JOES TO PROS EP 3: LEARNING HOW TO FUEL IRONMAN 70.3 TRAINING
Hunter and Calvin are two long-time Quintana Roo employees who have never done a triathlon. This year, that's finally going to change! "Joe to Pros" is a series where we'll follow two triathlon newbies as they prepare for IRONMAN 70.3 Chattanooga… and, as we’ll learn in this episode, IRONMAN 70.3 Dallas-Little Elm!
In our last episode, we followed Hunter and Calvin as they started new training plans, courtesy of Coach Conrad Goeringer of Working Triathlete. It was quite a shock to the system for both of them! Today, we catch up with them as they work through a couple of issues every athlete is familiar with: adapting to life's curveballs and overcoming fueling struggles.
Dealing with Curveballs
Perfection is something that athletes rarely achieve in training or racing. That’s just the reality of life. Often, becoming a good athlete means becoming adaptable!
Calvin was surprised to discover that his cousin would be getting married the same day as IRONMAN 70.3 Chattanooga. Not only does he want to attend to experience this once-in-a-lifetime event with his family, but he was even asked to be a groomsman! His first IRONMAN 70.3 can wait. Or, could it happen sooner?
Calvin’s in the training groove now. Instead of pushing his first race back, he decided to move it forward. Now he’s registered for IRONMAN 70.3 Dallas-Little Elm on March 15th, which is less than a month away. We love seeing that go-getter attitude, and we wish Calvin luck! Maybe by doing a race early, he can learn from the experience and start a new training block to race again later in the year! (He hasn’t committed to this yet, but we're scheming…).
There are plenty more curveballs for our Quintana Roo duo to deal with, though. Another big one is the winter weather. Chattanooga, along with much of the country, has been hammered with snow and ice, forcing our duo to retreat inside. Calvin did manage to get out for a run, but it was freezing cold!
Hunter has been struggling with what I like to call “athlete’s guilt.” She’s been sticking to the plan laid out by Coach Conrad—swimming, biking, running, and even stretching every day of the week—but she’s let weight training fall by the wayside. As an obsessive optimizer, her concern over missing gym sessions is palpable. But, Hunter, you’ve got two young kids at home. Cut yourself some slack! What she’s doing is amazing, and it’s important that she remain focused on the fundamentals. Whatever weight training she does squeeze in is a fantastic bonus. Keep going, Hunter!
Learning to Fuel Before and During Training
Along with good training and proper recovery, dialing in your fueling is the third essential pillar of the performance trifecta. Currently, it’s the pillar that Hunter and Calvin are struggling with the most.
Like many athletes, our duo struggles to eat early in the morning before their training sessions. It’s never a good idea to go into hard sessions fasted or under-fueled, and they’re both learning to cram in some carbs right when they wake up. They’re also still experimenting with different foods, gels, and mixes to figure out what carbohydrate and hydration products work for them in training. It’s essential to dial this in during training to avoid gut distress on race day. You always want to go in with a tested and proven fueling strategy.
For fueling strategies, Coach Conrad and our QR Pros, Jenna Haufler and Miguel Mattox, offered a couple of useful tips…
Coach Conrad Goeringer: “Right now, it’s important to rehearse fueling and nutrition. For key endurance workouts on the weekends, target 60-90g/hr of carbs, along with 22-23 oz of fluid each hour. In training, assuming you have had breakfast, it’s okay to wait 30-45 minutes before taking in carbohydrates. Hone in on a fueling strategy that you can implement on race day and explore the upper limits of what your body can comfortably absorb.”
Jenna and Miguel: “We like to start off some of our training sessions feeling very full, to train your stomach. Even though it might feel unpleasant, it will help you practice fueling before workouts and races.”
