Latest / Find Your Edge: Training, Nutrition + Longevity for Endurance Athletes / Carb Loading for Female Endurance Athletes: What New Ironman Research Reveals Ep 163
Transcript
- 0:37Coach Carlie: All right, hello, and welcome back to the Find Your Edge podcast.
- 0:40Coach Carlie: I am your host, Coach Chris Newport, and today we are talking about one of my favorite topics, carbs, y'all.
- 0:48Coach Carlie: So if you've ever gotten a race week, and trust me, I get this call all the time, and suddenly realized that you haven't quite figured out your nutrition.
- 0:58Coach Carlie: This is the panic call.
- 1:00Coach Carlie: My race is this weekend.
- 1:01Coach Carlie: What do I do?
- 1:02Coach Carlie: And how should I eat differently?
- 1:04Coach Carlie: Well, the short answer is that is that you should have been thinking about that two, three, four plus months prior when we needed to be training your gut while you are training your body.
- 1:16Coach Carlie: And the reason why I'm bringing this up is because there is an interesting article that I found.
- 1:22Coach Carlie: And if you are watching this on YouTube, I have it pulled up.
- 1:25Coach Carlie: It's open access.
- 1:26Coach Carlie: The article is from the European Journal of Sports Science From Intention to Execution, pre-race nutrition behaviors, influences, and performance outcomes in female endurance athletes at the Iron Man World Championships.
- 1:44Coach Carlie: So how cool is this that this specifically focused on female endurance athletes at the Iron Man World Championship?
- 1:54Coach Carlie: And how well did they actually execute their nutrition plan?
- 2:00Coach Carlie: So I thought this was an interesting opportunity to use this research as reminders for you to be able to make sure that you're training your gut, that you're doing all the things that you need to do as you lead into race week.
- 2:15Coach Carlie: So there is never a question.
- 2:17Coach Carlie: There's never a question of what should I eat the week of race day or the week leading up to race day.
- 2:24Coach Carlie: Because the answer is you should have been practicing that already.
- 2:27Coach Carlie: And it should be like a total no-brainer.
- 2:31Coach Carlie: This is not like something totally different.
- 2:33Coach Carlie: And I'll give you a quick example.
- 2:35Coach Carlie: I had a woman who did not ever use any sort of carbohydrate loading, and we're going to talk about that quite a bit here today.
- 2:43Coach Carlie: And she decided that she would do it the week of her Iron Man.
- 2:49Coach Carlie: And she had not practiced it at all.
- 2:51Coach Carlie: Her gut was not trained at all.
- 2:53Coach Carlie: And let me just say that it didn't go well.
- 2:55Coach Carlie: So again, let this be your reminder that as you train your body, you have to train your gut.
- 3:02Coach Carlie: It is a literal organ that is meant to deliver energy to those working muscles.
- 3:09Coach Carlie: So let's kind of dig into this a little bit as we're reading through the abstract.
- 3:15Coach Carlie: So there were 27 female triathletes.
- 3:18Coach Carlie: And as you know, this is a big deal in Iron Man World Championships.
- 3:22Coach Carlie: So they did some questionnaires, they did some 48-hour food diaries, they did some interviews both before and after the race.
- 3:31Coach Carlie: So their diet plan was analyzed for how many calories they did, what were their macronutrients, and then also looking at what were some of the things that were driving their behavior.
- 3:44Coach Carlie: So interestingly, only 26% of six out of the 23 athletes that actually had the quantitative data of those athletes achieved carbohydrate loading guidelines.
- 3:55Coach Carlie: So let me back up a little bit here.
- 3:57Coach Carlie: Carb loading guidelines currently are such that you consume 8 to 12 grams of carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight, roughly one to three days out from your race day.
- 4:12Coach Carlie: So I've got some uh various modified protocols that totally depends on your gut.
- 4:17Coach Carlie: Again, we're gonna get into that.
- 4:19Coach Carlie: But these are just the general guidelines.
- 4:21Coach Carlie: And then they wanted to see how many people actually adhered to those guidelines and then maybe knew those guidelines and did they actually execute it?
- 4:31Coach Carlie: And what were some of their ideas and intentions surrounding that?
- 4:34Coach Carlie: So super interesting.
- 4:36Coach Carlie: So an overall average intake of a little bit over six grams per kg of their body mass.
- 4:44Coach Carlie: So do a quick little experiment here.
- 4:47Coach Carlie: Take your body weight.
- 4:49Coach Carlie: If you know it in pounds, do that and divide it by 2.2.
- 4:52Coach Carlie: So that gives you how many kilograms you are.
- 4:54Coach Carlie: If you're in Europe, God bless you.
- 4:55Coach Carlie: I wish we were on the metric system, but that's a whole nother story.
- 4:59Coach Carlie: Anyhow, then let's meet in the middle.
- 5:01Coach Carlie: So the number is 8 to 12 grams per kg of your body mass of consumed carbohydrates in at least uh the day or two days leading up to race day, or potentially even three days.
- 5:15Coach Carlie: There's there's some um variation that you can adjust within that.
- 5:19Coach Carlie: And again, this has to be practiced.
- 5:21Coach Carlie: But if you take your body weight in kilograms, so take your body weight in pounds, divide it by 2.2, there's your kilograms, and then multiply it easily by 10.
- 5:29Coach Carlie: That's how many grams of carbohydrates you would need to truly carb load according to these guidelines.
- 5:37Coach Carlie: Then take that number, multiply it by four.
- 5:39Coach Carlie: That's how many calories you would be eating in just carbohydrates.
- 5:43Coach Carlie: So this goes into some of these like misconceptions or misperceptions when it's regarding carbohydrates, especially relating to female athletes.
- 5:52Coach Carlie: And they get they get deeper into that in this research article.
- 5:56Coach Carlie: But interestingly, higher carbohydrate intake was correlated with faster finish times.
- 6:02Coach Carlie: Shocker, my friends.
- 6:04Coach Carlie: Um, sometimes fiber had a higher association with GI symptom severity.
- 6:10Coach Carlie: Again, everybody's different, everybody's guts are different.
- 6:13Coach Carlie: And the things that oftentimes tweaked or adjusted some of these dietary plans were influenced by, you know, what's going on with your travel, what's going on with I love how they say emotional regulation.
- 6:27Coach Carlie: And if only Carly were here to talk about that from a sports psychology perspective.
- 6:32Coach Carlie: So such interesting things that they looked at the psychological, the behavioral, and the practical factors that influence the decisions of these particular female athletes doing the Iron Man World Championship.
- 6:45Coach Carlie: This was back in 2024, and finding that their carbohydrate loading was frequently below the recommended level.
- 6:51Coach Carlie: And talk about the event that you would need carbs for.
- 6:54Coach Carlie: This is it, you guys.
- 6:56Coach Carlie: So women who consumed more tended to have faster finish times.
- 7:00Coach Carlie: But I also want you to remember that race nutrition isn't always identical to your everyday healthy eating strategy.
- 7:08Coach Carlie: So there can absolutely be some adjustments that you can take.
- 7:15Coach Carlie: So what I find particularly interesting about this, again, is the behavior side.
- 7:20Coach Carlie: So athletes who identified as competitive tended to be more structured, they followed the rules, they were proactive in their nutrition planning.
- 7:28Coach Carlie: And athletes who wanted to, uh, they were called quote-unquote completers.
- 7:33Coach Carlie: There were competers and completers.
- 7:35Coach Carlie: So the athletes who identified as a completer tended to take a more intuitive, flexible approach.
- 7:42Coach Carlie: And in this article, there are some really, and let me see if I can uh scroll down a little bit for you.
- 7:47Coach Carlie: There are some fascinating quotes that they included in here.
- 7:51Coach Carlie: Uh, and as I'm doing this, I'm just kind of doing a quick overview.
- 7:55Coach Carlie: The participants, again, 27 female athletes, the age ranges, there were four athletes in the 18 to 29-year-old age group.
- 8:02Coach Carlie: There were seven in both the 40 to 49 and the 50 to 59, three in the 60 plus, and six in the 30 to 39.
- 8:09Coach Carlie: Their training volume, it totally varied.
- 8:12Coach Carlie: Two two people out of that group trained six to nine hours a week.
- 8:16Coach Carlie: Nine trained nine to twelve hours, six trained 12 to 15, and 10 trained over 15 hours.
- 8:23Coach Carlie: So a big variation there going through their previous interviews, various uh things that aligned with their intention and execution as I'm scrolling down here.
- 8:33Coach Carlie: But what I want you guys to see are some of the things that people said.
- 8:38Coach Carlie: So, for example, I'm reading this one from Mindset.
- 8:43Coach Carlie: So, the mindset, as it says here, the mindset influenced how athletes prepared for competition.
- 8:48Coach Carlie: Computers sought control and precision.
- 8:53Coach Carlie: And in contrast, those focusing on completing the race, they took a more flexible, intuitive approach, shaped by their perception that a rigid plan is less necessary if speed and performance are not primary concerns.
- 9:06Coach Carlie: Isn't that fascinating?
- 9:07Coach Carlie: Of course, I'm probably the only one who's like jumping out of my chair right now.
- 9:11Coach Carlie: So let me give you an example of a computer and what she said in her interview.
- 9:16Coach Carlie: She said, Why would you not want to set yourself up for the most success or at least for a good experience?
- 9:21Coach Carlie: I certainly do what I can to at least avoid any big mistakes.
- 9:24Coach Carlie: It's about doing your research, but also trial and error.
- 9:28Coach Carlie: I want to give this woman a hug because that I would say is probably one of my main philosophies.
- 9:35Coach Carlie: Set yourself up for success, you guys.
- 9:37Coach Carlie: Even if you are just a computer, set yourself up.
- 9:39Coach Carlie: It doesn't mean that you have to necessarily go down a massive rap rabbit hole, but um, you know, shameless plug.
- 9:46Coach Carlie: You could even just do a 30-minute session with me and you're gonna get a heck of a lot done.
- 9:50Coach Carlie: And have rather than doing excessive trial and error, but you still have to practice.
- 9:55Coach Carlie: You still have to practice your gut, your gut training.
- 9:58Coach Carlie: On the other side of things, here's something else that a completer said.
- 10:04Coach Carlie: She said, I'm never gonna be the person who counts or calculates these things.
- 10:07Coach Carlie: I don't need to at my ability, I'm just here to get around.
- 10:11Coach Carlie: And somebody else said, I'm not here to break records or win anything.
- 10:15Coach Carlie: So I don't need to be super calculated or do any fancy preparation.
- 10:18Coach Carlie: I'm not fast, you know.
- 10:20Coach Carlie: I don't need all that sugar.
- 10:22Coach Carlie: How interesting is that.
- 10:26Coach Carlie: So then you add in race nerves.
- 10:29Coach Carlie: So that brings a whole nother layer of things.
- 10:33Coach Carlie: So, for example, if you are nervous, think back to a time when you're nervous.
- 10:37Coach Carlie: It might be pre-race, it might be another time.
- 10:39Coach Carlie: Do you feel hungry or do you not feel hungry?
- 10:42Coach Carlie: Right.
- 10:42Coach Carlie: So maybe you don't feel hungry, or maybe you could be more concerned about eating more carbohydrate than usual.
- 10:49Coach Carlie: Again, sometimes carbs are associated with um challenges.
- 10:53Coach Carlie: Now, from a health and genetics standpoint, I'm always looking at how many carbs are for the right athlete in the context of their health and genetics.
- 11:06Coach Carlie: So, for example, if you're someone uh perhaps who has gout or has an issue with uric acid, you're not gonna do great with a lot of high fructose products for your fueling, which is interesting because fructose is what allows an athlete to consume much larger amounts of carbohydrates, especially for race day.
- 11:27Coach Carlie: So that's a specific issue within the context of that athlete.
- 11:30Coach Carlie: And then how do we execute a race strategy or a plan that's not going to increase uric acid levels?
- 11:39Coach Carlie: And then you might have somebody who uh their A1C numbers are a little higher than they'd like, or maybe somebody with PMOS who uh is more challenged balancing their blood sugars at other times of the day.
- 11:51Coach Carlie: Then we're gonna start looking at how can we optimize fueling you because we know that more carbohydrates are gonna make you go faster.
- 11:58Coach Carlie: How can we get the right type of carbohydrates that are going to best serve you?
- 12:03Coach Carlie: And you could be, this could be um a type one diabetic, this could be somebody with PMOS.
- 12:08Coach Carlie: How are we gonna get the right types of sugar in the context of balancing your blood sugar for overall health?
- 12:16Coach Carlie: And then, of course, also for performance.
- 12:19Coach Carlie: So, all that to say is that what seems simple can become a little bit more nuanced.
- 12:26Coach Carlie: And for some athletes, especially those who spent years thinking about food in terms of body composition or eating perfectly.
- 12:35Coach Carlie: Oh my gosh, don't get me started on that.
- 12:37Coach Carlie: But carbohydrates often tend to be associated with increasing weight gain or feeling more bloated or having more issues with GI distress.
- 12:50Coach Carlie: So that's where I find that this study was so interesting to actually look at that.
- 12:56Coach Carlie: So that goes into you gotta train your gut.
- 13:00Coach Carlie: So as a reminder, if you have a long distance race coming up, this can be, I really think of in from a carb loading perspective, this is gonna be beneficial for like a three-plus hour race.
- 13:13Coach Carlie: Can you still do it for shorter distance?
- 13:15Coach Carlie: Absolutely.
- 13:16Coach Carlie: And I would also encourage you to do uh your own n equals one experiment of executing a pre-race high carb loading strategy if that aligns with your health and your performance, and then doing, let's say, a sprint triathlon, let's say an Olympic distance triathlon, a half marathon, a 10K, and time yourself and then do it again.
- 13:40Coach Carlie: And again, same thing, time yourself, assuming that the weather is relatively similar.
- 13:45Coach Carlie: So you might have to go on a treadmill so that you can control for your temperature.
- 13:50Coach Carlie: But see, see if it works, you guys.
- 13:53Coach Carlie: That is practice.
- 13:54Coach Carlie: That is literally training your gut.
- 13:56Coach Carlie: That's what we're aiming for here.
- 13:58Coach Carlie: So experimenting with foods, drinks, gels, and combinations that you're actually gonna use on race day.
- 14:04Coach Carlie: Where I like to narrow this whole process down is what we do in our sweat testing process.
- 14:11Coach Carlie: And now we have our hydration edge app that is out, and we are gonna start layering in fueling into that too.
- 14:17Coach Carlie: So stay tuned, open the app, start using it because the amount of hydration and the amount of electrolytes that you need, the only way that you're going to get close is by tracking your data, understanding your trends.
- 14:32Coach Carlie: That way, the app can tell you this is exactly what you need.
- 14:35Coach Carlie: So fueling and hydration are slightly different processes, but they serve the overall purpose of improving performance.
- 14:43Coach Carlie: So carbs generally need to stay relatively neutral or the same during race day, but overall fluid volume and electrolyte volume needs to vary.
- 14:53Coach Carlie: So you have to practice what is your sweat rate?
- 14:56Coach Carlie: What are the foods, drinks, and gels and combinations that you can actually tolerate, and then you need to start practicing.
- 15:03Coach Carlie: So don't jump straight into an intake that you've never done before.
- 15:07Coach Carlie: Um, also bring it up gradually.
- 15:10Coach Carlie: And uh if you're somebody who I hear this all the time, people are like, oh yeah, my gut can tolerate anything.
- 15:15Coach Carlie: You're probably somebody who can just try things and just go for it.
- 15:19Coach Carlie: If you're somebody who's a little bit more sensitive, then you're gonna need to take a more progressive stair step approach.
- 15:26Coach Carlie: And then of course, underfueling is an issue.
- 15:28Coach Carlie: So your daily nutrition, making sure that you're keeping an eye on that.
- 15:31Coach Carlie: Underfueling is uh very common, especially in female athletes.
- 15:35Coach Carlie: So being easy on yourself and uh gradually increasing things that way you physically and psychologically can adapt.
- 15:44Coach Carlie: Because again, that's exactly what this is showing.
- 15:46Coach Carlie: We can tell you all day long that carb loading needs to be eight to 12 grams uh of carbohydrates per kg of body weight in the couple of days leading up to the race.
- 15:58Coach Carlie: Does that mean you're actually going to execute it?
- 16:00Coach Carlie: We have to practice it.
- 16:02Coach Carlie: And if you are undereating in general, then maybe we start at three grams per kg.
- 16:08Coach Carlie: Maybe we start at four, maybe we start at five.
- 16:10Coach Carlie: Like, where can we get as a nice balance to gradually increase that?
- 16:16Coach Carlie: So this is an opportunity.
- 16:18Coach Carlie: And again, your training blocks are such a great opportunity to train your gut.
- 16:24Coach Carlie: Consistency is key too.
- 16:26Coach Carlie: So I was just on a call with some of our athletes.
- 16:29Coach Carlie: I can down a carbs fuel, no problem.
- 16:32Coach Carlie: That is 50 grams of carbs all at once, no issues.
- 16:36Coach Carlie: Um, this athlete happened to be male and uh probably had 50 or 60 pounds on me and couldn't do that.
- 16:46Coach Carlie: So that's just the individual things that we need to find out.
- 16:51Coach Carlie: So if a particular process or product causes DI distress, we want to find it out in training before you find it out in race.
- 17:01Coach Carlie: So again, practice, practice, practice.
- 17:04Coach Carlie: As you'll see in this article, logistics was also a massive thing.
- 17:08Coach Carlie: Because I can tell you all day long until I'm blue in the face that I want you to do X number of ounces of fluid or hydration or fueling or whatever.
- 17:18Coach Carlie: But if you cannot physically carry it on your bike, if you cannot physically put it on your person or you can't have the opportunity, then we need to get creative.
- 17:26Coach Carlie: So you still gotta think through the logistics, you gotta practice the strategy and actually see if you can execute it on your body.
- 17:36Coach Carlie: Like, is is there I was just talking to an athlete the other day who won't wear a pack.
- 17:41Coach Carlie: It just makes him too hot, it's too uncomfortable, it moves around on him too much.
- 17:45Coach Carlie: So he's gonna have to rely on what's actually on his bike and knowing the max capacity, and then how can he refill at aid stations?
- 17:55Coach Carlie: So, same kind of principle goes with your fluid and hydration as it goes to your food.
- 18:01Coach Carlie: So, let me reiterate when should you actually start this gut training process?
- 18:07Coach Carlie: I like for this to gut to start as soon as you're getting into workouts that are 90 minutes or more.
- 18:15Coach Carlie: So that might be three months before an event, that might be two months before an event, that might be eight months before an event, might be longer than that.
- 18:23Coach Carlie: So that's when you need to start practicing your gut training and making sure that you're managing your sweat rate, making sure that you're incorporating the products that you're gonna have on race day.
- 18:37Coach Carlie: You may want to do a little research into the race products.
- 18:41Coach Carlie: If you're somebody who cannot carry everything with you, you're gonna have to rely a little bit on the race.
- 18:45Coach Carlie: So there's a lot of moving pieces here.
- 18:50Coach Carlie: But at the end of the day, the final week should be repeating the weeks you've had leading up to training.
- 18:59Coach Carlie: So if you are specifically going to use a carb loading strategy, like this one in this article describes, you need to do that in your training.
- 19:10Coach Carlie: So this is a great way.
- 19:11Coach Carlie: If you have a three-hour run, if you have a six-hour bike ride, if you have a four-hour ruck, whatever it is, that is where you have to practice doing your carb loading in the one to two days.
- 19:29Coach Carlie: You don't necessarily have to do both, but usually I'd like for it to be about two days, two to three days prior, eating basically all carbohydrates.
- 19:38Coach Carlie: And then the next day or two should be super, super, super light training, if anything, because we don't want to rip through any of that additional glycogen.
- 19:47Coach Carlie: And then you actually do your event.
- 19:49Coach Carlie: So you need to practice is it gonna be ideal to do two days out?
- 19:52Coach Carlie: Is it gonna be ideal to do one day out?
- 19:55Coach Carlie: Because usually most people associate carbloading with just eating a bunch of pasta the night before a race.
- 20:00Coach Carlie: Can you do that?
- 20:01Coach Carlie: Sure, absolutely.
- 20:02Coach Carlie: But again, you've got to practice it.
- 20:03Coach Carlie: If you're gonna do a big bowl of pasta the night before a long run, do that in training.
- 20:09Coach Carlie: And a little reminder, especially based on the quotes that I was just giving you, you don't have to try to win your age group.
- 20:15Coach Carlie: You don't have to try to win the entire event to get a benefit from this.
- 20:18Coach Carlie: Again, if why not give yourself the best experience possible, just like that one athlete said.
- 20:27Coach Carlie: So, your nutrition strategy, whether you dressed or trying to finish or whether you are trying to win, then it is super important to practice, practice, practice.
- 20:38Coach Carlie: Practice your nutrition strategy, both in logistics.
- 20:41Coach Carlie: How are you?
- 20:42Coach Carlie: Oh, another thing I just thought of is how are you actually able to get your bottle off of your bike, for example, or actually like getting your nutrition things out of the holsters, or you know, working on balance, working on coordination.
- 21:00Coach Carlie: Are you able to actually do a water bottle handoff?
- 21:02Coach Carlie: So all of these things, like you got to have the skill, you got to have the strategy, you got to make sure your logistics are planned out, uh, which reminds me when I went to Worlds in Italy, I had all of my tart cherry juice and I have all of my carbs fuel in my bag that was on my person because I wasn't gonna check it.
- 21:20Coach Carlie: I was too worried that I would lose it and then not be able to replace it.
- 21:23Coach Carlie: When I went through American TSA, they said uh they stopped me and they went through all my stuff.
- 21:31Coach Carlie: And of course they were like, what are these?
- 21:33Coach Carlie: And I told them, like, they're sugar or juice, and I had them in bags, and then I uh their I had them all in the same like plastic bag.
- 21:44Coach Carlie: And their suggestion was, hey, that's fine if you want to do that.
- 21:48Coach Carlie: But next time, separate them, like put them in smaller baggies, and then put one bag on the right side of your bag and put the other bag on the other side of the bag.
- 21:56Coach Carlie: And then we get to France and go through the whole situation again.
- 22:01Coach Carlie: And they opened up my bag and spread everything out, and they said, We suggest that you put everything in the same bag.
- 22:08Coach Carlie: So I don't freaking know, y'all, but they made it there, the tartary juices made it there, the carbs fuel made it there.
- 22:16Coach Carlie: So uh sometimes there are things that are unplanned.
- 22:19Coach Carlie: You drop a gel, you drop a bottle.
- 22:22Coach Carlie: So having kind of thought through some of those things, and and sometimes you just got to think on the fly, right?
- 22:27Coach Carlie: Sometimes you just gotta think of the fly.
- 22:29Coach Carlie: I like to encourage people to be kind of like a Boy Scout or a Girl Scout or whatever you associate with the degree of preparedness and having a little bit of a backup plan.
- 22:40Coach Carlie: So at the end of the day, my biggest takeaway for this and to you is that race day nutrition isn't just a calorie problem.
- 22:51Coach Carlie: It can be a behavioral, psychological, and logistical issue.
- 22:58Coach Carlie: So, all of these things is actually giving me a ton of ideas of what I can do in that hydration edge app to give you guys additional layers of logistical recommendations, uh, psychological reminders and behavioral reminders as well.
- 23:12Coach Carlie: So coming soon, be sure to download the app.
- 23:15Coach Carlie: But you have to know what your body needs.
- 23:17Coach Carlie: You have to practice delivering it, actually getting it in your body, and make sure your plan still works when you know things get a little squirrely, things get a little complicated.
- 23:27Coach Carlie: So here's my challenge for your next long training session.
- 23:31Coach Carlie: Don't just look at your pace, your power, or your heart rate.
- 23:33Coach Carlie: Ask yourself, did I execute my nutrition plan?
- 23:38Coach Carlie: What worked, what didn't, and what can you make it easier for next time?
- 23:41Coach Carlie: So be sure to take notes.
- 23:43Coach Carlie: Again, this is something that you can do in the Hydration Edge app, but you can also log it in your training peaks or wherever it is that you're keeping track of things.
- 23:52Coach Carlie: Because the goal is to arrive at your starting line with as few unanswered questions, certainly about your nutrition, but also your training, and more confidence in the work that you've already done and practice.
- 24:05Coach Carlie: And if you need help understanding your sweat rate, your metabolic data, your fueling needs, how to put together a fueling strategy that works for your body, that is exactly what we do here at the Endurance Edge.
- 24:17Coach Carlie: Super excited to help you.
- 24:19Coach Carlie: So go out there, be confident on race week.
- 24:23Coach Carlie: You got this.
- 24:24Coach Carlie: I believe in you guys, and find your edge.
- 24:27Coach Carlie: Thanks for listening.