Glycogen, Glucose and sugars for Race energy

So, in my last post I mentioned that I was using pure glucose I purchased at the pharmacy.  I know about these products because my ex was diabetic.  Diabetics often need a fast recovery when their glucose (blood sugar) declines because their bodies do not have working internal governor systems for blood sugar.

For non scientific types there is a lot of hype out there about sugars.  Advertisers want us all to believe that fructose is equal to sucrose.  Unfortunately the chemistry doesn't equate.  Digestion and absorption of fructose is different than sucrose and these are both different than glucose.

Let me say it this way:  GLUCOSE DOES NOT REQUIRE DIGESTION.  Glucose is the sugar the body uses in the brain functions and in muscles.  When you are in a race, fast acting sugar to your blood stream that by-passes the need for digestion is extremely helpful.

When you do extreme exercise, your digestive system tends to shut down.  Blood flow needed for effective digestion is redirected to the muscles to keep them running.  So ingesting food during the race is somewhat ineffective and can create disgestive stress.  GUs are often comprised of Dextrose which is considered equal to Glucose (some chemistry here:  there are two types of dextrose due to chemical structure.) but they are not completely made of dextrose.  Other components must be digested.  Thus you take in a good liquid product that has some glucose in it and your body responds.
However, I find that some GU flavors and some ingredients sometimes cause me to feel nauseous and at times I just don't feel capable of keeping even those flavors I like down.  I have begun to use both GUs and glucose on my races.  I found that glucose in liguid, gel, and tablet form was much easier to get down and appeared to keep my energy levels higher longer.

Although I no longer body build, I find that body builders have been experimenting with supplements such as glucose and amino acids for many years longer than triathletes and sometimes their sites have some useful insights.  Here is one site I like and a few quotes from it:

the-benefits-of-post-workout-carbohydrates

Fructose is a form of sugar that the body doesn't really use well. Because of its structure, it can't be directly turned into muscle glycogen like glucose can. When you consume fructose—fruit or high-fructose corn syrup—it's not absorbed immediately into the bloodstream like glucose/dextrose. Instead, the majority of it must travel to the liver, where it can be converted into glucose and stored as glycogen to be released as glucose when the liver deems it necessary to maintain blood glucose levels.

My note:  Fructose is found in virtually all carbonated sodas.  It is also a major component of candy.  Sucrose, digested in a similar fashion to fructose but more slowly, is found in candy, sweet breads and manfactured solid food.  In large quantities, sucrose is much harder to handle than HFCS (High fructose corn syrup) because it tends to clump and is hydroscopic which means it absorbs water.  HFCS is liquid and can be pumped making it much easier to transport and move during production.  It's also cheaper.  

DEXTROSE THE BEST POST-WORKOUT CARB SOURCE

Consuming pure glucose—also called dextrose—after a workout means the body doesn't need to digest it. Because post-workout glucose can be absorbed into the bloodstream almost as quickly as it's ingested, it gets to your spent muscles as rapidly as possible, resulting in the quickest and most complete replenishment of muscle glycogen. This will keep muscles stocked with ample glycogen for your next workout and pull water into your muscle cells, maximizing your muscle size.

You should also keep your GU or other products in your mouth for as long as you can tolerate.  Suck small amounts during your race and swish it around to get the maximum effect of salivary digestion.  Check out this diagram from another site. -introduction-to-nutrition/s08-02-digestion-and-absorption-of-ca.html

Salivary glands secrete salivary amylase, which begins the chemical breakdown of carbohydrates by breaking the bonds between monomeric sugar units.

Monomeric sugar units pass through the digestive system and require less "processing" than polymeric ones.  So help your body by using this "pre-digestion" process as much as you can during your race.  

And here is another diagram from the same site above: 

Carbohydrate digestion begins in the mouth and is most extensive in the small intestine. The resultant monosaccharides are absorbed into the bloodstream and transported to the liver.

Note that carbohydrates must move through to the small intestine and then to the liver.  This is why there is a long delay in getting nutrition to your muscles.  If you are not proactive in getting nutrition into your body, you can end up with a deficit that is very hard to make up for during the race since digestion slows further during exercise.

Thus the glucose can overcome that delay and provide immediate boosts to your system while you wait for the more complex carbohydrates to be digested.
You might experiment with some of the glucose products found in the Diabetes support aisle of your pharmacy to see how they might help you.  I love the tablets that taste like sweet tarts.  There are also liquid products in gel or more fluid form and a variety of flavors.
Here is a site that offers glucose gels, just one of the many products out there.  The chart below is from their site comparing the effects of various sources of sugar.
glucose-gels




I hope this has helped you to understand what is happening to your blood sugar and how to manage it a bit better on your race....And why I am strongly preferring pure glucose to other items.
Of course there is a caveat.  Many GUs are formulated for athletes and contain electrolytes as well.  I get my electrolytes in another form.  I'll talk more about that in another post.

Race Report

Haines City Half Iron Man 70.3  April 12, 2015

Haines City, FL Half Ironman

 

Preparing for an early season half takes a lot of planning when you live in Chicago.  I’ve spent a good part of the fall and early spring riding my bike on  computrainer rides, mostly on Thursday mornings doing strength training.  I’ve done a few longer rides  on the weekends but I think I should have done more.  I also didn’t have the time to do many long runs, the longest run was about 7 miles outside on a warm day in Chicago about 2 weeks before the race.  I was doing a lot of track running for speed and had improved my time from 13 min pace down to 10:30 min pace over the last six months but I was probably needing more longer runs combined with bike rides.  My swim was certainly improving in the pool and I had had some opportunities for open water swims when I was in Florida and Puerto Rico, but not long enough to really call them good training. 

Where is Haines City?

So prepared as I was, I had hoped to be able to PR for Haines City, expecting a rather flat course and in early April, cooler temperatures.  However, that was not the case.  Haines City is certainly not a flat bike ride.  Long rolling hills and some intense climbs combined with some long downward rides. 

But let me begin with the beginning, the day before the race.  I did get my bike out the week of the race and do a 12 mile ride on Zip with new lubrication and inner tubes, made necessary by forgetting to deflate my tires before shipping the bike in my new Eshipper on the plane.  I bought my inner tubes at the Bike ship in Winter Haven and they did a nice job.  I also replenished my CO2 for the race.  They have a well-equipped shop and pretty nice people there. 

I also managed a short run around the complex, Orange Manor to get my legs going and to get used to the heat.  Right away it was hot and humid that week.  Close to 90 degrees all week and 80% humidity.  That meant the water was warm.  The Lake Eva Park where the race is held is shown below: 

The day before the race I set out early to drive the course.   I found much of it but did not get to the hilliest part, Poinciana which had me fooled and expecting a fairly easy ride.  Don’t get me wrong I’m not lazy, but I wanted a course for training for the distance rather than for strength.  I got the latter, not the former. 

So I arrived at the HI expo for registration, got my silicone swim cap (they actually had them for racers allergic to latex..that was a first!) and listened to the course talk.  They described the swim format as a big M.  The athlete guide also laid out the swim course as a big M.  I swam the first leg of the M and was turned back before the first turn buoy by the lifeguards who said they didn’t have enough coverage that day to allow us to swim the whole leg.  That meant I did not get to scope out the format of the course and that would prove to be an issue on race day. 

I then spent a good part of the day with Matt, CEO of Base Performance, as an ambassador and helped him sell Base Salt all day.  We made a good team and recorded some good testimonies of racers who stated he had saved their race at various locations last year.  It was a productive day for Base Performance. 

I got into a conversation with another ambassador, Mike, who was a certified bike trainer as well and he gave me some advice on training to improve my biking as well as discussed the possibility that I might need a new chain.  I took my bike over to Epic Bikes and they put a new chain on in about two hours that day.  I think that was one of the best decisions I made for this race.  Thanks to Mike for his advice!  I hope he did well.  I then checked my bike into transition checked out the layout and left for home, about 25 mins away in Winter Haven with my parents at their summer home.

On race day I arrived, sans Sherpa help, set up my transition and was ready to rock.  The water temperature did not cool down overnight despite the torrential downpour the night before.  My bike was pretty soaked but my seat doesn’t absorb much and the bike was unscathed.  I wiped it down and set up everything.  My transition is pretty simple.  I don’t wear socks.  I have bike shoes and put spray sunscreen into one shoe and glucose into the other.  ( I buy glucose in purest form from the diabetic supplies in the pharmacy. I’ll discuss why later.).  I put my helmet on the handlebars with the strap hooked on the hoods with my sunglasses inside.  My running shoes are next with race belt and bib, water bottle belt with nutrition on top with my hat on top of that.  I also leave an extra bottle of water to wash off my feet and a towel.  That’s it.

 

Swim start at the race

I put a gu packet in my tri kit for the swim, carry my cap and goggles.  I save the space blankets when I get them and use them to keep warm on race mornings. I then toss them as I go through the arch to the swim start.  I was glad I had it that morning.  It was a bit chilly.  I hate sacrificing clothes so the space blanket is a nice thing to have. 

So race morning, they announced that the swim was not wetsuit legal.  That is fine with me.  I don’t like wetsuits and the one I had is untried.  I bought it last year and still have not been able to use it outdoors to test it.  I wasn’t looking forward to using something new on race day.  It’s still in the wrapper and in the hold of the plane with my bike box as I fly home.  I’ll get a chance to try it out later this season I’m sure when we start swimming in Lake Michigan in July. 

So with the playing field pretty level for the swim I was more confident of a good swim than normal.  However the unfamiliarity with the way the course was actually laid out was to undermine my hopes for a quicker swim.  I got to the first turn buoy expecting only three.  Instead there were more like six!  That was confusing when I turned around the first turn buoy only to find that I was swimming the wrong direction and instead of a 135 degree angle was were doing a 90 degree angle, then another 90 degree and swimming a long leg back down, another 90 degree left and then another left and a long leg back up the lake and two more turns right and back down the lake to the finish.  I spent some time at the first set of turns trying to figure out what was going on without losing too much time.  I must have done okay because I ended up with a 46 min swim, better than I would have guessed with all the sighting I ended up doing plus the stops I had to make to figure out what the heck was going on.  I had hopes for a 35 min swim so I think I lost a lot time with all that plus momentum losses.  I must’ve swum pretty fast when I was swimming though because I still ended up with 2 min/100 yd swim average for the course. 

I managed a jog up to transition ( I had to remind myself to hit my lap button the garmin, which was new to me as well and  forgot to do that as I exited for the bike leg.)  I wasn’t the last person into transition for the bike and I wasn’t the first either but I expected that.  I felt pretty good about how I had done on that part.  I got my sunscreen on, helmet and sunglasses but had to struggle to get my shoes on.  I had remembered to run through the kiddie pool to wash off my feet so they were pretty sand free when I reached transition.  I washed them again and dried them figuring I’d be happier with myself if I didn’t end up with blisters on the run. I also sucked down some liquid glucose, grape flavor, as I got ready.   They had transition set up so that you had to run around the whole area to make it fair, so I got myself going with the bike and headed to the exit.  I had my gears set right so I hopped on the bike and was happy to see my bike computer registering speed correctly.  I had had to play with it quite a bit the day before to get it reading speed.  I replaced the batteries but one of the leads had gotten bent on the wheel sensor and it wasn’t connecting and transmitting.  That took about an hour to figure out and adjust.  So feeling like I was doing well, I headed out.  I had forgotten to open my gu packet after the swim and suck some of it down so I opened my lemonade Huma Packet early on.  I had to dig around in my bento box for my Base Salt container.  Lesson learned, put it standing up close to the end so I can find it.  I also finally remembered to hit the lap button on the Garmin to indicate I’d started the bike leg, about 2 miles in.

I felt great on the first 20 miles.  I had my salt I was booking along at 16+ mph, in some cases hitting 22 mph, but so was everyone else.  I don’t expect to lead the pack on the bike and at about 20 miles the younger men and women started to pass me.  I ran into some trouble keeping my speed up from 20-35 with some hills that slowed me to 12 mph, but I was not worried, knowing I was adding 24-28 mph to the average as I went down those same hills.  This bike ride is a single loop so you don’t see any part of it more than once.  That’s both nice and not nice as you don’t know what’s coming at any point.  At mile 35 aid station, I took some Gatorade, feeling the effects of the humidity.  I open my water bottles on the way to the aid station and put the lid under the leg of my shorts to hold it.  Unfortunately I had also stowed my salt there and forgot about that.  I grabbed the Gatorade and poured it into the water bottle in front; my protocol is to keep any mixture in the front bottle and pure water in the back bottle.  I grabbed the lid from my shorts and when I did the salt container slipped out.  I had to make a decision whether to stop and pick it up or go on and decided to go on and use Gatorade for the remainder of the race.  That was a fateful decision I think.  I could have used that salt and it would get me later in the race. 

The rest of the ride was very hilly.  The inclines were not terrible like Las Vegas or Honu, but in some ways long slow inclines are more wearing.  When you have short steep hill, you can put out a short burst of effort to get up that hill, maybe at 6 or 8 mph but it’s over in short order.  When you have a long slow climb you end up slowing more and more, shifting gears and working hard to determine where you want to end up at the top in gearing and effort.  There were at least two hills where I was at 9 mph by the end and a couple more where I ended up at 12 mph.  I was disappointed about that as I had wanted to get up to 17+ mph average and could see my average sliding with each successive hill.  I tried to keep a positive attitude but as I labored on those hills, my right foot began to ache.

I have high arches. And apparently I have a very dominant right leg.  After the race I looked at both quads and I could see that my left leg is not as strong or as muscular as my right.  Thus when I’m really working, I tend to use my right leg a lot more.  This pulls on the tendon of my right foot and that tendon, working so hard, begins to hurt.  I tried to focus on pulling up and using both legs but fatigue makes your form fall apart, and without salt and the foot pain, my form began to weaken.  I slowed a bit.  I tried stretching my foot by standing and flexing my foot but I had pushed that leg hard all day by mile 45.  I like to see mile 40 because I know I can do 16 miles easily so once I was there I felt I had made it.  I got through the end of the race ignoring the foot pain but when I dismounted, I nearly fell due to the pain in my right foot.  That was not a good sign. 

I made it to transition but had to walk.  I felt the pain in my right foot acutely but switched in to running mode anyway.  I walked out of transition with considerable pain with every step.  My heel and the outside of my right foot hurt with every motion.  I was in trouble and I knew it.  I took some salt and hunted in my running nutrition for some biofreeze but I had not put any in there.  I also had no aspirin.  Now I know I’m not supposed to take NSAIDS on a race but I’ve done it in a marathon to get from mile 17 to the end with no ill effects so I would have taken some if I had it.  But no luck that day.  I think I was mildly low on electrolytes and in pain for the run start so I began with a deficit that would worsen as the run progressed.  I tried to take in more nutrition and salt in small doses but it would be almost the end of the long slog before I felt I had recovered what I had lost. 

I walked slowed to mile 1 and aid station 1 and stopped.  It had taken me 20 minutes to get there.  I asked for medic help but they said if I took any medication I would DSQ.  I knew I did not want that on my record but I needed some help.  They said they could give me a bag of ice and some gauze wrap.  I sat and iced my foot for 5-10 minutes and took the gauze but never used it.  My foot felt better and I managed to move forward but each attempt to run ended up aggravating the foot and later my legs would seize up.  I was forced to walk nearly the whole 13.1 miles and I was thoroughly disgusted with myself.  I had screwed up and wasn’t as prepared as I had hoped.  I was not dead last on that course that day and many many racers were walking.  It was very hot.  I was on the run from 11:30 to 3:30 PM, the hottest part of the day.  No cloud cover and no breeze on much of the course and of course high humidity from the previous night’s rains made for a very miserable trudge.  I talked to several other racers and met a few folks on the course so it was fun to hear other’s stories and meet new people, but I would have preferred to hit my running stride and gotten to the finish about an hour earlier than I did, which is what I had planned. 

Rather than a PR day, it was one of my slower races and a disappointing performance but then again it was the first race of the season and a good test of my fitness level and my preparation.  I finished in 7:56, just under 8 hours but an hour before the last racer arrived so I was happy to not be last.  I came in 20^th in my age group which also made me happy.  I think there were 30+ in my age group.  I haven’t gone back to check but I will. 

I managed to run across the finish line and as I did my parents yelled out to me and waved.  That, I think, was the better part of the day.  I had felt bad making them wait so long for me.  They are 78 and 80 and thinking about them waiting in the heat for me to cross the finish line, I felt pretty guilty.  What the heck was I doing?  But they were smiling as I crossed and proud that I had made it and sympathetic about the heat.  They seemed completely okay with spending a few hours waiting for me and pleased to see my medal and to know I’d yet another race under my belt.  My family calls me nuts but they also seem pleased to see my outcomes. 

I keep asking myself what the heck I’m doing, you know?  I mean at 58, here I am acting like I’m 20 years younger and spending time and money on a sport that will never result in any sort of financial gain that I can see.  Perhaps my Level 1 coaching certification will pay off and I can inspire other women my age to consider tackling these challenges.