Common mistakes in Short Course Nutrition Strategies
For Long course athletes, nutrition is the 4th discipline, but as you race shorter, the focus is more towards transitions. Nevertheless, as always, nutrition can make or break your event plans. What are the common mistakes that can be easily fixed by short course athletes?
1. Assuming nutrition doesn’t matter
This is a quick one but a critical basis to move forwards on. Nutrition does matter. Either for an event or for training, getting your nutrition right helps improve race results before you even start.
2. Using a similar strategy for all distances
Often an athlete may be reading or adhering to long-distance race nutrition strategies which simply won’t work for a shorter-distance event. The intensity is significantly higher and so the total volume you can take on board will likely be reduced. Furthermore, though you will be burning more, you won’t get away with racing on as full a gut as you could with long-course racing. Digestion takes blood from the muscles and moves it to the gut.
3. Taping a thousand gels to their top tube - just in case.
Clearly, nutrition is essential, we know that, but be realistic. The speed and effort will be higher, so not only will you struggle to digest that much nutrition you will also have less capacity to focus on unwrapping a gel or the like. It’s likely to be fast. In draft legal races, whatever nutrition you take on board needs to be really easy to consume. You will want to have your eyes on the wheel in front for most of it (unless you are a stellar swimmer…!)
4. Race a distance not a time
Short course racing may be shorter in the distance, but your body uses fuel per minute, not per km. Therefore, any nutrition strategy must be focussed on the duration you are racing for. Some people could take the same time over a standard-distance race as others take in a half-IRONMAN. So, ensure that a fuelling strategy lines up with the amount you will burn per hour of racing, not per km and last you all the way to the end.
5. Neglect a strategic approach to loading and breakfast.
With the shorter racing, it’s easy to “wing” breakfast and any pre-loading. Contrariwise, due to the potential difficulty of eating on the move, what you take on before is truly important. With a good loading strategy, athletes are likely to be storing 1.5-2.5 hours-worth of fuel. They can also improve performance with correct sodium and caffeine-loading approach. All this requires some practice as well as confidence. So the days before a short distance race are just as important as the ones before longer distance races.
6. Neglect day-to-day fuelling
Short-course racing rarely means limited training. Of course, the super-long bike rides may be absent from a training plan, but multiple sessions in a day won’t be unusual. Ensuring you improve your daily nutrition: pre, during, and post sessions will undoubtedly ensure that the training effect can be enhanced.
So what are the best options?
Of course, the preface of any nutrition conversation is that every plan is different, personal and needs to be practised before you try it on race day. However, here are some guiding principles:
Train effectively with proper nutrition before and after
Load properly with carbohydrates, salts and caffeine (if you can tolerate caffeine)
Be strategic about your breakfast – what, when and how much.
Recognise that you can tolerate less in a shorter race if your intensity is higher. You will rely on the loading above.
Use the bike as the primary source of any fuelling or hydration. Realistically if you are at the faster end of racing, this will not give you a considerable amount of time to get on board that much, but it should help top up reserves and allow you to push to the end of the race. Less is more.
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