yourself before and after a session. (One kilogram of weight loss is equivalent to one litre of fluid.) Once you know your sweat loss you can prepare your fluid-replacement strategy for training and races.Pre-planningFor an event such as Ironman Nice ensure

If transition is triathlon's fourth discipline, nutrition should be the fifth. Making fuelling mistakes could mean your race ends in disaster. And the longer the event, the more critical your food and drink strategy becomes. But it's not easy

Q. I want to practise my nutrition for race day but my trainer says I should wait until a few weeks before the race so I get the maximum benefit - is he right?A. It's imperative that you experiment during training to find out what will work best

With three disciplines to consider, it's easy to make mistakes when you're eating and drinking during training and racing. That's the bad news. The good news is that it's easy to avoid triathlon's common nutritional pitfalls if you plan ahead

. "Training rides are prime opportunities to practise race-time eating and drinking strategies," says Eberle. Once you discover a winning formula, you'll approach your next triathlon with a foolproof plan.Change it: Test new foods on shorter rides before

Being vegetarian doesn't mean you have to compromise on performance. Anecdotal evidence suggests that a vegetarian diet for endurance athletes is by no means detrimental. However, an athlete who consumes a poorly planned vegetarian diet may

morning meal: the fat-phobic suggest skipping it until after your session; those planning a long session fuel up like builders; and those close to a race search for the perfect winning fuel.Whatever you're doing the idea is to keep your muscles

to the bowl of pasta you were planning for lunch. You don't need a nutritionist to tell you that refined, processed foods such as cakes, biscuits and pastries have little nutritional value, but many complex carbohydrates are also refined, which complicates

brain, a proper nutrition plan may take a back seat.But proper nutrition is central to your training and to race success. By fuelling correctly and ensuring you're hydrated before, during and after training, you will perform and feel better and still