What to eat and when?

Eat what you usually eat.

Eat a good dinner and then a breakfast your stomach is use to. Don't go nuts loading up on calories.

I usually take a gel before the start of a sprint... but that's mostly because I eat breakfast 2 hours before. Although, I only consume around 350 calories total for both.

Also, the night before, I will eat pasta... but only because I WANT to... not because I NEED to. Really any healthy dinner would be fine.

Eat what you usually do. Nothing new on race day.

And pasta the night before can't hurt, but it won't necessarily help. Carbo loading is about a week to 2 week process.

John

Use a good recovery drink after your next few workouts. It will help get your glycogen reserve level high for the race. That's alone should give you 1500-2000 calories to race with. But I'm no expert. I'm not even sure if I spelled Glycogen right.

Edited by enduropro 2009-08-26 3:25 PM

what';s a recovery drink....like gatorade or powerade?

Again, I'm no expert... but I always believed that Gatorade and Powerade are best to use to keep hydrated before and during the activity and recovery drinks are best used right after.

I swear by Endurox R4 (chocolate is kinda yummy). Run a search here and you'll find quite a bit of info on recovery drinks.

Edited by enduropro 2009-08-26 9:16 PM

I did my 1st 2 tris (both sprints) in the past month.  I opted to stay away from roughage the night before, well, um, because... well you get the point.  Other than that I ate fairly normal.  Roast Beef sandwich, a baked potato for dinner and a only a banana and cliff bar for my last race with some watered down gatorade (straight stuff is way too sweet for me) worked fine for me. I way over thought it for my 1st race and dumbed it down for this one.  My goal was not to upset my stomach, or cause too much turbulance!  Good Luck! Don't over think it. 

I haven't figured out how to do the quote thing, but X2 the sentiment on the Vets helping out us noobs!  Love this site, love you guys!

I'm a big fan of a bagel with peanut butter a couple of hours before you start.  No dairy.  And don't try something new on race day.  The night before I eat something that I digest easily and that won't upset my stomach.

On my first tri- I think I had a clif blok or two before I started as I had eaten pretty early that morning.  And then I took a gel when I got on my bike where I also took in H20. I'm not a fan of gatorade, etc. during a race, but that's my preference (and long learned after some tough half marathons). 

As the other posters mentioned, do what you've done in training.  Your body will thank you for it.

Good luck!!