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Eating the night before the race
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 2009-09-08 1:38 PM |
Regular  104 |  Subject: Eating the night before the raceAs my first ever triathlon looms this coming weekend I got to thinking about what and when I should eat the night before my race. I know a lot of people like to "carbo-load" the night before the race which can make some people feel sluggish the next morning. What do you guys like to eat the night before the race? What time do you typically have dinner if you're going to be up at 5am to get ready the next morning? |
| 2009-09-08 1:40 PM in reply to: #2394970 |
Elite 7783     PEI, Canada | Subject: RE: Eating the night before the race I eat exactly what I would eat on any other night. No point in upsetting the balance. |
| 2009-09-08 1:42 PM in reply to: #2394970 |
Master 1572 PA | Subject: RE: Eating the night before the race I was taught that breakfast the day before the race is your most important meal. I ate a lot of carbs at that meal, then ate normally the rest of the day, including a totally normal dinner. Breakfast the day of the race is what I would normally eat before training. |
| 2009-09-08 1:44 PM in reply to: #2394970 |
Elite 3471 Evergreen, CO | Subject: RE: Eating the night before the race I switch to less solid food for a couple days before the race -- more smoothies, salads, yogurt, e.g. rather than steak and potatoes. GI doesn't feel full that way and I have never had to stop at a porto potty during the race.... knock on wood. |
| 2009-09-08 1:45 PM in reply to: #2394970 |
Veteran 318 Indianapolis | Subject: RE: Eating the night before the race Nothing too out of the ordinary. I usually have a 6-8 oz. lean steak, and some veggies. That's about it. Prior to the race if I have to be up 3 hours before start time I will eat a very small bowl of instant oatmeal. Inside of 3 hrs, I will only eat a banana. Right before the swim I may eat a gel if I feel like it. Don't eat anything crazy or new. Stick to what you know your system will like. |
| 2009-09-08 1:46 PM in reply to: #2394970 |
Master 1517 Western MA near the VT & NH border on the CT river | Subject: RE: Eating the night before the race Usually I eat something bland, not creamy or spicy. I'll either grill up some chicken or fish w/ a vegetable (spinach usually) and rice or couscous. I also eat earlier than normal. I try and eat around 5, or at least finish my meal by 6, so everything is digested and through before I get to the race. Also, I cant carbo load. I have an intolerance to gluten. |
| 2009-09-08 1:46 PM in reply to: #2394970 |
| Master 1963 | Subject: RE: Eating the night before the race MHO, if the race is on Sunday then Friday night's dinner and Saturday's breakfast are most important to me. I try and eat bigger 2 nights before the race. The night before, I usually have some pasta with sauce on the side but not heaping portions. Don't go to bed hungry and sip I usually sip on gatorade during the day as well. Nothing new before race day.... |
| 2009-09-08 1:49 PM in reply to: #2394970 |
Master 1286 Mt Pleasant, SC | Subject: RE: Eating the night before the race |
| 2009-09-08 1:50 PM in reply to: #2394970 |
Cycling Guru 15134 Fulton, MD | Subject: RE: Eating the night before the race Eat what you normally do. You cannot "carbo load" the way people seem to think - it is a myth. All you would do is stuff yourself and produce a lot of excess fat stores over the long run. To truly carbo load you will need to have taxed/depleted your glycogen stores or "shocked" the system to allow more to be saved up. If you followed a well designed and appropriate plan, then you will be in a taper mode right now and assuming you continued to eat as you had throughout your training, you will have fully topped off your glycogen reserves already by eating normally. Try to avoid foods that historically give you issues (for some that is rich food, for others that is spicy, etc). And if you feel that you must eat on race day for breakfast, do it no later than around 3 hours before the race. In general, eating solid food within 3 hours of a race effort will result in diminished overall performances. Good luck and have fun!! |
| 2009-09-08 1:58 PM in reply to: #2394994 |
| Alpharetta, Georgia | Subject: RE: Eating the night before the race ratherbesnowboarding - 2009-09-08 1:46 PM Also, I cant carbo load. I have an intolerance to gluten. Sure you can! Fellow Celiac here.  You can buy literally any product in a gluten free variety these days. Pastas, breads, crackers, pizza, cookies, beer... you name it. I personally do Mexican the night before a race, but I know not everyone can. Cheese/veggie enchiladas and rice plus chips and salsa. Works very well for me. |
| 2009-09-08 1:59 PM in reply to: #2395003 |
Champion 11989 Philly 'burbs | Subject: RE: Eating the night before the race Daremo - 2009-09-08 2:50 PM Eat what you normally do. You cannot "carbo load" the way people seem to think - it is a myth. All you would do is stuff yourself and produce a lot of excess fat stores over the long run. To truly carbo load you will need to have taxed/depleted your glycogen stores or "shocked" the system to allow more to be saved up. There is research supporting the "no depletion method." Just saying. |
| 2009-09-08 2:04 PM in reply to: #2395039 |
Cycling Guru 15134 Fulton, MD | Subject: RE: Eating the night before the race Only if you have done high intensity work to shock the system within an hour or so of turning into a glutton. And even then, you will only see a minimal increase (say around 5 - 10% or so). Considering we are not talking about a HIM or IM here, there is not even a point to attempting to do it. Even someone doing a 3 hour olympic will barely deplete all their glycogen stores. Edited by Daremo 2009-09-08 2:06 PM |
| 2009-09-08 2:12 PM in reply to: #2395055 |
Champion 11989 Philly 'burbs | Subject: RE: Eating the night before the race Daremo - 2009-09-08 3:04 PM Only if you have done high intensity work to shock the system within an hour or so of turning into a glutton. And even then, you will only see a minimal increase (say around 5 - 10% or so). Considering we are not talking about a HIM or IM here, there is not even a point to attempting to do it. Even someone doing a 3 hour olympic will barely deplete all their glycogen stores. That's not what at least one article I found has to say. Granted this was just a quick Google search.... The No-Depletion Carbo-Loading Method
I'll say that when anyone emphatically states that some common training practice is a myth I tend to head for Google. |
| 2009-09-08 2:30 PM in reply to: #2395071 |
Cycling Guru 15134 Fulton, MD | Subject: RE: Eating the night before the race And you just reinforced what I said ........... People that do not know and understand the process seem to think that simply eating more carbos a few days before the race or the night before makes a difference. As I mentioned, it comes about from "shocking" the system: Subsequently, Ahlborg discovered that the muscles and liver are able to store above-normal amounts of glycogen when high levels of carbohydrate consumption are preceded by severe glycogen depletion. The most obvious way to deplete the muscles of glycogen is to eat extremely small amounts of carbohydrate. A second way is to engage in exhaustive exercise. The stress of severe glycogen depletion triggers an adaptive response by which the body reduces the amount of dietary carbohydrate that it converts to fat and stores, and increases the amount of carbohydrate that it stores in the liver and muscles as glycogen. Ahlborg referred to this phenomenon as glycogen supercompensation. Armed with this knowledge, he was able to create a more sophisticated carbo-loading protocol than the primitive existing method, which was, more or less, eating a big bowl of spaghetti. So you shock your system to supercompensate by starving yourself of glycogen (creating a "grab all you got when you can get it" approach by turning into a glutton after depleting yourself) or by making the muscles react to intense levels of exercise and freaking out thinking they are going into fight or flight. BOTH of which are NOT very smart approaches to increasing glycogen stores. Daniels, Pfitzinger, etc. advocate proper phasing of your training load including depletion through longer distance work and the gradually building it up. Would you rather shock your system and run the risk of nutritional deficiencies during training or potential injury through high intensity (and you have to do very high level work to trigger the supercompensation - upper Z5 work) or do it correctly through periodization and tapering? Bottom line is, it is NOT needed for sprint and olympic work and the majority of people do it wrong to being with. |
| 2009-09-08 2:32 PM in reply to: #2395071 |
Elite 4048 Gilbert, Az. | Subject: RE: Eating the night before the race mrbbrad - 2009-09-08 12:12 PM Daremo - 2009-09-08 3:04 PM Only if you have done high intensity work to shock the system within an hour or so of turning into a glutton. And even then, you will only see a minimal increase (say around 5 - 10% or so). Considering we are not talking about a HIM or IM here, there is not even a point to attempting to do it. Even someone doing a 3 hour olympic will barely deplete all their glycogen stores. That's not what at least one article I found has to say. Granted this was just a quick Google search.... The No-Depletion Carbo-Loading Method
I'll say that when anyone emphatically states that some common training practice is a myth I tend to head for Google. Active.com, huh? Went really deep into the science there... Carb loading fails to improve 100k cycling It's like anything else. There have been studies proving it, and studies disproving it. And from what I was reading, he was saying that the "traditional" carbo loading of eating pasta the night before is a myth. To truly carbo load you will need to have taxed/depleted your glycogen stores or "shocked" the system to allow more to be saved up. In other words, just chunking down massive amounts of pasta the night before ain't gonna do jack except bloat you up. True loading is a systemic depletion process over a few days followed by over consumption to "trick" the body into storing a bit more. And he's right. Anything under 3-4 hours and you don't need to worry about it, you have enough stores between the muscles, free floating and liver reserves to handle anything you throw out there. It only becomes a concern in longer events, and if your nutrition plan for those events isn't sound, then an extra 5% glycogen stores isn't going to help you at all. John |
| 2009-09-08 2:32 PM in reply to: #2395109 |
Champion 11989 Philly 'burbs | Subject: RE: Eating the night before the race Daremo - 2009-09-08 3:30 PM And you just reinforced what I said ........... People that do not know and understand the process seem to think that simply eating more carbos a few days before the race or the night before makes a difference. As I mentioned, it comes about from "shocking" the system: Subsequently, Ahlborg discovered that the muscles and liver are able to store above-normal amounts of glycogen when high levels of carbohydrate consumption are preceded by severe glycogen depletion. The most obvious way to deplete the muscles of glycogen is to eat extremely small amounts of carbohydrate. A second way is to engage in exhaustive exercise. The stress of severe glycogen depletion triggers an adaptive response by which the body reduces the amount of dietary carbohydrate that it converts to fat and stores, and increases the amount of carbohydrate that it stores in the liver and muscles as glycogen. Ahlborg referred to this phenomenon as glycogen supercompensation. Armed with this knowledge, he was able to create a more sophisticated carbo-loading protocol than the primitive existing method, which was, more or less, eating a big bowl of spaghetti. So you shock your system to supercompensate by starving yourself of glycogen (creating a "grab all you got when you can get it" approach by turning into a glutton after depleting yourself) or by making the muscles react to intense levels of exercise and freaking out thinking they are going into fight or flight. BOTH of which are NOT very smart approaches to increasing glycogen stores. Daniels, Pfitzinger, etc. advocate proper phasing of your training load including depletion through longer distance work and the gradually building it up. Would you rather shock your system and run the risk of nutritional deficiencies during training or potential injury through high intensity (and you have to do very high level work to trigger the supercompensation - upper Z5 work) or do it correctly through periodization and tapering? Bottom line is, it is NOT needed for sprint and olympic work and the majority of people do it wrong to being with. Whoa. Let's be real clear here. You are citing one method, I am citing another. |
| 2009-09-08 2:39 PM in reply to: #2394970 |
Cycling Guru 15134 Fulton, MD | Subject: RE: Eating the night before the race I just grabbed that from the article you posted ..........  |
| 2009-09-08 2:49 PM in reply to: #2394970 |
Champion 11989 Philly 'burbs | Subject: RE: Eating the night before the race The article cited three theories of carbo loading methods. I quoted one as an opposing view point to your blanket statement about extreme depletion. To link two methods beyond that is misleading. |
| 2009-09-08 2:50 PM in reply to: #2395116 |
Champion 11989 Philly 'burbs | Subject: RE: Eating the night before the race tkd.teacher - 2009-09-08 3:32 PM Active.com, huh? Went really deep into the science there... Bill Nye was busy |
| 2009-09-08 2:54 PM in reply to: #2394970 |
Champion 11989 Philly 'burbs | Subject: RE: Eating the night before the race |
| 2009-09-08 3:21 PM in reply to: #2395179 |
Master 1286 Mt Pleasant, SC | Subject: RE: Eating the night before the race mrbbrad - 2009-09-08 3:54 PM We could all learn a carbo lesson from these guys  Number 14 Big Kevin! Kevin |
| 2009-09-08 3:29 PM in reply to: #2395254 |
Champion 14571 the alamo city, Texas | Subject: RE: Eating the night before the race b2673ad - 2009-09-08 4:21 PM mrbbrad - 2009-09-08 3:54 PM We could all learn a carbo lesson from these guys Number 14 Big Kevin! Kevin mmm fettucine alfredo |
| 2009-09-08 7:48 PM in reply to: #2394970 |
Master 1402 Highlands Ranch | Subject: RE: Eating the night before the race I found this article to be somewhat helpful, there are several helpful items right here on BT |
| 2009-09-08 7:57 PM in reply to: #2394994 |
| 155 | Subject: RE: Eating the night before the race ratherbesnowboarding - 2009-09-08 1:46 PM Usually I eat something bland, not creamy or spicy. I'll either grill up some chicken or fish w/ a vegetable (spinach usually) and rice or couscous. I also eat earlier than normal. I try and eat around 5, or at least finish my meal by 6, so everything is digested and through before I get to the race. Also, I cant carbo load. I have an intolerance to gluten. Carbs are in other food sources besides pasta and breads. You'll find them in veggies and fruits. Carbs have a negative connotation these days thanks to the meat-heads at the gym. Coincidentally, they couldn't catch most of us if we called them names and sprinted 100 yards before falling into a steady run. |
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