Hydration and Energy Needs for training & Racing by Science in Sport

“The CRITICAL nutritional FACTORS determining sports PERFORMANCE are HYDRATION and ENERGY supply”

A nutritional strategy to optimise your energy supply and hydration is the most effective way to improve your sports performance. Energy supply and hydration have a huge and immediate effect on sports performance. As little as a 2% loss in body weight through dehydration can decrease performance by up to 20%, and once carbohydrate energy is used up performance decreases by about 50%.

The Right Fuel

The body provides energy by burning fats, carbohydrates and some proteins. Carbohydrate has a much lower oxygen cost than fat, so more energy can be produced with a given amount of oxygen using carbohydrate as a fuel rather than fat, i.e. you can go faster and further per breath! The efficient use of fat is also dependent upon the availability of carbohydrate. It is often said that "fat burns in the flame of carbohydrate". The rate of energy production from aerobic use of carbohydrate is 50 to100% greater than the rate of energy production from the aerobic use of fat alone. Fat is a very efficient store of energy, scientists have deduced that the fat stores of an average man could provide enough energy to fuel about 3.5 days running at marathon pace, so you are unlikely to run out of fat even in a marathon or long training run. The critical factors for a good and more enjoyable performance will be replenishing carbohydrate and ensuring you remain hydrated.

Recent work has shown that it is possible for trained athletes to achieve an increased carbohydrate store by tapering training and eating carbohydrate in the days preceding competition. The only major problem with this is physically eating the required quantity of carbohydrate. This is usually more than that with which the athlete feels comfortable, 600g per 24 hours e.g. 3 kg of potatoes! PSP22 has been recommended as a more palatable way of ingesting the required amount of calories without eating too much fat or protein. Depletion loading regimes where by athletes deprive themselves of carbohydrate and continue to train in order to fully deplete their carbohydrate stores, before “super-compensating” with a high carbohydrate diet are no longer recommended. Latest research has shown that it is much more important for performance to keep blood sugar levels high during exercise with a regular supply of carbohydrate energy drinks and gels.

Pre Event Feeding

The conventional advice is that the pre event meal should be taken 3 hours before competing. It should be relatively light but high in carbohydrate and low in fat. PSP22 Energy and GO-Gels can be useful in this pre event meal to increase the carbohydrate content without increasing the bulkiness of the meal. Eating anything within an hour before an event has, in the past, has been considered detrimental to performance due to the possible insulin response. There is also evidence, however, that it may be beneficial to take a small amount of strong (25 to 30%) solution 5 to 10 minutes before competition. PSP22 Energy and GO-Gels are particularly useful for taking in high concentrations of energy since they are easily tolerated due to the unique carbohydrate structure. People vary in their response to pre-event feeding and as with any nutritional strategy it is worth experimenting with different combinations during training to work out what suits you best.

Recommendations for Long Training Runs and the Marathon

Many sportspeople prefer, and what we tend to recommend, is to continue sipping PSP22 Energy from the pre event meal right through the warm up and into the event. If it is very hot or humid a weaker carbo/electrolyte solution is appropriate and in this case we would recommend GO.

Strategy currently being used by SiS Team Member for training and planned race Strategy

· High carbohydrate meal 2 hours prior to the run and remain hydrated during the day

· Consume a GO-GEL 10 minutes before starting the run

· Carry 500ml of GO at 6% solution and sip throughout the run. This is just enough to get me through 2:30 but not ideal especially if it's hot, apart from arranging for a drink to be handed up on route there isn’t much more that can be done

· Carry 4 GO-GELS and take one at 30, 60, 90 and 120 minutes

· Have a serving of REGO within 20 minutes of finishing the run followed by a light meal 1 hour later

· Use REGO Nocte last thing at night

Race Day Strategy:

· Light breakfast and continue to sip PSP22 at 10% solution until 15 minutes to the start

· Consume a GO-GEL 5 minutes before the start

· Sip water throughout and take a GO-GEL every 30 minutes as per training

· REGO on finishing followed by a meal and some other in-appropriate beverages!!

An Electrolyte drink will be available at feed stations on the course, in order to help maintain electrolyte balance and hydration status it is recommended that you use this regularly, especially if you expect to be running for more than 2 hours 30 minutes.