Lady triathletes have benefited from the scientific and nutritional advances made in sports and athletics like most innovative athletes. Age old sports difficultnesses like low energy, cramps and injuries have not been cured, but the answers to why they take place and how to try and prevent them are ultimately being answered.
Glycogen
There are times when all women triathletes experience what is known as a “bonk” or bonking. Despite the funny name or double entendres that one may think of, it is not much fun when you experience bonking, it involves you totally running out of energy or hitting the proverbial “brick wall”.
Triathletes bonk because their body uses up it is glycogen reserves from physical exertion and this results in a sentiment of no energy, continuing your physical action becomes like running through quicksand.
How your body burns glycogen and stored fat calories depends on the amount you have exerted for the duration of a race or training session. If you are doing a hard triathlon workout for an hour on an empty stomach, then you will more than likely end up experiencing a “bonk”. If on the other hand you are doing a more moderate one-hour training session without eating anything, your body will use stored fat and glycogen and you will still have sufficient reserves to get you through.
Professional athletes learn to train their bodies to apply stored fat primarily, rather of only their glycogen reserves. Using a monitor, they detect their heart rate while training in respective heart rate zones, they may then determine how their bodies react in dissimilar conditions and intensities and learn the amount of energy they need to achieve their best performance and how to burn their glycogen and fat at dissimilar ratios.
The intermediate woman triathlete may not be a professional, but they still need to prevent an energy deficit for the duration of a triathlon race or training. First of all, using a proper healthful triathlon designed nutrition plan is paramount, and likewise making sure there is always a good supply of energy gels and invented sports drinks available to compensate the deficit in glycogen reserves will make sure that you get to the end of your race or training session.
Dehydration
Even non-athletes constantly listen counsel from doctors in regards to drinking sufficient water to prevent dehydration and other health problems.
The intermediate person consumes when it comes to 1.5 gallons or more of water per day in normal bodily actions and respiration. If you are training with the intensity necessitated to take portion in a triathlon, then your water usage level will increase, and it is commended that you drink at least 4oz of water each 15 minutes.
Most triathletes and other athletes must drink at least one water bottle for each hour of exercise they do, and even more when they are racing.
Never wait until you are already thirsty before you drink water. Thirst is our body’s built in alarm for dehydration, and good hydration will have to be practised even if you are not thirsty.
Hydrating your body for triathlon workouts and races must commence days before the planned activity, and if you are training multiple times a day proper hydration is even more important. Dehydration causes your blood to thicken and forces your heart to work harder to pump the blood around your body, you will have a higher heart rate and your exercise performance will decrease. Dehydration may also result in muscle cramps that may mainly affect your athletic performance.
Hyponatremia
Apart from bonks and dehydration, triathletes may also experience Hyponatremia, an electrolyte disturbance where the plasma has a lower concentration of sodium than normal. During training or racing in a hot climate, the body sweats excessively and loses a outstanding amount of sodium which results in muscle cramps, nausea, headaches, vomiting, disorientation and slurred speech.
Ironman athletes are prone to Hyponatremia because of the extreme nature of the event. Many pro triathlete women fight sodium loss by taking salt tablets which do not just replace sodium in the body but also aid the body in the absorption of water.
The good thing for the intermediate triathlete is that much of this type of exploration is available to anyone, and the remedies and preventative measures are not costly treatments but simple things that are basically “tricks of the trade”.
Most of these simple remedies have been well field tested to help you push yourself harder and improve your training and race times without any averse affects to your health.
As long as your doctor has cleared you to do triathlon training beforehand and you tell him what diet and supplements you are taking, you ought to be competent to get started testing some of them and tardily become a better woman triathlete.
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