Fuelling your Training Sessions

Written By Kim Manunui

Do you want to know how to fuel yourself effectively during training so you can get fitter faster?

Eating and drinking carbohydrates during endurance exercise will improve performance by about 10%.

Consuming carbohydrates during training will improve the quality of training sessions, meaning that you will get fitter faster. Furthermore, consuming carbs during these sessions also means that you are increasing your ability to tolerate carbs during exercise, which means you can have more carbs on race day.

So how much should I consume?
About 80g of carbohydrates per hour! This takes some building up to, so start easy, and slowly increase as your training progresses. If you’ve never used carbs before, it might be a matter of having just one gel, or using a sports drink that contains carbohydrates.

What foods provide carbohydrates?
Do you prefer gels, bars, lollies, or real food? Do you like carbs in your drink? Or just water? You need to have figured this out prior to event day so you know exactly what you are having. There are advantages and disadvantages to each, so you may need to trial a few different options to decide what works for you.

So what does this look like in practise?
You should take your first hit of carbs after about 20 minutes, and then every 20-30 minutes after that. You will likely tolerate the food better in small, frequent doses, rather than one large amount every hour.

What about fluid?
Your fluid intake depends on a few factors, so it is difficult to make recommendations for a large group. I recommend a minimum of 600mls per hour during exercise, and more on warmer and humid days, longer training sessions, and if you are naturally a heavy sweater.

Fuelling for exercise is an intricate topic so feel free to get in touch for a free chat to see if more personalised advice is a good idea.

Kim Manunui

Hi, I’m Kim and I work with a great team to help individuals, as well as small and not so small businesses get their message, product and services to the world using digital media and creating wonderful websites that don’t cost the earth.

I was born in Canada, and grew up around Vancouver and the mountains of British Columbia. My love of pristine environments led me to New Zealand and eventually to the mountains, lakes and rivers of the central North Island which is home. My family’s heritage is here, and it’s from here that Korio traverses the planet.

The digital world is never static and neither are we.

And I say ‘we’ because I work with an awesome group of talented people who I gather together as required to complete a project.  Whatever your business, not-for-profit or individual needs are we gather the best team to get the job done.

Collaboratively we are creative, share sustainable values and work hard for great outcomes because that’s the buzz of satisfaction that drives us.

If you have an audience and market to reach, we can make that happen. Creative design, words that work and smart behind the scenes stuff that cuts through the online noise. We’ll design your website and then build it. We’ll manage the content as well as all your hosting needs. We can handle your online advertising so you get noticed,
and we’ll manage your social media presence so you get the clicks, likes and engagement to grow your business. All within the budget you set, because none of this needs to cost the earth.  And the job doesn’t stop when your website goes live. We are your virtual business partner.

https://www.korio.co.nz
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