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.

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.