Thrive: The Vegan Nutrition Guide to Optimal Performance in Sports and Life

fuel. For example, while training for Ironman, it is important to include bike rides that last six hours and longer, to become better at using fat as fuel and depending less on glycogen. The fitter the athlete becomes, the more efficient the body will be at burning fat, allowing the athlete to increase the intensity of the workout while still using fat as fuel. The ultimate goal is to race at a high intensity while burning fat, thereby eliminating the possibility of running out of energy and “hitting the wall.”
     
    Before longer endurance workouts, it is important to take a balanced approach to nutrition. Consuming food that provides a combination of complex carbohydrate, fat, and protein will prolong endurance. Before a workout that lasts four hours or longer, I’ll eat Performance Banana Pancakes (recipe, page 128). I also eat them before a long hike, walk, or even just a day that involves prolonged ordinary activity.
     

nutrition during exercise
     
    One objective I set for myself during exercise is to never become thirsty or hungry. Knowing that I’ll feel the onset of thirst at about the 20-minute mark, I’ll be sure to drink 15 minutes into exercising. During workouts projected to last longer than 90 minutes but under two hours, I’ll have a sip of water every 15 minutes. I apply the same method to eating while training. In exercise sessions exceeding two hours, I’ll be sure to consume easily digestible nutrients as well, about every 25 minutes. For this, I have developed a number of sport drinks (recipes begin on page 122) and energy bars (recipes begin on page 226).
     

sport drinks
     
    Sport drinks are one of the sport-nutrition industry’s biggest commercial successes. Now as mainstream as many colas, sport drinks are one of the most popular beverages in North America. Making electrolytes and simple carbohydrate readily available in a palatable, easily consumable form, sport drinks serve their purpose. Designed to provide electrolytes to athletes losing them through sweating, sport drinks significantly reduce muscle cramping and spasms, and in doing so improve performance.
     
    Sweat consists of water and electrolytes (electrolytes themselves consisting of several minerals; see Glossary). Simply replenishing water without also replenishing electrolytes can create an imbalance and even lead to a condition known as hyponatremia. Also known as water intoxication, hyponatremia can develop when a person drinks too much water. It is most common among athletes who try to properly hydrate in the days prior to a race yet overdo it and flush electrolytes from the body. Milder symptoms include muscle twitches and cramping; more serious ones include heart palpitations and blacking out.
     
    Because they supply the athlete with simple carbohydrate to fuel working muscles, sport drinks have become a fixture on the athletic scene. Unfortunately, many contain artificial color and flavor and are loaded with refined sugar in an attempt to make them more palatable during intense physical exertion. This, of course, means that drinking them during exercise is actually undesirable. Interestingly, many “sport drinks” on the market are not intended to be consumed during intense exercise: They are simply flavored sugar water, marketed with a sporty image to nonathletic people. The manufacturer’s chief concern is making the drink taste good, and the tastes of a person sipping a beverage while inactive are often quite different from those of a person undergoing physical exertion. A light, slightly sour, even bitter taste is often more palatable during exercise, since flavor receptors alter when the body is exerted, and slight tartness is frequently perceived as refreshing. As well, drinks that taste good cold will often taste too sweet when at room temperature or warmer, making many commercial so-called sport drinks impractical.
     
    The concept of the sport drink is an excellent one. The low-grade ingredients in most commercial versions, however, do not equate to excellent functionality—again prompting me to make my own.
     
    Even before sport drinks became popular in North America, a more basic yet much healthier version existed in Brazil. Coconut water, which I discuss in more detail in Chapter 5, page 152, has been used by Brazilian soccer teams for several decades. It has been drunk in many tropical and subtropical parts of the world for centuries. Rich in electrolytes and therefore valuable for the