Vendée Globe nutrition: what Pip’s eating on-board
Before Pip set sail in this year’s Vendée Globe, she worked with Resilient Nutrition to design an on-board meal plan that would help her boost performance and general wellbeing at sea. Greg Potter, PhD, co-founder and Chief Science Officer of Resilient Nutrition, began working with Pip on her nutrition, sleep, and strength training in the spring of 2020. Here he shares more about Pip’s race preparation and Vendée nutrition plan:
“We had a number of semi-structured online interviews in which I found out more about Pip’s nutrition including what she was eating, how much she was eating, and when she was eating. The approach I take is to try and identify the smallest and most doable changes that are likely to have the biggest positive effect on the desired outcome.”
For Pip, that was focusing on increasing her protein intake, explains Greg: “Pip wanted to build muscle mass during the lead up to the Vendée Globe so we looked at how we could increase Pip’s protein intake and the quality of it, given that Pip is on a pescatarian diet. One way we did that was by adding more protein to her lunch in the form of one of our Calm & Rebuild Long Range Fuel pouches. We did a series of other things to improve her nutrition too; Pip is partial to an espresso relatively late in the day, so we reduced her caffeine intake to improve her sleep quality. We also addressed a couple of things that are particular to Pip. She had low iron stores, so she has been taking an iron supplement. She is also taking magnesium, which can have positive effects on metabolic health. High doses also tend to push things along the digestive tract.”
Greg and the team worked with Pip during the spring and summer, with Pip tracking her nutrition and daily food intake in a spreadsheet that was routinely monitored and adapted. Alongside her meal plan, Greg also designed a strength training programme, which involved a number of muscle and strength-building exercises spread across three to four sessions a week. All of this preparation culminated in the creation of a menu plan for the race itself. As well as looking at the fundamentals of Pip’s nutrition, Greg says there was a huge focus on the race environment, which has its own challenges and demands:
“Preparing a meal plan for an event like the Vendée Globe, you have to consider the total mass of food you’re taking, how easy it is to cook, and the nutritional issues that emerge from largely relying on freeze-dried foods. We looked at macronutrients, starting with protein requirements. While what is an ideal protein intake depends on your goals and other factors, a good rule of thumb is 1.6g of protein per kg of bodyweight per day. So we targeted that amount in Pip’s menu plan, including high-quality protein sources distributed evenly between meals and snacks.
Next looking at carbs and fat, what is ideal depends on the sport and the person. For Pip we had to consider so many things - the nature of her activity being so unpredictable, the requirements of easy to consume nutrition, and more, so her diet is mixed - the amount of calories she consumes from carbs and fat is pretty similar.
When people are at sea for a long period, they’re prone to nutritional holes, and if they can plug those holes with some simple supplementation then they can support performance. Pip is taking a multivitamin and multimineral product split into two doses - one for the morning and one for the evening. The way she is consuming Resilient Nutrition’s Long Range Fuel is also optimised to time of day; she is using Energise & Rebuild Long Range Fuel in the morning, which has caffeine and L-theanine to support alertness and decision making. Later in the day she is using Calm & Rebuild Long Range Fuel which has the herb Ashwagandha in it, helping her ability to cope with stress.
Another aspect we looked at was the timing of her nutrition - Pip’s schedule is quite variable, so Pip tried to focus on regularising meal timing as there’s quite strong evidence to show that more regular meal patterns can improve appetite control and metabolic health. We’ve also included 15g of fibre per 1,000 calories because fibre is so important for gut health and blood sugar regulation. Her menu is based on whole foods and we’ve constructed it with long-term health in mind, not just relying on sugar-based processed products for short-term performance.”
Some of the food Pip is consuming while racing
When preparing a nutrition plan for any athlete, Greg mostly focuses on three things: the event peculiarities (e.g. Pip has no fridge), the biological demands of the event (Pip’s activity is intermittent and distributed across the 24-hour cycle), and the needs of the individual. For the Vendée Globe in particular, he believes the role of nutrition is about so much more than physically supporting performance, it can support mental wellbeing too:
“It’s important to consider the role nutrition plays in boosting morale at sea; for Pip the prospect of a hot meal at 11pm when in the Southern Ocean is conducive to making her feel better about life when things are hard. The psychology of eating has also impacted on what Pip took with her - if you have 100 days’ worth of food bags and you know there’s an item in each one you love, then during those times you have lapses in self control (which is inevitable when your sleep is disrupted), you could easily find yourself rummaging through those bags... that’s why Pip decided not to take any chocolate with her. Instead she has foods in there that are still really tasty but are based on whole foods - the Long Range Fuel will give her her coffee and chocolate fixes, while dried fruit and nut bars will also help satisfy her sweet tooth.”
Greg is working alongside Aparito to track Pip’s wellbeing at sea (the Smartsheet dashboard displays key insights, from the number of steps Pip’s taken to the amount of calories consumed) and says there needs to be more research on female athletes taking part in endurance sports:
“There’s hardly any data on the effects of endurance sports on female athletes or the different nutritional requirements of male and female athletes. If you look at the history of research on nutrition or on biological sciences in general, much of it is focused on men (or male animals) - Caucasian men in particular - so we need to diversify our research to better understand needs of women. Nutritionally we know there are some key differences in male and female athletes - how males and females use different sources of energy (on average women get relatively more of their energy from fat than men) and of course you have to consider the female cycle and losses, so female athletes will need different amounts of iron, for example.”
Greg also explains that the daily intake requirements of male and female athletes is generally different, and he believes consuming enough calories will be Pip’s biggest challenge while she’s competing: “If you look at events like the Vendée Globe, people typically lose a lot of weight, and changes in weight come down to energy balance (how many calories you consume versus how many you expend). Pip has already mentioned she is struggling to eat enough food and that is somewhat inevitable when her body is under so much stress in such an environment.”
While Pip has been placed on a very specific diet based on her individual biological requirements and the event she is competing in, Greg says there are a couple of simple things most athletes can do to improve their nutrition and thereby their sports performance: “While everyone is different, two good starting points for most are consuming 1.6g protein per kg of bodyweight per day and not consuming any calories two hours before planned bedtime.”
Download a free copy of the Principles of Resilient Nutrition e-book by clicking this link.