This is making shift happen, and I'm your host Jen Katz. Over the years, I've coached hundreds of clients. Find their ideal self through the way they nourish their bodies and minds. And now I'm here to help pass on these same strategies to you. To so let's stop the madness and get your results once and for all. Let's go. Fan, welcome to another episode of making shifts happen. You know it's just gonna be a thing, I think, these next few weeks with my voice. Being just a little bit more broadly.
Because what I've discovered is in my training for Lead and associated races and events and things like that. The high elevation mixed with just breathing heavy and my vocal cord dysfunction is just the perfect cocktail for and my 1 900 voice. So I appreciate all of you for sticking with me here. Hopefully, my voice isn't too bad I have had to, like, extend it a little bit in terms of, you know, timing for recording. So I also appreciate your time. Be in in imp
with my release of every. Episode I'm debating on starting to to drop these on Thursday honestly with everything. And and usually, by Thursday, my voice is pretty good. But then, of course, Thursday, I usually coach in person. So I'm I'm talking a lot. But we'll just see. We're just gonna see what these next few weeks hold. You know, you just have to kind of be fluent and roll with it. Right? Friends. Alright. So today's topic, we're gonna be talking about how to fuel effectively
on race or event day. So if it's not really raised for you, that's fine. We'll call it an event. Now, I do wanna go ahead and say. I apologize. Okay. Fueling is going to look different for everyone. Fueling is going to be an individual thing and fueling in and of itself is a sport in and of itself in addition to the act of actually raising or writing in
an event. Now there are going to be some variables to consider such as age, gender, the weather what were conditions that you're experiencing as well as the conditions of the trail, elevation, training history, your personal training history and fitness level at that time, as well as the intensity of the race pace, and or the course because, hey, let's be honest, and not every course is the same. I mean, hell, even looking at Lead. The courses have changed over the years. You know, in the 30
years that it has been happening. The every course is different or slightly different. You know, they've made some slight tweaks. So really, you know, the fastest time on Lead and for the Lt 100 is is technically not the fastest time overall. Alright? Sure. It's the fastest time in the past 30 years, but that course record is not gonna be the same as the course that was set 30 years ago. Alright? So you have to pay attention to that, and you have to
really be gentle with those considerations. But anyways, you know, race course intensity does play a part, and that does include elevation and and nuances there, the of the course, things like that. Now, it also varies, depending on your health issues, your, own personal health issues that you need to navigate, such as diabetes, hypoglycemia, hypoglycemia, things like that. Your stomach tolerance and allergies. So as well.
That is really important to consider in all this because some of these suggestions are not going to be good for you. Not gonna really apply for you. If you are a diabetic individual, you know, mh, yeah. Let's pump you full glucose, real good idea. But, that please know those, Sarcasm. But these are incredibly important to really think about and just and kind of, you know, bring to the table when you're considering, race or event fueling strategy.
Now a large part of figuring out your race day fueling strategy is experimentation. My favorite word other than depends. Experimentation is key in all of this because you're gotta have to figure out what works wealth for you. But in that, please be patient and use your training rights as a guide. Don't figure it out on race day for goodness sake Figure it out on your training rights, figure it out on at least 1 to 2 rides a week. You don't have to do sports nutrition quote unquote every
single ride of the week. You can have more whole food sent items, you know, on most of your rides. And then a couple 1 or 2 times a week, you know, really search experiment with those training fields out. Strategies or racing fuel strategies. Now, ideal race fuel... The source for an ideal race fuel, I apologize. Milo licking and it's kinda... He's kinda distracting me. Hopefully, you can't hear him. But ideal race fuel source is, of course,
carbs. It is the most efficient for your body to break down and utilize period, plus you are going to be using your glycogen stores in both your muscles and eventually your liver. As the intensity elevation, race, you know, heat. All of that starts to evolve, that is going to really help draw you, you know, and it's gonna help... It's it's gonna push your body to draw those glycogen glycogen stores period. Now I will go ahead and say.
Not all carbs are equal. Sure. Yeah. They are, but stomach and intestines, your stomach and intestines. Actually have carb absorption receptors that are variable. Alright? So you have a couple of different, I mean, variety of them, but Ideally, in order to favor these absorption receptors in your intestines and in your digestive system, you need a mix of malt, or or glucose and fructose. Alright? And that's sometimes what, you know, the jelly bell and the the candies that you
get on the shelf, are missing. Alright. They don't always have the fructose. They don't always have a combination of the fructose with the other carbohydrate source. Now, This is why you don't wanna depend on straight glucose or straight sugar or straight fructose like fruits and things like that. In order to minimize gut issues because that's gonna be a biggest thing is by combining
these things. So fructose with, of course, like multi, extra blah blah, by combining the fructose with that, you're improving your gut tolerance, you're improving the absorption of the carbs. And all of this. I mean, you're you're improving so much. You're improving just your ability to speed up the absorption of the up glycogen and and all of that. I mean, it helps with your performance period. Like, this is not my opinion. This is
science friends. It's science and And that is 1 reason why yes, sports nutrition is going to be a little bit more expensive. Now, you can, of course, make your own gels. There are recipes out, you know, in the Internet hemisphere where you can learn to make your own drills and do that yourself, but I know not all of us have the time where the patients were the effort to do that. Now, that being said, the standard multi or or glucose to fructose ratio for sports drinks
and gels and all that fun stuff. Is ideally right around 2 to 1. So 2 parts melted or glucose to 1 part fructose. Now this allows for carbohydrate intake of up to about 90 grams per hour. Now some athletes may benefit from higher or lower intake. So please know that. Now I wanna dive into the varieties of carbs. Just so, you know, wanna make this quick and dirty so your eyes don't glaze over too much. I don't wanna talk about the science too much, even though I'm a
huge science nerd. It's not what I'm I'm here to do. I'm here to make it simple and simplified. So let's talk about multi extra first. Now this comes from a starch. Okay? So it is a bit slower than I digest. This is great. This is good news. Good news parents. It's not gonna be a sweet, you know, as glucose and it's it's counterparts. It's also not suitable for everyone. If you have a core analogy, for example, then you're probably going to wanna use a rice or Tap.
Instead. So I know there are growing growing numbers of folks who have corn allergies and multi is, you know, sourced from corn, a corn starch. So you're going to wanna look for things that have rice or tap starch, our dex rather in a weed as well. If my memory serves me right, I didn't put that on my note here. Now, glucose. It's way way sweeter, and could definitely spike your blood sugar even more, for some people, it's not also suitable for everyone. Alright? But it is course mono. So, you
know, it's it's sweet. Now fructose, Another mono of. It is, of course, as you can imagine, a fruit sugar. Hence the name fruit fructose. It's a simple sugar, Again, mono, yes, it's in fruit. It's also in things like honey, so, you know, all those sting, sting gels and things like that. Fructose is sweeter and more soluble than glucose, so that's something to consider. Fructose can also help speed up the absorption of glycogen in the liver for your energy
needs. So it is actually... It is actually needed just to help with that absorption. Now, let's talk about the steps that you can take to put to together this whole race feeling strategy, this is the bread and butter of everything. Step number 1. Determine how many hours you may need to complete the grace course. So look at the elevation. Look at conditions. Look at the past, you know, finished times. If you have a comparable athlete
that you know locally. Great. Look at their times and then the what I or recommend is add another 30 to 60 minutes for mechanical and things that go sideways just in case. Perfect example is... Oh my god. I literally added an hour to what time I thought I was going to complete Silver rush. It ended up being 2 hours additional just because I... I didn't realize it got so narrow during this 1 section of the race. I had no idea. Even with all my research, I really thought I would be able to
bike it up. Bike up it, but it was just way too loose. And there was just too many people walking where he needed to ride while the pros and stuff came down. So thank goodness, I did buffer for at least that extra hour because then that gave me, a, an hour of just kinda, you know, I squeezed over and and just trying to freaking finish the race. Per but it is
incredibly important to buffer. Give yourself a little bit of a safety nut, but try to figure out how many hours approximately, you may need to complete the race course. Alright? Then next, step 2, figure out how many carbs you need to replenish every hour. It is not. It is not. I repeat not. A 1 to 1 ratio replenish. So don't try to replace like, oh, I burn an average of 400 calories an hour. I'm gonna replace 400 calories an hour,
absolutely not. That might not go very well for your Gi and just your happiness, you know, level during your race instead, what you're going to wanna do is you're gonna wanna take an average caloric burn for you on a typical ride that's very similar to this, race condition rate, and then aim to replace about half of that average caloric burn. That's gonna be a
good minimum goal. Generally speaking for most people, this is gonna be anywhere between 30 to 40 grams of carbs, every hour on up to about 90 grams of carbs, that's probably the the strongest average. I'd say, like 60 to 90 grams of carbs per hour is the... The strongest average for most people depending on how intense you are and also depending
on how muscular you are. The more muscular you are in the leaner you are, the more you might actually depend on a higher carbohydrate amount, So you might need to go beyond 90 grams. Okay? Next, You're gonna do the math. So step number 3, do math. Figure out how many hours are gonna be out there. Multiply by however many carbs you need an hour, and that's what you're gonna do. Alright? You're... That's
what... It's as easy as that. Figure out how many hours estimate how long it's gonna take you give yourself a buffer, have it just in case. You know, pocket of fuel on you or whatever. And then figure out how many carbs you need. Do the math, you know, how many carbs you need times how many hours you need. Right? And then, number 4, most important experiment. Step 4. This is when you're going to
experiment on those training rights? Figure out the fuel, buy the fuel that you need and then, you know, acquire the fuel and then figure out how you're gonna pack it on you like a squirrel, and then experiment, enjoy it. That's the fun part. Fifth tip here. The fifth step is that on race day don't consume all of your hourly carb needs at once for the love of dog. Don't do that. You're just asking for Gi issues. The poop. Alright? You're just asking for a bad day on the bike.
So don't try to down like 90 grams of carbs like right there. Instead, what you're going to wanna do is break it up every... Or about 15 to 30 minutes. I personally find 30 minutes is ideal for me. So I know I need roughly, depending on everything, 70... I'd say 75 grams is good average, but 75 to 90 grams of carbs per hour is good average for me. So 70... You know, say I have 75 grams. I actually am able to fit 75 grams in each. Flask. So I have half of my my flask
every 30 minutes, and it's so great. It's it's easy You know, so I have a little alert on my head unit on my garmin head unit on my bike, and it alerts me, you know, feed feed and there you go. It's pretty simple. And then, of course, I have water every 15... Every 15 minutes or so, I almost had 15 seconds man. If I had a water every 15 seconds, I'd be peeing like a resource. But, no. I have some water, I have a few sips of water, about 2 to 4 draws from my hydration bladder.
I have that every 15 minutes. And, of course, the harder I'm breathing, the more I'm going through my water. You wouldn't know that because I I still sound gravely, but that's another topic. Now, Step number 6. Prep your nutrition strategy the day or 2 before your race date. Home wait till race morning, please don't do that. We're talking bottles flask, hydration bladder, emergency snacks, all that stuff. Please give yourself that that buffer. That way you can make sure you have everything.
I usually set stuff up out like a week in advance, and then I put it in a bag, and then the night before, that's when I'm putting my gels in my flask and things like that. So those are the top 6 6 tips to really put together your race nutrition strategy. I hope that's helpful for you. Next, I wanted to talk about tools to consider. So I personally, this was a recommendation to me by a friend of mine. The reusable flow formulas flask are hands down, the easiest
to use out there. Don't get the Cheap Depot ones on Amazon or you know, whatever. Get the reusable flow formulas flask. They're, I think 5 to 7 dollars or something each depending on what size you get, they're so great. They can be a little bit of a pain. Yeah, You have to clean them, like, after you use them, but you know what? You're not leaving crap on the trail which is what I inevitably see. Friends. I cannot tell you because I'm real big on, no leave no trace, you know,
grace or not. I don't care. I don't care if there's gonna be reached marshall that's gonna pick up my goo back that's on the ground. Like, I don't care. I'm not throwing anything on the ground. Keeping my trash. I cannot tell you though, how many times I've been a race and I see, like, race s is what I call it. And it's just like, to crap that's on the trail. It's like goo packet it's Sis. I see it's Sis like, freaking nobody's business and morton and stop it Stop it. Get these reusable flask.
It's make your life easier. Yeah. The only downside is you have to do... You do have to carry them around after you're done, like, you know, you cash them. Yeah. You have to carry them around. Put them in a freaking empty Jersey pack It's fine. You know? Honestly, it's it's great. It's great way to keep track of how much you're eating and and consuming. They weigh next to nothing, like, having some extra empty flash 1 on you is not what's gonna prevent you from being
on first place. Okay? I'm just gonna go ahead and say that. But we have got to be better stewards of our trail. If we want access to trails, and we want access to reese's. Alright? So I'm a big fan of reusable flow formulas flask. Say that 3 times fast. I find they're great. I usually carry at least 4. Smaller flask and then, like, 1 larger flask, and I'm just gonna reuse them. I'll have some more I'm gonna use them at Lead. I'm gonna have more at, you know, twin lakes about the halfway mark
before I go out C combine. That's when I'll switch them out. And there you go. I mean, they're so easy. And you already know what's in there. They have a bite vowel on them, so they don't leak. So you have to bite them just like a hydration bladder and then squeeze. I mean, they're super easy to use. And what's great is if you do happen to fit or you do happen to get into, like, a so a tight spot or like, oh, crap. I need both hands, and you do need to just keep the flask
in your mouth. It's a soft bite valve, so you can just keep flask in your mouth while you're navigating tech terrain or whatever you're doing. It's... I can't recommend this enough. Next, I do really recommend hydration bladder. I don't care if you use use we. I'm using Oh, crap. Why am I forgetting sunny Evo. Is Eva? Eva, I can't remember. I mean, I did use Use. I do enjoy that that hydration bladder. The only problem with it is I don't have extra pockets on my
chest to keep my flask. So I did end up getting, like an Or something like that. It was Eva brand. The 1 and a half, liter Hydration bladder. It's super light. And what's really cool is I'm gonna be getting back into running. Some trail running. If you didn't know, I I do enjoy trail running. Especially now that I've been walking a little bit more in Lead on some of these really steep 18 percent grades. I've just been walking on my bike. And I'm like, you
know what? I kinda of miss running when I'm when I'm, you know, at 12000 feet high and and hypo hypoxia. But what's cool is my evo hydration bladder. I can actually be doubled and used with running when I get back in a trail running, which is really cool. And it doesn't really move. I don't notice it moving. What's cool is hydrogen hydration bloggers make things easy quick, efficient, and you can store your flask and food as well as maybe a little raincoat code like a light raincoat code
if you need it. And if it's a hot day, you can pack it with ice. So pack the pack the bladder itself with a little bit of ice or puts ice in it, and what's cool is want it slowly melting, It's gonna melt on your back. It's gonna keep your core temperature cooler. Next, of course, water bottles. Pack them with ice you 2 on hot days. I will say the volume of ice can change how much water is actually in it a little bit. So do keep that in mind and,
you know, obviously just put our... Put it however much ice you need in it for the day. I mean, that's fine. You know, and, of course, it will slowly out. Some people have suggested freezing your water bottles. That way you can, you know, like, you can go ahead and and, like, just let the water bottle melt as the heat, you know, increases throughout the day. I have trust issues with that. I know I know so many people have done this, but I just really have trust
issues with that. Because I get so thirsty at high elevation, and I'm because I'm breathing hard. Especially with my vocal cord dysfunction, I do need to personally keep my throat, like, moist. I hate to say that word. But, yeah, I need to keep it hydrated and I need to keep myself hydrated. So, you know, if you don't have as much trust issues great. Go for it. Freeze your water bottles. Just make sure that you're able to freeze them and they're not gonna bust.
You don't wanna test that on race day the night before the race, instead test that theory on your training rides, please. Alright. Alright, friends. That is all I have for you today when it comes to your fueling strategy and figuring out how the hell to do it on your race day or event day. I hope this is helpful for you. Just Fyi, be sure you're on my mailing list. Alright? I have a link in the show notes. For my mailing list. And the reason for
that is because I'm going to... I'm actively putting together a race nutrition or event nutrition strategy spreadsheet because I I fucking love spreadsheets. Okay, Friends. And spreadsheets keep me sane. They keep me just organize. They they make me feel like I have a little bit of control over some controllable in my life. So I'm putting together a rest restate strategy for, feel just you. I I want you to have this free tool. So I am going to email it to all of my followers.
All my followers. That makes me sound like I'm a cult leader. I'm gonna... I'm gonna email it to you. Alright. I'm gonna email to the people. But, yes, make sure you're on my mailing list. I don't email that. Much. I mean maybe once a month, sometimes twice a month if it's a good month, But like,
I'm not gonna spam your ass. Don't worry about that that there is gonna be an entry, you know, a few few email series depending on what you sign up for, but everything's useful, and it takes, like, all my emails take, like, maybe 3 minutes or less. To read. I'm not very fur verbose. So I'm just for bose in person. On that, sign up for my newsletter. Make sure you get the toll here in the next couple weeks, and I appreciate you
listening. I'm analyst endlessly grateful for you being here and giving your time and listening ear to this. If you found this helpful, I would love for you to share, like, and subscribe this. Subscription subscribe to this. Friends, I'm having 1 of those days. Subscribe to this podcast, I would be endlessly endlessly appreciative. On that note, I hope you have a beautiful day, and I will catch you next week. Bye friends.