Nutrition: Intro and Pre-Race (from Kevin Chambers)

This blog entry is being re-blogged with the permission of Kevin Chambers (Delusions of Grandeur blog). Thanks for this great information Kevin!

Introduction and pre-race meals

If you are reading this article than most likely you are no newbie to competition.  You probably thrive on the adrenalin that comes from competing despite the fact that before every race you are as nervous as a rabbit with a crack habit.  Commitment to training is not your problem.

The objective of this series is for me to share an intelligent Quick Start guide to a race day nutrition strategy from one age grouper to another.  Few things are more defeating than spending months upon months playing schedule chicken with your family and career so you can train and perform well on race day only to be defeated by dehydration and a lack of (or too much) fuel for your bod. 

I have a young stud masters swim coach who is a pro triathlete and is very studied in all aspects of everything Triathlon.  He is very dialed in to his nutrition and knows his body fat at any given moment.  (Very useful information to know at parties. ‘Hey baby what’s your BF?’) He has a nutrition plan that is very well thought out and organic/gluten free. There are others like Matt Reed who have been observed grabbing bagels and fruit from the hotel continental breakfast as he runs out the door to catch a lift to a race that he would later win.  Then there is Craig Alexander who, prior to 2011, has been interviewed on the topic of nutrition numerous times, and has indicated that the only vegetable he ever eats is a potato.  Nutrition is absolutely all over the board, and one size does not fit all.

Race day nutrition actually starts before race day.  Go figure, right.  Like many others, I do enjoy 1 glass of wine at the end of my day.  Unfortunately this is something I will have to stop in the future because outside of working against your pre-race day hydration, alcohol negatively impacts the body’s ability to recover and heal from a hard workout through depletion of testosterone and HGH from non-quality sleep.  Alcohol pretty much has a negative effect on everything you are working hard to achieve.  (Son of a . . .)

The day prior to your event you want to focus on hydrating smartly.  My personal preference is to alternate drinking water and an endurance formula electrolyte drink throughout the day before.  When your urine is clear or you are urinating every hour, most likely you are over hydrating.  You will also want to back off the NSAIDs (ibuprofen, naproxen etc) because this may contribute to Exercise Associated Hyponatremia (EAH).  What is Hyponatremia?  Low salt level in the body.  Think of it as drowning out the balance of electrolytes in the body that regulate hydration.  Nerves and muscles need this balance in order to function properly.

When I did Boulder 70.3 several years ago I was taking in plenty of water but not enough salt.  My body was literally caked in salt.  I felt like I was running with a basketball in my stomach because all the water had pooled there.  You will sweat out more salt then you will likely take in through a sports drink.  Before your big endurance event, you will need to practice electrolyte replacement while training, to increase your salt intake (and other minerals) in the days leading up to the race, to pre-hydrate appropriately for your race climate, and to ingest salt during the race if the day is hot.

Neither scientific nor real-world evidence supports any kind of exact formula for pre-race meal composition. Instead of one perfect meal defined by a precise number of calories per pound of body weight and so forth, there is a loosely defined collection of pre-race meals that are good enough to do the job.  The importance of the pre-race meal depends on whether and how you fuel your body during the race.

For me, regardless of the distance of the triathlon (Sprint, Olympic, 70.3. . . ), I have the same basic formula for the day before the race:

·         Breakfast: I like to eat a veggie omelet, Strawberries and blueberries, and OJ 

·         Lunch: Salad to contribute to the hydration strategy.

·         Dinner: Moderate serving of gluten free pasta and chicken

I subscribe to the thought process of completing my meal/fuel intake 10 hours before race day breakfast allowing dinner and fluids to fully cycle through the system.  The day of the big dance I try to have breakfast 2 – 2.5 hours in advance of my wave start.  I think every pre-race meeting I have been subjected to has had a segment that talks to newbies and advises 3 hours but I find myself starving at the swim start. 10 minutes before wave start taking in between 4 – 12 oz of an FRD (Fluid Recovery Drink) of Carbohydrates and Protein.  Any earlier and you will urinate that through the system rather than use it for the start of the race.

There are really only two things that your pre-race meal must do. First, it should provide at least enough carbohydrate to replace what your nervous system used while you slept. That’s going to be in the neighborhood of 50 grams, or 200 calories’ worth of carbs. Second, your pre-race meal must not create a risk for gastrointestinal issues during the race. Thus the meal should not be too big, should not include a lot of slow-digesting nutrients such as fiber, and should not be consumed too close to the start of the race.

Meal Clock Example:

Eat Pre-Race Dinner	-10hrs	7:00PM
Eat Breakfast	-2.5hrs	5:00am
Wave Start	Start	7:30am

Before you get crazy loading the bento box and water bottles, you need to understand how much you need to replace in the way of fluids and calories.  

Stay tuned and we’ll talk about that next. . .