How much should a triathlete eat?
Keeping energy levels high enough to swim, cycle and run through a triathlon is a fundamental challenge facing every triathlete who chooses long-form races. There are a few options for maintaining the necessary hydration and carb concentrations during an intense event like a triathlon: Apart from consuming water, racers can also drink fluids like sports drinks and eat foods like bananas, jelly beans and energy bars and gels. Different triathletes prefer different combinations of race-day fuel, and there are several reasons for that. An all-liquid race-day regime can lead to flavor fatigue — competitors get so sick of the taste of their stock of sports drinks, say, that they avoid drinking them. Too much water in relation to carbohydrates, on the other hand, can make a person hyponatremic (have too few electrolytes) which is also bad. For athletes who stick to the solid stuff, there’s the potential issue of food-related gastrointestinal symptoms, which while usually no more than tempor
