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A Quick Guide to Nutrition for the Endurance Athlete HAVE YOU EVER BONKED? Do you know why there's a 'wall' at the 20 mile mark in a marathon?

or Do you know why drinking some well known 'sports drinks' can actually dehydrate you, not hydrate you?

This little layman's guide will give you these answers as well as giving you some tips on helping you perform at your peak - whether it's a training run with your buddies or an ironman in Hawaii.

There are many good books and articles on sports nutrition (some of which are listed at the end) that I encourage you read, but the purpose of this brochure is to distill a lot of this information into some easy to understand advice.

First, we need to give you a little (very simplified) information on how your body works: - Your body basically burns sugar for energy. That sugar is stored in the form of glycogen in the muscles and liver. - Along with the little bit of blood sugar, you've got about 1500 to 2000 calories of fuel that you have readily available. AT 800 calories per hour (a moderately quick pace for most), that's about 2 to 2 1/2 hours of fuel before you run out of energy. - You may have 100 times that amount of calories stored as fat in your body, and that's enough to go from Miami to New York if only you could use it well, you can, but it's a slow process (called gluconeogenesis) that converts fat to glycogen - only a few hundred calories per hour. That's fine for walking, but not enough to run 6 minute miles. - Your body burns glycogen both aerobically (with oxygen) and anaerobically (without oxygen) to produce energy. - The aerobic process is efficient and clean, but not real fast. You're using mostly aerobic pathways when you exercise at a pace which allows you to carry on a conversation - roughly 70% of you maximum heart rate. - The anaerobic pathways provide quick energy (going uphills or sprinting to the finish), but burn glycogen 5 times faster than aerobic pathways do, and the process produces lactic acid which causes the all too familiar 'burn'. That That means you're down to only a half hour of fuel when you go anaerobic. Are you starting to understand the math? - Besides energy, your body also needs water and electrolytes (sodium, potassium, chloride, and some magnesium) to work properly. If you run out of any of these, the engine shuts down. There are lots of ways to keep your motor from running. - Obviously, a better trained cardiovascular system and better trained muscles, can deliver and use energy more efficiently so you run & bike faster & farther. You're body responds to stress (training) and rebuilds itself stronger assuming you give it the time and the building blocks (nutrition) to do it. Even if you don't ride your bike into the ditch, you can injure yourself by not rebuilding your body. You get stronger during rest periods not during training periods. All you couch lovers should appreciate this. - Finally, you can only process about 250 calories per hour. That means, no matter how many Clif bars, energy gets, or boiled potatoes you can force down, you're only going to get 250 useable calories per hour. Everything else is wasted (literally). And you can't miss an hour and catch up later. Remember that. - To summarized, you can keep going until one of four things forces you to quit: lack of water, lack of electrolytes, lack of fuel, or injury. Here's some advice on how to avoid problem.

HOW TO KEEP GOING Beginning marathoners thought that if they could just go slow enough to keep their legs from burning (no lactic acid buildup), then as long as they drank enough water, they could finish the race comfortably. What happened? They bonked - right near the 20 mile mark. The WALL! Why? Their fuel tank was empty. At 800 calories per hour and a 7 1/2 min./mile pace, that's 2000 calories in 2 1/2 hours, and no Boston next year.

They soon realized they needed additional fuel for the long run, so they ate a few gels and drank some (properly mixed) sports drinks along the way, and probably had a decent result next time.

Once the novelty of marathons wore off, that same athlete decided to do an adventure race, or Ironman, or ultra-marathon. They knew they needed to replace the energy, so they did the math and came up with 9600 calories over a 12 hour race. Wow, they thought, and went out and got all the Snickers, sports drinks , and boiled potatoes they could get their hands on and tried to stuff them in their stomachs. Whoops. They got real sick and didn't finish. What went wrong this time? They didn't realize they could only process 250 calories per hour, and the rest sat in their stomach and caused big problems. Welcome to energy management.

FLUIDS

Drink enough, but not too much. About 4 ounces every 10 minutes is a good start depending on heat and your individual rate of perspiration. Too much fluid and you slosh and get sick; too little and you dehydrate. On really hot days, you may find that you sweat out nearly 2 quarts per hour. Most of that needs to be replaced. Generally start you hydration program about 1/2 hour before race time. ELECTROLYTES

Drinks, gels, tablets, (no salt tablets please), and liquids like ''Elete'' all work, just don't mix them too strong. Too high a concentration of salts in your stomach will actually pull water back out of your system and cause further dehydration. I made the mistake 3 times before i figured out what was going on. Don't give sea water to a drifting sailor. Cramping can be a major result of electrolyte shortage or imbalance.

FUEL

Obviously very important. Fuel means carbohydrates, and that generally means some form of easily assimilated sugar. Carbohydrates in sold form (bars, trail mix, potatoes, etc.) generally require some sort of digestion and usually don't set very well except in very long, very slow events where real food is a mental necessity. Polysaccharides (complex sugars) like maltodextrin are superior to simple sugars like sucrose, fructose and dextrose. In addition to the energy spike and familiar 'sugar low', simple sugars require much more water to provide an osmotic balance in the stomach. In other works you can't drink enough of the stuff to get your 250 calories per hour. Maltodextrin can be absorbed through the stomach wall at 12% concentrations compared compared to only 6% for sucrose. That means more fuel, and smoother burning fuel for your body. Cytomax, Accelerade, and Hammer products all use quality polysaccharides. Be sure to mix them according to directions. If you use gels for convenience, be sure to drink an appropriate amount of water (not sports drink) with them.

For events or workouts lasting over 2 hours, your muscles start breaking down. They need rebuilding as you go to help reduce damage and resulting soreness. It's muscle damage that causes long term soreness, not lactic acid. Lactic acid is actually an important product in the energy creation process and is removed within 1 hour. That 'morning after' jog may make you feel better, but it's not flushing out any lactic acid. Nutrition containing amino acids or protein has been shown to increase endurance. Again, Accelerade, Cytomax, and Hammer Pepetuem all provide these nutrients. RECOVERY

Recovery drinks are probably the most talked about of the sports nutrition products. It's only recently that nutritionists have started understanding the body's rebuilding process, and the resulting benefits of recovery drinks.

You need carbohydrates to replenish energy supplies, and protein or amino acids to heal damaged muscles. Remember, you body rebuilds itself stronger in response to the stress of training, but you have to provide the building materials. The most efficient time for this is within 30 minutes of the end of your workout, so don't wait until after work or after a 2 hour drive home - it's not nearly as beneficial. You'll feel much better the next day, and be able to exercise longer and more often if you use recovery nutrition. A very long workout or race clearly depletes the reserves more than a short one, so mix accordingly and follow the instructions. A rough (very rough) rule of thumb is to replace 1/3 of the calories you used during your workout. If you're going by grams, remember that 1 gram of carbohydrate is 4 calories. Accelerate Endurox, Cytomax Recover, and Hammer Recoverite are all very good for you, and taste may be the deciding factor.

We hope you've enjoyed this little brochure, nad we hope that all your training and racing goes well. References Born, Guide to Success,

download @ hammernutrition.com Brooks, 10 Reasons to Use Cytomax,

download @ cytosport.com Ivy & Protman, The Performance Zone, 2004 Publow, Speed on Skates, 1999 Williams, Nutrition for Health, Fitness, & Sport, 2005