Gamboteca

I found out at the weekend that my favourite restaurant is closing. Juan, the owner, is retiring and with him goes the restaurant. My only hope is that Antonio, his long serving second in command, will be able to come up with something that is even just close, in the new restaurant he is opening round the corner.

As its name indicates ("Gamboteca"), it's all about the prawns... Of course there are other things on the menu, but the typical thing to order is a starter of grilled prawns and prawns al ajillo (deep fried in oil with garlic and chilli) and then to have slices of tenderloin which you cook yourself on a sizzling hot plate. Very simple but very delicious... The key is in the freshness of the ingredients which, as they do an almost wholesale trade in prawns and beef, you can be sure that what you are eating has not been near a freezer.

This is something I often ask my English friends: you see two restaurants, side by side, one has a long, elaborate menu and the other has only three or four items. Which do you choose? Most of my friends go for the one with more variety. But if you choose prawns from that menu, say, then how likely is it that those prawns have had to be frozen? How can they possibly anticipate that you are going to choose prawns that day, out of all the things on the menu? It's either that, or throw the unordered prawns out every night, which makes them very expensive. Which brings me to one of my gripes about food in the UK: prawns are considered to be expensive for this reason - but the thing that gets me is that they are thought of as a kind of "elite food" like caviar and so are just simply expensive whether or not they are fresh. Far better, in my opinion, to go to a restaurant that does a few things and does them well. In fact, I think the whole idea of ordering is bizarre: much better to just let the chef decide, as would be the case if you went to dinner at a friend's house. When I order in a restaurant, I think about how they are able to offer the food on the menu - are we far from the sea? Do enough people order for them to cover their costs? Are those fruits in season? Are they using sauces to hide the freshness of the food?

Unfortunately, the whole organic food movement has had a counterproductive consequence in that, in order to obtain organic food, it may be necessary to have it shipped from far away. Having said that, things are getting better. I've noticed in my recent trips back to London that there is a trend towards locally produced food, in season. On the other hand, probably the best (and most expensive) restaurant that I have been to in New York (Milos) has to go to the lengths of writing an essay in the menu to explain that, just because the food is simply prepared, it doesn't mean it isn't worth the shedload of dollars you are dropping on it. At the end of the day, food gets better as people's understanding of it gets better. It's a cultural thing.

There are so many good places to eat in Spain but Gamboteca will be missed. Not only is the food so good, but the service is how it should be. Only the second time we went, Juan recognized us and welcomed us back. Considering he's been working there for 20 years, that's pretty impressive, not just as a feat of memory but because he cares. Being the owner, he could quite easily leave the mundane task of waiting the tables to someone else. There is a tendency to hold professionals (doctors, architects - probably not bankers any more) in higher esteem than waiters, taxi drivers or supermarket attendants. For me it is not so much a case of what someone does but whether he or she has pride in what they do. A number of years ago, shortly after having moved to Spain, I went to the supermarket to buy some cheese. I explained to the man on the cheese counter that I wanted it to make a fondue. He spent about twenty minutes adding a dash of cheese here, a sprinkling there, sifting the concoction, smelling it - like it was a work of art. I watched, transfixed by the spectacle of someone who so clearly enjoyed and took pride in his work. If you stop and think about it, it is actually something quite rare. They say we should follow our passions but most of us stumble somewhere along the way and make do with what we have. I admire those people, like Juan, who love what they do and transmit that to you by doing it.

Marathon plan

Less than a week to go... All that's left is

Monday: Rest.
Tuesday: Lactate test at Marathon pace.
Wednesday: 40 minute easy run
Thursday: 30 minute easy run. Massage. Start carboloading (850g of carbohydrates a day). Cut toenails!
Friday: Rest. Carboload.
Saturday: 20 minute easy run. Carboload.
Sunday: Marathon.

For the race itself, I have printed of this little cheat-sheet to stick on my watch:

In other words, I'll keep my pulse below 164 for the first half and then allow my pulse to drift up to 173 by the end. To check whether I am on pace for the magic sub 3 hours time, I've worked out the times I need to pass each 5km marker. I anticipate having to run the first half at a split of 4:13 per kilometer, allowing me to slow down to a 4:18 split for the second half. I think it is too much to hope for a "negative split" (second half faster than first half) at this kind of pace. This time I am going to go by the official markers and not what the Garmin says. After all, a Marathon aint over until you cross the finish line, even if your GPS reckons you've already covered the 42.2km.

Every 5 kilometers I'll take a salt tablet. I'll carry with me in my Fuel Belt two 8oz flasks full of High5 Isogel (which can be taken without water but I'll drink water at every station). I can carry about 9 of them which works out at a rate of 3 every hour, or about 264 calories per hour. Together with the 3 day carboloading, I hope to avoid hitting the dreaded wall like I managed to do last year.

And that's more or less it. I'll think about running technique as much as I can, focusing on good rhythm, good cadence, engaging the core, not overstriding etc. In particular, my running cues will be:

- to extend the hips (or "punching it forwards" as I call it)
- to get my legs up under me ("sitting down on the job")
- to lean from my ankles ("run tall")
- to pick up the ground quickly ("sharp catch") 

I'll also make sure I am in a good pack, protected from the wind. I'll let myself become hypnotized by the side to side bobbing of the head of the runner in front of me. I will not be scared of the Marathon but I will respect it.

May contain nuts...

May contain traces of egg, fish, lactose, fructose, mustard, soy, peanuts, celery and sesame

Salads are good for you, right? This is the salad that I have virtually every time I go to the gym. As it comes in a packet I am naturally wary of its contents but, short of bringing a packed lunch (which isn't going to happen), this is the price I pay for spending my lunch hour running when I should be eating freshly prepared food. The other day my salad was nowhere to be seen because, apparently, someone had suffered a toxic shock from something that it contained but that was not listed on the label. The salad has now come back with a new, updated label which now states that it "may contain traces of egg, fish, lactose, fructose, mustard, soy, peanuts, celery and sesame". I think that pretty much covers their arses. I mean, why would a chicken pasta salad contain traces of fish for God's sake? Unfortunately, the (justified) complaint of the poor guy who suffered an allergic reaction has just lead to it not only being unsuitable for him to eat (which we already knew) but also for anyone else with any imaginable food allergy or intolerance. I think the bottom line is that salads are good for you if you mix them yourselves but, when they come in a packet, they are the equivalent of an urban concrete jungle: a perfect place to commit all kinds of food crime.

I'm quite aware of these issues because my youngest son is currently on a six food exclusion diet: no wheat, no soy, no egg, no milk, no nuts and no fish (nor any derivatives of the aforementioned). Oh, and we've added potatoes to that list so that's a seven food exclusion diet. So he certainly wouldn't be able to eat this salad on at least 6 counts (there is no requirement to state that it may contain traces of potato - if there were, I'm sure they would have included it). The reason we are putting the poor little blighter through this dietry hell is because he has reflux. The fact his food comes back up into his mouth is bad enough but it has been aggravating his asthma and, what is far worse, he has not been putting on any weight and lately he has been quite lethargic, even though he eats insatiably. I hadn't previously appreciated the difference between a food allergy and a food intolerance: an allergy is when your anti-bodies attack a foreign body that they shouldn't whereas an intolerance could be due to lacking a particular enzyme needed to be able to digest a certain protein or break down a type of sugar. The skin patch test didn't show up any allergy but an endoscope did find that he has a fairly rare condition called Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EoE). The good news is that he has started to put on weight, has more energy and is not regurgitating his food. He even seems to be eating less - it's as if he wasn't able to get the nutrients he needed out of his food before. Every cloud has a silver lining and he is happy that he can at least eat tomatoes, which we previously didn't let him eat when we thought that he had Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD). Apart from eating fresh fruit, meat, vegetables and rice, luckily there are lot's of (very expensive) food substitutes available which don't contain any of the banned list. I can't help feeling that this is all just a product of our heavily processed food culture and that it is the food industry that stands to gain from selling specialized foods for people with food allergies or intolerances when it is, most likely, of their doing in the first place. The funny thing is that his diet seems very similar to the Paleo diet, a diet based on how the Paleolithic Man ate - a period which determined to a great extent how our organism has evolved - and one followed by many triathletes.

Mean green lean machine

Since I boasted on my blog that I was aiming to get down to 82 kilos for the Marathon, my weight has stagnated somewhat around the 85-86 kilo mark. I tried knocking off an extra 100 calories a day but eventually I gave up counting calories altogether. I think that it was probably a more useful exercise when I was having to cope with the kind of training volume I was undertaking for the Ironman because, more often than not, it was a question of making sure I was eating enough, often enough. Coupled with the fact that the latest firmware update on the Garmin 310XT now awards me around about 25% more calories per run, I decided instead to go by gut feeling (sorry). On the days when I have no training I have to consciously hold back and the rest of the time I eat according to hunger. Simple. People have been doing it for millions of years before the iPhone was invented.

(By the way, I was surprised that the other runners on my training camp in Morocco were so careful about what they eat that they made me feel like a glutton. I'd assumed that they weighed around 60 kilos because of their frame, their metabolism and the amount of training they did.)

But, being an obsessive sort of person, I need to have feedback to know that I am going in the right direction as well as to encourage me. The problem with weighing myself is that, although bathroom scales are now very accurate, my weight fluctuates tremendously during the day and during the week due to how hydrated I am at any particular moment. The said bathroom scales can also measure body fat by impedance: by shooting a mild current through your feet it can make a guess at your body composition based on how much resistance you offer. This seems to be even more sensitive to how hydrated you are. The results are so random that it is almost impossible to see a trend. Short of having my body fat measured professionally in a "bod pod" or by submerging me in a bath of water, the next best thing is to use a pair of calipers. I picked up some from Amazon for about 10 euros. They measure body fat in the most crude and obvious way, by measuring the width of your skin folds.

There are several formulas to estimate your body fat, all based on taking skin fold measurements from several key points around the body. A commonly used one is the Jackson Pollock formula. More information and a calculator are available on this website.

Eating in America

I picked up an interesting book in San Francisco, called "In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan. Quite the opposite of most books in its genre, it gives away the punchline in the first paragraph ("Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much") as opposed to the usual style of obliging the reader to wade through a whole book to make him feel as though he is getting his money's worth. The first part book is a fascinating history of how we ended up with the so-called "Western diet" and helps make sense of the seemingly schizophrenic advice received from bodies such as the FDA ("Eat margarine, it's better for you than butter". "Don't eat margarine, it's bad for you."). The alternative is to be completely skeptical and ignore any official recommendations. Actually, this is not far from the position of the author, although a little knowledge is a dangerous thing and this book definitely helps fill in the gaps.

I found it very hard to eat well in America. Half of the time we were in big cities relying on restaurant food with finickity menus and elaborate sauces to cover up a multitude of culinary sins. The rest of the time we were camping and so we got a fairly good idea of the American Supermarket. What surprised me was the absolute lack of fresh produce, especially meat and fish. These had already been chopped up, sanitized, smothered in barbecue sauce and wrapped up in plastic as if it were somehow offensive to eat something that resembled a once living creature. Perhaps everyone caught their own fish and hunted their own meat. I was also surprised by the number of "super drinks" - bottles of flavoured water with added vitamins, anti-oxidants, supposedly all the things that had been taken out of the food - compared to water, say. It's no wonder that there is a `problem with obesity: the number of calories in these drinks that you have to pack in makes them the nutritional equivalent of a salad heaped with sugar.

The book calls this phenomena "nutritionalism" - the tendency born of science to reduce every food to its constituent parts - if only we knew the complete list and there were no interactions between the constituents. In processing food to increase its shelf life, many nutrients are lost, some of which are added back by the manufacturers, others of which can be taken as supplements but we cannot be sure that we are not missing something. This is applied all the way down the food chain to the soil used to grow the plants which the animals which we end up eating feed off. The result is more calorifically dense food with less nutrients. It may be that our organism craves for certain nutrients and forces us to take in more calories than we need as a result. How else can you explain the obese and yet malnutritioned children (with rickets!) admitted to a clinic in Oakland, mentioned in the book?

It is actually very difficult to find "real" food - even so-called organic food sold in supermarkets may be "old" food that has had to travel from afar and has therefore undergone some degree of processing. You have to go out of your way to find it, that is for sure, but you also need to know what you are looking for and the book gives some very practical advice on this issue such as "don't buy any food your Grandma wouldn't recognize as such" and "avoid any food that makes health claims". One bit of advice he gives I think is a bit silly, though. He says that there is no evidence to support the claims that supplementation helps in any way although people who take supplements tend to be more healthy, perhaps because they spend more time thinking about their health. He proposes, therefore, that you should not take supplements but that you should behave like someone who does - whatever that means. Firstly, the claim he makes about food not being a "zero sum game" - that is to say, food can be more than the sum of its parts - could be applied to supplementation. In the same way that we may be missing something by applying reductionist science to deconstructing food, perhaps taking certain combinations of supplements is more effective than taking one in isolation, as would be the hypothesis of any scientific test. What may in fact be the case is that people taking supplements are in fact much more physically active on the whole. The only valid reason I have heard for taking supplements as opposed to looking to food to get all the necessary nutrients is that training for something like an Ironman is an "unnatural" stress on the body and may need unnatural supplementation to repair the damage and bolster the immune system.

None of this is terribly surprising but it is interesting to take a step back and see the problem with a bit of perspective. Even some of the more health conscious amongst us can fall in to the trap of the latest fad. It is not to say that food science has nothing to tell us but just that we should take it with a pinch of salt because, as yet, we do not know the full picture.

Sports nutrition part III

Electrolytes and water

Osmosis is the movement of water from an area with lower solute concentration to an area with higher solute concentration; body fluids are hypotonic, isotonic or hypertonic if they have concentrations that are respectively less, the same as or higher than the solutes in the cells.

Electrolytes largely determine concentration: these are electrically charged cations such as sodium, potassium magnesium and calcium and anions such as chloride, phosphate, bicarbonate and protein.

Water in the body is either in the intracellular fluid (ICF) which accounts for about 65% of the total, or in the extracellular fluid (ECF). All cells are freely permeable to water but require either fluid (hydrostatic) pressure or osmotic pressure for movement to take place. The cardiovascular system provides the hydrostatic pressure but osmosis is only possible if solutes are present in the water.

The composition of plasma and interstitial fluid (found between the cells) is primarily made up of sodium cations and chloride and bicarbonate anions. The intracellular fluid (in the skeletal muscle) however, is made up of mostly potassium cations and phosphate and protein anions. Due to these differences in concentration, there is constant pressure for sodium to leak into the cells an for potassium to leak out; the role of the "sodium potassium pumps" is the cell membranes is to maintain these concentrations. If the concentration of sodium increases in the extracellular fluid (by heavy sweating, for example) water would move by osmosis from the cells and into the ECF in order to dilute the ECF fluid.

Increased water vapour in the air (humidity) reduces the ability of sweating to lose heat by evaporation, even if it is cold. In dry, cold environments, more fluid is lost by ventilation. Trained athletes start sweating sooner and have a higher sweat rate than sedentary individuals.

The immediate effect of sweating is an increase in the concentration of sodium; it is the consumption of hypotonic drinks such as water that dilutes the sodium concentration leading, in extreme cases, to the potentially fatal condition of hyponatremia. An increase in sodium will result in an increase in ECF (by osmosis).

In endurance events of 2 hours or longer, it is recommended to take in sodium. The sodium concentration of sweat is between 230 and 1310mg/l. The recommended amount to ingest is 1g/h for heavy or "salty" sweaters, in a concentration of between 0.5 and 0.7g/l. The Tolerable Upper Intake Level (TUIL) of sodium is 2,300mg/d in an effort to reduce blood pressure but these recommendations do not apply to athletes; some athletes consume more than 5,000mg of sodium a day and excess sodium is excreted in the urine.

Potassium supplementation is not recommended because o the risk of hyperkalemia (occasionally seen in bodybuilders); rather one should obtain potassium from fruit and vegetables.

The maximal rate for gastric emptying is approximately 1-1.5l/h which may be less than the sweat rate and is even slower at exercise intensities of 70% VO2 max or more.

There is no hard evidence to suggest cramps (other than all-body heat cramps) are influenced by dehydration or electrolyte imbalance, as is commonly believed. The current thinking is simply that they are caused by muscle fatigue and corresponding "malfunctioning" of the firing mechanisms.

It is possible to hyper- (over) hydrate by taking glycerol, for example, but no corresponding performance improvement has been scientifically established and it's use is not recommended, except under strict guidance of a qualified professional. A typical strategy would be to consume 1-1.2g/kg of glycerol with 25-35ml/kg of water. This could lead to fluid retention of approximately 500ml more than fluid overload alone. There is a risk of gastrointestinal distress (a polite way of saying "the runs"), however. (I tried this about 4 years ago and didn't notice any effect, positive or negative. The fact that I could only source glycerol by asking for glaucoma medicine made me a bit reluctant to repeat the experiment.)

Sports nutrition part II

Macronutrients

Proteins

The body is constantly recycling proteins - breaking them down (catabolizing) and synthesizing them (anabolizing). About 20% of the Resting Enegy Expenditure is required for this process. Catabolism releases nitrogen and anabolism requires nitrogen so nitrogen balance is achieved when these processes are in equilibrium.

Proteins are made up of 20 different building blocks, called amino acids, all of which except the indispensable (formerly, essential) amino acids can be synthesized by the liver. Proteins are used for many different things other than building tissue - for example, transportation, signaling (hormones), enzymes (catalysts), the immune system and acid balance.

Catabolism (also a necessary step before proteins can be metabolized) produces ammonia which is toxic to the body and secreted in urine. For this reason, it is thought that more than 2.5g/kg/d of protein intake could be harmful. Large amounts can also result in dehydration.

One to two hours after training is the best time to ingest protein (in the anabolic window) - 10-20g of high quality protein is recommended. According to Mettler & Meyer 2010, the recommended daily amount of protein for athletes is 1.5g/kg/d for 0 hours training, 1.6g/kg/d for 1 hour, 1.7g/kg/d for 2 hours and 1.8g/kg/d for 3 or more hours training.

Carbohydrates

In the same paper, based on the goal of replenishing glycogen stores after exercise, the recommended daily intake of carbohydrates for athletes is 3.5g/kg/d for 0 hours training, 4.5g/kg/d for 1 hours, 6.2g/kg/d for 2 hours, 7.5g/kg/d for 3 hours and 8.5g/kg/d for 4 hours training. The highest rates of muscle glycogen synthesis were seen if 1.5g/kg were consumed in the first hour after exercise. Some studies show that adding protein may increase this yet further.

There is a limit on the absorption rate of carbohydrates and this is why sports drinks have a concentration of 6-8%. It's estimated that 60g can be absorbed per hour but that it is possible to increase this to about 90g per hour by mixing glucose, fructose and sucrose, which have different transport mechanisms. However, indigested fructose ferments in the digestive tract, leading to bloating and gases.

If carbohydrates are consumed at least 1-2 hours before exercise, or as little as 15 minutes before, high GI (Glycemic Index) carbs have not been demonstrated to have a detrimental effect (e.g., blood sugar rebound) in all but a minority of cases. After exercise it is more effective to consume high GI carbs to restore glycogen while insulin favours storage.

Carbohydrate loading can result in almost a doubling of stored glycogen but does not require a severe depletion phase (Sherman 1981).

Fats

Ingestion of fats does not necessarily lead to storage of fat; excess calorie intake, however, does. Ironically, many "fat free" product have more calories from sugar!

Fats are needed by the body, for example, to digest certain vitamins (A, D, E & F). Chronic fat restriction can impact testosterone levels and HDL (which helps transport cholesterol from the arteries).

Trans fatty acids increase the risk of heart disease. The Recommended Daily Intake (RDI) is less than 2g but any amount less than 0.5g may be quoted as 0g on the label; look instead for hydrogenated oils on the ingredients.

The essential fatty acids omega 6 and omega 3 have opposite inflammatory effects but compete for the same enzymes. The recommended ratio for omega 6 to 3 is less than 4:1 but is more like 15:1 in the typical American diet. Omega 9 (found in olive oil) cab reduce the risk of heart disease.

Indigested fat in the stomach delays gastric emptying so it is best to restrict fat in pre-competition meals. It takes about 3-6 hours for fat to enter the bloodstream after consumption.

When exercising, it takes about 10-20 minutes to reach the maximum fat oxidation rate. Even very lean individuals have enough fat to run for 100 hours. Fat oxidation is inhibited when insulin is high (after meals) or when lactate levels in the blood are high but is encouraged 3-4 hours after eating.

A famous study was conducted by Phinney et al (1983) in which athletes followed an extremely high fat diet (85%) for four weeks. Although their rate of fat oxidation actually doubled, the time to exhaustion in a sub-maximal test was not significantly different. The price for conserving carbohydrate stores appears to be the intensity at which exercise can be performed.

Supplements

No evidence for the effectiveness of supplementation with either glutamine or glucosuamine.

Creatine has been shown to be effective for weight lifters but most non-vegetarians ingest enough creative in their diets.

Caffeine has not been demonstrate to have either an impact on electrolyte imbalance or to cause dehydration but it can delay the sensation of fatigue. The optimal dose is considered to be 2-3g/kg.

Supplementation with BCAA (Branched Chain Amino Acids) shows promise for immune system support and helps reduce post exercise fatigue.

Sports nutrition part I

I decided it was about time I dug deeper into the subject of sports nutrition because it was clear to me that my understanding was based on the watered down and often incorrect versions available to the layman. Sometimes there is no alternative but to go to the source if you want to avoid the misinformation that is spread like rumology.

It's often an iterative process because you initially have no idea where to find the source but in reading "Nutrition for Sport and Exercise" by Dunford and Doyle, I think I have got quite close to finding it. One thing I very much like about the book is that, not only do they cite their references, but for the most important studies they mention, they also give a brief overview of the paper in question.

Anyway, for my own benefit as well as hopefully yours, I thought I would summarize the points that I found most interesting in the context of an Ironman / Marathon.

Energy systems

ATP is the currency of energy in the body and is produced by the three metabolic pathways:

1) Creatine Phosphate. A very fast acting system but of short duration (10 seconds) and slow to replenish (by oxidation). This explains why you see sprinters gasping for air after running.

2) Aerobic glycosis. As its name suggests, this system does not require oxygen although the lactic acid that is produced as a by-product is subsequently available for oxydation. Perhaps this explains the effectiveness of series training, with the rest in between allowing oxidation (and therefore removal) of the lactic acid. After a few minutes acidosis reduces the ability of the enzymes to catalyze the metabolic reaction and fatigue sets in. The source of fuel is carbohydrate - either directly in the form of glucose or as glycogen (the form in which glucose is stored in the muscles and the liver). Glycogen yields 3 ATPs while glucose only 2. This system is the preferred energy source for fast twitch muscle fibers. The brain relies on glucose as its energy source (except in the case of starvation or severe carbohydrate restriction).

3) Carbohydrates can also be metabolized by oxidative phosphorylation, the preferred energy system for slow twitch muscle fibers. Fats (stored as tryglycerides in adipose tissues) and proteins (which are catabolized directly) can also by oxidized. Alcohol - the 4th macronutrient - cannot be stored and therefore must be oxidized directly. Carbohydrates and proteins yield 4.2 kcal per gram, alcohol 7.0 kcal per gram and fats at 9.4 kcal per gram are the most energetically dense, although they require more oxygen to metabolize. Proteins are the least favoured source of energy (because they have many other important uses) but typically make up 3-5% of the energy generated. Oxidation produces many more ATPs than the other metabolic pathways (for example, glucose produces 36 and glycogen 37) but it is a much slower process than glycosis, requiring 124 chemical reactions.

The proportion of fat / carbohydrates being oxidized may be calculated by measuring the Respiratory Exchange Ratio (RER) or the ratio between oxygen consumed and carbon dioxide exhaled. The point at which the highest proportion of calories derived from fat is obtained is quite different from the point at which the maximum (absolute) number of calories from fat oxidation is achieved.

It is possible to accurately estimate the number of calories being burnt using the RER and the VO2 (the amount of oxygen consumed). The more slow twitch muscle fibers an athlete has, the higher his potential VO2max or maximum oxygen uptake. Excess calories from food (over and above the Resting Energy Expenditure (REE) and energy used in exercise) are stored as fat.

Solomillo, sólo mio!

If you are a vegetarian then avert your eyes NOW!

One of the little treats I have been allowing myself during my Ironman training is to eat obscene amounts of red meat. Of course there are other ways of getting protein but nothing quite so delicious in my book. Triathlon is an expensive business but people often ignore the cost of food. On many days I burn as many calories in exercise as I normally burn just being alive; on these days I eat roughly twice what I eat on a normal day. Just do the sums... This beauty below cost about 20 euros for 450g - OK, it is an especially good cut from an especially "pijo" supermarket - and provides about 900 calories (enough to cycle at an easy pace for about two hours). I'll eat this in one sitting, grilling it lightly on both sides with a bit of coarse sea salt as seasoning. I've been getting through 4 or 5 of these a week (admittedly not all of them the same quality or price). That's a 100 euros a week right there!

Nutrition plan for Lisbon

I'm surprised by how little information there is on what athletes actually take during an Ironman event. I suppose it is for many different reasons including: it being a competitive advantage to keep it secret; not being able to remember or simply that it varies so much from one person to another that no-one considers it useful information. Being a bit of a nerd, I made a spreadsheet some time ago to try to work out the best nutrition plan. The goal is to maximize the number of calories ingested while respecting certain limitations - namely

a) the number of carbohydrates that can be ingested per hour without causing gastrointestinal stress (estimate: 1.1g per kilo if you are a man, 1g per kilo if you are a woman).

b) the concentration of carbohydrates should be around 6-8% to be isotonic (best absorption rate). If it is more concentrated, its absorption is slowed down.

c) the amount of water and electrolytes (sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium) lost by sweating should be replaced. This depends on your sweat rate and the typical electrolyte content of your sweat (which can vary tremendously from individual to individual and even from zone to zone).

d) ideally you should consume protein in a ratio of 1g of protein for every 4g of carbohydrates.

On the run it is pretty much impossible to meet these requirements but you can at least get close. The bike is what I call "meals on wheels" and gives you a chance to recover from the swim and at least start the Marathon as close as possible to on a full tank.

Here is my plan - of course I will have to make some adaptions according to the sports drinks they give out during the race but I hope I will be able to stick to it better than last year when I just went freestyle and started binging on Coca-Cola because I was suffering so.

Amazingly (and coincidentally), the net calorie balance at the end of all the bike leg is 0 (in theory)!

On the run things like cereal bars are not easily digestible

Carboloading before the event

I base this on the guide from High5, my preferred supplier of gels.

According to High5, during the 3 days before the competition you should try to consume 10g of carbohydrates per kilo of body mass. In my case, that means 850g of carbs a day - nearly a kilo! It is actually quite a feat - this isn't just a question of having a few big bowls of spaghetti. The only way to do it is to stuff your face with sickly gels and energy drinks all day long. To give you some idea, in a typical day I may consume about 300-450g of carbs, depending on how much exercise I had done that day; and that means packing in some 15-20 gels on top a day. A little trick the High5 guys propose is to do a short 10 minute warm up half an hour after taking the first dose in the morning, and then to do a 3 minute sprint on the bike to fool the body into storing more carbs. A tip from me is not to carboload with the same flavour gels you use in competition because you will likely be sick to death of them before you even start.

On the day itself they recommend taking in 150 grammes of carbohydrates for breakfast. I'll have my normal breakfast and a gel / energy bar + energy drink. Just before the swim start, I'll take a last gel and energy drink.

I don't know whether it was due to carboloading, having a good aerobic base or simply not going off too hard, but I did not hit a wall of any kind in the Marathon I ran back in November. So I will follow the same recipe I used for the Half Ironman as a kind of dress rehearsal for the Full Ironman. I'll also take a couple of salt tablets the night before the event and one for breakfast.

Recovery after the event

I used to think that recovery was for wimps. Who cares what happens after the race? Of course, this time it really does matter because, if I get wrecked doing the Half Ironman, it will set my training back for the Full Ironman. In any case, there is nothing "cool" about having to walk down stairs backwards. Basically, it's important to take in carbs and protein (like the High5 4:1 Energy drink) as soon as you can. This means that you have to think about it before the race otherwise, by the time you get back to the hotel, it's already too late.

The grand total

All that means something like 50 gels / sports drinks, 15 salt tablets, 3 cereal bars and a banana for a Half Ironman and 65 gels / sports drinks, 30 salt tablets, 5 cereal bars and a couple of bananas for a Full!

Quinoa

Today I finally got around to translating quinoa into Spanish: it's "quinoa". It's something I've only heard of from reading Triathlon magazines but, today, I thought I'd actually try it out. What a discovery! I've been trying to cut down on refined carbohydrates like bread, pasta and rice and it is actually quite hard to do. They are so convenient. Brown rice takes forever to cook and I don't have even half of forever to spare. Quinoa looks a bit like couscous, takes a bit longer to cook (10-15 minutes), is absolutely delicious and is stuffed chockablock with proteins (according to the label, 100g of quinoa contains no less than 12.5g of protein!). So I think I have found the solution to what to complement my sirloin and tuna steaks with.

Bars

(DISCLAIMER: I buy these bars with my own good money and I have no incentive other than to support these companies so I can keep on buying them.)

If you've been following this blog you'll have read about what supplements I am taking on a daily basis as well as what I take immediately prior to a competition and during. I've also talked about calorie counting and the kind of foods I try to eat / avoid. But I haven't said a great deal about what I eat and drink during my training sessions.

I try to do all of the early morning workouts (bar the long ride on a Sunday) on an empty stomach. Even though I wake up slightly hungry, just like anyone else, the fact is that the glycogen stores in the muscles have had some time to replenish during the night. I completely avoid all so-called "sports drinks" and energy gels except in competition. Other than water, the only refueling I allow for is any training session that lasts over 2 hours and in that case, I reach for

Mule bars

There are three things that set the Mule bars aside from the competition in my opinion. Firstly, they are made with "natural" ingredients (of course anything can be called "natural" - I mean, unprocessed and therefore high in nutritional value). Secondly, they are calorifically quite dense, packing about 350kcal per bar. And thirdly, they are absolutely delicious. It takes some self control not to eat them outside the strict training window (when it is better to eat slower release, low glycemic index foods) but, when I am starting to get hungry on the bike, I notice an almost alcoholic warmth as the ingredients start to simmer in my stomach. So far my favourite flavours are Apple Strüdel and Licourice Allsports. I will be using these in the Ironman to complement the sickly gels that I will be flushing down.

PhD Diet Whey Bars

My God, these are delicious. So far I have tried the chocolate cookie and the chocolate orange flavours - what's great about them is the slightly chewy texture. The best thing is that they give the highest ratio of protein per calorie that I have seen in a bar (25g grams for 181kcal). The protein powders are much more effective in this respect but I just can't get into the practice of mixing them with milk (even though I have a mini fridge at work) and cleaning the beaker afterwards. This second point is particularly important because whey protein starts smelling (literally) of rotten eggs by the next day. I'm not sure that these bars are the most natural, holistic or even healthy way to boost your protein but when they taste this good I just don't want to know.

Pixie dust

I'm really quite skeptical about these magic powders that I'm "supposed" to take, especially after what I have been reading lately. It is so difficult to isolate the effects of a particular nutrient and it seems to me more important to get your overall diet right and then, and only then, think about taking supplements if you are feeling low on energy or a blood test shows up a particular imbalance. It is true that the training I am doing is not exactly "natural" and so it may well be the case that I am lacking in some nutrients, vitamins or minerals and it may also be the case that it is impracticable to get those nutrients, vitamins or minerals through eating whole foods - perhaps you would have to eat inordinate amounts of oysters for example, and this would provoke other imbalances. The bottom line is that my coach said that it would be a great shame if I got ill during my training, or especially near the event itself, and that I should consider taking supplements to help prevent this from happening. I know everyone else he trains is taking a similar cocktail, so now superstition or the fear of hearing "I told you so" is twisting my arm to do the same.

I have been taking omega 3 capsules and, in particular, cod liver oil (tasty burps, yeurghh!!) which is also high in vitamin D. Vitamin D is a peculiar vitamin in that we actually produce it in our bodies as a reaction to exposure to sunlight. There seems to be some controversy over the RDA (Recommended Daily Amount) with some researchers suggesting that we should be getting considerably more. Of course, you have to be careful not to burn but the irony is that it seems to be the very same people who spend an unusual amount of time in the sun who have vitamin D deficit; this is because they wear sun block. Now I'm not advocating that we should throw away the sun creams and welcome skin cancer into our bodies but  perhaps judicious and measured sun exposure is what is called for. Vitamin D apparently helps boost athletic performance and particularly fat burning activities.

Every so often I have a protein shake, typically made from whey protein and taken with milk. Its actually quite a nice drink but I'm not yet taking this every day.

I had hoped to get all the amino acids from eating more fruit and veg. The amino acids are very important because they act as anti oxidants, that is to say, they bind with the free radical oxygen atoms that are produced by literally burning foods and limit the damage they could otherwise cause to healthy cells. I think of the anti oxidants as a kind of sprinkler system. As there are many different types of amino acids, each with their own functions in the body, it is important to have a varied diet. The Essential Amino Acids (EAA) are the ones that our body cannot manufacture or synthesize but this does not mean that the other amino acids are not "essential" to life. A good guideline is to try to eat fruits and vegetables of many different colours because it is the amino acids that are responsible for the colour so this helps ensure we get all the amino acids we need. Now the superstition has kicked in, I've decided to take some supplements for amino acids (essential and BCAA, Branched Chain Amino Acids) just in case. Its probably going to bugger up some kind of delicate natural balance but while I am following a particular school of training I think I should also follow that same school of nutrition. Maffetone would doubtless frown upon my decision but then he would also insist that I did absolutely all my training below the aerobic threshold which is not completely consistent with the training program I am actually following. I'm thinking of going "holistic" next year - perhaps taking a sabbatical from competition - and trying out just doing lots of low intensity long runs and eating whole foods, a la Forest Gump. I'll see how I feel after the Ironman - its something that cannot leave you indifferent: you either feel you have done so disasterously that, after 6 months, you have got the bit between your teeth again or it is such an amazing experience that you are ready to think of doing another one a couple of weeks later. I can't imagine I will cross the line and think "OK, that's done, now what?".

I'm also starting to take L-Glutamine which is a special amino acid which is supposed to help in recovery from workouts and to help prop up your immune system. Add to that, L-Carnatine which, as its name suggests ("carne") is found in red meat and supposedly helps fat burning. I may also start taking Creatine which, to be honest is the only magic powder I have taken for which I have definitely noticed an effect (notice I didn't choose the word "benefit"). I tend to put on several kilos of what looks to be muscle mass but is apparently mainly water retention and I notice that my strength improves but at the cost of having to lug those extra kilos 42km. I think I will give it another try, now that I am eating more conscientiously,  and if I find myself getting too heavy I should have enough time to slim down. In any case, as there is thought to be an increase in water retention, perhaps this added weight is not as bad as it sounds. The guys at the triathlon club swear by Man Clout - just the thought of that disgusting flavour brings back bad memories - but I have to remember not to try ordering it from work because the websites that offer it look like dodgy porn sites. Lastly, there is L-Glucosamine which reportedly helps strengthen cartilage which is what tendons, ligaments and bits of the knee are made from (and ears too, but I've never heard of anyone injuring their ears running). I will start to take this too.

This is what I am taking every day - check out the size of that amino acid tab!

The weirdest thing I tried taking in an attempt to "hyper-hydrate" before a race was Glycerol. (I had thought that it was necessary for bomb making but maybe I am getting confused with Gycerine.) The only way to get my hands on it was in the guise of a treatment for glaucoma, which is the painful pressure in the eye due to the collection of ocular fluid. Apparently the glycerol binds with water molecules in such a way that they don't pass through the kidneys and out as piss. I've become much less paranoid about being hydrated in races and also better at drinking on the run, so I won't be taking this stuff again.

All these supplements were recommended to me when I went for a dietary analysis about three years ago. I remember it being quite a challenge to remember how much of what to take and when. I don't think there is any reason to believe that I will be told anything different by repeating the analysis now - and the diet I was prescribed was frankly impractical - so I've decided that I am going to take Protein, Omega 3, Cod Liver Oil, L-Glutamine, L-Carnatine, L-Glucosamine, Creatine and BCAA and EAA in addition to eating as "heathfully" as possible. Any adverse effects and I'll try to work out which of the supplements is the offender.

At some point I would like to do a detailed blood test, one that is specifically aimed at endurance athletes, as well as electrocardiagram and echocardiogram tests on my heart. As you know, I am doing this Ironman in honour of my dear friend, Neil, who died suddenly from a heart attack last year. Another friend of mine who was preparing an Ironman last year did an electro- and an echocardiogram and only in the latter test did they spot a defect in his heart. His doctor allowed him to compete (which he did with great success) but on the condition that he kept his heart rate below a certain threshold.