Burn Baby, Burn
One of the most important things to consider when trying to complete an Ironman is nutrition. Not just in the weeks and months leading up to the race, although that is definitely key, but during the actual race. In a short race nutrition is never an issue beyond staying hydrated, but an IM is a whole new thing.
I did some surfing to find out just how many calories I can expect to burn in the course of the race and the answer, to put it mildly, is kind of shocking. Frightening, actually. It turns out that "a recreational athlete can expend from 7000-12,000 calories during an Ironman event depending on their size, finish time, and intensity throughout the race".
Did you get that? 7 to 12 thousand calories. That's about what I eat in a week. My source goes on to estimate that a 5' 10" 155 lb man (approximately my size) would burn around 9,150 calories over the day. It's more complicated than I'm letting on here, but just for argument's sake let's see what that works out to in common food items. Just to give you an idea:
9,150 calories is equivalent to
That's alot of food any way you slice it.
The really stunning thing is that it is impossible to absorb more that 250-400 calories per hour, so even working with a base glycogen storage capacity of 1800-2200 calories plus some additional calories (as much as 50% from fat, which if you knew me would have you laughing right now) you simply cannot eat enough to replace the calories you'll burn during the race.
Well that sounds encouraging. The strategy, such as it is, is to
It can't be as impossible as it sounds - thousands of people finish the IM every year. Thousands don't, too, but I'm trying not to think about that.
Source: www.trinewbies.com (look under nutrition)
I did some surfing to find out just how many calories I can expect to burn in the course of the race and the answer, to put it mildly, is kind of shocking. Frightening, actually. It turns out that "a recreational athlete can expend from 7000-12,000 calories during an Ironman event depending on their size, finish time, and intensity throughout the race".
Did you get that? 7 to 12 thousand calories. That's about what I eat in a week. My source goes on to estimate that a 5' 10" 155 lb man (approximately my size) would burn around 9,150 calories over the day. It's more complicated than I'm letting on here, but just for argument's sake let's see what that works out to in common food items. Just to give you an idea:
9,150 calories is equivalent to
- 87 bananas or
- 100 hammergels or
- 42 potatoes (baked, skins on) or
- 61 beers (regular, not lite) or
- 92 scrambled eggs or
- 153 pancakes or
- 1830 celery sticks
That's alot of food any way you slice it.
The really stunning thing is that it is impossible to absorb more that 250-400 calories per hour, so even working with a base glycogen storage capacity of 1800-2200 calories plus some additional calories (as much as 50% from fat, which if you knew me would have you laughing right now) you simply cannot eat enough to replace the calories you'll burn during the race.
Well that sounds encouraging. The strategy, such as it is, is to
- carbo-load as much as possible in the days and weeks leading up to the race
- try to stay in the aerobic zone during the race (it's more efficient than going anaerobic)
- hydrate hydrate hydrate
- eat as much as you possibly can during the race, especially early (on the bike)
It can't be as impossible as it sounds - thousands of people finish the IM every year. Thousands don't, too, but I'm trying not to think about that.
Source: www.trinewbies.com (look under nutrition)
posted by carbonman at 4:05 PM
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