Hi,
This weekend these two absolute beasts are about to compete in the 2024 IRONMAN Men’s World Championships in Kona.
We’re proud to fuel both of these athletes, and we’ve got the scoop on their nutrition strategies for the Big Island.
Magnus Ditlev: The Machine
It’s no surprise that Magnus Ditlev studied Mechanical Engineering. Magnus plans his training and nutrition protocols with a meticulous, methodical approach. It’s mind-bogglingly detailed.
For Kona, he’s created a hyper-specific plan accounting for everything–even climate conditions.
Race after race, session by session, he’s slowly increased his carb intake to a whopping 180g per hour. Every single carb is put to use to fuel his 6’5” frame.
To achieve this high-carb strategy, Ditlev is using Maurten and their impressive hydrogel technology. For the swim, he plans to use a Maurten Gel 160 thirty minutes before the start.
As soon as he’s on the bike, Ditlev switches to fueling primarily with Maurten Drink Mix 320.
He’s an absolute beast on the bike and a beast needs fuel. He plans to consume precisely 2.2L of liquid per hour.
Maurten Drink Mix 320 will continue to propel Ditlev into the run portion. During the run he drops his carbs from 180g per hour to 100g per hour, consuming as he told us, “as much liquid as I can handle.”
Lionel Sanders: The Madman
Lionel Sanders trains like a maniac. It comes with the territory of competing at his level, and part of what makes him so popular with his fans is he tends to take things to the extreme.
He documents and shares his intense training sessions, often clocking 30+ hours a week. However for Kona he has a new mantra:
“Train insane, but undertrain.”
It sounds like an oxymoron, but it’s a fine line that Sanders has drawn for himself. You can see it in his fueling strategy, too.
While Sanders is training high carb, during the race he’s aiming for a lower 100g per hour “or,” as he told us, “105 if I’m feeling good.”
Before he’s in the water, similarly to Ditlev, Sanders will have a Maurten Gel.
As he starts pedaling, Lionel will fuel with a combo of Skratch, Maurten Gels for carbs and 10+ bottles of water.
For the run, Lionel is back to Maurten Gels and consumes 1 bottle of diluted Skratch drink mix every 5k. He also swears by a “sip of Coca-Cola” for a boost of caffeine 1 hour into his run.
Who will prevail? Watch these two titans in the 2024 IRONMAN World Championship this weekend, and celebrate with a special deal:
Save 33% on Maurten Gel 100 boxes and Mortal Hydration bags—the official on-course nutrition of IRONMAN.
This rare offer won’t last long, so grab it while you can!
The Feed.
