fuel (energy)

Ok, so I have never been a big fan of healthy eating, good nutrition and clean living. But - doing a race of this type has put some of this into perspective and for good reasons. Without the right "fuel" I was not going to last.

I won't go into it too deep but this is an overview of what helped get me through.

According to various reading material and advice our plan was around in taking about 500 mls of water and 200-300 calories per hour.

Fluids

It was a super hot day so I tried to work it pretty early on the hydration and mixed my water with endura. I have a 2 litre camel pack so I planned to drink a full one of these on each legs of the race. I also had another couple of water bottles during the race attached to the bike just in case. By the time the last bike leg came around my interest in taking in 500mls per hour had dissipated and I don't really know how much was going in at this stage. At that point of the race it was dark and cold so I definitely wasn't taking as much. On the kayak leg I didn't take any water. In hindsight, I ended up more dehydrated post the race because of this. Tip keep up the fluids even if your not interested or cold.

Foods

Before the race started I had a banana, an endura energy bar and a musashi bulk drink. Once the race started my food intake also fluctated. I started out pretty good snacking on bliss balls, energy bars and sucking back gu's and gels - which I hate the taste of. At the transistion points we restocked with real food including brownies, pretzels (salt & carbo), and a sandwhich. Once again towards the second half of the race my interest waned and once again my intake suffered. Towards the last parts of the race it was down to mars bars that got me through. The highs and lows and headaches here were largely around food intake.

Leading up to the race

Clean eating as much as possible in the lead up to the race. So minimise the bad stuff including alcohol as we all know that really dehydrates.