(Diane Fu photo credit)

Really excited to publish this last article as it represents my evolving understanding of strength & conditioning needs for endurance athletes. It also represents my growing collaborative efforts with other coaches down at San Francisco CrossFit, most notably Carl Paoli of GymansticsWod and Diane Fu of Fu Barbell. I feature both of their websites in this article as they have excellent resources to learn more about the box jump, double under, and the olympic lifts respectively.

Each week I get to coach a lot of Bay area endurance athletes at San Francisco CrossFit, and each week I get to dial in a strength & conditioning program that supports their training and racing demands in new and innovative ways.

I hope you enjoy my latest thoughts and ideas based on my work with these endurance athletes and conversations with these knowledgeable coaches.

Excerpt from my latest Competitor.com article:

In order to run faster downhill, incorporate some weightlifting into your training regimen.

In this article, we will discuss the importance of downhill running and how we can improve it. Any runner who has run marquee races such as the Boston Marathon, the Dipsea, Western States, or faced the steep hills at the Wildflower Triathlon know that being able to run down is as important as running up.

I learned this lesson painfully in my first ultra marathon.

I was running in the chill and salty Cape Town air, facing three miles of upward, unrelenting pavement with a in view of the Indian Ocean. I was about to plunge down a three-mile descent of equally unrelenting pavement along the Atlantic. I was about 15-18 miles into the Two Oceans Marathon — my first (and let the record show) only ultra marathon.

I trained well, chugging by runners on this steady ascent. With 20 miles still to run, this strong feeling gave me that much needed confidence in my plan and preparation to keep going.

Midway down the descent, however, it was me who got passed. While my heart rate was low, I just couldn’t run faster. I was maxed, and my hips and knees ached with the effort. I resigned myself to watching the same runners I previously passed retake the lead. I started to ask myself: what does it take to be a good downhill runner? And why am I a bad one? I suffered through, finished the race, and went back to the drawing board…

Competitor link to the rest of the article.

Vance Jacobs Photography

Hi Athletes, clients, friends,  family, and all of the above,

I’m finally getting around to my spring order for Helming Athletics’ cycling apparel. I have a little bit of everything. Keeping with the winter style, everything will be all navy (no white to get dirty), for a simple, clean, and sharp kit to keep you lookin GOOD

The format for ordering will be different. I will use the Championship System’s Store: check it out below! You can begin your order on Monday!

Our shopping cart at Champion System is open from Monday April  22 to Monday May 6th.

1. Go to http://champ-sys.com.
2. Use this temporary information to start- Login is: helming, PW is: athletics
3. Next you will be prompted to create your own account using a new email and password personal to you. Then login again using your new email/password information.
4. Once this is complete you can order from your CS Direct order.

IMPORTANT! After the cart closes no modifications can be made to the order as it will be sent to production. PLEASE NOTE: YOU MUST ‘CHECK OUT’ WHEN YOU ARE FINISHED ORDERING; ANY ‘SAVED’ ORDERS WILL NOT BE PLACED WHEN THE CART CLOSES!

Over the next few months, Helming Athletics will be taking to the road to work with cycling teams, CrossFit gyms, and even present at a major triathlon expo:

Bear Development Camp:

Helming Athletics is pleased to be part of the Bear Development all-team cycling camp this upcoming weekend, getting these talented juniors up to speed and moving as well off the bike as they move on the bike.

http://www.beardevteam.com/

Helming Athletics Seminar: EA’s CrossFit February 24^th:

Stay tuned for a separate announcement, Helming Athletics will host its FIRST 2 hour seminar for endurance athletes and crossfitters a like—in nearby Sonoma county–discussing Nate’s philosophy and approach on integrating CrossFit into your life, endurance training, and racing season for optimal performance and well being.

More information on EA’s Gym in Sonoma

https://www.facebook.com/EACrossFit

Tri-Mania Summit and Expo March 23^rd. Boston, MA

Nate is thrilled to fly to Boston in late March and present his philosophy to a larger audience at one of the largest triathlon expos on the East Coast.  He will discuss how a skill-based approach towards strength & conditioning will make stronger, faster, and more resilient athletes. More details below:

http://www.tri-mania.com/Boston/Seminars.htm

HOW CROSSFIT CAN MAKE YOU A STRONGER, FASTER, AND (MORE) RESILIENT TRIATHLETE presented by Nate Helming of Helming Athletics

CrossFit. Its popularity has skyrocketed, but can it help you improve as a triathlete? Attend this session and find out. Presented by USAT Level 1 and CrossFit Level 1 coach Nate Helming, attendees of this presentation will hear how Nate has successfully integrated CrossFit strength and conditioning workouts into his work with beginner to elite triathletes. He will share his skill-based approach towards strength training and how these principles can be used to teach better functional movement and better swim, bike, and run technique.

Athletes that attend this session will learn:

• The principles of Posture, Load and Torque: the basics of body mechanics boiled down and how to apply these principles in a squat, a pushup, and beyond
• How triathletes can benefit from CrossFit including the benefits of adding of strength, power, speed, balance, and agility work to their swim, bike, and run workouts
• Practical guidelines for: (1) joining a “box” or finding a DIY program, (2) how to ramp up, and (3) how to periodize workouts around a busy training and racing schedule for optimal results.

“Most Read” List on Competitor.com

Nate is humbled, proud, and excited that his two articles for Competitor.com sit at #1 and #2 on the “Most Read” list for Competitor. By last count, his “Better Squatting for Better Running” and “Better Pushups for Better Running” have each been shared over 50 times over various Face Book pages. Thank you to every one who reads, likes, and supports and stay tuned for future articles!

http://running.competitor.com/

Come train with us at San Francisco CrossFit!

Live in the area? Or visiting and want to drop in? Come train with us at our endurance athlete strength & conditioning classes: Monday night 7pm. Tuesday morning 7am. Wednesday night 6pm. Thursday morning 7am.

www.sanfranciscocrossfit.com

That’s it for now! Remember, you can follow Nate on the San Francisco CrossFit Face book page, his personal page, in addition to Helming Athletics’ page. You can also see what Nate’s up to on instagram: http://instagram.com/natehelming and (eventually) on Twitter….if he ever gets around to it!

Best

Nate

January is already almost over, making for a very quick start to the 2013 year. There is a lot to look forward to in this upcoming season, some of which I will outline below:

Collaborative Efforts

2013 will be a year of collaboration with the Bear Development Cycling team, the Golden Gate Triathlon Club, TrainCompeteGetFaster, and (hopefully) additional triathlon coaches in the Bay Area.

HA teams up with Ashley Relf of TrainCompeteGetFaster to offer strength & conditioning support for GGTC’s new HIT program for the WildFlower Long Course. You can sign up and learn more at www.ggtc.org.

Bear Development Cycling Team: These kids are dedicated, hard working, and very talented junior road cyclists and mountain bikers; the next generation! Plus their cycling kits look awesome. Meeting out of TJ’s Gym in Corte Madera, HA is working to get these kids stronger, more mobile, and moving better to ensure consistent, injury free training! Follow them on FaceBook!

Helming Athletics is excited to team up with these and other established endurance programs to work on their athletes’ strength and conditioning, basic athletic development, and injury problem solving skills in a way that complements their busy training and racing schedules.

Golden Gate Triathlon Club A Team

Helming Athletics is pleased to be the official coach and advisor to the GGTC’s newly minted “A” Team. These athletes were hand selected for their racing prowess and their overall sporting attitudes to represent the GGTC in the season ahead. I look forward to helping these athletes be as successful as possible in their own racing endeavors.

Spreading the GOOD WORD

After more than a year of blog posts and articles for Active.com, I’m pleased to publish two articles for Competitor.com. What’s better, I get to write on my favorite topic: strength training for endurance athletes!

Titled “Better Squatting for Better Running” and Better Pushups for Better Running”, they both discuss a skilled-based approach to these simple exercises, outlining my philosophy and approach towards basic athletic movement and skill development. Stay tuned for future articles in the year ahead!

You can read them by clicking on these links:

Better Pushups for Better Running: http://running.competitor.com/2013/01/training/better-pushups-for-better-running_65070

Better Squatting for Better Running:

http://running.competitor.com/2013/01/training/better-squatting-for-better-running_64775

Strength & Conditioning Classes for Endurance Athletes

Held four times weekly at the new indoor San Francisco CrossFit, HA strength & conditioning classes continue to slowly and steadily attract athletes’ attention and build a dedicated following (see schedule: http://www.helmingathletics.com/services/cross-fit/).

SFCF coach and competitive Olympic lifter Pat Griffin has taken over Monday nights at 7pm. Triathletes continue to praise Pat’s eye for detail, his accessible coaching progressions, and his supportive attitude. You can read more about Pat here (http://sanfranciscocrossfit.com/staff/patrick-griffin/).

Vance Jacobs Photography

For a second year, Helming Athletics is pleased to work with the incredibly talented and inspiring photographer Vance Jacobs for all of its photography and video. Vance does an incredible job of not only capturing incredible action and still photography, but also evoking the right feel from them as well. Be sure to applaud Vance for any Helming Athletics photos you see and like! You can follow him on all his photographic projects and exploits at his website: www.vancejacobs.com.

HA Athletes

Continue to kick butt by following skill-based swim, bike, and run programs balanced with year round strength and conditioning workouts. As such, athletes have received top honors in the USAT rankings, are members of the GGTC A Team, and the prestigious Every Man Jack elite Triathlon team. They are conquering 70.3, Ironman, getting faster at short course, and winning or hitting the podium in their age groups, all the while cheering other athletes on.

On a More Personal Note

Nate will continue to race his mountain bike for a second season under the experienced and seasoned coaching eye of Dario Frederick of Whole Athlete. He will compete this year in the category 1/expert division and will try not to embarrass himself or his coach too much!

In addition to hitting the local race circuit, Nate has signed up for two major events for two important charities: the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and First Descents. On back to back weekends in August, Nate will travel to Massachusetts to ride the two day Pan Mass Challenge with the “real” team Helming Athletics: his father, three brothers, cousins and friends. They will be raising money for Dana Farber Cancer Institute.

The second weekend, Nate will make a pit stop in Colorado to survive the Leadville Trail 100 Mountain Bike race to raise money for First Descents, a charity dedicated to supporting and empowering young adult cancer patients and survivors with free outdoor adventure experiences.

Nate looks forward to these significant fund raising challenges, to contributing to these incredibly important charities, and for making his own (albeit small) contribution in the fight against something that has affected far too many members of his personal and extended family—both young and old. Stay tuned for more details on these important projects.

That’s it for now. Stay tuned and follow Helming Athletics on FaceBook, on instagram (@natehelming), and soon on Twitter!

Best,

Vance Jacobs Photography

Happy Holidays from Helming Athletics

Happy Holidays from Helming Athletics

As many of you know, I will soon be departing on a 3 week adventure to South East Asia with my wife. I’m really looking forward to exploring a new area of the world, to relaxing, and to being with her. And while we won’t be around a Christmas tree…who cares we’ll be living it up Laoation style

Despite this awesome trip, I confess I already look forward to the New Year and to getting back to business of training and developing athletes!

2013 will feature a lot of change, opportunity, and growth:

• San Francisco CrossFit finally retires the Parking Lot of Dreams (POD) for some incredible indoor digs! And while we will all miss that crisp Presidio air and sunset views of the Golden Gate Bridge, we will certainly not miss the Taj Mahal porta-potty.
• Soon to be announced…Helming Athletics will build on its partnership with the Golden Gate Triathlon Club in new and exciting ways! Stay tuned for these new programs and collaborations.
• Helming Athletics will continue to work with triathletes, clubs, cycling teams, and endurance athletes on their strength & conditioning with the focus on strength, mobility, and movement.

Connecting it all, Helming Athletics will continue to build community for all of us to experiment, problem-solve, and learn more about our bodies for even greater success in our athletic and personal lives. But we will also be a place to have fun along the way and not take ourselves too seriously all the time.

So thank you to all who have trained with me this year. We help make each other better. To those who haven’t yet, we look forward to you joining the party in the season to come!

An early toast to 2013,

 

Vance Jacobs Photography.

A friend and fellow coach once told me that success can only be measured if we share it with others…

Reflecting on these words, I couldn’t be more than thankful, excited, and inspired by all the athletes who decided to share their athletic development and experience with me this year…the first year of Helming Athletics.

Today my company turns 1 year old. Like any proud parent, I’m excited that my baby is a) still alive b) continuing to grow and c) making me—the parent—approach my life and work with greater purpose.

To my Helming Athletics year 1 angel investors—I cannot thank you enough for your continued support, commitment, and hard earned results. Every day I get to work with all of you on your athletic development, racing seasons, and inevitable bumps along the way. Everyday I get a little better as a result.

I continue to be educated, motivated, and humbled by my fellow coaches at San Francisco Cross Fit. Kelly and Juliet Starrett created a special place in the Parking Lot of Dreams. I have a hard time visualizing a more supportive and enlightened place to grow as a coach, athlete, and business.

As I continue to grow, it would help to further define my “greater purpose” in more exact terms. As it currently stands, here it is:

Helming Athletics will be a place for athletes to problem solve, to experiment, and to learn. Or in other words, Helming Athletics will help athletes to be more awesome in their physical lives. We all express our awesomeness in our own unique ways. Whether a professional mountain biker, a committed triathlete, or a part time Crossfitter, all athletes seek improvement, new challenges, and accomplishment. Whether it involves tackling their first pullup, setting an Ironman personal best, or moving without knee or shoulder pain, all athletes want a richer, fuller life.

We cannot accomplish these things alone however. All athletes problem solve, experiment, and learn more effectively in a committed, supportive, and community-oriented environment. Irrespective of sport, we are all athletes, and Helming Athletics will be that place, that coaching company to help you be a more successful one.

So in the new year and in the years to come, Helming Athletics is dedicated to offering  everyone access to knowledgeable and experienced endurance coaching, supportive and challenging CrossFit training, cohesive training plans, technical information on biomechanics, and intuitive guidance on injury management.

So here’s to better problem solving, experimenting, and learning. Here’s to being more awesome. And here’s to our future and shared success.

I hope you can join me.

Best

Helming Athletics

The Disconnect:

Just two weeks ago, I traveled to San Diego for the USA Triathlon Art & Science Symposium. I looked forward to the continuing education and the opportunity to converse with some of the country’s best minds in triathlon.

And I learned a lot. Robbie Ventura–former professional cyclist and now endurance coach–gave an excellent talk on bike performance and variable pacing strategies. Max Testa—world-renowned exercise physiologist and sports doc–provided medical insight on athletes who fail to perform. And four time Olympian Hunter Kemper walked us through the ups and downs of his incredible 16 year Olympic run in triathlon, providing great takeaways for all of us who listened.

While these presenters and the conference overall did not disappoint, I did leave feeling dissatisfied with the discussions on strength & conditioning and biomechanics. The information was not bad. Something was just missing. And it hit me. The two conversations did not relate to each other. The two presenters didn’t even speak the same language. There is a disconnect between these two worlds.

First the running expert provided the latest research and thinking on the intricacies and the anatomy of running. It was totally geeked out and great, but it did feel like listening to someone give driving directions with GPS coordinates rather than with Google Maps. It was informative, but uber technical and not intuitive.

The strength expert discussed the benefits of strength training and how to incorporate the gym into an athlete’s schedule. Strength can increase muscle force, increase our power output, and “balance” us. He even highlighted certain exercises and what muscles to focus on. It’s clear he knew his stuff and he presented it well.

And it occurred to me that this muscle-focused approach to strength is how many in the endurance community still see it. We need stronger hamstrings, so we prescribe hamstring curls. Our calves are weak, so we do calf raises. We have poor posture so we should do some sort of upright cable row exercise to improve the musculature in our upper backs. Even functional exercises like the dead lift are taught as either a hamstring or low back exercise.

Technique is emphasized and taught for each exercise. And it’s clear that great care and thought have been put into these programs. But it’s clear that this program doesn’t connect with the run expert’s discussion. And no one asks, how do hamstring curls improve my 10km time?

In the muscle focused approach we do not talk about movement as a skill. Rather, if all strength is muscle-specific then it’s created equal. Whether we do leg presses or knee extensions, hamstring curls or lunges, the goal is to improve specific muscles. And while this approach isn’t a bad one per se, it could be better.

Why Movement is a SKILL:

Instead, we should be talking about how we move day to day, how we move in our strength program, and how this relates to our movement in triathlon. How we stand, squat, and run are all skills that we want to identify, address, and improve. As a coach, I want to talk about squatting and running in the same sentence and how one improves the other. I want to not only talk about how overhead pressing relates to swimming, but also how it shaves a few seconds off my 100-yard free time.

In fact, what does our dead lift (or squat or pushup) say about us as athletes and how we move? Can we stabilize our spine and move under load? Can we load our hips and generate torque for greater power and stability? If not, do we lack the coordination to do it or do we lack mobility in a certain joint? Asking these questions around movement ties our strength training to our sport. The dead lift becomes a running drill, not just a hamstring exercise.

As a strength and conditioning and endurance coach, I want to help bridge the gap that exists between the run coach and the strength expert. We need to re-frame the debate on strength and conditioning around functional movement. At the conference, the run and strength experts live in different worlds and speak different languages, when in reality they should be best friends, attached at the hip!

So can strength training improve our power on the bike? Or improve our finishing kick? Or address that IT-band injury that keeps popping up? Absolutely, but only if we reframe the discussion towards functional movement, skill development, and how this relates to the positions we need to swim, bike, and run.

My School of Thinking:

As a coach, I’m fortunate enough to work around some incredibly thoughtful and innovate coaches. At San Francisco CrossFit, we all obsess about movement, our athletes, and professional coaching. My home for three years now, it’s easy to take for granted this thought process and education. In fact it took me leaving—guest coaching on weekends and travelling to conferences—to really appreciate how obsessed we all have become with movement, skill, and performance. One final story to illustrate my own obsession:

This past Monday an athlete brought me the above-pictured handout from a Physical Therapists office. The exercise was some sort of drop squat and the athlete wanted to know my opinion on it. While I glanced at the exercise description, I was too distracted by the stick figures themselves. “Look at those stick figures. Their posture sucks. They look so sad!”  I got a laugh, but I was serious and kind of irked. The relative merits of the exercise aside, all I could think about was the stick figures and what they communicate. And to me the stick figures say it all. If we really care about movement, posture, and position then our diagrams should be perfect. If we preach posture, then how can our stick figures have rounded backs?

By reframing the discussion on strength and conditioning around movement, we can get the swim, bike, run, and strength coaches around the same table. If we get them speaking the same language around movement we can continue to share ideas, challenge each other, and refine our approach towards athletic performance synergistically. At the next conference, the strength coach and the run coach should be best friends presenting congruent ideas on skill development and power production in the squat and in the run stride.

Strength training is more than just muscle development. It’s about movement and skill. We can and should do better for our selves and our athletes and continue moving the sport forward.

Train well,

Nate

Vance Jacobs Photography

The racing season’s winding down. Now that most athletes are far away from any specific racing, most runners, triathletes and cyclists add some unstructured workouts and some variety to the training plan for balance. It’s also the time of year most endurance athletes hit the gym. And for good reason.

Want to improve your V02 MAX and your V02 MIN at the same time? Focusing on your general athletic development will improve your strength, power output, and speed (MAX). Furthermore, athletes who focus on good bio mechanics, on mobility, on balance, and on agility reduce their injury exposure and increase their economy (MIN).

Participating in a good strength and conditioning program can also mentally and physically refresh the athlete from a long season of specific workouts, preventing burnout and injury, and simultaneously prepare the athlete to handle a greater training load the next season.

At Helming Athletics, our S & C program for Endurance athletes is:

• Appropriate and specific to your skill level and experience
• Meshes well with your endurance training program and racing goals
• Addresses mobility in your hips, shoulders, ankles and knees, and other problematic areas with MobilityWod techniques
• Develops functional strength that translates to more power on the race course
• Increases recovery after and between key endurance workouts

In addition to the ongoing program at San Francisco CrossFit, I’m pleased to bring this program to TJ’s gym in Corte Madera!

Location: TJ’s Gym in Corte Madera 500 Tamal Plaza suite 517, Corte Madera, CA.

Time: Monday and Friday 4pm

Cost: $20 per session (pay as you go).

Starts: Monday November 5th. (newcomers are always welcome).

Questions: helmingn@gmail.com

Photo by Vance Jacobs Photography

Aim for a B+ on Nutrition. A Jesse Thomas

Re-post:

I first came across this insightful and funny article by pro triathlete Jesse Thomas about a month ago. I was finishing up my  recent article comparing solid versus liquid fueling for triathlon, and I wanted to get some personal input from  professional triathletes that I could add to my article.

While Jesse briefly touches upon fueling, I immediately gravitated toward his daily nutritional philosophy. Simply put, it’s refreshing to hear a competitive athlete who does not obsess about their day-day nutrition for their racing performance. And while we always strive for, encourage, and admire perfection, it’s nice to hear from a top athlete who proudly enjoys not being the first student in class in all subjects.
Below is a link to the full article, but here are a few nuggets I gleaned from his post:

The above quote exists on the back of my friend John’s shirt. He created some team t-shirts for his crew to wear while supporting him on his first 100 mile endurance run this past year. While I hate to burst John’s bubble, being awesome alone can only get you so far in a 100 mile run. As many of his crew would attest, I’m sure he ate ate and drank some serious calories along the way to this impressive feat.

Often viewed as the fourth discipline in triathlon, athletes must find a nutritional plan that will get that athlete to the finish line in the fastest way possible . This plan must balance the athlete’s hydration and fueling requirements. And given the astonishing number of athletes who self report GI distress during races, it appears that many athletes do not have their nutrition and hydration plan dialed in.

This article compares two popular fueling methods triathletes use while training and racing: chewing calories versus drinking them. Before comparing the relative merits of the two approaches, it will provide some scientific background on why we need to fuel and hydrate and what can go wrong when we do not meet these requirements.

To begin, a degree of consensus exists among coaches, exercise physiologists, and nutritionists: for training sessions and races that extend beyond two hours, athletes should supplement with something in order to maintain their performance output. Awesome alone doesn’t cut it. After all, the body’s muscle glycogen storage capacity is limited, and glycogen is our energy storage for glucose—one of the preferred sources our muscles use to make ATP for energy.

When an athlete’s glycogen stores drop too low, they experience significant fatigue and a sharp decrease in performance. In its most extreme form, athletes “hit the wall” or “bonk”. So athletes bring additional fuel in the form of energy drinks and bars to provide a ready energy supply to continue training and racing at their best.

But eat too much or at the wrong times and athletes experience other types of complications in the form of gastrointestinal (GI) problems (stomach aches, nausea, etc.), which can slow athletes down even more. So if athletes do not consume enough fuel, they experience early fatigue and a decrease in performance. If athletes consume too much fuel, and their gut slows down and rebels.

On top of fueling, athletes need to hydrate to perform.  Let’s highlight two of the ways dehydration negatively affects the body. First, as blood plasma depletes due to dehydration, our heart’s stroke volume—the volume of blood pumped per heartbeat—diminishes. Due to this reduced cardiac output our heart has to pump faster just to deliver the same number of oxygenated blood cells to our working muscles. This phenomenon is known as cardiac drift and reflects the additional stress heat places on the body. Anyone who has experienced an elevated heart rate that stays way above their effort level has experienced this phenomenon.

Second, dehydration compromises our body’s thermoregulatory response and ability to stay in homeostasis. As part of our body’s cooling mechanism, we take advantage of pulling heat from the body through sweat evaporation. We also cool through the principals of convection (dispersal of heat through blood circulation) and conduction (body heat radiating away). Our blood vessels vasodilate—expand—to allow additional blood to circulate into the superficial capillaries in the skin to pull heat away from the body by means of the above two methods. Without taking on additional fluids, our bodies can only perform for so long without purposely slowing down to protect our vital organs from overheating. It’s generally recognized that we can tolerate up to a 2-3% loss in body water and still perform, but beyond that we develop headaches, dizziness, nausea, disorientation, and sluggishness to name a few of the minor symptoms.

Ultimately, athletes need to balance the twin perils of glycogen depletion and dehydration to perform at peak levels in events lasting longer than 2-3 hours, and especially in hot and humid conditions. For hot Ironman events such as Kona, it’s imperative to nail down a solid nutrition and hydration strategy. So let’s compare two different fueling strategies to see what’s best for you.

DRINKING: the super calorie bottle

The first fueling method tackles our fueling and hydration needs at the same time. These bottles usually contain a mix of mostly carbohydrate (some with additional fat and protein) and are specifically targeted for the 2-3 plus hour events with greater fueling requirements.

The Pro’s:

Athletes can conviently fuel and hydrate at the same time with these sports drinks and powders. This makes it easy to grab and go when constantly on the move training and also while racing. Chewing solid food can also slow the digestive system down. Drinking those calories is an alternative way to get them in, especially for athletes who deal with stomach cramps  If done correctly, athletes can meet their fueling requirements while also tackling some of their hydration requirements.

The Con’s

Some people in the endurance world believe that these high calorie bottles are responsible for the majority of GI issues experienced by racers, and they offer compelling evidence in support. As it turns out, the rate at which we should hydrate is different from of the rate of fueling, making it unrealistic for one product to optimally address both.

In this case, it can become way too easy to slurp down large amounts of calories that far surpass our gut’s ability to handle them. When looking at our gut and its absorption ability, it’s best to think of the gut as a tollbooth and the fuel (in this case carbohydrates (CHO)) as the cars passing through. On any given day, cars (CHO) must stop to go through the tollbooth (gut). During regular traffic hours, the gut can more than handle the amount of carbohydrates coming its way with minimal backup.

Now picture this tollbooth during rush hour traffic. The rate at which carbohydrates show up far surpasses the rate at which the gut can process them, contributing to a nasty build up in traffic. Since the gut cannot double its rate of absorption, athletes experience stomach cramps, bloating, and nausea when ingesting too much carbohydrate too quickly. So while super calorie bottles work to get fuel in, they can be too effective, creating serious backup and GI issues that slow athletes down in a different way.

Regardless of this innovative solution, athletes still risk failing to meet their hydration requirements as the processing of carbohydrates slows down our ability to take in fluids. Simply put, with the super calorie bottle athletes are either well fueled but under hydrated or properly hydrated but way over fueled, contributing to the GI issues that so many athletes seem to experience.

Chewing: keeping nutrition and hydration separate

While the super calorie bottle does have its merits, some coaches and athletes would rather simplify their approach to fueling and hydration and minimize potential GI issues. People in this camp believe we should chew our food and focus on hydration in our bottles. Most GI issues occur when athletes combine the two and blur the edges as stated above, significantly over-taxing the gut.

The Pro’s

Chewing food slows down the rush of calories to the gut via the digestion process, reducing potential GI issues. When athletes chew solid foods, the entire digestion process slows down the rate at which fuel goes from the stomach to the small intestine, and from the small intestine into the bloodstream. Digestion in the stomach is the key regulator here. A highly concentrated high calorie bottle bypasses the stomach too quickly because no digestion is required. Athletes then run into the tollbooth traffic jam as we previously discussed, as the gut can only transport so many carbohydrates so quickly.

And as previously stated, high calorie bottles also slow fluid absorption through the gut, hampering our hydration efforts. When our body encounters a fluid that is thicker than our blood, it has to pull fluid from the body into the small intestine to dilute it to an acceptable level. This process can only help so much before it both contributes to dehydration in addition to backing up our GI system.

Finally, without significant calories in the bottle, athletes can focus on optimal hydration for the body to continue performing at a high level. While temperature does not signifanctly affect our fueling demands for an event, it most certainly affects our hydration demands. By keeping our approach to nutrition and our approach to hydration separate, we are better able to optimally address both.

The Con’s

A few downsides exist to this approach, including the inconvience of carrying solid foods everywhere during training and racing, and dealing with stomach cramps while chewing food on the run.

Sports gels and drinks and powders are popular for a reason: they are convenient and they are on most racecourses. These products offer a simple and concentrated fueling solution for busy athletes who are always on the go. While they may not be perfect, some fueling is better than no fueling and these products are easy. Furthermore, these products are the main sponsors of most endurance events. Coaches recommend their athletes train with these on course products so they become used to them. It’s impractical to carry enough food for an entire Ironman so athletes have to refuel with what is on the course.

The mode of exercise also affects the bodys ability to fuel on solid foods. While an athlete could fuel on solids on the bike just fine, it’s difficult to ingest the same amount while running without feeling any repercussions. As most of you can attest, trying to run too soon after a big meal and you’ll experience cramps and even nausea. The energy requirements of running combined with the constant jostling stress the stomach and its digestion too much. A high calorie bottle provides the needed energy needed while minimizing stomach cramping and digestion.

So What’s Better?

While choosing a fueling and hydration strategy of your own, it’s important to remember that a significant variability exists between athletes. While some seem to do quite well on snickers bars and cokes (one of my personal favorites), other’s guts are quite sensitive to even the slightest changes.

A high calorie high concentrated bottle is convenient, making it easy to deliver the much-needed calories while racing and training, and it is easy on the digestive system when chewing becomes difficult. Gels, drinks and powders dominate most aid stations at long triathlon events, making it a virtual prerequisite for athletes to fuel on them just so they can get used to what’s being offered on race day.

Unfortunately, it can be too easy to fuel and surpass the gut’s absorption ability with this strategy, causing a serious backup and resulting GI issues. Our body even has to dilute these high concentrated solutions just so it can absorb it back into the blood stream. This process significantly slows down our fluid absorption, which can have more serious consequences in hot and humid environments when the hydration demands are especially high.

On the other hand, athletes can more optimally address both their hydration and fueling demands by keeping them separate. While some sloshing may occur, our digestive process ensures that we do not flood our small intestine with more calories than it can handle. By drinking lower concentration fluids, our body can more easily absorb the fluids with minimal backup and less dehydration.

Regardless of the strategy you employ, it’s important to practice, refine, and revisit your approach all season long. And if you do experience GI issues while racing, it’s safe to say your approach could you use some tweaking. But let’s also remember that different fueling and hydration strategies are called for depending on the duration and type of event or training.  These strategies may also change as you mature as an athlete and practice pushing harder for longer periods of time. And while it’s safe to say that everyone’s approach will be a bit different, it’s still worth learning what works for others and experimenting on yourself. Just don’t do it too close to your next race.

Train Well

Nate

See More:

• Coyle, E. F., Gonzalez-Alonso, J. “Cardiovascular Drift During Prolonged Exercise: New Perspectives.” Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews, p. 88. 2001. http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CCgQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.edb.utexas.edu%2Fcoyle%2Freview%2520arts%2F29%2520PR%29%2520CV%2520Drift%2520New%2520Perspectives.pdf&ei=Lm8tUOeqI8q9yQHvqIDADw&usg=AFQjCNEowwxlsT2wkP3ig4lYqrDShiwStw
• X. Shi, RW Summers, HP Schedl, SW Flanagan, R. Chang, and CV Gisolf. “Effects of carbohydrate type and concentration and solution osmolality on water absorption.” Med Sci Sports Exerc 27(12), 1607 -1615.
• A E. Jeukendrup, “Nutrition for endurance sports: Marathon, triathlon, and road cycling.” Journal of Sports Sciences. Vol 29, supplement 1, 2011.
• Nick Legan. “Made from Skratch. Skratch makes hydration natural.” Velo News. http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/07/nutrition/made-from-skratch-skratch-labs-makes-hydration-natural_231775
• Greg Kopecky. “Catching up with Allen Lim.” http://www.slowtwitch.com/Interview/Up_close_with_Allen_Lim_3054.html