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Most folks are navigating winter training conditions but before you know it, you'll be more concerned about sweat rate and electrolytes than you are about wind chill. This part of training is really similar to parenting in the sense that just when you think you have things figured out, it changes! The good news is that seasons, weather conditions, and training cycles are cyclical so when you figure it out one year, you can fine tune in the years to come.
Training for an event that involves enhanced gravel like the Crusher is as similar to bike packing as you can get. Your goals for the event might sway your choice of bike, tires, gear, nutrition, and level of support. A gravel event brings it's own set of nutritionally demands and challenges but don't worry, we got you! We'll break down your needs for calories, carbohydrates, fluid, sodium, real food, and caffeine.
Calories are next to impossible to talk about calories without talking about carbohydrates (which we'll sort out next). This is because your body requires a certain amount of carbohydrate to move. It's best to think about calories as a minimum based on the number of carbohydrates that your body needs.
Carbohydrates are based on exercise intensity and duration. In general, carbohydrate needs increases as intensity & duration increase. For low intensity efforts up to 3 hours, consume 30 grams carbohydrate per hour and 60 grams carbohydrate per hour for low intensity efforts over 3 hours. For moderate intensity efforts up to 2.5 hours, consume 30 grams carbohydrate per hour and 60 grams carbohydrate per hour for moderate intensity efforts over 2.5 hours. For hard & very hard efforts up to 2 hours, consume 30 grams carbohydrate per hour, 60 grams carbohydrate per hour for hard efforts between 2-3 hours and 90+ grams carbohydrate per hour for hard & very hard efforts over 3 hours.
Hitting these carbohydrate per hour goals beyond 60 grams of carbohydrate per hour requires a practice known in the endurance world as "training your gut." This essentially means fueling 1-2 hard training sessions per week for 4-6 weeks while increasing carbohydrate intake to meet these recommendations.
A common misconception is that carbohydrate intake during exercise is based on body size. This just isn't true. There is some research that points to folks with a lower body weight may have an increased improvement in athletic performance with a higher carbohydrate intake so all athletes should see these recommendations as a minimum.
Fluid intake is determined by sweat rate and without any fancy sweat test you should have an idea how sweaty you get during efforts. If you don't sweat much, start with consuming 16 ounces fluid per hour. Moderately sweaty folks should start with 24 ounces of fluid per hour and very sweaty folks should start with 34 ounces of fluid per hour.
Decrease your fluid intake if you feel bloated or full, like fluid is sloshing in your stomach, like you need to pee all the time, or you're struggling to get fluids down as these are signs of over-hydration.
Increase your fluid intake if you feeling thirsty or cotton-mouthed, light-headed, tired, or your heart rate is running higher than usual for your effort as these are signs of dehydration.
Sodium replacement is recommended with efforts over 2-3 hours. A great place to start is 500mg sodium per liter of fluid consumed. This can either be added to your fluid (in powder or tablets) or taken separately (in capsules or tablets). If you are voted most likely to get a muscle cramp or the conditions are hot & humid, you may need up to 1,500mg sodium per liter of fluid consumed. Just like with carbohydrates, sodium replacement should be practiced during training so pass the pickle juice and potato chips please!
Real food is the best kept secret of ultra-distance endurance events. Do you like to eat snacks in the sunshine? If all the stars align, you'll get a chance to sun yourself like a lizard on a rock and maybe your adventure partner will feed you grapes. Real foods can be the knight in shining armour when pallette fatigue sets in (read you don't want to another gel or chew). What real food gravitate towards is as unique as you but you'd be best to choose foods that travel well, are easy to open, are carbohydrate-dense, include a little bit of fat and/or protein, have a high calorie to weight ratio, and at least one source should be very salty. Those peanut butter pretzels are sounded real good.
Caffeine should be considered in the amount and timing. There are two important timing options to consider; before and during. For most efforts, having caffeine 45 minutes beforehand can improve performance. But for efforts in the #enhanced time span (12+ hours), pre-loading with caffeine may have very little benefit and you'd be better off saving your caffeine for the overnight hours & consume in higher doses (200mg) caffeine at a time. Oh how that can of Red bull or Coca-cola will glisten in the moonlight!
If the overwhelm has set in, we can help with that.
Do you need a cheerleader? If so, consider joining Self-Support Nutrition which is our group coaching program to help prepare your nutrition plan to crush it.
Do you need some hand holding? If so, request a free inquiry call to see what it would be like to work with a sports dietitian individually.
Do you just want someone to tell you what to do? If so, our event-specific nutrition plans will launch in early 2025.
Whatever you need, we wanna help you fuel your #greendot.
References
Blow, A. How much caffeine should you use DURING training and races? Precision Fuel & Hydration. Accessed December 29, 2024. https://www.precisionhydration.com/performance-advice/nutrition/how-much-caffeine-should-athletes-use/
Blow, A. How much carbohydrate do athletes need per hour? Precision Fuel & Hydration. Accessed December 20, 2024. https://www.precisionhydration.com/performance-advice/nutrition/how-much-carbohydrate-carbs-athletes-per-hour/
Blow, A. How much should you be drinking when you're sweating? Precision Fuel & Hydration. Accessed December 29, 2024. https://www.precisionhydration.com/performance-advice/hydration/how-much-should-you-drink/
Blow, A. How to fuel an ultra endurance race. Precision Fuel & Hyration. Accessed December 29, 2024. https://www.precisionhydration.com/performance-advice/nutrition/preparing-fueling-nutrition-plan-for-ultra-racing/
Isaacs, J. Sports Nutrition Cheat Sheet. Jessica Isaacs the Sports Dietitian. Accessed December 29, 2024. https://www.jessicathesportsrd.com/sports-nutrition-cheat-sheet
Sports Nutrition Toolkit. Gatorade Sports Science Institute. Accessed December 29, 2024. https://performancepartner.gatorade.com/content/resources/pdfs/gssi-sports-nutrition-toolkit.pdf
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