By Nolan Karlitz
For a long time – pre-race nutrition has been a mystery to me, however this was up until a few months ago. Looking a few months back, before I had a race I was uncomfortable with my ability to process large quantities of food prior to racing. I think the uncomfortability stemmed from not wanting to have bad stomach aches while in a race, so therefore I decided not eat before but this only led to further issues.
The issues that stemmed from not eating were things such as cramps and low energy during the race. The way I would describe not eating before a race is like burning an oil lamp without the kerosene. You see when you start the race without having food in your body it’s fine because it’s a quick amount of energy you need to use however. Like an oil lamp without kerosene the flame burns down the wick too fast just like how when you don’t feed yourself before a race you burn your energy into a caloric deficit.
Well no one wants to eat a heavy meal before a race. What I will advise doing is eating smart, this does not mean carb loading on pasta for a week prior to the race. I actually would advise doing anything but that because the week prior to your race shouldn’t be a rest week it should be lower in volume but you shouldn’t have any days off that you wouldn’t normally have off. The same goes for food, eat as you normally would but what I would advise is eating the nutritional aids you would typically use in a race while in your training.
For example if you plan on using any GU’s you would then take them during practice or your training. The reason for this is due to the factor of when your body is not used to digesting large amounts of glucose and carbohydrates at once that’s like sending a nuclear bomb into your digestive system, however when you load into those nutritional aids what that does for you is allow your body to learn how to best digest those aids.
Although what I would advise doing with your water intake and electrolyte intake is don’t focus on using electrolyte powders and the reason being for this is normal human beings consume a lot of sodium so you don’t really need an extra thousand milligrams of sodium unless you’re training for two and a half plus hours and being a sweaty two and a half plus hours.
I also wouldn’t advise electrolytes for anything where you’re not really using an intense amount of effort, for example something like a lifting session.
So let’s get into the real topic of what to eat pre-race. For me I like to eat things that are heavy and carbs because carbohydrates are good for quick energy just like glucose which is also a key factor of my pre-race nutrition.
Don’t take this personally but calling eating donuts carb loading is not pre-race nutrition. A better alternative to this would be eating oatmeal which is heavy in carbs will keep you full during the race and topping it with berries and syrup for added glucose.
You should also eat something with a small amount of protein because I’m not really trying to digest protein at this point. That will be a post race goal, so I might eat something like yogurt topped with granola.
You should aim to eat this food 3 to 5 hours before my race, getting myself enough time to digest my food but still have energy for the race. Then followed up into the two hours till the race I would be consuming a law of water with electrolytes.
I strongly want to express that I am not a nutritionist in any sort, I’m not telling you what to eat or what you think about eating, I’m just stating what works for me. What I would suggest doing is trying different things before your race and taking note of how they worked. For example if you looked at some of the things I do and you tried that and it works for you that’s great but if it doesn’t that’s perfectly normal because we’re not all the same. If you are concerned in any way about how your nutrition is affecting your physical health that would be a conversation to have with a nutritionist.
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