A recent abstract regarding carb intake during endurance events
You can check out the abstract to the article here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/21775906/
So, basically, the study showed a couple things of interest:
1) More carb (CHO) intake does correlate to higher GI issues and flatulence.
The Importance: That you need to practice during training. The more you practice, the more you will be comfortable with ingesting calories during your event.
2) Triathletes took in more calories during their events (on a relative basis) than runners and cyclists.
The Importance: I feel like triathletes are meticulous about every detail. I feel like they realize how much nutrition during the event will play a role in their outcome. There’s no science here, just my observance of my triathlete wife and her friends…
3) Performance increased with CHO intake levels.
The Importance: This just is more evidence that calories need to be taken in during the event and at fairly high level to optimize endurance performance.
