The Swim Meet Buffet

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Swim enthusiasts across the U.S. have a fabulous opportunity this summer to watch their favorite athletes compete in the U.S. Olympic Trials and the 2008 Olympics. These competitions will span days, if not weeks in length. Many of the competitors will be swimming multiple times during the competition with some competing many times each day.

The obvious standout when it comes to competing in multiple events is eight-time Olympic medalist Michael Phelps. In 2004, Phelps became the first Olympian since 1980 to win eight medals at a single Olympics (six gold and two bronze). Fast-forward to the 1997 FINA World Championships where he again made history, winning seven gold medals – and in the process he broke five world records! Granted, three of the eight events Phelps is aiming to medal in are relays, but five individual performances over the course of eight days is no small feat. Assuming he advances to the finals in each of his respective events, he could swim as many as FOURTEEN races over the span of eight days! So how do swimmers like Phelps and a myriad of other collegiate and professional athletes manage to have enough gas in the tank to put out record-breaking performances, with often just a matter of hours between events?

Competitive swimmers are unique in that they are often required to swim many events over a relatively short period of time. Looking at this from a nutritional perspective, this presents a series of challenges:

What should I eat before the race so I can have enough fuel, but not have an upset stomach?
How long before the race should I eat?
After the race, what and how much should I consume if there is an hour between events? What if there are two or three hours?

If our digestive, muscular and cardiovascular systems each worked independent of one another, we wouldn’t have a problem. Immediately before and after each event, the competitive swimmer could simply overload on quality nutrition to be sure his fuel tanks were topped off leading into the next race. Filling that tank is what each athlete is trying to do, and finding that fine line between taking in too many calories (that could cause gastric distress) and not enough (which would leave them with an energy or hydration deficiency); it is a skill in and of itself.

There are as many different strategies as there are athletes, but the common denominator is eating often, but in relatively small portions throughout the day. UNC Wilmington swimmer Tucker Waldron can attest to this, as he recently placed fifth in the 100 fly at the CAA Championships. He knows exactly what it takes to fuel properly throughout a collegiate meet and he shared some insight into what his strategy looked like:

"To effectively race over a period of days, our coach has us eat many light meals throughout the day to make sure we consume enough calories to have energy to race. During the CAA championships, I basically ate a small portion of scrambled eggs for breakfast, a turkey sandwich for lunch and pasta for dinner. We also had some very light snacks of dried fruit mix and almonds, and drank diluted Cytomax or Accelerade and water between events.”

Another effective strategy is replacing the snacks with exclusively liquid calorie sources throughout the day. This plan is gaining popularity among coaches and athletes as they become increasingly well versed in the most current methodology and research. When calories are consumed in liquid form, they empty from your gut significantly faster than a similar calorie meal in solid form. As an example, if an athlete has ninety minutes between races, many coaches recommend aiming for a calorie intake somewhere between 100 and 200 calories. An athlete could consume one or two bananas in that timeframe (a banana has roughly 100 calories), or he could take a one-ounce/100-calorie energy gel such as GU or Accel Gel, along with some electrolyte replacement drink to ensure hydration levels are maintained. The latter method would put him at or above the 200-calorie threshold, yet the liquids would exit from his digestive system much more quickly than a similar caloric profile of solid food, such as a banana.

The quicker these calorie sources are absorbed into your system, the quicker they will be available for your muscles to use in the next race. In addition, the last thing you want to have sitting in your gut while poised on the starting blocks is a partially digested banana! 

These elements are not only important when racing multiple times in the same day, but even more so when there are maximal race efforts on subsequent days. No fewer than eight published studies have confirmed the benefit of a proper post-race nutritional plan incorporating both proteins and carbohydrates. The results of a 2003 study which were published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research (17:12-19, 2003) reported a 66 percent increase in the time to exhaustion during the subsequent high-intensity training or racing when a beverage containing both carbohydrates and proteins was consumed during or immediately after the respective race.

The key to having a well-executed swim meet is having a strategy planned out well in advance. Swimmers create a game plan when it comes to starts and pacing and there needs to be a similarly well-thought-out strategy when it comes to nutrition. Just as you practice stroke mechanics, starts and turns, you also need to practice this nutritional strategy.

The purpose of this nutritional rehearsal is to avoid the unexpected, so when the meet rolls around, you’re not simply doing what your teammate does – as it may or may not work for you. Something as simple as having your planned calories on the pool deck and periodically consuming them to see how it sits for you is great. This is another reason so many athletes rely on liquid calorie sources, as they allow you to keep hundreds of calories in a water bottle which can be consumed little by little throughout a workout with minimal interruptions. There’s no better test on the digestibility of a calorie source than consuming a portion of it and then pushing off the wall for another set of 50s. If those calories stay down in the middle of a high-intensity set, you know they will sit well when you have 30, 60, 90 minutes or more between races.

With that, the key takeaways leading into your next swim meet:

1. Plan Ahead:
    a. Calorie replacement: Have a planned calorie replacement strategy that you’ve successfully experimented with.
    b. Fluid replacement: Have a planned fluid replacement strategy, as proper hydration plays the biggest role from a nutritional perspective. You won’t even perceive a one percent calorie depletion; conversely, just a one percent decrease in hydration can cause as much as a 10 percent decline in performance.

2. Bring your Calories/Hydration With You. As we touched on in Part 3 of the Nutritional Pitfalls series, don’t expect your special calorie or hydration needs to be readily available at the event. If you know you perform well only with a special flavor of energy gel or fluid replacement drink, bring it with you. It’s highly doubtful that Phelps, Hoff and the rest of our Olympians will be relying on local Chinese cuisine to fuel them through the Olympic Games, so take a page out of their books: don’t rely on what may or may not be available at the meet.

The winner of a race is determined by coupling natural talent and thorough preparedness. You have no control over how much ability Mother Nature bestowed on you, but you do have complete and utter control over how well prepared you are going into your next event. As such, get on those starting blocks leaving no stone unturned and knowing exactly what you’re going to consume the second your fingertips hit the wall as you advance to the next round!

Brian Shea comes to Competitor with a wealth of experience in endurance sports as both an athlete and coach. He has been competing in all levels of endurance sports from 5K to Ironman to Ultra-marathon, including the Ironman Hawaii World Championships with a 9:31 personal best. On the coaching side, he is a certified coach and has worked with athletes ranging from beginners to professionals formulating training and sports nutrition programs for over 15 years. Brian is also the President/Owner of www.PersonalBestNutrition.com, a nutritional supplement resource specifically catering to the needs of endurance athletes, and he can be reached at Brian@PersonalBestNutrition.com.

Photo courtesy of TYR Sport 

Comments & Feedback

moemen  - thnx |Posted on: 10.06.2008 thnxxxxxxxxx

moemen  - thanx |Posted on: 10.06.2008 thnxxxxxx

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