I am asking this with tomorrow morning's Battenkill in mind, but you could apply the question to other races as well.

My race kicks off at 11:40am, registration opens at 9:10am . my question is - do I eat lunch ahead of time ?

I am an hour away from the race, so my plan was to eat breakfast around 7:45, leave the hotel at 8 to drive to the race, and register soon after it opens.

Pre race I was thinking of taking in a couple of gels and maybe a bananna, vs eating a full meal . Should I be considering a light lunch at 10:45 or 11 pre race, and moving breakfast slightly earlier ?

thanks.

Word from some freaky Dr. Mirkin:

Dr. Gabe Mirkin's Fitness and Health E-Zine May 29, 2011

Nitrates Make You Faster and Stronger

Drinking a half-liter of beetroot juice before a time trial helped male bicycle racers ride an incredible 2.8 percent faster over both 4- and 16-kilometer courses (Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, June 2011). This is an extremely well-performed study because all of the bicycle racers in the study rode faster after drinking a half- liter of normal beetroot juice (6.2 mmol nitrate) than they did after taking the same volume of beetroot juice that had had the nitrates removed (0.0047 mmol nitrate). Furthermore, the authors measured blood levels of nitrates and showed that the nitrate-rich beet juice raised blood levels of nitrates from 241 to 575 nm and reduced the oxygen cost of the exercising muscles. The dose of nitrate used in the study
(6.2 mmol) is 4 to 12 times greater than what the average person takes in each day. None of the subjects consumed dietary supplements.
ANY FOOD SOURCE OF NITRATES, NOT JUST BEETROOT JUICE:
Beetroot juice is high in nitrates which have been shown in many studies to reduce the amount of oxygen needed to fuel muscles during exercise and to improve an athlete's ability to tolerate high-intensity exercise. How fast you can race on a bike is limited by the time it takes to bring oxygen into exercising muscles to turn food into fuel for contracting muscles. Since nitrates bring oxygen faster into muscles, eating any food that is high in nitrates can help you ride faster.
HOW NITRATES MAKE YOU FASTER: Inorganic nitrate is converted to active nitrite and, subsequently, to nitric oxide (Nat Med. 2003;9:1498-505). The most efficient form of energy for exercising muscles comes from your mitochondria in muscles which require less oxygen after a person takes nitrates (Free Radic Biol Med. 2010;49:S109).
NITRATES IMPROVE ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE: Sodium nitrate has been shown to reduce the oxygen cost of cycling (J Appl Physiol. 2009;107:1144-55), increase power of knee extensor exercise (J Appl Physiol. 2010;109:135-48), and help athletes run faster (J Appl Physiol. 2011;110:591-600)
HOW MUCH NITRATE BEFORE RACING? In this study, the racers were given liquids because liquids pass through their stomachs and into their bloodstreams much faster than solid foods do. You can get large amounts of nitrates from celery, cress, lettuce, radishes, beets, spinach, Chinese cabbage, endive, kohlrabi, leeks, parsley and many other vegetables (Am J Clin Nutr. 2009 Jul;90(1):1-10). Almost all of the nitrates in vegetables are absorbed into the bloodstream.
CAN YOU TAKE IN TOO MUCH NITRATES? Nitrates are safe and healthful when eaten in vegetables and fruits. However, nitrates can be converted to nitrites which can combine with amino acids in foods to form nitrosamines which are potent cancer-causing agents. Nitrates (with an A) in plants are healthful. Too much nitrites (with an I) can be harmful.
AVOIDING NITRITES: Bacteria convert the healthful nitrates to the harmful nitrites in vegetables. Fresh vegetables are usually resistant to bacterial infections.
However, once a vegetable is cooked, bacteria reduce nitrates to nitrites. Therefore, cook only the amount of a vegetable that you plan to eat right away. Leftovers should be stored for no more than a day or two in the refrigerator. Freezing inactivates bacteria, so commercially frozen cooked vegetables usually have low levels of nitrites. Pureed foods are much higher in nitrites. Boiling vegetables reduces nitrate content (Toxicol Lett. 2008(Oct 1);181(3):177-81).
SHOULD YOU TAKE NITRATE PILLS? Definitely not!
Excessive nitrates in grass and grains have killed ruminant animals. Bacteria in the stomachs of ruminant animals rapidly reduce nitrates (with an A) to nitrites (with an I).
Normally, the nitrites are converted to ammonia to be used by bacteria as a source of nitrogen, but nitrites can convert hemoglobin in blood to methemoglobin, which cannot carry oxygen and the animal can smother to death.
In humans, excessive nitrites can accumulate also and prevent oxygen from attaching to red blood cells. This is called methemoglobinemia which can prevent you from even being able to move, and has killed some infants and adults.
This condition can be caused by drinking very large amounts of stale juice from cooked spinach or other vegetables high in nitrates. On the other hand, you should not worry about nitrates in fresh vegetables harming you.

haha....he said merkin.

(OK, well, "Mirkin" technically, but it's close enough)

It's really hot outside, so I thought Dr. Mirkin's latest ramblings are pertinent:


Dr. Gabe Mirkin's Fitness and Health E-Zine June 12, 2011

Why You Need Salt During Prolonged Exercise in Hot Weather

The only mineral that you need to make extra effort
to take during prolonged exercise is sodium. The amount of
salt people need varies greatly from person to person. If you exercise regularly for more than an hour, particularly in hot weather, you probably need extra salt.
YOU DO NOT NEED EXTRA POTASSIUM, MAGNESIUM OR
CALCIUM: Healthy athletes and exercisers do not need to take potassium, magnesium, calcium or any other minerals (1).
Athletes do lose minerals through increased sweating, but compared to blood, sweat is very dilute in minerals, so they can get all the minerals they need from food. A deficiency of potassium, magnesium, or calcium has not been reported in healthy athletes who eat a normal diet.
SODIUM: The definitive studies on minerals and exercise were done during World War II. Dr. James Gamble of Harvard Medical School paid Harvard medical students to lie on a raft or exercise in his swimming pool, take various amounts of fluids and salt, and have blood drawn to measure salt and mineral levels. He showed that salt requirements increase significantly when you exercise for several hours in hot weather. I was fortunate enough to be among the doctors training at Harvard Medical School who heard Dr. Gamble give his lectures on minerals and exercise. Now, more than sixty years later, nobody has improved on his research.
YOU NEED EXTRA SALT IN YOUR FOOD WHEN YOU EXERCISE IN HOT WEATHER: If you don't take salt and fluids during extended exercise in hot weather, you will tire earlier and increase your risk for heat stroke, dehydration and cramps.
Not taking in salt when you exercise for more than two hours can prevent you from retaining the water that you drink.
It can also block thirst, so you may not know that you are dehydrated. Thirst is a late sign of dehydration. You lose water during exercise primarily through sweating, and sweat contains a far lower concentration of salt than blood. So during exercise, you lose far more water than salt, causing the concentration of salt in the blood to rise. You will not feel thirsty until the concentration of salt in the blood rises high enough to trip off thirst osmoreceptors in your brain, and it takes a loss of two to four pints of fluid to do that (2).
YOU NEED SALT TO RETAIN THE FLUID YOU DRINK WHILE EXERCISING. In one study, female competitive distance runners took in drinks with different concentrations of salt during a four-hour run (3). Ninety-two percent of those who took in plain water with no additional salt developed low blood levels of salt.
Taking in fluid without also taking in adequate amounts of salt dilutes the bloodstream, so that the concentration of salt in the blood is lower than that in brain cells. This causes fluid to move from the low-salt blood into the high-salt brain, causing the brain to swell, which can cause seizures and death. However, hyponatremia, the low salt syndrome that can kill athletes, is usually caused by taking in far too much fluid, rather than from not taking in enough salt.
HOW SALT CAN IMPROVE PERFORMANCE IN COMPETITION:
Taking extra salt just prior to competition can help you exercise longer and harder (4). Fatigue during hot-weather exercise is caused by lack of water, salt, sugar or calories.
Of the four, exercisers are most ignorant of their sodium
needs.
SALT AFTER EXERCISING IN THE HEAT: You should always replace fluids, salt, sugar, and protein after you exercise in hot weather. (5). Just salting your food to taste should replace the salt you lose through heavy sweating (6). If your kidneys are normal, you should be able to rid yourself of any excess salt that you may take in.
CAN YOU HARM YOUR HEALTH BY CAUSING SALT DEFICIENCY?
If you are not replacing salt that you lose from sweat, you will suffer fatigue, muscle cramps and injuries that can prevent you from continuing to exercise. Severe salt deficiency can cause high blood pressure and metabolic syndrome. While moderate salt restriction can lower high blood pressure, severe salt restriction can raise blood pressure.
When you don't get enough salt, your adrenal glands put out large amounts of aldosterone that constricts arteries and raises blood pressure, and your kidneys put out extra renin that also constricts arteries and raises blood pressure (7).

(continued)

SEVERE SALT RESTRICTION CAN RAISE BLOOD SUGAR AND INSULIN LEVELS: A study from Columbia University Medical School showed that salt restriction raises blood sugar and insulin levels, while adding salt lowers them (8).
SALT YOUR FOOD, NOT YOUR DRINK: Salty drinks taste awful, so it is easier to meet your needs with salted foods.
If you plan to exercise for more than a couple hours in hot weather, drink one or two cups of the liquid of your choice each hour and eat a salty food such as salted peanuts, potato chips, or anything else that tastes salty.
HOW CAN YOU TELL THAT YOU NEED MORE SALT? Salt deficiency causes tiredness, lethargy and cramps. It also
weakens muscles, causing you to slow down and lose strength.
If you suffer any of these symptoms, you can get a blood test for sodium and chloride on the day after a hard workout. Low blood levels of sodium are most likely to occur on the morning after you have replaced fluid lost from heavy exercise. If your blood sodium level is below 130, you are deficient and need to add more salt to your food.
WHO IS MOST LIKELY TO SUFFER FROM SALT DEFICIENCY?
Vegetarians and people who limit meat are at increased risk for salt deficiency because plants are naturally low in salt.
Meat, fish and chicken naturally contain far more salt. Most processed foods are high in salt because manufacturers know that salt makes food taste good and is also a preservative.
WHY DON'T CASUAL EXERCISERS SUFFER FROM SALT DEFICIENCY? The North American diet typically contains up to
10 times the minimal daily salt requirement. If you doubled or tripled your salt loses through sweating, you may still not be deficient because you probably take in far more salt than you need.
DOES EXTRA SALT CAUSE HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE AND HEART ATTACKS? A review of the world's literature shows that salt restriction does not lower high blood pressure for most people with high blood pressure (9). Eating salty foods and drinks when you exercise for more than two hours is unlikely to raise blood pressure. I found only six long-term follow-up studies of salt intake and heart attacks. Three studies suggest that very low salt intake may cause heart attacks.
EXERCISE CAN PREVENT A RISE IN BLOOD PRESSURE WITH EXTRA SALT INTAKE: Excessive intake of salt causes high blood pressure in some, but not all, people. High blood pressure increases risk for heart attacks, strokes, and kidney damage.
Many middle-aged people who start an exercise program lose their tendency to develop high blood pressure when they take in extra salt (10). This study shows that many people who develop high blood pressure from a high-salt diet when they are sedentary, will not develop high blood pressure on the same diet when they exercise.
PEOPLE WITH METABOLIC SYNDROME ARE THE ONES MOST LIKELY TO DEVELOP HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE FROM EXCESS SALT INTAKE:
A high-salt diet causes high blood pressure most commonly in people who suffer from metabolic syndrome and are pre-diabetic or diabetic (11). Metabolic syndrome occurs when cells lose their ability to respond adequately to insulin and blood levels of sugar rise too high. It is caused by eating too much sugar and other refined carbohydrates, being overweight, not exercising, and lacking vitamin D. Metabolic syndrome is characterized by storing fat primarily in the belly, having a thick neck, high blood triglycerides, low blood good HDL cholesterol, high blood sugar, and eventually liver damage and all the side effects of diabetes. People with metabolic syndrome have a greater rise in blood pressure with increased salt intake and a drop in blood pressure with salt restriction.
SUMMARY: If you do not exercise, you do not sweat very much and you do not need very much salt. Too much salt can increase blood volume which raises systolic blood pressure. Being fat is the primary cause of elevated diastolic blood pressure. On the other hand, if you exercise vigorously, you sweat tremendously and lose a lot of salt.
Without the extra salt that you need, you will not recover from your hard bouts of exercise and you will be more likely to be injured and tired all the time.

References:
1. Medicine and Science in Sport and Exercise
1999(October);31(10):1406-13
2. American Journal of Emergency Medicine, 1999;17(6):532-539 3. British Journal of Sports Medicine, August 2003 4. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, January, 2007; and Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine, January 2007 5. J Sports Sci 2007:15:297-303 6. Eur J Appl Physiol 1996:73:317-325 7. Clinical Autonomic Research, 2002;12(5):353-357 8. American Journal of Hypertension, 2001;14(7, Part 1:653-659 9. Journal of Hypertension. May 2011;29(5):821-828 10. Journal of Human Hypertension, May 2006 11. Lancet, published online March 2, 2009

A post ride pickle does the trick for me. I also read about NFL guys downing shots of pickle juice before practice because of the high sodium content.

Pickle juice halts cramps: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/09/phys-ed-can-pickle-juice-stop-muscle-cramps/

Another interesting article on dehydration (from JP's favorite source, PEZ):

http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/?pg=fullstory&id=7532

An interesting snippet:

"Different athletes have different sweat rates, but most will sweat at between 1.5 – 3.0 Liters per hour. That means a 150 pound cyclist can reach 3% dehydration in as little as 45 – 60 minutes with no fluid intake (1 Liter = 1 Kilogram = 2.2 pounds). Unfortunately, gastric emptying is typically in the range of 0.8 – 1.3 Liters per hour, so you are on the defensive immediately. The more so if you start your race or training session hypohydrated (0.5-1% dehydrated) as most of us do by some estimates. You simply can’t drink enough fluid to offset the loss from sweating.

All of this sweating leads to thirst. There are two kinds of thirst. Hypovolemic thirst is the result of sweating, respiration, and/or bleeding. It is a decrease in the extracellular fluid and blood volume. Osmotic thirst is the result of a decrease in the intracellular fluid (e.g. too many solutes). Both depletions must be addressed prior to the onset of thirst.

While there are many products on the market that purport to help with your hydration and electrolyte balance, the truth is that most of them also contain a significant carbohydrate (CHO) load in order to also be seen as a viable fuel source (yet not quite enough to actually be a viable fuel source) and to be palatable. There are a couple of downsides to this. First, the CHO actually serves to increase core temperature (gotta process that food!), secondly it impedes gastric emptying. Often these sports-drinks contain too little sodium to effectively replace sweat salt losses as well. Sodium loss through sweating ranges between 0.8 – 4.0g/hr."

So the short answer is throw a tsp of salt into your gatorade this week. Put some extra salt on the pasta tonight, and treat yourself to a pickle with your sandwich at lunch.

Years ago I got laughed at for throwing salt in my water before a hot race on a shade free car racing circuit in Wisconsin. However, I found that it caused me upset stomach while drinking. Now I load up on salt before and after events. And take the "double sodium" gels and shots and what not. An exercise scientist and nutritionist advised me to dump salt in my hand and give it a quick lick before races, as it would probably be easier to tolerate it that way then gradually in a watery solution. I haven't tried that technique yet, but will soon, because I'm still getting cramptacular in my longer road races.

Jeff,
Pez's training articles range from nonsense to very good. But are the only aspect of their offerings that are generally decent or better.

All,
Marc is indeed a salty sweater.

I'm playing with both Endurolytes and Tablytes this week

During the summer, you just have to take all the advice you read (on Pez, the message board, etc.) with a pinch of salt and everything will be fine.

I'm a believer. As some of you know I had terrible cramping problems last year, cramped out of like 3 straight out of town races at crucial moments. Since I started popping endurolytes and yes, putting a shake of sea salt into my bottles (which are already full of strongly brewed gatorade endurance formula, which has like 3x the sodium, magnesium, and potassium as any other drink) I haven't had a single cramp. It's been almost a year.

Yeah, I've been really skeptical of Enduralytes in the past, but they are working really well for me this year. When I take them, I do not cramp. Anecdotal, yes, but I'm starting to be at least a bit persuaded.

And let me repeat something I may have posted before, or maybe I was just told this...but maintaining overall hydration is so important. I weigh in the high 160s and was told that I need to drink about 1 large bottle of fluids every hour. And it turns out at the end of a 2 hour indoor ride, I'm still losing 2lbs. Not good. Weigh yourself before and after rides and you'll get a sense of how well you are keeping up with hydration.

Marc... I sense that you were --like me-- traumatized when you saw episode 1, season 1 of Star Trek... don't get caught in this pseudo-science "Man Trap"!

Hailing frequencies open...

oh... for non-Trek fans, episode 1, season 1 "The Man Trap" features that wooly creature above, affectionately known as "The Salt Monster" who sucked all the salt from its victims via its cephalopod-like suction-cup fingers.

And, yes, I am a skeptic when it comes to arguments for electrolyte-depletion causing cramps. I'm also not concerned about dropping 3-5lbs. on an intense 4-5 hr. ride --seems natural to me and I feel fine afterward (more loss than that and I don't feel well). I think eating and drinking in a more or less normal way is pretty smart... your hunger and thirst should be pretty indicators about how to proceed.

Joel Friel did an about-face on both electrolyte supplementation and hydration after researching the science more broadly and deeply (there is better research than the 1940's Gamble findings, a good bit of it). He covers it in some of his older blog posts --maybe he's changed positions in the years since those posts, but I didn't see any retractions in some casual searching and scanning around the web.

]

http://www.utexas.edu/news/2011/06/22/milk_studies/

Quik it up.

I am all over this! I'm cornering the chocolate milk market at Trader Joes tomorrow. Mortimer!!! we're back!

Trader joes chocolate syrup rulz. Real sugar!!!

I remember reading a similar study about 5 years ago... granted I grew up in Wisconsin so I was subjected to propaganda from the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board http://www.wmmb.com/Home.aspx

I drink it after as many work outs as I can. Soo good.

Lactose free?

skim milk and ovaltine has been my post-ride routine for many years

fyi - ovaltine is better for you than chocolate syrup/hersheys powder - tons of vitamins and minerals

interesting article on the effects of chocolate in today's NYTimes. May explain the love of chocolate milk.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/03/how-chocolate-can-help-your-workout/?ref=health

an excerpt:
... gave middle-aged, sedentary male mice a purified form of cacao’s primary nutritional ingredient, known as epicatechin, and had the mice work out.
...
The fittest rodents, however, were those that had combined epicatechin and exercise. They covered about 50 percent more distance than the control animals.
...
The muscles of all of the animals that had been given epicatechin contained new capillaries, as well as biochemical markers indicating that their cells were making new mitochondria.

stokes: the fine-print of that article is kind of a bummer:

1. tested in mice - may not work in human

2. human-sized dose would be tiny (5 grams of dark chocolate)

3. EATING MORE MAY REVERSE EFFECTS!!!!

i will continue to wave my middle finger to science and eat lots of chocolate

@WilliamDC: Ovaltine, yeah right. You'll shoot your eye out!

I will keep saying we need Brooklyn scientists to step up and do research about the positive effects of Egg Creams. All the benefits of chocolate milk, with the added hydration properties of seltzer.

We should be touting the quality of Brooklyn based beverages, as a Brooklyn based team.

When I'm riding in the Catskills, Maine, Québec or other out-of-town places, people seem to know the Kissena track in Queens, not the "Brooklyn based team":=)

Posted By: josephmueller@WilliamDC: Ovaltine, yeah right. You'll shoot your eye out!

lolwhut?

Y'all can keep your egg creams and Ovaltines.

As it has always been (and still is), real cyclists conclude their rides with a bit more class than that. Real cyclists understand that recovery constitutes more than any mouse-on-a-treadmill experiment could ever attempt to prove.

Recovery is a process. And that process does not involve a gaunt, sweaty figure hunched over his milk glass, furiously clink-clinking his spoon around trying to work out the frustrating clumps of mass-produced drink powder into a swallowable solution. Nor does it involve a handlebar mustache (ruling out the egg cream -- sorry Dan).

A proper recovery process starts out with a girl.

She's pretty. It's hard to tell whether she's pushing 21 or is a particularly youthful 29-year-old. Who knows. It doesn't matter. What matters is that this girl knows how to work the extremely high-end espresso machine at her cafe.

You enter and she quickly does the math -- Salty brow? Jersey left unzipped pretty low? Shades smeared with salty residue? Cheeks maybe a little sunken? Nose kinda red? Latte. Team kit looking vivid and zipped up nice and tight? Shades shiny? Chipper? Only a cappuccino.

And so she expertly prescribes your recovery beverage. And you drink it hot.

Get that in your lab, Stokes.