Nutrition – Breaking The Cardinal Rule

Have you ever bonked in an Ironman triathlon? Bonking is when your body hits the wall, shuts down and may also be accompanied by getting cramps, feeling sick, light headed, dizziness and/or vomiting. 


This usually occurs from not consuming enough calories, not drinking enough or drinking too much during a long distance endurance race.


Bonking and not finishing an Ironman after many months of training and sacrifice is in its own way a personal horror story and is usually tied to the success or failure of a good nutrition and hydration plan.


So what kind of nutrition plan will help you address and prevent these potential race day issues?


The simplified answer is a plan that allows you hydrate and fuel your body at a pace and volume that helps you to sustain your race pace while feeling good throughout the entire race.


There are a couple really key components to this and the first is to practice ingesting all your nutrition and hydration products during your training so you get comfortable with what you like and what works with your body long before the race day.


Remember that you will need to be flexible enough to be able to adjust on race day for variables like the weather, your pace and how you are feeling that particular day.


There are some pretty good coaches, nutrition plans and training programs out there that will give you some great guidelines but nothing is a one size fits all so make sure to customize to what works for you including what you like.


For my long bikes, I eat a peanut butter and honey sandwich while my son Josh does cliff bars. He’s younger, faster, and a much smarter athlete than I am but my stomach likes the PBH so that’s what I do. Also, I’m out there longer than he is and so I need the extra calories to give me energy longer and a sandwich works better for me (even though I love Cliff bars).


When it comes to hydration, my caution is to not let yourself get dehydrated and conversely don’t over hydrate. Keep yourself on pace to consume enough of the right kinds of fluids your body needs throughout your entire race day.


And as far as the cardinal rule… don’t do ANYTHING different on race day that you have not practiced during training.


Now for my personal confession. I have broken this rule more than once. What’s that you’re saying? Some knuckleheads never learn? Okay, okay, I resemble that remark.


Remember, do as I say, not as I do. Have you ever broken the cardinal rule?