Most, if not all women who have run a triathlon know the feeling of butterflies just before the big event. Sometimes it does not matter how much you test your nutrition during training for a race, when it comes down to it on the day a lot of triathletes cannot seem to hold down solid food.

So is a liquid meal the answer before a race if you are having trouble keeping anything solid down because of nerves?

First of all, it is absolutely essential to have a meal before a triathlon, no matter what distance you are competing at. Your stomach may feel like someone is doing the tango inside of it, but you still need to find the right nutrition for the race that you can take on-board without throwing the lot back up, to provide the fuel and prevent problems like cramps during the race.

The right way to go is purely personal, you know your body and how it feels, but whether you consume liquids or solids, as long as it is quality nutrition, it will feed your muscles properly and they will not know what you ate or drank.

There is a difference however, when it comes to tricking your stomach and your brain into thinking that you have had a good meal when you have only drank liquids. Liquids will not fill your stomach like solid food does, and you will still feel hunger pangs which may break your concentration, especially in the later parts of a race.

If you really cannot stomach solids, then there really is no choice but to drink liquids, but the good news is that this is not all bad. There are many athletes who like doing it this way, liquid meals help with hydration and are easy to take with you from home, they digest much quicker than solid food, and this allows you to drink them much closer to the race start.

You do have to be aware of the content of the liquids that you are drinking, they should be made up of a small amount of protein, also be low-fat and have a high carb content. This fuels your muscles and keeps up your energy levels and helps to keep the hunger at bay longer by filling your stomach, which also stops it emptying too quickly. You need to keep well away from anything high in fiber, and keep it simple, if you can stomach solids then make sure you take on the right amount of liquids to make up for the much smaller amount that you will be drinking compared to when you are using liquid nutrition.

Here is a ball-park figure to give you some numbers to work from, the right amount of calories or carbs that you need obviously depend on how much you are going to consume during a race. For every Kilogram of body weight you should be taking in around 1.5 to 4 grams of carbs, you also need to work out the best time for you to take them on-board.

If you start with a window of 1.5 to 4 hours before the race, you should be fine, if you really get bad nerves then go for a time closer to the 4 hour mark, before the nerves have had a chance to take over. If you do opt for an earlier time then you can go for a bigger meal, but if you do not go for an earlier time then your meal should be smaller, and you will probably need to take on extra fuel throughout the race.

If you are up to Ironman distance then you will need a lot of extra fuel, both before and during the race, and you may have to face the fact that only solids will do. You can do a combination of solids and liquids however, and many women do this for Ironman and Olympic distance races. Try something like a muffin and a bottle of sports drink that has a 4:1 ratio of carbs to protein, then about 60 minutes before the race take in some sports formulated gels, this should help with your endurance and also help with your recovery on the other end of things.

These methods require testing during training, because you do not want to eat or drink too much before a race, but race nerves on the other hand are hard to re-create if there is no race, so try some of these tips and hopefully you can refine them over time until you get it right for you.

Bad nerves are such a race destroyer for many ladies, so if none of the nutrition tips help then you need to look at the source of those nerves and deal with them directly so you can display your full race-day potential instead of just displaying the contents of your stomach just before you start racing.

First of all make sure you have a good warm-up before the race, go off and do a 10 minute jog, concentrate on your form and breathing, this sometimes helps to take your mind off of the nerves. You can also try stationary deep breathing exercises and relaxing, get the oxygen pumping to your brain and muscles, breathe in through your nose and out of your mouth and stay focused.

Be a loner, you do not have to be rude but avoid other triathletes and do not talk to them, always get to the race early and make sure your transition area is ready to go, check out the swimming course and avoid stressing yourself by mingling and listening to the other competitors. You should also scope out the best bathrooms early, and make sure you empty your bowels, but this should be no problem.

Get a small mp3 player and fill it with uplifting music that you like, this will block out all the trash talk going on and leave you to relax, run your race without being upset by the rumors and lies usually discussed by other competitors before a race.

Once you have signed up for your first triathlon, you are probably aware you need to think about doing some triathlon training, but how long should you train before participating in your first triathlon?

Ideally you should give yourself at least twelve weeks to train prior to the event, but before you embark on a punishing training regime, make an honest assessment of your current levels of fitness so you know how much work you need to do to get to the start line.

I am not very fit – can I still manage a triathlon?

As long as you have a reasonable base level of fitness prior to training, you should be fine. For a sprint triathlon, you will need to swim 750 metres, bike 20k, and run 5k. As long as you can swim at least 200 metres, bike for around 30 minutes, and run 15 minutes continuously, you are in good enough shape to work towards your first triathlon.

I am very fit in one of the three sports, but I haven’t done the other two for years!

If you regularly compete in running or cycling, you should have a good level of cardiovascular fitness already, so you all you need to do is polish your fitness in the other two sports. Swimming fitness does not translate into bike or run fitness as well, so you will have more work to do, but you are still starting off at a better level of fitness than someone who has done nothing but change channels on the remote for the last ten years.

So how do I begin training for my first triathlon?Those who are new to triathlon are well advised to follow a triathlon training program for beginners. This will provide some structure to triathlon training and help you avoid doing too much training, or worse, not enough. Most training plans work on the principle of two or three sessions per week in each discipline, with at least one rest day included in every seven-day period. Do not skip a rest day-your body needs recovery time!

Whilst a twelve week triathlon training schedule is normally adequate for most reasonably fit people, if you have more time, sixteen weeks is even better as this will give you longer to build your body up gently and avoid injury woes. The danger of trying to do too much training, too soon, is that you will overdo it and injure yourself, so listen to your body and always cut back on training if something starts niggling.

I entered a triathlon and I only have six weeks or less to train!

If time is of the essence, try not to panic. As long as you can swim and are reasonably fit, you will probably get around the event in one piece – just don’t expect to break any course records!

Try and make every training session count and make sure you do a few “brick” sessions to accustom yourself to the transition between sports. A brick session is a back to back training session, for example a bike/run or a swim/bike. Not only does this save time by combining two in one training sessions, it also helps your body get used to the idea of running straight off the bike, or biking straight from the pool.

There is no need to get too hung up on complicated training regimes–just spend a reasonable amount of time preparing for your first triathlon and concentrate on having fun on the day!

Each spring, the dining hall at St. Vincent College whips up culinary delights for the players of the Pittsburgh Steelers to eat during training camp. But it does so under the careful scrutiny and supervision of the teams’ nutritionist, Leslie Bonci. Ms. Bonci, a 15-year veteran sport’s nutritionist with the Steelers, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that such scrutiny is necessary to ensure that “[w]hat is being served is something that is going to serve these players well when they’re out there for practice.”

And Bonci is not alone in this belief. In fact, much research has shown that athlete nutritional needs are different than are those of the general public.

Why Athlete Nutritional Needs are Different
The rigors of sports’ activities make different nutritive demands on athletes depending upon the type, and intensity, of the activity. The President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports says that, while in training, an athlete’s caloric needs may increase by 1,000 to 1,500 calories and that an athlete’s diet should consist of:

• 55-60 percent carbohydrates
• 30 percent (or less) fat
• 10-15 percent protein

However, this is a relative amount, according to the University of California, San Francisco (USCF).Different Levels of Sport, Different Nutritional Needs
The USCF divides the nutritional needs of athletes into roughly three different categories-endurance, high-intensity, and moderate.

Endurance athletics, those that involve brisk physical activity that continues for more than an hour (such as the type that occurs in distance running and cycling), often need to consume between 3,000 to 5,000 calories per day to meet the increased energy needs of their sport. Endurance athletes also have a higher protein need because the longer their sports’ workout, the faster their carbohydrate stores are depleted, which forces the body to turn to protein for its fuel.

High-Intensity athletics, those that involve short burst of intensity (such as the type that occurs in sprinting or weight lifting) have varied nutritional needs depending on the sport and the body size of the athletes. But in general, high-intensity athletes require an increased caloric consumption that is at the mid-range of the recommended caloric range for athletes and an increased protein consumption that is at the high end of that range of recommended protein consumption.

Moderate athletics, those that vary their intensity and frequency, have an increased caloric need based on the intensity and the frequency of their sport and should consume at least the minimum amount of the caloric recommendations for athletes.

Moreover, studies have shown that the athlete nutritional needs of all those who engage in strenuous exercise involve a higher intake of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants than do sedentary individuals; indeed, a clinical trial conducted by Northumbria University in January of 2009 concluded that the right supplements can lead to a greater power recovery and an athletic performance increase of up to 40%.

Specialized Supplements for Athletes
Besides supplementing the common antioxidants of Vitamins A, C, and E (which are important in eliminating the free radical formation that can occur during strenuous exercise), athletes should take a combination of these specialized supplements:

• Selenium
• L-cysteine
• B-Vitamins-which aid with energy and metabolism
• Biotin-important in metabolizing carbohydrates
• Calcium and magnesium for muscle and bone health
• Potassium to improve muscle function
• Zinc to repair tissue damage
• L-Carnitine, an amino acide that helps the body burn fat
• Coenzyme Q10-improves heart function
• Gamma-linolenic acid-minimizes inflammation of the muscles and the joints

Such supplementation, research shows, will not only improve athletic performance but will also protect and heal the body from the otherwise deleterious effects of strenuous exercise.

The use of sports nutrition is not limited to sports people, gym enthusiasts or even those that are on diet, however these products that are normally classified into the sports nutrition categories offer a great source of extremely important foodstuffs that are quite often lacking in our day to day diets.

With specific reference to the sports and training fraternity, the intake of protein is quite often underestimated and normally takes a back seat to the much touted and publicized carbohydrates for endurance. The result of this culminates in a reduced performance level, and many athletes thinking that they have mastered their sports nutrition needs wonder why their performance is not exactly what they are expecting it to be.

One only needs to think about the role that protein plays within the body, and once again this is relevant to the non athlete too. The major component of the human body is that of water, and the second component? Protein, therefore perhaps a little more attention to the protein needs of the human body must certainly be forthcoming, yet it continues to be underestimated.

As an active sports person it is also worth noting that the quality of sports nutrition also becomes extremely important and this becomes an issue of quality over quantity. This is also determined by the abbreviation commonly referred to as RDA, which stands for Recommended Daily Allowance. This figure provides for the medically research optimal amount of the specific food item or constituent that should be consumed on a daily basis.

The higher the quality of the sports nutrition supplement, the less and more concentrated the serving which in turn provides the required nutrients in accordance with the RDA levels, as well as the amounts of protein and in effect energy required for optimal performance. Sports nutrition products not only ensure optimal performance when consumed and used correctly by those that demand superior performance from their bodies, but also by people that are on diet, as well as those that are actually treated by medical professionals that utilize products such as whey protein to deal with muscle degenerative conditions and related diseases.

Sports nutrition and the related products categorized within this area, extend further into a number of additional items too. These items are in fact naturally occurring, but are lacking within our diet and therefore supplementation has become necessary. Examples of these include the creatine and glutamine supplements that have been popular for many years amongst athletes, sports people and the muscle building communities.

One of the key issues surrounding this topic is that the correct intake of these items can boost the users level of performance on a natural, and legal basis.

Sports nutrition is a key aspect that should be given the right attention. Visit Sport and Supplements at http://www.sportandsupplements.com for the widest selection available.

I want to discuss my own experience by suggesting what NOT to do!

1. It’s fitness not your gear
Three sports, each with its own array of the latest and greatest expensive equipment. Glossy publications full of ads attempting to sell you the hottest carbon aero widget or product. For reasons unknown, triathlon features a culture of shopping for speed as opposed to learning how to prepare and race more properly. The big point is, it’s about the engine (YOU), not the $$$ parts hanging off of your bike. Invest in yourself, your multi sport training as well as your fitness early on; Save the $$$ products for later.

2. Thinking the Swim is an Exercise in Fitness
Why does that 13 year old girl in the fast lane swim laps around you?

Simply because she’s been swimming 1 to 2 hours per day, 5-6 times each week since she was six. She’s got the technique; you don’t.For you, swimming is not really a fitness exercise, it’s an important skill, like learning how to play a clarinet. Rather than just banging on the instrument for an hour or so a day, without any idea what you’re learning, pay for top quality swim technique coaching to take full advantage of your time in the water.

3: Not Getting Fast on the Bike
In my experience the bike is a very low risk activity: making the assumption that your bike fits you, and you also don’t wreck, you’re simply not going to hurt yourself by cycling too hard. You don’t have to wait to get started on getting quicker on the bike.

If you wish to ride faster you need to train faster and the time to begin is as soon as you jump on that bike. Work as hard that you can for as long as you can, then simply recover and do it again.

4: Sticking with old running plan
It’s quite typical for new triathletes, especially those coming from running, to stick in a run-only training plan inside their weekly triathlon training routine. If not that, then many try to hold on to the running plan they’ve done for a long time, but now stacking on cycling and swimming.

This strategy is a surefire way to over train and risk injury. You’re training for a triathlon, not a 5k, 10k, or marathon. Ignore the addition of the other 2 sports into your training week at your own risk.

5: It’s supposed to be fun!
3 sports, 3 sets of gear, how do I fit X amount of workout sessions into only 5-6 days a week?! It’s really easy to get caught up in how much there is to learn and master, and to get worried and frequently obsessed with your very first race.

I have news for you: it’s all just a sport and it’s supposed to be fun.

Get your head straight, delay expensive gear, expect you’ll make a LOT of mistakes in your first few races (you won’t be disappointed) and promise to have a good laugh at yourself when you do!

Let’s face it – there is a plethora of information for the seasoned triathlete who has a pretty good idea of what they’re doing, but not much good information to help a rookie navigate the steps to starting a beginner triathlon training program. These five steps will give you solid direction and a jumpstart to your beginner triathlon training program. And I promise not to use any fancy lingo!

Beginner Triathlon Training Program Step #1. Sign Up For A Race – the biggest mistake that most beginner triathletes make is developing a vague idea of some race in the future that they’d like to complete, without actually signing up for that race. By taking that first brave step forward, you send a clear message to your subconscious that you have in fact committed to completing a triathlon. Nothing will light a fire under you like actually signing up for a race.

Beginner Triathlon Training Program Step #2. Have Your Swim Analyzed – Because of the highly technical nature of swimming, which is more “form than fitness”, if you’re going to spend money getting any type of face-to-face coaching, your resources will best be invested in having some type of swim expert, coach or Master’s instructor look at your swim stroke. You can opt to have your swim stroke videotaped, or have someone look at it live, but prioritize getting an objective analysis of you in the water. Once you’ve been told what you need to work at it, get in the water at every opportunity possible, preferably at least three times a week if you can.

Beginner Triathlon Training Program Step #3. Use Run/Walk Intervals – If you’re not accustomed to running for long periods of time, the utilization of run/walk intervals is a great way to help ease your body into the rigors of running. Try this method: head out your door and walk at a brisk pace for 5 minutes. Then run for as long as you can, even if it is just for 2 minutes. Once you’re tired, walk again for as long as you ran (for example, for 2 minutes). Repeat this scenario 3-5x through (run 2 minutes, walk 2 minutes, etc.). The next time you go out, do the run/walk intervals again, but this time, walk for 30 less second than you ran. Continue to shorten the walk each time, until you are doing a steady run. Once you’re able to do the steady run, start to increase your run volume by 10% per week.Beginner Triathlon Training Program Step #4. Choose A Bike – It’s easy to get intimidated or starry eyed by all the bike options out there. Here’s the deal: many triathletes do their first triathlon on an old mountain bike, and feel just as fantastic and satisfied as the guy on the $10,000 bike. However, your comfort and speed will be dramatically improved if you can get your hands on a road bike. Craiglist, ebay, roadbikeclassifieds, and your local triathlon club will all have good deals on used road bikes, as well as used aero bars that you or your local bike shop can put on the road bike, if you feel like riding in the aero position (not necessary, but also an advantage). If you’re nervous about falling off a “skinny tire” bike, just practice on a soft surface, like your local golf course (look out for balls!) or in a park with short grass.

Beginner Triathlon Training Program Step #5. Don’t Ignore Your Core – Swimming biking and running are not going to address all the crucial muscles that you need to stay uninjured, fit and fast. By hitting the weight room, even if just 2-3 times per week for 20-30 minutes, you’re going to do yourself a big service when it comes to injury prevention and building a solid foundation upon which you can comfortably swim, bike and run. Which muscles should you focus on? Prioritize the abdominals, low back and outer hip muscles, also known as your core!

Those five beginner triathlon training program tips will launch you in the right direction, but remember that it’s crucial that you find good social support and ongoing instruction to grow you in your journey as a triathlete. Reach out and find your local triathlon club, favorite triathlon blogs, good Triathlete magazines, and even consider options like the Rock Star Triathlete Academy which is full of tips and tricks for complete triathlon beginners all the way up to advanced athletes trying to qualify for Kona!

When I began racing in triathlons about eight years ago, I made it a goal to finish an Ironman – the ultimate triathlon. 2.4 mile swim; 112 mile bike; 26.2 mile run. It sounded awesomely crazy. At the time, I was in law school and was studying for most of the day. Consequently, or so I thought, I couldn’t find the time to properly train for a full Ironman. In fact, the most training I could do was just enough to complete a half Ironman – not too shabby, but also not my goal. At the time, I didn’t realize the problem was in how I set up my training program, not how much time I had. The following four tips helped me on my way to becoming an Ironman:

1) Be Realistic

When I first started out in my triathlon training, I had this grand plan of training thirty hours per week, going on 100 mile bike rides every weekend, and training in each discipline (swim, bike, run) at least four times per week. With that plan in mind, I would need to double up on most days and go big on the weekends. I soon realized, however, that this type of schedule was simply unrealistic. It didn’t fit into my life schedule. I was never going to be a professional triathlete, so why would I need to train like one? This is a crucial realization for your triathlon training.

Instead of trying to accomplish unrealistic goals of winning the Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii, figure out how many hours per week you can devote to training. Take into account your employment, family, and social lives. Then mold your triathlon training program around the amount of hours you have identified. Anything above fifteen to eighteen hours, in the heaviest weeks, is just too much for those of us who work full time. Train smarter, not harder, is the mantra.

2) Be Specific

Because you have limited time, the key is to map out your workouts, each and every week. Be specific with respect to what you want to accomplish. Start by identifying the goal of the workout (i.e. recovery, speed, tempo, endurance, etc.). Then determine the makeup of the workout (i.e. bike 45 slow miles; or run 2 mile warm-up, 4 x 800 at 10K pace, 1 mile cool-down). Finally, determine the logistics (i.e. where you are going to perform this workout). We are much more apt to make progress when we follow a detailed plan.

3) Be Consistent

Consistent triathlon training is the key to continuing down the path toward the goals you are trying to achieve. If you can’t consistently do the workouts that you have specifically scheduled, then revise your plan. Consistently get your long runs and long bikes in every week. Everyone misses a workout now and then, of course. But if you make it a habit, then you won’t reach your goals because you will always be stagnant in your physical ability or, worse, always be catching up to where you want to be. Inconsistency leads to overtraining, which leads to injury.

4) Don’t Forget What Really Matters

Your family, your job, your happiness. These are the things that really matter in the overall scheme of things. You are never going to look back one day in the future and say, “gosh, I wish I ran an extra three miles on that day ten years ago.” There is no doubt that training for an Ironman triathlon takes a lot of time away from the people and things that you love. It is a sacrifice. So take time for your family and loved ones. Remember, you aren’t competing against anyone except yourself. Instead of running that extra three miles that you don’t really need, do the best you can with the time that you have, and be happy.

These days I am an Ironman. I am also a practicing attorney and I own a law firm. I have significantly less time now than I did in law school. But I make my triathlon training work by following the four principles outlined above when I put together my training schedule. The next question is what should go into that training schedule. But that is the subject for another Ironman training article.

author: David Marquardt