Its all over the internet……
The sad, yet incredibly heart warming footage of Alistair Brownlee helping Jonny over the finish line on Sunday.
But why did this happen?
Surely a pro triathlete of this level shouldn’t find themselves in this situation, in a very important race?
But perhaps more importantly, how can you make sure it doesn’t happen to you!
Firstly, let me give my view on what happened:
We know it was very hot and humid which is something that the Brownlees apparently don’t deal with well. Being British and living most of my year cold, I understand this!
Jonny got his pacing slightly off – he went out too hard.
He has according to the BBC though said that he was not well fuelled enough.
I am not 100% sure what he means by this but I suspect he didn’t take in enough fluids during the race and perhaps didn’t take enough on board before the race.
This could also have been down to an electrolyte imbalance.
For example he took on too much water without enough electrolytes in.
Electrolytes basically help us absorb the water we consume into our cells better.
What about his diet though, could that have had an affect?
Yes – however, without knowing his pre race and intra race nutrition I couldn’t say.
The difference between the pro’s and you and me though is that they will have someone to help them with this and hopefully for Jonny, make sure it doesn’t happen again.
We are not lucky enough to have such a support network.
My guess is that out of the 12,500 triathletes reading this, a very sizeable proportion have experienced a version of what Jonny experienced on Sunday.
And my next guess is, that it will in your case have been down to poor nutrition pre race.
Perhaps even poor nutrition during your training season, i.e – pre training and recovery.
What is sure, is whether you have experienced the dreaded bonk or not, you do definitely NOT want it again.
If you’ve fixed your nutrition – STOP reading.
If not, read on:
You see, how we burn energy will be affected by our day to day habits.
For example by consuming a diet higher in good quality fats we can improve the bodies ability to burn fat for fuel during racing and training.
Why is this beneficial?
Because fat is a very rich source of energy, which in short will prevent the bonk!
It is also a slower burning form of energy so for example, if you complete in long distance events you will predominantly burn fat BUT….
Not if you keep taking on gels and we all know the effect of that – dicky tummy anyone?
So a good diet rich in fat will allow your body to access the fat stores you need in training and ultimately competition but not if your diet is rubbish.
So…..
You need to fix it!
Thats why I wrote my E book – The Triathlete Nutrition Code:
It’s like a eating manual for the triathlete.
Full of recipes which are tasty but more importantly it teaches you how to set up the perfect diet for you.
And all for £9.99 (14 ish USD)
Jamie “No excuses for a bonk” Leighton