RACE DAY
NUTRITION IS SUCH A BIG PART OF PERFORMING YOUR BEST – BUT!
I found this article and summarised
it for you to read – don’t make any drastic changes at this late stage. If you
need any further information email me your query.
You have about a 2hr gas tank
Very generally speaking, a well
trained endurance athlete has about 1500-2000 calories of glycogen stored in
their body and available as the fire in which to burn fat, our primary fuel
during exercise. In our experience, this glycogen store is good for about
1:45-2.5hrs of exercise for a well-trained endurance athlete. Hold that
thought...
Less is More
"Hey, Body, I want you swim very hard, bike very hard, then run very hard. Oh, and while you're at it, I want you to also eat and process this fancy sports food I'm shoving down your neck."
"Hey, Body, I want you swim very hard, bike very hard, then run very hard. Oh, and while you're at it, I want you to also eat and process this fancy sports food I'm shoving down your neck."
The key verb in that sentence
above is process. Right now, sitting on the couch, your body can easily process
that pizza on the coffee table because you're not asking it to do anything
other continue sitting on the couch. But the harder and harder you exercise,
resources available for processing food become more and more scarce, as blood
is shunted from the stomach to the limbs, hard at work doing the triathlon
racing thing.
The lesson here is that the fewer
calories you eat and ask your body to process during a race, the more resources
your body has available to continue to swim, bike, and run very hard. When we
combine the Two Hour Gas Tank with our "Less is More" guidance above,
we find that the best nutrition strategy for short course racing is a
minimalist, take-in-as-few-calories-as-I-can-get-away-with strategy.
Now that we've set the stage for
you, here is our nutrition plan for short course triathlon racing:
Pre-Race
The conditions you are trying to create before your wave hits the water at 9:30am on Saturday are:
The conditions you are trying to create before your wave hits the water at 9:30am on Saturday are:
- You are
well-hydrated
- If it's going to be
a hot race, you've pre-loaded your body a bit with sodium.
- You've topped off
your glycogen stores, ie, you have a full tank of gas
- Your stomach and digestive tract is relatively empty -- you are now in complete control of everything that goes into it.
Day Before the Race:
- Lunch: your largest
meal of the day. No need to go crazy or eat anything special (a sandwich
or pasta is fine), but eat a bigger lunch so you can have a lighter
dinner, giving your body time to do its thing (see clean digestive tract
above). Lightly salt your food. Drink water all day or, if tomorrow's race
is going to be hot, drink a sports drink instead of water. Don't go crazy,
no need to drink gallons of Powerade!
- Dinner: light, high in carbs, easy to digest.
Race Morning:
While you sleep your body will burn about 800 calories, tapping into that gas tank. Also, it's likely that your stomach will be doing flip flops as you deal with race day nerves. This will slow down your digestion. So we need to top off your gas tank, but give your body enough time to process your food so you can start the race with a relatively empty stomach and clean digestive tract.
While you sleep your body will burn about 800 calories, tapping into that gas tank. Also, it's likely that your stomach will be doing flip flops as you deal with race day nerves. This will slow down your digestion. So we need to top off your gas tank, but give your body enough time to process your food so you can start the race with a relatively empty stomach and clean digestive tract.
HIGHLY recommend you do this by
waking up at 5am and having a very easily digestible breakfast of 600-800
calories. A liquid fruit smoothie is a good example. Then simply go back to
sleep and wake up at your normal time or take time to relax and rest up. That
is a plan that thousands of our athletes have followed. Wake up, eat, go back
to sleep, it WORKS!!
From Wake Up #2 to Race Start
You've got a full tank of gas and you filled it up early enough so that everything should be out of your stomach by that 9:30am wave start. We suggest you eat VERY lightly. Maybe a sports bar while you drive to the race, drink a bottle of sports drink while setting up your transition, maybe pop a gel and slug some water about 30 minutes before your wave. That's all you need, if that...less is more.
You've got a full tank of gas and you filled it up early enough so that everything should be out of your stomach by that 9:30am wave start. We suggest you eat VERY lightly. Maybe a sports bar while you drive to the race, drink a bottle of sports drink while setting up your transition, maybe pop a gel and slug some water about 30 minutes before your wave. That's all you need, if that...less is more.
Sprint Nutrition:
Armed with your Two Hour Gas Tank, you don't really need to take in any calories for a sprint. You've got enough fuel to last through the entire race and, more importantly, the fewer calories you take in, the harder you can race. But if you feel you may want to some calories with you, just in case:
Armed with your Two Hour Gas Tank, you don't really need to take in any calories for a sprint. You've got enough fuel to last through the entire race and, more importantly, the fewer calories you take in, the harder you can race. But if you feel you may want to some calories with you, just in case:
- On your bike: a
bottle of sports drink, about 150 calories for the bottle, BUT you'll be
lucky to drink maybe half of it during the race...you're riding that hard.
- On the run: have a gel tucked into the leg of your shorts. Maybe pop the gel coming out of T2, grabbing a cup of water, and sip it for the first half mile as a tool to help you rein in the horses during the first half mile (see our short course pacing article here). Or grab a cup of sports drink at the first aid station. The simple fact is that with a 5km run, by the time that gel has a chance to do anything for you...you're likely 1 – 2km from the finish anyway.
Bottom line is you just don't
"need" to take in any calories, at all, during a sprint triathlon and
the fewer you take in the harder you can race...or you can fuel yourself with
"maybe" 100-200 calories across the whole event, just in case.
