Post Ironman Race Food

This will take some experimenting and I can almost guarantee your eyes will betray your stomach.  Those pieces of pizza look oh so good, but they’ll make you keel over 30 minutes later.  Perhaps not, your stomach may be made of iron and you can handle such things, but it is probably best to avoid cheezy, meaty, greasy options either way.  You’ll be hungry, and rightly so, but start slow and only eat a few bites of simple foods for the first 30 minutes.  After that you should have a good idea of how hungry you really are and whether or not your stomach can handle the junk foods you are lusting after.  Focus more on getting your hydration back in check as this is generally the source of potential problems.  V8 is an excellent recovery drink, as is Ultragen from First Endurance. Both are packed with electrolytes and all sorts of good nutrients.  Ultragen contains high doses of Amino Acids(broken down protein for easy digestion), Glucose to quickly replace lost reserves.  If you are super organized the night before you can make yourself a recovery smoothy with good fats and easily digestible protein. Keep in mind you just had the hardest workout of your year so why fill your body with crappy food right away.  Give your muscles what they need to recover…then reward yourself later in the night or the following morning.   That 3:00 am desire to get to IHOP or Denny’s is not worth fighting!!