Essay Sample on Open Water Swimming: Training & Competition Nutrition

Introduction

Open water training and competition nutrition recommendations are an extension from pool swimming recommendations or extrapolation from other athletic competitions containing the same physiological requirements. The main focus of competition nutrition should be to optimize glycogen stores and prerace hydration. Mostly, for short races, swimmers' self-supplied fluid and fuel should help them in the competition. However, in the case of long runs, feeding on pontoons should help in body fuel and fluid replacement. Exposure to ambient temperatures and variable water is a critical factor that determines race nutrition techniques.

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Recommendations During Training

Since open water swimmers complete vast volumes of labor at high aerobic concentrations (VanHeest et al., 2004), they have substantial vitality demands. Female swimmers energy recommendation (23 MJ/day) for those practicing large volumes of training (17.5Km/day) (Trappe et al., 1997). Also, during these high training volumes, muscle glycogen stores get challenged, thus the need for nutrition strategies that will aid in glycogen replacement. Open water swimmers should aim for massive carbohydrate intakes (approximately 6-10g/Kg body mass), especially during training weeks, and then use regulated glycogen replacement strategies (Burke et al., 2014).

Prerace Nutrition

Indigenous carbohydrate store protection is vital to performance. By combining high rates of using carbohydrates and decreasing chances of consuming exogenous carbohydrates makes swimmers optimize muscle glycogen stores before competition commences.

Energy Requirement During Race

During long races, the muscle carbohydrate stores may need replenishing, thus the need for an exogenous source of fuel that will sustain the speed of swimming. Consumption of carbohydrates before and during the exercise can support fuel requirements for the muscles during long races. Glucose is also an essential combination together with the carbohydrates as they aid in body oxidation.

Nutrition Requirement after Competition

Mostly, glycogen stores in muscles get influenced by factors such as status of training, gender, dietary intake, and they get depleted during events that last for more than 90 minutes (Hawley et al., 1997). The use of glucose and fructose improves exercise endurance and also help swimmers to stabilize after a competition.

References

Hawley, J. A., Schabort, E. J., Noakes, T. D., & Dennis, S. C. (1997). Carbohydrate-loading and exercise performance. Sports medicine, 24(2), 73-81.

Shaw, G., Boyd, K. T., Burke, L. M., & Koivisto, A. (2014). Nutrition for swimming. International journal of sport nutrition and exercise metabolism, 24(4), 360-372.

Starling, R. D., Trappe, T. A., Parcell, A. C., Kerr, C. G., Fink, W. J., & Costill, D. L. (1997). Effects of diet on muscle triglyceride and endurance performance. Journal of Applied Physiology, 82(4), 1185-1189.

VanHeest, J. L., Mahoney, C. E., & Herr, L. A. R. R. Y. (2004). Characteristics of elite open-water swimmers. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 18(2), 302-305.