GET READY FOR IRONMAN

WHETHER YOU'RE RACING IRONMAN LATER THIS YEAR OR NEXT SEASON, YOU'LL NEED A WELL-OILED NUTRITION STRATEGY FOR 226KM SUCCESS. HERE OUR EXPERTS OFFER THEIR BEFORE, DURING AND AFTER- IRONMAN FUELLING ADVICE.

- MATT BAIRD

PART 5: MASTER YOUR IRONMAN FUEL

If transition is oft-cited as triathlon's fourth discipline, then nutrition is most definitely the fifth (and it's surely more crucial than transition, too, but that's a story for another time). That importance is heightened as races become longer, with fuelling now recognised as paramount for Ironman success at every level.

Ironman history is littered with examples of unusual fuelling techniques and famous bonks, including six-time Ironman Hawaii champ Dave Scott's rinsing of cottage cheese in the late seventies and Sian Welch and Wendy Ingraham's famous crawl in Kona, Hawaii, during the nineties (Youtube it!). And if bonking can happen to those at the elite end of the field, it can most definitely hit the age-group fraternity as well.

Gut training wasn't something on my radar back in 2018 when I did my previous Ironman, which became a catalogue of nutritional errors before some major GI issues on the run. Even since 2018, though, our nutritional knowledge and the availability of quality fuelling products has increased hugely. It's surely a major factor behind how Ironman records have been tumbling in triathlon this decade, with elite athletes now (successfully) taking on over 100g of carbohydrates per hour.

That doesn't necessarily apply to age-groupers at the slower end of the long-distance field, however, so here I'm calling on top age-grouper and Bristol-based coach Graham Wadsworth (mylifept.co.uk), the nutrition experts at Precision Fuel & Hydration (precisionhydration.com), and coach Sam Barley (fittedbysam.com) to help guide us age-groupers to Ironman finish glory.

CARB CONSUMPTION