A Woman’s Guide to Triathlon: The Things Men Will Never Tell You About the Sport by Eva Mauer

Author:Eva Mauer [Mauer, Eva]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Triathlon, guide, woman, sport, bike, swim, run
Published: 2019-06-04T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7:

Nutrition

Possibly the most controversial topic regarding triathlon training is nutrition. It’s difficult to write a chapter and try to encompass all of the various thoughts about what to eat as a triathlete, so I will try to cover the basics and give you the best advice I can regarding nutrition: learn as you go and do what works for you.

There are a few rules of nutrition for endurance sports. You are going to need to provide your body with fuel. Your body is strangely good at adapting to fuel sources, but you don’t want to switch sources the day before a race. Once you have established some eating routines, it’s all right to try different things, but try not to make any big changes less than a week or so before a race.

There are two main fuel sources for our bodies: carbohydrates and fats. Carbohydrates are things like sugars and starches from rice, grains, fruits, and treats. These are your body’s default fuel source because they are easy to break down and can be converted into energy quickly. They are also used up quickly, so during a race it’s important to have a source of carbohydrates approximately once per hour in order to keep your body going.

Some athletes will take carbs to an extreme and do something called “carb-loading” the night before a race. This is generally eating concentrated carbohydrate energy as a way to give your body as much usable energy as possible for the race. On most training days, you are not going to want to eat full plates of carbohydrates. Generally, eat the bulk of your carb foods right around your workouts — before or after—and then eat more proteins and fats during the rest of the day.

Fueling your body with carbohydrates will give you fast, easy energy that you can put towards big efforts, but your fuel will burn up fast. Great sources of carbohydrates include:

rice

sweet potatoes

fruit

vegetables

energy gels/chews

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.