Recuperat-ion presents you a sports nutrition guide for preparing your IRONMAN.
Article by David Padaré
Article by David Padaré
The concept of "nutritional conditioning" is a cutting-edge approach to nutrition. Nutritional conditioning is to diet what physical conditioning is to training. In each athletic discipline, physical conditioning is practised to work on a particular "move", perfect a posture or master a technique—in short, to improve performance of a specific exercise. Nutritional conditioning has the same goal. It helps us to develop a kind of nutritional "autopilot", improve our diet and acquire healthy habits that will make us stronger during each training session and in the final challenge.
Ironman Conditioning: Carbohydrates
In every sport (running, cycling, swimming, etc.), athletes often experience what is known as "hitting the wall" when the glycogen stores in the hardest-working Muscle Groups are depleted: the lower-body muscle groups (thighs, calves and gluts) in cycling and foot races, and the upper-body muscle groups (pectorals, back and arm muscles) in swim competitions. An average athlete can store between 350 g and 500 g of glycogen. Unfortunately, muscle groups cannot share their stores. Even if the muscle groups that are working less (for example, the upper-body groups: biceps, pectorals, latissimus dorsi, etc.) still have some glycogen in reserve, they cannot help the lower-body muscle groups whose stores have been depleted during the cycling or marathon stages.
Training can help the muscle groups that usually work the hardest to progressively increase their ability to store glycogen (as much as double the normal amount). This phenomenon explains why there are substantial differences between individuals (such as a sedentary person and a trained athlete) but also between muscle groups (thighs-gluts and pecs-lats). Thus, in the case of a long-distance triathlete, the lower-body muscle groups will have greater storage capacity than the upper-body muscles as cycling and running account for a large portion of the triathlon. This is due to the so-called "adaptation effect". And nutritional conditioning is something that enhances this effect. A muscle that can store more glycogen per kg of body weight will have greater endurance and performance ability. This explains the differences in autonomy between competitors.
How can nutritional conditioning complement the adaptation effect? The adaptation effect is principally associated with the loading/unloading cycles of muscle glycogen stores. The idea is to adopt a two-pronged approach throughout your annual training programme. Every day, you should complement your physical training with special carbohydrate-rich products to help you achieve your specific goals, even when you are working to strengthen your upper-body muscle groups (weight training, core strengthening, etc.) that are not worked intensely during training but will be needed during the race, in order to improve your storage capacity without accumulating fat. Before the race, your priority should be to fine-tune your loading mechanisms (by following what is known as a carb-loading regimen).
Priorities:
1) Make carbohydrate intake an integral part of your training sessions/races, bearing in mind the glycaemic index (GI) of each specially adapted food or beverage you ingest, to increase the storage/depletion capacity of the most heavily used muscle groups. In the 1st recovery phase, prioritise your intake of average/high GI sugars, preferably in the form of sports recovery drinks. Later, during the 2nd phase, the emphasis should be on low GI sugars: whole starches, whole-grain bread, dry pulses, etc.
2) During the season, incorporate a few carb-loading test phases (Scandinavian dissociated diet, high-carb diet) while training for trials or less demanding races (trial events).
3) Include total rest days in your programme (at least one a week) and make sure that you sleep long and well each night.
Information about the author:
David Padare is a dietician nutritionist specialized in preferred disciplines such as endurance sports and outdoor running, trail running, cycling, triathlon, swimming....
He accompanies many athletes in their diverse and varied challenges: ultra trail, trails stages, marathons, 100kms, 24h....
Member of the AFDN (French Association of Dietitian Nutritionist) and the nivernais network RESEDIA for the management of DIABETES and OBESITY, he also put his knowledge to the treatment of pathologies such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, food allergies...
Find David in magazines such as Running Coach and Cyclo Coach Cyclosport, Running attitude trail magazine, running 100%feminin, nutricycle.com, courirdeplaisir.com, nutritiondusportif, traileur outdoor zsport.com.....
Nuteoconsult is the structure founded to bring together expertise from various backgrounds (diet, coach, mind trainer...) for one purpose: to provide simple and clear answers to each level of practice.
