I contacted Tom Irving who was instrumental in helping me sort out the nutrition for the 1,000 length swim with the EZ Fuel products. I contacted him again yesterday and today and asked for advice in regards to nutrition for the Coast 2 Coast 2 Coast challenge.

Part of my email to Tom:

In terms of pace, we’re going to look to have a decent pace whilst looking after ourselves for the next day. For the 1,000 length swim my pace was about 70% and I needed the maximum 100g of carbohydrates per hour. Should I plan 100g per hour for the 8 days (78 hours)? If I plan the nutrition in this way and add 2 hours per day as slack then that’s 84 hours to plan for. I’m going into it where that I will just be taking on liquid during the day with a good breakfast in the morning and a good lunch in the evening at each B&B stop.

Should I plan for 84 hours meaning @ 100g per hour = 8.4kg total. We will be travelling extremely light with Camelbaks holding 1.5L water so I’ll be carrying the powder with me – 2.2kg on bike, 6.2kg running (there is a car meeting us at Robin Hoods Bay).

I’ve just ordered 3 x 3kg EZ Fuel Endurance and 1 x 3kg EZ Fuel Recovery.

I’ve also got energy gels which I find really useful, especially for the swimming where I took them every hour – the energy bars I’m now starting to find really sickly and hard to swallow so I tend to avoid these at present.

I’ve got some XL Nurtition Protein bars which are quite nice so I can also mix these up.

Because my glycogen stores will be depleted after each day, when I arrive at the B&B each night would you recommend loading up on carbs each night such as pasta etc even if I’ve been hammering the carbs/protein powder all day?

Part of Tom’s reply:

Keeping carbs and glycogen stores topped up will be critical in completing this stage of your fund raising, further more I think the Recovery shake will be even more important with the distance and relative pounding associated with running. You may even wish to include a protein bar for some additional sustenance.

I am assuming there will be regular rest periods during the cycle, if you rest every hour or two I would suggest having some Recovery then so as to keep the protein topped up i.e. Endurance during/alongside the gels, and the Recovery every 1-2 hours of moderate intensity cycling (maybe even sooner if cycling is more intense).

I agree, bars can become monotonous, but I was actually going to suggest using an out and out protein bar rather than energy bar, so XL Nutrition Xtra Protein bars are ideal Paul.

Re: the carb loading each evening…The glucose you’re consuming during the race is literally keeping things topped up, you will need to carb load that evening maybe with a wholegrain or white pasta/rice or better still, sweet potato. This will breakdown and be stored as glycogen over night ready for the ride ahead. Ensure a lean protein source with that too such as chicken, beef or fish (for example). Maybe even consider a protein bar for dessert…for the distance you’re cycling, you’ll need it!

All the best and thanks for the kind words on twitter haha! I think it is you that is the God sir with the work you are doing for the charity!

Tom

Tom was referring to the conversation we were having on Twitter which gave me quite a few new followers:

Glad to know I have experts in this field to support me 🙂