All Week Long – Ask Your Questions About Nutrition, Hydration & Recovery.

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This week, I'm at a triathlon training camp in Kona, Hawaii.

We'll be training all week, and then finishing off the week with the Hawaii 70.3 triathlon, where I'll be attempting to qualify for Ironman Hawaii.

What will the training week look like leading up to the race?

Let's just say it's not a “typical” easy race week:

Monday, Day 1 – We’re riding the entire Ironman Hawaii bike course, and then some – about 120 miles. There will be a run off the bike and we'll be going for a short ocean swim as well.

Tuesday, Day 2 – We head the opposite direction towards ocean view – with a bike ride of about 150km. There will also be a swim and run in the afternoon.

Wednesday, Day 3 – We'll head out on the hot Hawaii highway again and ride another 120km, following up with a run into the famous “energy lab”.

Thursday, Day 4 – 50K ride, followed by a  mini triathlon and an open water swim session.

Friday, Day 5 – Another shorter bike loop, with a pre-race swim and run.

Saturday, Day 6 – Race day: Hawaii 70.3 triathlon – 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.2 mile run.

It should go without saying that a smart nutrition, hydration and recovery plan is paramount when you're  staring down the face of a week like this and still trying to go extremely fast and qualify for Ironman Hawaii at the end of the week.

Curious about how I going to pull it off?

Good news: I'm actually going to answer all your nutrition, hydration and recovery questions (and anything else you want to know about triathlon training in Hawaii) in several live video hangouts on Google+ this week!

So whether you're trying to become a better triathlete, learn how to workout harder and recover faster, set some new Crossfit personal records, or achieve any other high performance goal, this video series will be just the thing for you.

To participate in the free live video Q&A, simply:

1) Click here to follow BenGreenfieldFitness on Google+ (easy and free)

2) Check your email each day, as due to the nature of an intensive training week, I will not know when I'll be live video broadcasting until a few hours before my broadcast…but when I post the time to Google+, you'll get a notice to your e-mail.

3) Visit this page to ask your questions at the set time (I'll have the Google+ live video hangout embedded here) or, if you can't make it, watch the recording after we finish (I'll make all the recordings available here on this post, and on YouTube).

So if you can't make it to the live video (which I completely understand, based on the time zone issues), just leave your question about nutrition, hydration or recovery in the comments section below, and I'll answer on the video!

Video 1:

P.S. If you like this kind of information, you should watch the “Kona Diaries” video series from last year, which includes:

The Kona Diaries”: Day 1 – How To Pack A Bike, Healthy Travel Foods, And What To Bring To An Ironman.

“The Kona Diaries” Day 2 – Seven Essential Healthy Airplane Travel Items & Last 4 Weeks of Quality-Over-Quantity Training Before An Ironman Triathlon

“The Kona Diaries” Day 3, Part 1 – An Interview With Ben Greenfield About How It Feels To Do Ironman Hawaii

“The Kona Diaries” Day 3, Part 2 – What Happens On the First Day of The “Super Bowl” of Triathlon: Ironman Hawaii

“The Kona Diaries” Day 4 – How To Register For An Ironman Triathlon & The Latest Fitness & Triathlon Tools.

“The Kona Diaries” Day 5, Part 1 – The World Famous Underwear Run

“The Kona Diaries” Day 5, Part 2 – How To Set-Up Your Bike For An Ironman Triathlon & What To Put Into Your Transition Bags

“The Kona Diaries” Day 6 – Official Nutrition, Racing & Pacing Strategy for Ironman Hawaii, And Six Ways To Deal With The Pain Cave.

“The Kona Diaries” Day 7 – Ironman Race Morning – What To Expect.

Ask Ben a Podcast Question

36 thoughts on “All Week Long – Ask Your Questions About Nutrition, Hydration & Recovery.

  1. Emma G. Bowen says:

    I plan to on endurance running and hydration will be my concern to address as I am very prone to cramps. I plan to pack in some gatorade and mineral water. Up next is a hike this spring.

  2. deb says:

    Ben, killer workouts out there! Good luck!
    I'm an ultramarathoner, trying to reverse osteoporosis with diet… mainly plant based because animal proteins tend to acidify the body and leach even more calcium from the bones. My diet is very similar to your low carb, only my protein sources are primarily hemp, and legumes. I occasionally eat eggs. I know you're not vegan, but have y ou done research about the acidifying effect of animal proteins?

    1. Unlikely worry when it comes to animal proteins, Deb! http://thebonearchitect.wordpress.com/2011/08/01/…

  3. Becky Heemeryck says:

    For the video try
    http://ow.ly/bfHbM

  4. Keerthi Kumar says:

    Question on nutrition:
    I know its not good to mix fats and carbs coz the insulin will shuttle fats directly into fat cells. Is it equally bad to have fats along with proteins that cause insulin response like whey etc? In short is it safe have my omelets and steak with lots of yummy grass fed butter?

    1. Keerthi Kumar says:

      by 'safe' i meant only in terms of not gaining any additional body fat. Good luck with your training week. Looking forward to your next podcast.

    2. Insulin does not shuttle fat into fat cells, and you can mix fat and carbs IN MODERATION. But it becomes very dangerous from a cholesterol oxidation standpoint when you, say, eat a bunch of eggs and also have a refined sugar, like whole wheat toast, with said eggs…

      1. Keerthi Kumar says:

        When i say insulin shuttles fat into fat cells, I was referring to this article:
        http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/li…

        They say it takes only 2.5 cal to store 100 cals of fat into fat cells. All stimulated by insulin. Not sure how accurate it is but I'm trying to learn. Do you suggest any good book that gives basic bio chemistry behind all this?

        1. Yes, read Gary Taubes "Good Calories, Bad Calories"

  5. Megan says:

    This is awesome! Good luck with these killer workouts! During a really tough week like this, what are the signs that you should back off in intensity for some of these rides? (e.g. physical soreness – at what level?, lack of motivation, dizziness, or other?) How do you balance doing as well as possible at the end of the week, with dominating all the workouts during the week? Sometimes I think the full taper is not best for me (and your plan sounds more fun!), so I'm curious as to your priorities/ goals.

    1. Megan says:

      Cool, thanks, Ben. Hope those knee issues heal up. Can't wait to hear how it goes for you this weekend!

  6. Scott Berry says:

    Hi Ben

    Hope you’re having fun in Hawaii. I’m coming up to my taper for my first Ironman and wanted to get some advice on nutrition during this period. My two questions would be do I keep the same quantity of calories as I’ve been consuming during training and do I change the ratio of carbs/protein/fat?

    Thanks for the help

  7. Tim says:

    "I answer in this video: https://www.youtube.com/embed/JXcm0KjD4QY"
    YouTube gives errmsg, "The vidoe you have requested is not available". Do you have a new posting elsewhere?

    1. workin on getting that fixed!

  8. Becky H says:

    I was wondering if you had planned any changes to your nutrition strategy for racing given some of the information provided by your guests on the BGF podcast over the last few months. I am working on my nutrition plan for IMC this August, but just don't think I can stomach as many gels as you… looking for advice about what types of sugars you consider to be better for long distance racing. Have fun in Hawaii!

      1. Becky Heemeryck says:

        Thanks for the reply… I'm not really having good luck trying to find something that does agree with the gut over long distance, gels are okay over half IM, I used Hammer perpetuem my last IM but that does not sit well 4 hours in… may have to begin experimenting. looking at Infinite, but it's pricey.

  9. Renee says:

    Would it be better to train 4 days a week at less distance or 3 days a week more distance for a half marathon?

      1. Renee says:

        Hi Ben; The You Tube video you linked to said it was not available. ?

  10. Danny V says:

    Hi Ben, I was wondering if you have had any experience with the product – Genr8 vitargo S2?

      1. Danny V says:

        It says the video is no longer avialable

        1. Danny V says:

          Hey Ben have you been able to get this video working?

          1. Danny V says:

            Thanks Ben. I have just started using UCAN and so far it seems ok. I do have issues with fructose and can get pretty bad GI distress from alot of the gels and electrolyte powders out there etc. so I am looking for some products that are pretty natural and also don't upset my stomach etc during some longer races where I may do like a 100k mtb race or 21k run etc. I have not had long enough to test the UCAN yet but so far it looks ok, I was just thinking that the Vitargo may enter the system quicker if I have it during a longer race as above etc.
            Other than that though I basically prefer to eat moderately low carb most of the time, and don't really worry about having to replenish carbs during normal workouts or during shorter races etc until after I'm finished and then just replenish my stores with my post workout meal by maybe having a little bit of fruit or sprouted bread or some sweet potato etc with my meal. From past experience I have seemed to be able to run on what carb stores I have during a race until pretty much around the 2-2.5hr mark, but that’s when I have started having some trouble, which is a problem when I may be going for around 5-6hrs over a 100k MTB race.

          2. Danny V says:

            I do feel much better mainly eating low carb and having a higher fat/protein diet and have been trying to do the whole burn fat thing during endurance events, and I do feel my body has become much better at this over the last 12 months or so (which I know will take time as I spent alot of years on a high carb diet), but it is still getting hard to ignore at the moment that while experimenting with staying low carb with my normal daily life and also not using any gels or carb powders etc how bad I started to feel after around the 2.5hr mark during the last couple of longer races and also how much my performance dropped .
            So basically what I may try next time is to still pretty much keep following the low carb diet I am following which overall healthwise makes me feel better, but during the next long race I may try having some UCAN around 1hr in, and then maybe try having some vitargo around every 1hr after that, mixed with some magnesium powder, a pinch of celtic sea salt and maybe a tsp of BCAA's etc. And as usual I will normally also have a banana or 2 during the race from the feed stations and I also don't mind taking some of those mercola whey bites aswell etc.
            What do you think?

          3. I also carb load during race weeks. You just can't go really fast without doing it. Kinda depends how long "long" is, but I'm at a high intensity during Ironman and do 400 calories of sugar per hour on it.

  11. vegpedlr says:

    What happened to the article you wrote about recovering from Ironman? It was good, but I searched everywhere and could not find it.

      1. vegpedlr says:

        Thanks! I searched the wrong website.Come visit me on the world wide interweb atvegpedlr.net<p style=”color: #A0A0A8;”>

  12. Richard Halk says:

    Ben I am trying intermittent fasting 2 days a week. I drink coffee during these fasts. Is putting milk in the coffee ruining the effect?
    Richard Hall, England

  13. Synthia Elizabeth Fagen says:

    With discipline, in your experience, how much body composition change can be made in a 6 week period of time and what would be the best way to achieve that result? I have that amount of time before a special event and would like to make the most of it. Thanks!

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