type offuel you're taking in sometimes
is important when it's hot, somaybe you go to like more
(30:09):
liquids or maybe like moreliquid gels versus like things
that you can eat or flavor wise,like more of the sweeter
flavors tend to be better in thecool weather.
Of the sweeter flavors tend tobe better in the cool weather
and the hotter flavors tend tobe better, or, sorry, the salty,
sour, less sweet flavors tendto be better in the hotter
weather.
So you can think about that.
(30:29):
And then also just being aware,like if you're sweating a ton,
you're losing more sodium,you're losing more just sweat in
general, and so trying toreplace that, I think if it's a
really long race, like, let'ssay, over six to eight hours,
maybe you think about youreffort versus pace as well,
because that's going to be abigger stress in your body.
(30:52):
And then the last thing is andthis isn't really nutrition
related, but keeping your bodycool.
And then the last thing is andthis isn't really nutrition
related, but keeping your bodycool.
So if you can get ice on yourbody, yeah, or just dump water,
that's actually going to helpyour gut too, and it's going to
help keep your core temperaturedown.
And when your core temperatureis happy, your body and brain
and muscles are happy as well.
(31:13):
So that's like probably thenumber one thing to do.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
Yep, and in that way of planning anytime that heat
does happen, I mean, the numberone thing is try to stay cool as
much as possible Ice socks, icedousing with water and just
make sure that you're changingyour plans so that you have
enough water to where you canstill stay hydrated and you're
not dousing yourself with yourpotable drinking water.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Yeah, you don't want to dump your drinkable water on
yourself.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
Yes, exactly.
Well, this has been awesome,stephanie.
I think we'll leave it therefor today, because that gives a
lot of people the tools todevelop their race day planning
a lot more.
But if they have any specificquestions or if they're like man
, um race day planning a lotmore.
But if they have any specificquestions or if they're like man
, stephanie seems to knoweverything.
How do I, how do they get intouch with you to book a consult
(32:05):
or or listen to you more orread more of your articles?
How do people connect with you?
Speaker 2 (32:11):
Yeah, um, my email is as how it train rightcom, and
I'm actually taking on a few newnutrition athletes right now
over the next month or two, sothis is a great time to get in
touch.
Otherwise, I'm fairly active onInstagram Stephanie Marie how.
My website is Stephanie Mariehowcom.
Been on some various podcasts,I think, just like kind of a
(32:34):
splattering over, mostly in theultra running space, but also
just some for endurance athletes.
Um, generally, my name is inthe title, so if you look that
up, um, you'll probably findsome things.
Uh, but, yeah, I, I'm reallyhappy to talk through nutrition.
I kind of geek out on this oflike the science, but then the
(32:55):
application part.
I think it's really cool toblend the two, so I'd love to
talk more.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
Couldn't agree more Well.
Well, folks, if you're lookingfor a certified nutrition coach,
uh, now's the time, and we willlink to your email, stephanie,
as well as websites and how tobook a consult in our show notes
, as well as any applicablepodcasts to follow up with.
So, stephanie, thank you somuch again for joining us and
(33:22):
sharing your knowledge with ouraudience.
I think everyone's going to geta lot out of this.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Yeah, thank you for having me.
It's great to chat with you.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
Thanks for joining us on the Time Crunch Cyclist
podcast.
We hope you enjoyed the show.
If you want even more actualtraining advice, head over to
trainrightcom backslashnewsletter and subscribe to our
free weekly publication.
Each week you'll get in-depthtraining content that goes
beyond what we cover here on thepodcast.
That'll help you take yourtraining to the next level.
(33:54):
That's all for now.
Until next time, train hard,train smart, train right.
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