Your triathlon training diet: Performance nutrition

Triathlon training takes a lot out of you. Even if you’re physically fit and healthy, training every day – and sometimes twice a day – can put a serious toll on your body. It’s hard work for your system to build and repair muscle, to convert the food you eat into the glucose that’s needed for fuelling your cells, and to produce the various hormones and chemicals that are needed for you to push through that tough mental barrier.

That’s why performance nutrition is so important for maintaining the delicate balance between remaining in shape and providing enough fuel to keep going. Eating also has profound psychological effects – like when you eat a pastry and feel bad, or drink a vegetable smoothie and feel good – so there’s that to consider too.

Bearing in mind that there are many things to consider, Discovery Store principal dietitian Jae Braun has some great advice for aspiring triathletes on how they should be fuelling their training.

According to Braun, the most important aspect of nutrition for triathlon training is that it should support the physical exertion that you are putting your body through. “General health,” she says, “is the foundation of endurance fitness. Therefore a high quality diet of vegetables and fruit, complex carbohydrates, and protein is essential.” Finding the balance between spending calories exercising and taking in calories is also important she says, because too few calories can decrease performance, cause fatigue, cravings, hunger spikes, and frequent injury or illness. Too many calories can lead to weight gain which will also decrease performance.

“A high quality diet will satisfy an appetite inflated by training in a calorie effective way,” says Braun.

It is particularly important for aspiring triathletes who are training to eat enough protein, and this can sometimes drive athletes towards the supplements isles in supermarkets. “It’s important to ensure adequate protein intake to support physiological adaptations to sport like strengthening and maintaining lean muscle, increased vascularisation to supply muscles, increased mitochondria and enzymes of energy production,” says Braun, “but protein requirements are easily met from whole foods.”

Protein requirements range from 1.2 to 1.7 grams of protein for every kilogram of body weight. Foods that are quick and easy to prepare and store well including mixed bean and raw vegetable salads, cold roast chicken, or boiled eggs can easily supply this protein requirement. “Even recovery nutrition does not have to make use of high-tech products,” Braun adds. Simply eating a carbohydrate and protein rich snack within an hour of training helps your body to recover.

But when it comes to ‘eating right’, it can sometimes be tough to know what ‘right’ is. So, here are some guidelines:

• Breakfast: A good breakfast helps to fight fatigue and increase energy for the whole day. Breakfast should include complex carbohydrates and protein so a bowl of oats with milk, granola with yoghurt, or some whole wheat toast and a boiled egg can make for a very satisfying breakfast. Add in a side of fruit to increase the fibre and nutrient value. A smoothie also makes for a very convenient meal.
• Snacks: It’s important to include some savvy snacks in your diet to help keep your blood sugar and energy level throughout the day. Good snacks include air-popped popcorn, whole wheat crackers with cream cheese, nuts, or fruit.
• Lunch: The size of this meal and the composition should largely depend on where it fits in with your training schedule. Avoid eating too much within two hours before training. Lunch can include a small bowl of last night’s dinner, pasta with a vegetable and lean meat sauce, a sandwich that’s light on sauce and includes some vegetables and protein, or a salad with some chicken or beans and a side of fruit.
• Dinner: By dinnertime you should have eaten your training recovery snack already and if you’re training in the morning, a big dinner can still be heavy in your stomach by then. Opt for a large bowl of vegetables with some grilled fish or chicken, a wrap, salad, or a bowl of pasta. Stop eating when you feel full to avoid bloating.

In all cases, choose the healthier options: whole wheat pasta, bread, and crackers; low fat dairy; and lean meats like chicken and fish. Also keep in mind that how you cook food matters: opt for grilling, baking, steaming, and stir frying, over deep frying or even shallow frying.

Food to support training

It’s important that no matter what you eat, you remember that your diet supports your training. Processed foods rich in unhealthy fats and sugars will hamper your training efforts while healthy foods rich in nutrients can support your training and help you to meet your goals. Although you don’t have to give up altogether on the less healthy options, the pleasure of these foods should be weighed against the possible consequences for your training performance.

*Food and recipes from Triathlon magazine.

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