How I Developed a Personalized Race Fueling Plan That Actually Works Ep 95

Coach Chris Newport shares her methodology for developing an evidence-based fueling and hydration plan for her upcoming off-road Olympic triathlon. She demonstrates how tracking personal sweat data, testing products, and adjusting for logistics leads to a race nutrition strategy that works specifically for her body's unique needs (and will help translate to yours!)

She discusses:

• Using the four T's approach: Track it, Try it, Tweak it, Trust it
• The importance of tracking sweat rate based on dew point, workout type, and intensity
• Calculating exact sodium, fluid, and carbohydrate needs using personal sweat testing data
• Choosing products that match your specific requirements (plus her specific products she uses)
• Managing pre-race logistics when traveling, including food planning and sleep considerations
• Preparing familiar foods that work well with your system before races
• Creating workable solutions for carrying nutrition during events with restrictions
• Planning recovery nutrition immediately after racing

Join our Fueling and Hydration Bootcamp at theenduranceedge.com/fuelingbootcamp to develop your own personalized plan and stop letting nutrition be the reason you fall short.

Experience the breakthrough when everything finally clicks! Train with expert coaches, fuel with incredible chef-prepared meals, and connect with athletes who love triathlon as much as you do. Join us April 22–26 at beautiful Lake Jocassee for four unforgettable days of swim, bike, run, learning, and community. Spots are almost full: Reserve yours here.

Transcript

Introduction to Fueling Methodology

Speaker 1 1:31

Hey y'all and welcome back to the Find your Edge podcast. I am your host, coach Kris Newport, and I am excited you are here today. So today's topic is all about how I came up with my fueling and hydration plan. I figured this would be a good option for you to see how it actually works with our methodology of how we create fueling and hydration plans based on your sweat science, based on the science of absorption, of metabolism of carbohydrates, of fluid, of electrolytes, etc. So I've got a race coming up this weekend and I figure what better way to share with you all of what my plan is for my fueling and hydration plan? So let's get started with the four T's. I like to say track it, try it, tweak it and trust it. So let's start with the first part track it. So, first and foremost, the way that we help people to determine what they need to fuel and hydrate with is to track their sweat losses. This is something super easy that you can do at home. We've got a form, a template that we use in our fueling and hydration bootcamp. So that is open now so you can join there at the endurance edgecom forward slash fueling bootcamp. But this is also something that you can do at home at a minimum, doing your pre and post weight. And where I also like to add is what is the total workout time? So then obviously you know, is your sweat rate by the hour, say, for example? I also like for people to test what the temperature and humidity is and then we calculate the dew point. So if you already know the dew point, great, that's important and I'll talk about that here more in a moment.

Speaker 1 3:17

Important, and I'll talk about that here more in a moment track what type of exercise you're doing and then what the intensity of the workout is. So there's a couple of reasons for that. Number one when you sweat, that is your body's response to your core temperature rising to. Basically, you're getting hot, you're generating heat from your muscles working and then you sweat. So the reason why it's important to track the dew point especially being here in North Carolina, where it gets super humid and the dew point can get really high is that the higher the dew point, the more you're going to sweat. Similarly, with the intensity and the type of workout that you're doing, it's important to track those because the mode of exercise can adjust your sweat rate. So, whether you're swimming or whether you're doing an indoor bike or an outdoor bike or an indoor and outdoor run. And then it also matters whether you have a fan on yourself, because that helps with cooling and again sweats your body's response to a rise in core temperature. So if you have additional cooling measures, then that's obviously going to make you sweat less. So if you track those things, you're going to come up with some trends.

Try It: Testing Products & Logistics

Speaker 1 4:23

So I have kept this sweat log a long time ago. I don't have to continue to necessarily track this, because every time a new season comes up, I just revisit my old data from a similar dew old data from a similar dew point, from a similar intensity or type of workout. Maybe I'll go into it every once in a while just for curiosity's sake, to make sure that everything's on track. But you will find trends about yourself in terms of what your sweat rate is based on, what the dew point is, based on what the workout is and based on what the intensity is. So I've got all that information about myself and then I'm looking ahead. So I'm traveling for this weekend. I'm looking ahead at what the weather is going to be, so I'll be in Alabama and it's going to be in the eighties and probably going to be relatively humid, so the dew point is probably going to be pretty high. So I'm looking at some of those numbers that are showing a higher dew point and using the numbers for my sweat rate losses. So that's why it's important to get this sweat log so that you know what is actually happening in the real world.

Speaker 1 5:29

So I took that number for my sweat losses. Then I've already done sweat testing and I know what my electrolyte content is in my sweat and I plug that into our hydration calculator based on how long I'm going to be doing my workout or my race. So in the situation of race day on Saturday, I'm anticipating that the event is probably going to take me somewhere around four hours. Now I'm not going to put that whole four hours in the hydration calculator. I'm going to separate it out by sport. So, most importantly, I'm going to use the bike, because I'm going to be on the bike the longest, and then I can start getting into logistics. All right, so now I'm into the triad part. So now I've already tried this in training and kept my log. So I've tracked it and now I've already started dialing in based on my sweat losses.

Speaker 1 6:23

What are the products that I'm going to start to try and then starting to tweak? So I don't have any affiliation with any products, necessarily that I'm product agnostic. Let's call it that, because I want to make sure whatever it is that works for you or whatever it works for me, great. Then, as long as you're going to be consistent with it and it matches your gut tolerance and it matches your preferences, fantastic. So what I have worked out for my hydration on the bike specifically is that I'm going over to my little calculator so you might hear me clicking around here so I've entered my training data. So I know what my body weight is. I know what my goal body weight loss is. I know what my sweat losses are based on the weather and the intensity. I know what the projected duration on the bike is. So I'm going to estimate somewhere between two and two and a half hours on the bike, and then I also have my carb goal and what that spits out is what is my total hydration needed for the event, what is my hydration goal in terms of ounces per hour, what are the total carbs I need and what are the total electrolytes I need? So if all I did was. Take that and just put it into something like an electrolyte fluid, then I would need, per liter, per 33 ounces I'm looking at my numbers right now I'd need 396 ounces of sodium. So that has landed me on and you might hear it moving around here.

Speaker 1 7:52

I use a product called drip drop. Again, works for me. It doesn't mean it's necessarily going to work for you, but it matches my sweat and here's why. So per stick, per one stick, it's got 330 milligrams of sodium, and per liter I need about 396. So this gets me close enough. I like it, I've tried it and that's what I'm going to be leaning on. I've tried different flavors. That doesn't really necessarily matter to me, but I know that if I mix this in water and then logistically I'm going to have a pack on, so I'm going to put, per liter, one of these and then I'm also going to know okay, how much am I actually going to be needing to put in my pack? And it's going to be about one liter based on my sweat rate. So I've got one liter plus one drip drop in my hydration pack. Now where are the carbs coming from? Because that is absorbed a little bit differently.

Speaker 1 8:45

I like to add dextrose. So dextrose comes in a powder and it's used oftentimes in. It's actually used in IVs but can be used in various baking applications. It's something easily obtainable online. So I add additional dextrose. So I'm going to be adding for my carb needs. I will be adding about. Let's see there are two tablespoons. I'm looking in my nutrition breakdown. In the fueling calculator I used six, two tablespoon servings of additional dextrose because I'm not going to be eating any additional.

Speaker 1 9:18

I don't care for gels. It's not a consistency or a flavor that I particularly care for. Doesn't mean there's anything wrong with that product or those products at all. It's just not something I prefer. So I'm going to add dextrose and drip drop to my hydration pack. I will probably add about do that in about a half a liter, make sure that it mixes.

Pre-Race Preparation & Travel Strategy

Speaker 1 9:39

This is getting more into like tweaking it and then working into the logistics. I will put it in the freezer in the hotel and then add additional water to it to match that liter, cause I don't necessarily want the pack I have made this mistake before to be frozen. So once I get on the bike, some of it will melt, but it may not all completely melt. That has happened to me before I have over frozen my bottles and then literally cannot get any product out of it. So don't do that pro tip. So anyway, that's how I backed into my fueling and hydration plan and then separately doing a similar type of thing for the run, knowing that I'll be out there for about an hour or so. I'm going to take a sleeve of Clifbox with me and then rely on some of the aid stations at least to get some water. Now that's my particular hydration and fueling plan. I have worked with some folks who have three to four times the sodium losses that I have and well over three to four times the amount of fluid losses.

Speaker 1 10:44

So then it gets into a bit of a logistical challenge of how are we going to carry that much water on our person? There are some limitations now with USA Triathlon and what you can put on your bike. There are some limitations based on, say, the Chicago Marathon, what you can bring. So then we start getting into okay, how am I going to think through these pieces logistically, knowing what I need and then actually working on trying it and then tweaking it ever so slightly, based on, maybe, your races, and then going into race day and trusting it and just executing All right. So that walks you through how I landed on my fueling and hydration plan.

Speaker 1 11:24

Let's back it up a couple of days if you will, and maybe even into the sort of pre-workout pieces, because I get these questions a lot. I get that most people just don't know what they don't know and they're going off of a lot of information on the internet or what their friend does, and I get that. So in the Fueling and Hydration Bootcamp, the way that we walk you through these pieces is again understanding your metabolism and absorption of carbohydrates, of fluid and electrolytes so that you can make the decisions, and even of carb loading. We give you all of those details so that you can make the decision of what you're going to eat throughout the week leading up to the race, cause I get the again. I get these questions all the time what do I eat on race day or what do I eat in the days leading up to race day? I know that I'm eating all familiar foods this week that I'm used to eating.

Speaker 1 12:22

I am somebody who, like I, love beans. I know that that does not work for everyone, but that is something that I have on a daily basis. It's a favorite food of mine. My gut is happy with it. Some people like to eliminate fiber from their diet in the days leading up. That would be disastrous for me personally, but again, that's something that you would have to try in training. So don't do anything new race week or race day that you haven't already tracked, tried, tweaked and trust. So here's a little extra hiccup in the process and you guys will be experiencing something like this if you're traveling for any race. So I'm gonna be in the car.

Speaker 1 13:04

Race day is Saturday, so the day that this is coming out is Thursday. So, as you're listening to this, I'm probably in the car driving from North Carolina to Alabama. So that's gonna be about a nine hour trip. I will absolutely have my trusty cooler with me because I love having snacks. I mean, who doesn't love snacks? I also love to eat just in general, so I'll pack a few things in there that again are familiar foods I might stop at.

Speaker 1 13:30

I feel like Sheets should pay me, because I'm always talking about Sheets. I love that gas station. They have so many different options in terms of protein sources and carb sources. Obviously, they have plenty of unhealthy options, which I know that I've tried before and doing like very fatty, heavy things like fried foods and whatnot, typically don't work really well for me, certainly in the days leading up to race day. But again, I've tried that, so that's part of the key there. So I'll be eating, eating uh things out of my cooler on Thursday, go for a test ride, see if there's anything specific that I need to be aware of on the course, and then on Friday I will pretty much lay around in my hotel room and probably work most of the day. So I know a lot of people like to have a workout on the day before a race.

Race Day Execution & Recovery Plan

Speaker 1 14:27

That does not work for me. I typically like to be completely well rested. I might go for a walk or something like that, but overall sitting around and eating familiar foods. I know that there's a grocery store nearby so I can grab things there and other restaurants that again might have familiar foods that I'm used to. Then on race morning I have and you can hear it here I have a little oatmeal power cup that I picked out yesterday at the grocery store, so that's going to be my breakfast. It's got a little extra protein in it. I did this two weeks ago but I made my own, but I don't think it had enough protein in it and I was a little bit more on the hungrier side. I've had these little Kodiak cups before. I like them. They work for me. I just make sure that in my hotel room I have a refrigerator and then I also have a microwave, so oftentimes hotels will have breakfast, but sometimes they won't be open as early as you might need to be eating, needing to eat, or open as early as you need to actually leave for race day. So this is one of those things that I know works well for me. I don't know whether I'll finish it all, I'll let. I'll be the judge of that on race morning.

Speaker 1 15:40

So one of the things that a lot of people don't necessarily consider is nerves. So I know I'm going to be a little nervous coming into race day, so I'm going to really try to sleep well on Thursday night as best as I possibly can. I don't have any kids to worry about, I don't have other people sleeping in the same bed, so my spouse, I don't have any dogs to worry about, and hopefully the situation in the hotel room can never be guaranteed. But maybe I'll bring my eye mask. I'm very sensitive to light. So those are the things that I need to make sure are written down on a list so that I don't forget them. So don't make any of those mistakes. And then knowing Friday night, eh, I may not sleep all that great, it is what it is, it's expected.

The Four T's Summary & Bootcamp Invitation

Speaker 1 16:24

And having everything all laid out, ready to go make my oatmeal first thing in the morning, eat what feels right to me at the time, because consider that the higher stress levels, the more stressed you are, the less your body necessarily wants to digest. So I'm leaning into how do I feel and what is a good amount for me. I'll also have coffee. That's something that I'm very used to and very acclimated to and that it brings me joy. That's my little ritual in the morning. So hopefully that provides you a little bit of oh and post-raceace, of course, how could we forget it?

Speaker 1 17:03

Recovery what I did two weeks ago post-race was head over to a local fast food joint and I had a milkshake and I had some chicken tenders and I had a kale salad and it was delicious and I enjoyed it and felt good for the drive home. So that's how I came to land on my fueling and hydration plan that is specifically for this off-road distance Olympic style race. But I would go through the same process, whether I were doing a half marathon, a marathon, a half Ironman, an Ironman going through what am I going to lose, what's the projected weather, what's the intensity I'm going at, so that I know my sweat losses. And then actually testing products and making sure that they work for me and probably use something very similar to what I already have, but then adjusting the amounts based on what the race is. And then, of course, getting used to what am I eating before, what am I eating afterwards, so that my body can acclimate and you can trust it. Just like I mentioned track it, try it, tweak it, trust it.

Speaker 1 18:10

So if you want to go through this plan and be super confident and super clear and being able to trust your fueling and hydration plan, join the bootcamp fueling and hydration bootcamp and stop letting nutrition and hydration be the reason you fall short. So it's time to train, race and recover like a pro, without the guesswork. So hopefully that was helpful to give you a little example of what a good fueling and hydration plan looks like. Good luck in all of your races. Can't wait to hear all about it and I hope to see you all in the fueling edge bootcamp. Thanks for listening.