Wow...how much do you get to eat?

One of the common things I get asked about training for an Ironman is "how much food do you get to eat". So I though I would post an image of my food log. As you follow along with our site you will start to see that many triathlete’s (definitely Dave and I) are Type A personalities.

A few of the Type A characteristics are being impatient, excessively time-conscious, highly competitive, and incapable of relaxation.

So how do I exhibit these characteristics?

• Impatient: I am what I am…I really have very little patience…mostly with myself, but I am working on it.
  
• Excessively time-conscious: I hate being late for anything…I pride myself on being at least twenty minutes early. You know that thing called “The 20” at the movie theater where they show all the advertisements…I usually get to see it twice.
  
• Highly competitive: All I can say is I don’t like to lose and I don’t like being passed on a training ride!
  
• Incapable of relaxation: There is always something I can be doing…like training
  

So by looking at the food diary you can see that I don’t really eat much more that 2000 calories a day plus my workout calories. There are days where I splurge if we workout for more than three hours, but because I am constantly trying to lose a few more pounds I stick to a pretty strict diet.

Workout calories are calculated based on the amount of time we train that day. I typically try and take in 240-300 calories per hour once we exceed a 1 hour day. Once we stop working out, I try to get in a recovery drink like Endurox, Slim Fast or low fat chocolate milk. After a hard cardio workout, you always want to replenish your muscle glycogen levels. It will help increase your next-workout performance and reduces post-exercise muscle damage.