Training and racing in cold weather is significantly different than training and racing in hot weather, correspondingly your nutrition program needs to be adjusted to reflect these variations.
More specifically, you should pay close attention to how much you are sweating during hot weather training. In very arid environments (like in Arizona and Utah) your sweat can evaporate almost immediately, making some athletes under evaluate their sweat rates. It’s often in these environments that your sweat rate is, in fact, the highest even though you don’t necessarily see or feel moisture on your skin. In hot conditions, hydration (the consumption of water and electrolytes) trumps your calorie intake. This is not to say calories are not important but the consumption of calories without a proper hydration strategy will ultimately lead to disaster. Consider/ or analyze your hydration levels first and then add in the total amount of calories you can consume at that hydration level.
The Physiology
Sweat is your body’s mechanism to cool itself in hot environments. In fact, the more trained you are – the more efficient you become at sweating and cooling. If you have a high sweat rate, it’s a sign that you have good cooling. As you might guess, to maintain a high sweat rate, which is ultimately what you want in hot environments, you need significant amounts of fluid. A 1% drop in internal fluids requires your heart rate to increase in order to sustain an adequate sweat rate, obviously not what an athlete wants during exercise. Move to a 2% drop in your total internal fluids and the risk of heat exhaustion is significant along with a decrease in performance. You would likely be walking at this point or risking heat stroke. Furthermore, a drop in hydration reduces your ability to absorb calories and nutrients leading to further nutritional problems.
Appropriate hydration is critical to performance, particularly in hot environments. Even mild dehydration can cause the absorption of calories to become increasingly difficult which is why we recommend your nutrition plan take hydration levels into account prior to your caloric considerations.
What are the key variables to consider when training & racing in hot weather?
Athletes are notorious for first asking, “how many calories should I consume?” These same athletes focus heavily on calories and will consume gels to help reach their caloric target. They then consume water arbitrarily with no real thought to concentration percentage or osmolality. We suggest you flip this process upside down. First calculate your hydration needs and then add in the calories. Ask yourself, how much fluid can I consume per hour? Better yet, practice this to see what your maximum fluid intake looks like. Is it 24oz, 36oz? In short distances you will likely not have a cramping, hydration challenge so it’s less critical to push the envelope of fluid intake. In a long hot session you will want to make absolutely certain you stay on top of your hydration and electrolytes to assure the final hours are as strong as the early hours. At First Endurance we recommend a balance of all five electrolytes (sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, chloride) in order to ensure proper muscular contraction and cellular respiration. When electrolytes are in balance, performance improves and the risk of cramping is eliminated.
Remember that your training sessions in hot environments will likely be derailed by dehydration before it’s derailed by a nutrition bonk. Because nutrition absorption is highly compromised if it doesn’t occur with the correct amount of hydration it is paramount to focus first on hydration and second on calories. In extremely hot long sessions it’s not out of the question to push 40oz or 50oz per hour to sustain efforts, though many may get away with as little as 24-30oz. Do not consume more than 100 calories per 12oz of fluid. This is extremely critical to the success of your plan. Calorie concentrations greater than 100 calories to 12oz will hinder the absorption of fluid unless you have a drink that has a super low osmolality, such as EFS-PRO. Though five electrolytes should be consumed in order to remain in balance, we will recommend you look at sodium as the primary determinant of electrolyte intake since the body uses this mineral at a rate higher than the other electrolytes. Athletes should consume between 800 and 1600mg of sodium per hour with the vast majority doing well at about the 1,000mg level.
Tips for dialing in your hot weather fueling with EFS products:
EFS Drink
:Designed to be used at an 8% solution (100 calories per 12oz). Contains an appropriate osmolality and concentration to be used daily in most situations. EFS delivers all five electrolytes (over 1100/mg per serving) at a level endurance athletes require to prevent cramping and dehydration and forceful muscle contraction. Contains Glutamine, Leucine, Iso-Leucine and Valine to help improve glycogen re-synthesis and reduce mental fatigue.
TIP: Consume one serving 30-60 minutes before exercise and take one serving every 30 minutes during exercise. For additional calories and electrolytes use with EFS Liquid Shot.
EFS Liquid Shot: Designed to be used instead of gels. They can be diluted (with water) to meet your personal preference. EFS Liquid Shot is the perfect complement to EFS or EFS-PRO drink mixes for long distance training or racing in the heat. Because Liquid Shot don’t contain any ‘gelling agents’ they won’t slow down absorption and digestion.
TIP: EFS Liquid Shots are ideal when you need more calories than you can get from drinking the EFS drink alone. Not recommended as your primary or sole source of calories in hot conditions.
EFS-PRO Drink
: Designed to be used at varying concentrations (80/120/160 calories per 12oz). Additional nutrient technology helps shuttle electrolytes into working muscles and increases absorption rates in the most extreme conditions. Very high electrolyte content and low osmolality make it perfect for hot weather training or racing.
TIP: have 1 serving of EFS or EFS-PRO drink 30-60 minutes prior to exercise and then 1 serving every 30 minutes during exercise. EFS & EFS-PRO can be used as your daily fuel for training and racing in any condition. EFS-PRO is designed specically for extremely hot or extremely long racing. If you have a sensitive stomach, you should also consider upgrading to EFS-PRO.
Recommendations:
-To ensure proper absorption of calories, forceful muscle contraction and maximal performance we recommend athletes first determine how much fluid they will consume. Use your total fluid consumption to determine how many calories can be absorbed. In hot conditions it’s recommended to consume 12oz fluid for each 100 calories. If you know you will only consume 24oz of fluid per hour, then your maximum calories will be 200. Attempting to force calories in without proper hydration is a recipe for gastric distress, cramping and poor performance.
< 2 hours HOT conditions: When exercising less than two hours it’s unlikely you’ll experience considerable cramping or dehydration. Consume a serving of EFS or EFS-PRO for the 60 minutes prior to the workout. Consume a 2nd serving of EFS or EFS-PRO during the workout session. 1-2 servings of EFS or EFS-PRO should suffice.
2-5 hours HOT conditions: Hydration and electrolytes are paramount so try and determine your maximum hydration intake. Consume no more than 100 calories for each 12oz of fluid. Try to target a minimum 800mg of sodium per hour. EFS drink should suffice for most athletes in most situations. If you have a sensitive stomach or are prone to cramping, consider using EFS-PRO exclusively. A combination of these two products also works nicely.
>5 hours HOT conditions: Hydration and electrolytes are critical so try and determine your maximum hydration intake. At these longer distances, you will also need to pay attention to your caloric intake and you will need to balance hydration and calories appropriately in order to sustain efforts. Only consume the maximum calories that can match your hydration consumption. Your effort will also be a determinant of how many calories you need whereas your total fluid consumption will determine how many calories will be properly absorbed. If the pace is slow, less calories are needed. If the pace is at threshold you will need more calories. EFS-PRO is recommended as your primary fuel/hydration drink for these long sessions in extreme conditions. EFS may work for many individuals, however EFS-PRO will work even better because of the special hydration technology and low-osmolality. In extremely long sessions, where additional calories are needed, EFS Liquid Shot is the ideal add-on supplement.
*NOTE: in a single long workout where temperature or pace changes significantly your fuel should also change. If it starts out cold and heats up as the day progresses, make sure to adjust your fuel based on the above recommendations.
**Following every workout you should self-assess 1) Have I used up my glycogen? If so, have a serving of Ultragen 2) How dehydrated am I/do I feel like I need electrolytes? If depleted, consuming a scoop of EFS-PRO mixed in 12-20oz water works great.
Did a 3 hour ride today in very hot conditions in Texas following a one hour swim. Consumed 24 ounces of water every 30 minutes with 120 calories of EFS Pro as my hydration and calories. Felt good the whole ride did not feel depleted or dehydrated. That said, I still lost 6 lbs during the ride (180 base weight) despite taking in 48 ounces per hour. How much water can you drink in an hour. 48 ounces seems to be about my limit. When racing triathlon, any suggestions as to how you carry EFS pro for a half or full Ironman? My half Ironman rides are typically 2:30 – 2:50 so that would indicate 5 packets of EFS Pro. Carrying it an mixing it is not really a good option so it would need to be premixed and concentrated. Has anybody tried this? Any tips would be welcome
Joe,
Its possible some or much of the water weight you are losing is happening in the pool. 48 ounces per hour is a decent amount, though we have had athletes push 60oz per hour. Its really very athlete specific and learning what your hydration limit is will go along way into a successful nutrition plan.
For Ironman a concentrated bottle is an option though you’d want to take water hand offs so you can dilute it properly so its absorbed. Carrying a liquid shot flask is also an option as this gives you 400 calories in a small container. Lastly make sure to take advantage of your special needs. Take a look at our athlete section on the website where you can read Ironman nutrition plans from all of our Pro’s.
Not sure your bike set up, I ride with a shiv s-works where hydration in frame and I can put up to 650ml water which I mix with efs pro. Then I have a single water bottle behind seat with a combination of 100ml water / 2.5 scoops efs pro / 35ml efs shot then i repeat that mix based on my ride time, so let’s say I do 180km bike in 6 hours and consume 650ml liquid per 1h30, I need 3x100ml combination in the bottle, when I come to water points I grab water top my hydration sack and squirt 100 ml combo in .
I have carried powder form in plastic sachets but it’s messy and takes up space for bars etc , hope that helps and apologies for metric I come from South Africa where metric is our measuring system
Ian,
Its no problem making a bottle that is very concentrated and has all the calories and electrolytes you need for the entire ride. You will have to grab additional water to make sure you then dilute the concentration down to the correct level. Many athletes will make sure their 1st bottle is mixed at the correct concentration and the 2nd bottle is highly concentrated. After finishing the 1st bottle, they replace it with on-course water and then alternate between the remaining bottle and water.
Can I mix a concentrated bottle of EFS Pro (like a 3 hour bottle) & just sip some every 30 minutes along with the proper amount of water?
Yes you can do this.
Guilherme Campos triathlete send me this article. Great article! Finally FE is selling um Brazil.
Yes we are very excited to be selling in Brazil.
I am very glad sharing my experience using FE products on my training and racing got you motivated to give them a go down in Brazil Caique! Brazil has a huge and continuously grown endurance/Tri community that will benefit a lot from FE products now available inside the country!
This is a great article and follow up questions. It answered many of the questions I have, regarding long course fueling and training and racing in the heat. I’m trying to come up with a solid plan to use only FE and avoid course nutrition for IM races, for consistency . The concentrated EFS Pro is a great idea – getting water for dilution won’t be a problem. I’m really looking forward to experimenting with these ideas. Thank you!
Really interesting discussion on hydration limits and how idiosyncratic they are by athlete. Is it the same for caloric limits? I’ve read in a few places that the body can only metabolize ~240 calories per hour. If true, that would seem to put a limit on how much EFS-pro (plus liquid shot) one could put back per hour. So, I’m asking what’s the real limit- hydration (sounds like up to 60oz/hour, which would mean up to 500 calories per hour with EFS-pro) or calories? Thanks much.
PS- if you’re going to answer by saying it depends on the athlete, could you also offer some broad guidelines around which to experiment, please?
Doug,
Well put. And yes, it does depend on the athlete. These broad restrictions are based on clinical studies and what they have found. Data returned from all clinical studies typically fall within a bell curve where some athletes absorb considerably more and some less. The average becomes the recommendation with an end result of about 240 calories. Unfortunately these studies also leave many questions unanswered. One has to do with osmolality of the drink/calories being consumed versus just a straight concentration. As osmolality is reduced so is our ability to absorb at higher rates. How much precisely is difficult to know because we are not aware of a clinical study that has researched this specifically. So this leaves us with anecdotal evidence and many, many years of working with athletes and their nutrition program. We have worked with many athletes that can consume upwards of 500 calories per hour with no apparent digestive issues.
More often athletes push calories without paying attention to concentration/osmolality which is why we recommend to first consider total fluid ounces one is willing to consume and then calculate backwards how many calories this will deliver. We recommend 100 calories for each 12oz. In the end its only those calories that are fully and easily absorbed that really offer benefit. Calories that are not absorbed properly leave athletes with gastric distress, burping, diarrhea, bloating. So this can become your measure, however it truly takes longer 4+ hour workouts before gastric symptoms manifest. Start at 240 calories per hour properly mixed. On subsequent workouts keep increasing this by about 40-60 calories until you notice gastric distress during or for a couple hours following your workout. At that point you likely know your personal limit.
Also know that through years of experience, we have found athletes fueling for long distance racing typically try and consume far more calories than they truly need. Its not needed to push a lot of calories for events 8-24 hours. At these distances we spend most of our time at sub-threshold effort which is an effort that burns mostly fat. As opposed to shorter distance racing where athletes would burn more glycogen. Since we only need to replace glycogen calories, and since we are at this sub-threshold pace we burn less glycogen calories per hour than short races. Because of this, its really not necessary to push calories to these high limits. We have found a 150lb athlete to be well fueled and strong consuming 220-250 calories per hour for 12 hour races, when pacing is done properly.
Can’t thank you enough for your very thorough response, Robert. I’ll admit that I’d not paid attention to osmolality until I began using the 1st Endurance suite of nutrition products, which I love. I’m taking away from your response that basing a hydration-caloric intake strategy on hyrdration-driven osmolality is the most wise approach to hone in on what my body really needs.
On a related tangent, have you all done studies on athletes who don’t make their own cortisol and have to take it in orally via corticosteriods (see: Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia)? thanks again-
Doug,
You are welcome. We do not have any experience or knowledge regarding congenial adrenal hyperplasia. It does seem to open up a whole slew of questions as it relates to substrate use and recovery.
several times it’s mentioned the importance of determining ones hydration consumption
/needs/capacity but I don’t see anywhere how one can determine this?
Bill,
Great question. Its really quite easy but also can be too difficult to extrapolate into real-world settings. To determine hydration needs you can simply weigh yourself prior to a workout and also after a workout. Subtract out any fluids you consumed. The difference is your total fluid loss during that workout. The trouble is that this is only appropriate for that exact pace at that exact temperature doing that precise type of exercise. If the following day its 15 degrees cooler or your pace is different then you already changed your fluid needs significantly. Because of this its hard to give an exact formula or recommendation. What you can do is take the knowledge you gain from this article and try to apply it on a daily basis making some adjustments as variables change. Generally this means that if you don’t sweat a lot you don’t need a lot of electrolytes or fluids. IF you do sweat a lot you need a lot of electrolytes and fluids. Calories remain consistent regardless of the ambient temps.