For events or training sessions lasting longer than an hour, carbohydrate consumption during the activity is mandatory. If you don’t consume carbs, you run the risk of depleting your muscle and liver glycogen stores. When this happens, your blood glucose level drops and you end up “hitting the wall.” This is probably what happened to you at mile 10. When you deplete your glycogen stores and can no longer maintain your blood glucose level, your body is forced to slow down or even stop.

The solution is to consume carbs regularly throughout exercise. For endurance activities, like a marathon or marathon training, liquid or semi-solid forms of carbs, such as POWERBAR® Endurance sport drink and POWERBAR® Gels, are usually tolerated better than solid carbs.

Typically, during sessions lasting longer than 2 hours, the need for carbs is about 45 to 90 grams per hour of activity. This would equate to about 2 to 3 POWERBAR® Gels per hour, or about 21 to 42 fluid ounces of POWERBAR® Endurance sport drink per hour. Both the POWERBAR® Gels and POWERBAR® Endurance sport drink are formulated with PowerBar C2 MAX optimized carb blend – based on the research tested 2:1 blend of glucose to fructose that maximizes fuel delivery to working muscles and improves endurance performance.

Try the gels with a few mouthfuls of water or the sports drink during your training sessions. In fact, they can be used interchangeably during exercise if you prefer. Both will provide the necessary carbs and sodium to help you perform at your best.

The other factor to consider is hydration. Dehydration and over-hydration can also decrease your endurance and have serious adverse effects if allowed to progress unchecked. The latest hydration guidelines call for athletes to hydrate based on sweat rate. If you’ve not yet performed a sweat rate test, the PowerBar Sweat Rate Calculator can guide you through the simple process. You will perform at your best if you remain in your hydration zone during exercise. That means avoiding weight gain due to excess fluid intake, and losing no more than 2% of your body weight due to fluid loss.

In summary, POWERBAR® Endurance sport drink and POWERBAR® Gels taken with water can provide the fluids, carbs, and sodium you need to keep you well-fueled and hydrated during endurance training and events.

Congratulations, this is an excellent regimen to build your cardiovascular fitness, maintain a healthy weight, and to build and maintain lean tissue.

Before exercise suggestions:
It’s always a good idea to ensure that you are fully hydrated going into a workout. Consuming 16-20 ounces of water a few hours before working out and another 6-10 ounces in the hour before exercise should be sufficient.

Forty-five minutes of cardiovascular training won’t put you at serious risk for running out of glycogen fuel stores. So, you don’t need to be too concerned about the pre-exercise meal. Instead, eat for comfort and to ward off hunger about an hour or two before exercise. Products like the new POWERBAR® Energize bar that's made with real fruit, POWERBAR® Performance bars and POWERBAR® Gels are convenient and portable high-carb snacks that may be helpful when your access to other foods is limited. Avoid high-fiber and high-fat foods just before exercise as they are slow to digest and can cause gastrointestinal distress during exercise.

For your weight training workouts consume some protein just prior to and after your workout. It doesn’t need to be a large amount – 10 to 20 grams of protein will suffice. This will help your body repair muscle tissue damaged during exercise and help with the building of new lean tissue as an adaptation to your training.

During exercise suggestions:
The biggest priority during your workouts is to hydrate. You can do that with plain water or a sports drink. If you’re training in hot or hot/humid conditions, a sports drink like POWERBAR® Endurance sport drink is the preferred option because of the sodium present. Consuming sodium along with fluids during exercise helps your body better gauge how much fluid you need. Also, adjust your fluid intake to your sweat rate and be sure that you don’t lose anymore than 2% of your body weight during exercise due to fluid loss. To determine how to calculate your sweat rate, use the PowerBar Sweat Rate Calculator.

After exercise suggestions:
If you don’t plan on exercising again for 24 hours or more, you can fully recover simply by eating your normal foods and beverages. If you want to speed recovery, consume some carbs within 30 minutes of finishing your workout - about 0.5 grams for every pound of body weight is sufficient. And if you didn’t consume 10-20 grams of protein prior to your workout, consume that amount as soon as possible after working out. If you want the convenience of PowerBar products to help promote recovery, POWERBAR® Recovery beverage and POWERBAR® Recovery bar are options to consider. Finally, be sure to gradually drink a sufficient volume of fluids after exercise to get your body weight back up to your usual pre-exercise weight.

There are different kinds of muscle cramps. Localized muscle cramping that is attributable to fatigue or doing too much for your level of conditioning can be relieved by stretching, ice, and massage.

“Heat cramps” seem to be different from the garden variety “fatigue cramps.” Heat cramps occur during prolonged exercise in hot conditions and may have more to do with large losses of fluid and the electrolyte sodium due to heavy sweating. Heat cramps often start out as twitching in the calf or quadriceps. You might notice it during a break in training or play. However, within 20 to 30 minutes the symptoms increase to full-blown cramps where a few muscle fibers contract at a time and then it spreads or seems to wander to nearby areas.

Athletes who suffer these types of cramps tend to have extreme losses of fluid and sodium when exercising in the heat. Losses of other electrolytes like potassium, magnesium, and calcium through sweat do not seem to be the issue, as they are lost in much lower amounts than sodium and the losses are usually easily replaced through a normal well-balanced diet.

So, your muscle cramping could be hydration-related heat cramps if you have a heavy sweat rate when working out in the heat, or you notice that salt seems to collect on your skin. If that is the case, you might experiment with the following strategies: Monitor your weight during exercise sessions to ensure that you’re not losing too much fluid, and hydrate with a sport drink that provides sodium such as POWERBAR® Endurance sport drink. Or, if you want fluids and electrolytes, but with fewer carbs and calories, try the new POWERBAR® Electrolytes drink mix during your next workout. After exercise, drink 23 fl oz of fluid for every pound of weight you lose during exercise and make sure to consume sources of sodium at the same time. For instance, POWERBAR® Recovery beverage and POWERBAR® Endurance sport drink provide both fluids and sodium. Salty high-carb snacks like pretzels are good sodium sources as well. Finally, if heat cramps do recur, at the first sign try consuming a high-salt solution such as half a teaspoon of salt (3 grams) mixed into a 20 fl oz bottle of water.

POWERBAR® Performance bars are ideal as a before exercise snack. They provide the necessary carbohydrates to help fuel her muscles, yet they are low in fat so they will digest quickly. This helps to prevent stomach upset during exercise. Consuming the Performance bar about an hour before she starts swimming should allow adequate time for digestion. It’s also a good idea to encourage your daughter to consume about 16 ounces of water or a sport drink, like the POWERBAR® Endurance sport drink in the hour or two before practice. This will help to ensure that she starts her workouts well hydrated.

Since she trains for about two hours at a time, she can benefit from consuming carbs during periodic breaks in her training. Generally, carbs in liquid or gel form are better tolerated during exercise than solid carbohydrates. One option for her would be to keep a sport bottle filled with POWERBAR® Endurance sport drink on the pool deck for quick access when she takes breaks. Another option would be to have her consume one to two POWERBAR® Gel packs per hour with water. Both the sport drink and the Gels will provide the necessary carbohydrates to help stay fueled during her long workouts.

Finally, following her practices your daughter will benefit from the right combination of nutrients to promote optimal recovery. She has a number of product options available to her depending on her taste preferences and desire for fluids versus solids. POWERBAR® Recovery beverage, POWERBAR® Recovery bars, POWERBAR® ProteinPlus™ bars, and POWERBAR® Nut Naturals all provide carbs, protein, and sodium to jumpstart the recovery process. These products can be put right into her swim bag for immediate and convenient consumption after exercise.

A typical high school cross country event is a 5k or about 3 miles in length, and the majority of participants finish this distance within 20-25 minutes. In shorter-duration endurance events like this, the most important sports nutrition advice is to be fully recovered from prior workouts. That means starting the race well-rested, fully fueled, and fully hydrated. Being fully recovered is the focus because the race itself won’t be long enough to seriously tap muscle fuel stores if they were replenished to start with, and won’t lead to overt dehydration if your daughters were fully hydrated at the start of the race. Thus, attention to rehydration and a diet rich in carbs after workouts in the week prior to the race is what’s needed.

On the day of the race, the focus should be on staying hydrated and eating comfortably to top off carb fuel stores. Nerves may be an issue, in which case easily-digested liquid carb sources may be better tolerated than solid foods. Low-fat versions of yogurt, puddings, and flavored milks, and plain bagels work well before a race. Avoid high fat and high fiber foods before a race as they are more slowly digested and can lead to stomach upset during the race. Pre-race meals are usually best tolerated 2 or 3 hours before racing. For early-morning races where a pre-race meal isn’t feasible, a carb-rich snack can help keep hunger at bay and top off glycogen stores. PowerBar® Endurance sport drink, PowerBar® Performance bars, and PowerBar® Gels are all excellent sources of easily digested carbs that can be used as part of the pre-race meal or as a carb-rich snack leading up to a race. In hot and humid conditions, efforts should be made to replace sweat losses that occur prior to the race.

Finally, your daughters’ pre-race hydration and fueling strategy should ideally be something that they test and perfect during after-school training so they have it dialed in before a meet. Make sure they bring their trial-tested sports nutrition foods and beverages to school for consumption before practices and in their travel bags for meets. Finally, consider suggesting to the coach that a team captain or parent organize appropriate foods and beverages for away meets, so that everyone on the team has the right fuel and hydration to be their best out on the course.