Most of the time, fixing weaknesses isn’t too difficult.
If you’re a slow swimmer, you need to spend more time in the pool, working on your technique.
If you suck at running or riding uphill, then put more hill work into your training.
And if transitions are your achilles heel, well, start actually practising transitions outside of your races.
But there’s one thing isn’t quite so easy to address:
Gut issues.
Ask any seasoned triathlete what their main nemeses are, and chances are, they’ll mention GI problems.
It seems that no matter what you do, what type of diet you follow, and how much you practise eating on the move, gut issues can derail even the best of athletes.
And that can be a big problem.
Because you can be the strongest and fittest you’ve ever been, but if you’re having to stop every 10 minutes to wretch, or just can’t keep food down, well…
You’re not going to be setting any PBs, let’s just put it like that.
But there must be something you can do to help your gut, surely?
Well, good news, there is.
In fact, there are 3 things that should help if you’re prone to ‘tummy troubles’ when racing.
Tip 1: Work Out How Much Water You Need
Hydration is important.
But you can have too much of a good thing.
And being dehydrated or overhydrated can both cause stomac upsets.
To find out how much fluid you need, try weighing yourself before and after a training session.
(Just make sure to take into account any fluids you drink while training.)So for example, if you weigh 75kg and go for an hour run where you drink 0.5 litres, then come back and weigh 74kg, you’ve lost 0.5kg (500ml) of sweat in that hour.
(1kg in body weight, minus the 0.5kg in water you drank.)
Clearly, you’ll sweat more in different conditions. So try this test in the cold and in the heat, and you should have a pretty good idea of roughly how much fluid you need to adequately hydrate.
Tip 2: No New Foods on Race Day
You wouldn’t wear brand new shoes, a brand new tri-suit, or ride a brand new bike on race day.
So why do the same with your food?
If you want to try a new food, gel, or nutrition powder, try it at least once in training, to make sure you tolerate it well before adding it to your game day nutrition plan.
Tip 3: Timing is Everything
Unless you’ve got a cast iron stomach, you probably don’t want to be taking in big servings of food during a race.
Little and often is your best bet.
That might mean taking on single gels or a handful of sweets, or it could even be things like small sandwiches, individual servings of maltloaf, or single cookies or biscuits.
The worst thing you can do is let yourself get hungry.
Because when you’re hungry, you’re more likely to overcompensate with big servings.
Then, when your gut has to work harder to digest food, not only do you end up feeling sick, but blood gets diverted away from the heart, lungs and other muscles, and pumped to the stomach instead.
All that leads to nausea, and decreased performance, where the blood isn’t going to where it’s really needed, and your muscles don’t get as much oxygen.
So there you have it - 3 simple tips to fix your gut issues.
Gut issues might still crop up. That’s just the way it goes.
But at the very least you want to be as prepared as possible, to give yourself the best chances of racing well.
Team Brownlee Fitness
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