Friday, September 30, 2011

Chrissie Wellington takes a tumble 10 days before Kona

 


Simon says: -

As far as I understand it, Chrissie got a flat front tyre as she was cornering and the rest I'll leave to your imagination and the pictures. She says she'll be racing which is great news and showing her true British Dunkirk Spirit. Looks like she won't be doing much swimming in the build up though.

My money is still on her cleaning up in emphatic style. One might say that she's a real good sport, leveling the playing field and giving the other girls a chance. On the other hand how humiliated will they be when she nukes them days after a bike crash?

She's an awesome lady whichever way you look at it - Go Chrissie Go

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

World Road Cycling: Mark Cavendish and Britain win road race title

(Courtesy of the BBC)
Mark Cavendish has become Britain's first male world road race champion for 46 years as his team rode a near-perfect race in Denmark.
The eight-man GB line-up ignored all breakaways to control the peloton over the 266km course, delivering Cavendish to the finish in ideal fashion. Cavendish exploded across the line in a bunch sprint, ahead of Australia's Matt Goss and German Andre Greipel.

"It was incredible, we took it on from start to finish," said Cavendish.

"I can't believe it. We knew three years ago when this course was announced - we put a plan together to put these best guys together.

"It's been three years in the making and you just saw they rode incredibly. I'm just so proud.

"The biggest goal next year [is the Olympics] and I hope we can make it a world and Olympic double."

The 26-year-old's victory is the first world road race success for a British man since Tom Simpson won gold in 1965.

Cavendish is also the first rider since Belgium's Freddy Maertens, 30 years ago, to win both this race and the Tour de France green jersey in the same year.

His team, guided strategically by David Millar in the absence of radio communication, spent much of the race playing a restrained waiting game as all kinds of attacks developed around them.

An early seven-man break settled into an advantage of around seven minutes around the flat Copenhagen course in the opening 100km, with Britain, chiefly Chris Froome, leading the chasing bunch.

Belgium's Johan van Summeren led a separate five-man group clear of the peloton at the 150km mark as the race kicked to life earlier than many had expected.

A crash in a narrow portion of the course involving France's Blel Kadri caused further havoc, leaving some 20 riders - among them Frank Schleck and defending world champion Thor Hushovd - temporarily trapped as service cars and mechanics struggled to reach them.

As the race progressed at a fierce pace, Britain's tactics became clear: a reluctance to get riders into the moves being made off the fractured front of the group, in favour of an ambition to control proceedings throughout.

Few other nations saw fit to help their watching brief, and GB found themselves policing the peloton - hauling it forward and keeping it together - for almost the entire race.

The breakaway evaporated inside two laps from the finish while Froome, Steve Cummings and Jeremy Hunt fell away from the British train after expending vast sums of energy earlier in the race.

Bradley Wiggins, the world time trial silver medallist earlier this week, produced a superb stint at the front before handing to Ian Stannard and Geraint Thomas for the very closing stages.

Thomas threw a panicked look behind him as Cavendish looked in danger of becoming boxed-in as they reached the finishing straight. But the Manxman accelerated away in trademark style on the right-hand edge of the pack to secure victory.

"At the start of the season I said I had two goals: the green jersey and the rainbow stripes," said Cavendish. "Now I get to wear the rainbow bands for the next year.

"The team all rode out of their skins today. It's a shame they can't wear the world champion's jersey as well. I've won the jersey, but I just put the finishing touches to the mission. "The Olympics is different, because you've only got five riders and the course next year will be more difficult than here. "But I'm going to prepare as best as I can for it."

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

USA Reform Bill - FUNNY but some good suggestions

(Courtesy of Nick Flynn)

Friday, September 23, 2011

How to Qualify for Kona – A Plan for the "Realist"

(by Alan Couzens, MS (Sports Science) courtesy of www.endurancecorner.com via http://www.urban-ninja.co.za/)


Last week I talked about the different improvement curves that I’ve observed for different types of athletes. I identified three basic athlete types: the natural, the realist and the worker.

As part of our new “How to Qualify for Kona” section that recently kicked off, I’m going to put some of those observations into the context of what it means to different types of athletes looking to qualify for Kona.

In a previous article for the Training Peaks site I conveyed some of the typical chronic training load ranges that I tend to see for athletes of different types and ability levels. The table from that article is reproduced below.



The times that qualify an athlete for Kona are getting faster by the year. The 2010 ranges for flat (Florida, Arizona, Brazil) and hilly courses (Lake Placid, CdA, St. George) for differing age-groups and genders is shown below.



So, comparing the two tables, if you’re a young(ish) male, you’ll likely need the fitness level represented by a VO2max/VO2 score of 60-67ml/kg/min* corresponding to a Chronic Training Load somewhere in the 75-150 TSS/d range. If you’re a young(ish) female, you’ll need the fitness level represented by a VO2max/score of 57-60 ml/kg/min* corresponding to a CTL somewhere in the 70-130 range.

*I am using VO2max here as a general indicator of fitness here, but in reality the components of ironman fitness necessary to qualify are more complex and multi-faceted. I elaborate on some of these factors here.

As I conceded in the training load piece, these are some pretty big ranges! In hours per week terms, we could be talking about an average training week as low as 10 hours or as high as 25 hours per week! This is where last week’s article on different athlete types comes in. There will be a fortunate 15% who can sign up for one of those “Get to Kona on 10 hours a week” plans and actually get to Kona on 10 hours a week! If you’re one of those athletes, you can close your browser; this piece isn’t for you. But for the vast majority of us, Kona level fitness is going to be take more – a lot more! If we convert these CTL numbers to hours: a chronic load of 18-20 hours week of easy-steady training for five or more months prior to the event.

Think about this, two-and-a-half to three hours a day of training, eight to 10 hours of work/commute, eight to 10 hours of (necessary) sleep, eating, bathing, etc., is going to lead to five or more months of very structured living and not doing much else. It is no coincidence that those who qualify typically have atypical work or family situations. Kona qualifiers have different fitness levels to the rest of us generally because they have different lives to the rest of us.

According to VO2max data from the Cooper institute, Kona qualifiers are in the top 0.5%-.0025% of the population when it comes to fitness. In other words, if you’re a young (college age guy) and we randomly sampled 200 folks from your dorm, you would consistently be the fittest. Taking this a little further, if you’re a 40-something guy living in a pretty good-sized town of 40,000 people, you’re the fittest guy in town! This kind of stat doesn’t happen without living a little differently to those 39,999 folks who have more “normal” fitness.

Faced with such stats, it is tempting to pull the genetics card, but based on what I’ve seen, genetics isn’t the limiter, at least when it comes to getting to Kona level fitness. The vast majority of folks respond to training load quite similarly and most of us have the potential to reach a very high level of fitness. As I suggested in the previous article on athletic types, for 70% of folks, if they do the work, Kona is within reach but setting up your life to do the work is another matter and for many it is far easier to attribute the limiter to genetics than to make the required change.

Merely setting up your life to have the space to fit in five months’ worth of 18 to 20 hour weeks of training in your Kona build isn’t enough. The realist knows that even with the life space to fit the training and sufficient attention given to recovery, you can’t just get up off the couch and throw down one 18 to 20 hour training week after another. You also need a fitness “base” to pull this off. So you’ll want to factor in a period of preparatory “training to train” weeks, progressively building up the fitness to tolerate the back to back big weeks that will comprise your Kona build.

Based on my experience, most folks coming in from normal active fitness levels are going to need to both be generally fresh and healthy (that is, come into the hard training unloaded), and have a base fitness of five to six months of preparatory training in the 12 to 15 hour range to tolerate those 18 to 20 hour weeks of your “get to Kona” push. If you’re coming from below normal fitness (less than 45 VO2) you’ll probably need another five to six months of preparatory “get in shape” work before even beginning the “train to train” period.

Additionally, we both know that your chances of putting together 20 or more back to back weeks in the 18 to 20 hour range without recovery isn’t good. You’re going to get tired and need some recovery weeks sprinkled in to your Kona build. In fact, if you manage a ratio of 3:1 loading to recovery weeks in the context of a 9-5 job and family life without getting sick or injured you’ll be doing very well! So that five months of specific training, more realistically becomes six or seven months.

Adding it all up, the realist should be planning for:
  • Six to 12 months of uninterrupted, consistent “basic training” to get ready to train for the event.
  • Six to seven months of focused “specific training” directed specifically towards your (first) Kona push.
This is harder than it sounds. Think about how many ways life can get in the way over a 12 to 18 month period…
  • You start a new job/your work commitments increase beyond the 9-5.
  • You start a relationship/end a relationship/have relationship issues
  • Your family commitments increase
  • You get sick/a family member gets sick.
  • You get injured.
  • You move
  • You go on vacation
  • You race too frequently (and have too much time for each devoted to taper and recovery)
  • You/your significant other plans a home improvement project!
It only takes two weeks of disrupted training (or disrupted recovery) to lose a significant amount of fitness. Any of the above could lead to that. Any more than one of these interruptions over the course of a six month period and maintaining fitness will be a best case scenario. The realist doesn’t fight this, is aware of a certain level of unpredictability in life and is committed to “as long as it takes.”
That said, the realist is also going to be inherently aware of the consequences of inconsistency and is going to control the controllable and whatever they can to avoid the above and put together at least a couple of relatively uninterrupted seasons where their training load is limited by their level of fitness not by life circumstance. Gordo wrote about some of the proactive ways to enhance life stability in the intro article to the "How to Qualify" section.

Also, the realist is going to realize that there are no guarantees. While a VO2max of 60-67, a threshold of 85% and metabolic fitness of 4-5kcal/fat/min are all likely going to be necessary to qualify, they are not in themselves sufficient. You need both the fitness and a good day on an appropriate course to pull it off. In other words, you may need to put together more than one of these builds before high fitness and a good day coincide!

In my way of thinking, it is the combination of these factors (physiological, life and race) necessary for ironman success that make up the beauty of ironman racing. We’ll go into some of these additional factors that maximize your chances of qualifying in coming articles.

Until then…

Simon says: -
An interesting read for us aspiring Kona qualifiers. Takes a lot doesn't it?

Talking Australian Clock'

(Courtesy of Ian Hay)

Proudly showing off his newly-leased downtown apartment to a couple of friends late one night, a drunk Manuel led the way to his bedroom where there was a big brass gong hanging on the wall.
'What's that big brass gong for?' one of the friends asked.

'Issss nod a gong. Issss a talking Australian clock' Manuel replied drunkenly.

'A talking Australian clock - seriously?'

'Yup.' 'Hmmm (hic).

'How's it work?' the second friend asked, squinting at it.

'Just watch' he said.

He picked up a hammer, gave the gong an 'ear-shattering bash' and stepped back.

His two mates stood looking at one another for a moment in astounded silence.

Suddenly, an Australian voice from the other side of the wall screamed, 'For f*#k's sake, you stupid pri*#. It's ten past three in the f*#king morning!!!'

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Felonious Munk Presents: Stop It B! OBAMA PAY YOUR &*%$#% BILLS

(Courtesy of Ian Hay)

Simon says: - oh yeah baby! Say it the way it is.

A glorious weekend in Beijing

(Courtesy of the BBC online)

A glorious weekend in Beijing has ensured Britain enters its home Olympic Games with both the male and female world champion triathletes.

The news gets better. Not only do Alistair Brownlee and Helen Jenkins now hold the world titles, Alistair's younger brother, Jonny, came second in the men's event.

Meanwhile, Britain's U23 men raced to a one-two-three as the 2011 season reached its climax at the sport's grand final in China.

But for the unwitting intervention of a stray dog, the team's results could have been yet more impressive.

When I ask the man in charge of Britain's triathletes why his team have become such a dominant force, it transpires the stray dog is an analogy for the entire sport.












"The Olympics are 11 months away and we're in a strong position," says Malcolm Brown, British Triathlon's Olympic performance manager, who is in China with his victorious squad as they celebrate.

"But think of it like this. Lucy Hall, one of our junior women, was leading her race here when a dog ran into her path and knocked her off her bike.

"The life of an athlete is full of stray dogs and you have to know how to deal with them when - and if - you see them."

Two world champions and a conveyor belt of younger talent implies those metaphorical dogs are safely on the leash for now.

Brown boils Britain's success down to three things: triathletes using their brains on the course, the governing body using its brain off it, and ensuring that developing athletes get the right coaching at the right time.

He has form with the latter. In 2002, the former endurance running coach for UK Athletics was dabbling in a little part-time coaching at the track when a father turned up with his two teenage sons.
As Brown remembers it, the man pointed to the taller boy and said: "This one is a good cross-country racer but after 200m he's always at the back. Can you make him faster?"

Gesturing to the shorter boy, the man added: "Don't worry about him. He's a footballer."
Alistair Brownlee would have been around 14, and Jonny two years younger. Brown enlisted the help of his colleague and triathlon coach Jack Maitland and, over the next decade, the pair not only made Alistair a bit quicker, they turned Jonny's head from football (if not Football Manager) and transformed them into the two finest male triathletes on the planet.

Brown looked at running and conditioning for the brothers while Maitland, who won the Everest Marathon in 1999 and remains the only non-Nepalese man in the list of its fastest times, concentrated on swimming and cycling. With time, the pair added physios, strength and conditioning coaches and so forth to reach the current staff of seven or eight, including a full-time manager, who prepare the Brownlees for races.

This is important because the Brownlees, alongside Jenkins, have set a precedent which has become the template for Britain's top triathletes.

Rather than basing themselves in a single centralised venue, like British Cycling's Manchester velodrome, the very best British triathletes are allowed to form their own staff and training bases. The Brownlees use Yorkshire and Jenkins uses Bridgend.

Triathletes in the UK earn the right to do that by finishing in the world's top eight, establishing themselves as a "podium athlete". But the system is flexible and, if athletes outside the top eight are prepared to accept a funding cut, they too are allowed to opt out of the sport's centralised programme. The likes of Tim Don and Will Clarke have done this and are known as "affiliate athletes", who can train elsewhere but still use British Triathlon's facilities as they see fit.

This leaves the centralised portion of British Triathlon - based in four centres, primarily Loughborough - free to focus on nurturing younger talent. A team of coaches with visiting specialists helps to prepare the next generation, such as the trio of U23 men who swept the Beijing podium, to follow in the footsteps of the Brownlees and Jenkins.

Matt Sharp, for example, overcame several years of injury trouble with the Loughborough centre's help, particularly its medical and sports science capabilities. He is now the newly crowned U23 world champion after leading home team-mates David McNamee and Tom Bishop in Beijing.


Yet with serious money to be made for high-profile senior triathlon victories, if Sharp goes on to establish himself in the world's top eight he may look to follow the Brownlees and strike out away from Loughborough. It is not a perfect system and some triathletes believe they have been unfairly treated by it, but it is more fluid than many others and seems to work for the sport.

"If you take the Brownlees, they're born and bred in Yorkshire, went to Bradford Grammar, used to cycle to school along the towpath, do cross-country at school, and swim at Leeds swimming club in the morning," says Brown.

"That whole environment has supported them. They've got great running trails there, an excellent physio, good coaching and good education opportunities in the city - they're both Leeds and Leeds Met university graduates.

"If you say to them: 'Right, now we want you to move to some central venue,' the amount they have to give up - which makes them happy where they are - is huge. It's a huge risk. Why would you take that risk?

"The success of Helen and the two Brownlees enabled British Triathlon to feel confident that they could invest in and around talented athletes training with high-quality coaches in different places. You need individual arrangements for individual athletes within an overall framework of support, direction and stability."

That support gets the athlete to the race. Then, during the event, intelligence becomes the ultimate cog in the machine.

Brown sees triathlon as the most complicated of sports and wants athletes capable of thinking for themselves during the race, because making the correct decisions in the heat of the moment accounts for a large degree of the difference between, say, the Brownlees and the rest.

"Triathlon demands a substantial number of judgement calls: whether to follow a bike break or not, who are those guys up the road, will I go alone or will people come with me? In the run, what are my strengths and weaknesses and what do my rivals think they are? A lot of it is knowing yourself as an athlete," he says.

"If you're trying to create a world or Olympic champion, you have to create an environment where the individual athlete weighs up the circumstances, makes calls, and more often than not gets them right. That is what we have tried to do, and you can only do that by seeing them fail occasionally, or stepping back as a coach when you could provide the answer. It comes down to trusting the athlete."

Triathlon in Britain is healthy at all levels. Beyond the Olympics, Chrissie Wellington has become a legend of the sport with back-to-back-to-back world titles over the punishing Ironman distance.

Amateur membership in the UK has more than doubled in five years, the sport's own figures show, with race starts - numbers taking part in recognised races - up 10% in the last year alone to more than 130,000.

Brown, however, is not convinced this increased pool from which to draw can only mean more British success in future.

"The sport's burgeoning internationally," he counters. "The Germans have got a great set of juniors at the moment on the men's side, while the Aussies have some fantastic female athletes.

"We really have to raise our game. But we've got a platform to do that. If we can keep stray dogs off the path, we'll be OK."

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Too old to run, think again, just don't tell the wife!

(Courtesy of Marathon Talk and Mail Online)

A 90-year-old man who has been sneaking out and running half-marathons has been caught out - after a neighbour told his wife they'd seen him on TV.

Wilf Cooper has secretly raced in six events - after telling wife Sylvia he was just going to stand on the sidelines.

Mr Cooper has run half-marathons throughout most of his 80s - and is still planning one final race, even though his wife has learned his secret.

The former Special Boat Service man was 83 when he ran his first half-marathon. After telling Sylvia, his wife of 67 years, that he was going along to help as a steward, he laced up his trainers and completed the race in a respectable three hours, 11 minutes and 36 seconds - and hasn't rested on his laurels yet.

But Mrs Cooper, who also celebrates her 90th birthday later this year, learned of her husband's double life after a neighbour tipped her off.

She said: 'He told me he was going along to put up barriers and help with the race. 'I only found out he ran it because the neighbour told me they'd seen him on the television. He was in the doghouse that day, I can tell you.'

Mr Cooper once sneaked out to race even after dislocating his shoulder and breaking his ribs in a fall on the stairs. His wife added: 'I do worry about him. He had a heart attack about 20 years ago - but it doesn't stop him.'

Mr Cooper, from Lockleaze, Bristol, said: 'I always like the feeling you get from exercise. I stay fit to stay healthy. I've got a static bike and a rowing machine and a few weights. 'I also go up and down the stairs 10 times and I do that three times a day.

'I like to run for a local charity, St Peter's Hospice, because I had a friend that had cancer who received a great deal of care from them. 'I raised £1,200 last year from my secret jaunts and the most I ever raised was £1,690. I'd like to beat that this year. 'Even though the wife now knows my secret and will be less than impressed, I want to race one last time as I think my bones are ready to creak.'

The couple, who have seven daughters, 14 grandchildren, and 11 great-grandchildren, met at St Johns Parish Church, in Bedminster, when they were both 14.

Monday, September 12, 2011

Danial Nainan - Racism at its best

(Courtesy of CK Chew)

Simon says: -

This is a must watch, funny as hell. It had me belly laughing out loud in the office.

Friday, September 09, 2011

Slots for Melbourne Ironman


Simon says: -

I received this email today. If you missed out on entering Melbourne (it was sold out in 5 minutes and 5 seconds!!!! Wow who'd have thought that?) Anyway, you can still get in by the looks of it via goadventureasia.com



"Entry slots for Ironman Melbourne are now available from Go Adventure Asia.

All general entries for the Ironman Melbourne event were sold out in five minutes and five seconds, making it the fastest-selling Ironman race in the history of the sport!

As part of the Ironman Asia-Pacific Travel network we have limited slots available for Ironman Melbourne in combination with hotel package.

Please see the link below.

http://www.goadventureasia.com/IMM/imm.htm

Kind Regards,

Go Adventure Asia"

Thursday, September 08, 2011

Xterra World Championship Course Preview



Simon says: -

Oh dear, it looks like I'd better get Baby out and learn how to ride her. She hasn't seen any off-road since I qualified. NERVOUS? I should be!!! DENIAL? Probably for the best haha

Wednesday, September 07, 2011

Stomach Shutdown

(Courtesy of Joe Friel's blog http://www.joefrielsblog.com)

Simon Says: -
Mmm, this sounds familiar!

One of the common problems of triathletes in long-course races and runners in marathons is “stomach shutdown.” This commonly happens starting around half way into the bike leg or sometimes as the run starts in a triathlon. Marathoners may also experience it about half way into the race.

When the stomach shuts down the feeling athletes experience is that nothing they take in passes through the gut. It just sits there causing a bloated and sometimes nauseous feeling. The most common method for dealing with this is to slow down and quit taking in anything until the bloating and nausea subside. Vomiting sometimes helps. When the bloated feeling begins to let up athletes will usually try plain water to see how that is processed. If that works then they gradually increase the effort as more substantial food sources are reintroduced. But by this time race goals are usually too far gone and motivation begins to subside.

Why me?

So what is “stomach shutdown” and what causes it? Assuming the cause is not medical—such as irritable bowel syndrome or vagus nerve damage—the cause more than likely is related to a mismatch between effort and fuel volume or the variability of intensity throughout the early portion of the bike or run. Also generally involved in both of these possible reasons for stomach shutdown is taking in fluids based on some sort of contrived “hydration” schedule. Learning to drink when you are thirsty will resolve this and make such schedules pointless. (I have athletes treat fluids and calories as two separate items in the race, but that’s a whole other discussion I’ll do another day.)

Another common confounding element is the type of food consumed during the race. Fiber-rich foods are slow to digest. Some athletes even have trouble using protein in a sports drink since it slows digestion. As more stuff is put in your gut (water, sugar, protein, fat, electrolytes, fiber, vitamins, minerals, etc) your digestive system is challenged to process it. You will eventually reach the tipping point if you keep taking in what you are told is “necessary” by brand marketers or what seems to work for other athletes and the stomach will shutdown. For long endurance events, the only things that are truly necessary and have been shown to be effective are water and sugar.

Possible Solutions

The best way to deal with this problem is to prevent it. Prevention starts long before race day. In the last 12 weeks prior to the race you should have been doing some racelike workouts in which your planned race-day nutrition was tried. To be “racelike” the workout has to be about half the duration of the race and done at the planned race intensity. Race intensity is the key element here. Rehearsing a nutrition plan at less than race effort is of little value. Try your eating plan in a C-priority race, especially one that’s about half as long as the A-priority race. A racelike workout or actual race should give you a good indication of what may or may not work on the day of your A-priority race.

Even this doesn’t always prevent bloating, however, due to other factors such as a nervous stomach or even swallowing too much ocean water during the swim. So the solution is to use only what you need while staying on the conservative side. If in doubt, eat and drink somewhat less. Plan to take in the lower end of the amount of food you think will be needed—not the most amount. And don’t try anything on race day if you haven’t done it successfully many times before.

Pre-race nutrition can set you up for a stomach shutdown, also. Have breakfast no less than 2 hours prior to the race start. Three hours is better. Eat only what has worked in the past. This also should have been rehearsed at least twice in the last 12 weeks. In the last hour before the race take in nothing but water. Ten minutes before the start use a sports drink or gel with water that you carried to the start line.

Here’s the most important part: If you have a tendency for stomach shutdown start the race slower than you feel like you could go. Much slower. Hold back. Be patient. Do not start the race anaerobically or even close to it no matter how great you feel. I’ve seen athletes anaerobic in the second mile of the bike leg of an Ironman. And they still have 110 miles to go. I’ve heard marathoners gasping for air at the mile 1 marker. What are they thinking?

Let’s look at it this way: If you were walking a marathon very slowly you could eat a Big Mac, French fries, and a milkshake. No problems. But if you were running a one-mile race as fast as you could go it would difficult for your stomach to process a sip of water. So effort is closely tied to digestion. They must match. If you go faster than rehearsed in the early portion of the race but take in fuel and fluids at the rate that worked at a lower effort in training then you have set yourself up for a stomach shutdown. Fuel volume and effort must match.

In a related cause, the athlete may start at an appropriate effort but frequently throughout the race he or she surges as other athletes pass or hills are “attacked.” Success in long-distance events generally requires very little intensity variability. Using WKO+ software we can now measure variability when racing with a power meter or GPS device. What I look for is a variability index (VI) of less than 1.06. I once viewed a triathlete’s Ironman file and saw that he had a VI of 1.25. That’s what I would expect to see in a bicycle criterium with lots of surges out of corners. This not only causes the stomach to shut down, it also wastes energy. He DNF’ed.

Bottom Line

So if you are prone to stomach shutdown some possible solutions are:
•Determine a pacing plan for the race, rehearse it, and then follow it—especially at the start of the race.
•Match the pacing plan with a nutrition plan which you have also rehearsed at race effort.
•Have a pre-race meal several hours prior to the race and take in nothing but water in the last hour—until 10 minutes before the start. And do not over drink at this time. You aren’t a camel. Drink only to satisfy thirst (it works, regardless of what marketers have told you).

•Use only foods and drinks that you have rehearsed at a racelike effort for a long duration many times. These foods should be low in fiber, known to not significantly delay your digestion, and are proven to work for you even if you go slightly too fast at first—because, unfortunately, you are likely to do that even though you know it’s wrong.
•Do not surge in the race. Ride or run at steady effort with only gradual and slight increases for hills.