Another Nutrition Question

I've done a 2.25 mile swim 6 times. In this swim, you typically pick up a personal kayaker and they ahve drinking water and gatorade. One year the Kayaker had no water and had sports drinks with artificial sweeteners. I drank lake water (until 10 years ago, it was the town's drinking water.). The swim was hard. Since then, I stuff a couple of York Peppermint patties into my jammers and that sugar makes a difference. If you work out in a pool, you could see how you do with distances with and without nutrition.

What do you eat before swimming? That plays a factor into what you may need during the swim. Also, how long do you think it'll take you to do the 5 miles?

At what distance do I need to starting fueling up or seriously considering nutrition?Think more about time than distance. Also consider if you are racing or just swimming. For me if I’m racing then I’ll feed if the event is longer than about 90 minutes. If I’m just swimming then I’ll feed if the swim is longer than 2 hours. When I feed I typically take 16-20 ozs. of fuel every 30 minutes. Most people typically schedule their feeds for every 15-30 minutes when they have a personal escort. For events with feeding stations, I suggest take some fuel at every feeding station for events over 1 hour.

I usually eat a banana, peanut butter and coffee an hour and a half before I swim. I swam the Peaks to Portland 2.5 miler in late July in 1:10. So I am guessing that I'll do the 5 miler in about 2:30 or ? But it's not a race and I am hoping to just complete it. The swim is in a decent sized lake in northern Vermont in late September, just an fyi.

Mike and Rob have great advice above. For me, I generally will eat one or two PB&Js before a long swim about an hour before to get the hard calories. Anything longer than about 90 minutes, I'll pack a gel (I like Huma since they're not full of processed sugar) in case the energy flags a bit. Stay hydrated, especially if you're in a warm environment/warm water. You don't realize how dehydrated you can get until it's too late.

It really depends upon you. I've known people to get by on a big bowl of oatmeal an hour-plus prior to a 10k. Also depends upon the water temp, air temp, etc. If you have time to practice, do that. Throw some Gu or PB packets in your jammers; if you feel yourself start to drag, eat one. Drink up a lot of water prior to jumping in. You can pee while swimming! (Good skill to have for marathons anyway.) Know thyself, swimmer. :)

The swim is in a decent sized lake in northern Vermont in late September, just an fyi. What swim is up here (I live in northern VT) in late September?

That's a very beautiful lake, have a great swim. Let me know if you need a support kayaker, I'm glad to help. There are other options, such as Green River Reservoir. No motorboats allowed so it's really peaceful and spectacularly beautiful, and probably warmer than Willoughby if that's a concern. I swim there almost every day. A small group of us do 1 mile loops around a tiny island called Blueberry Island and leave our feeds on a well situated rock (circling back to your original post).

It's nothing formal, I just needed a lake that was about 5 miles. I'm sure you're familiar with Lake Willoughby. I have a goal of swimming 5 miles by the end of the summer, it's close enough.