Next week i will line up at my first Ironman.
What do you recommend for carboloading?
What offers a lot of carbohydrates and at the same time is easy to digest?
Next week i will line up at my first Ironman.
What do you recommend for carboloading?
What offers a lot of carbohydrates and at the same time is easy to digest?
Everyone is different and you’ll get a lot of suggestions. What did you eat the day before your 5-6 hour bike rides and long runs? I would eat similar foods to what worked during your training. I’m far from an expert and have only done 4 full IMs. I do believe your biggest meal should be around lunchtime the day before the event.
Looking forward to hearing what others eat and do before a full IM.
I do believe your biggest meal should be around lunchtime the day before the event.
Looking forward to hearing what others eat and do before a full IM.
For me and a Sunday race, it’s a big dinner Friday, BIG carby breakfast Saturday (hello pancakes!), normal lunch on Saturday and a small dinner on Saturday. Sunday is then 3 packets of instant oatmeal w/ peanut butter, a banana in transition and gel in the swim coral.
For the full carb load, start with it on Wednesday or Thursday. I like things like pretzels and bagels as snacks through out carb loading. Panera does their discounted dozen bagels on Tuesday, so we’ll usually pick up one of those and add them as snacks for the rest of the week. Dinners are usually rice or pasta based.
I had this in my notes from a couple of years ago. I forget the source.
Ideally you experiment during training blocks, but this is what I do:
- 2 days out: short hard workout, at least 15 min warm up then 3 mins at vo2max effort. Followed by approx 50g carbs per hour, high glycemic index foods (you actually want the insulin response, because it’s a storage hormone). Typically I am eating a lot of white rice because of its simplicity. But also pretzels, bread etc. (note that despite living in Boulder I am highly gluten tolerant, for which they almost revoked my resident status). Total 600g+ carbohydrate.
- day before: normal eating but still a high carb %. Typically breakfast of oatmeal, pancakes or both. Lunch pasta or pizza and then lighter meals after lunch. If I eat too heavily then it affects my sleep negatively. Total 300g+ carbohydrate. Also I am doing sharpening workouts the day before the race and even though they are short I’m drinking sports drink during/after those (typically whatever I am going to be taking on race day minus the caffeine)
- low fiber on both these days
big dinner for me is the friday night before a sunday race. I’ve tried the pastas and potatoes for carb loading but found rice to be the best for my stomach and how I feel. huge serving of chicken fried rice is my go-to order.
I never eat fast food, but I always have my best workouts after a couple late night McDonalds burgers
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That table is pretty solid. Carb needs 4, 5, 6 days out might be a little low, depending on training demands those days.
3, 2, 1 days out I’d switch it to more like 10, 12, 8, if I had to be picky. 8, 10, 10 will work great too.
Of course, carb needs always also depend on training demand, so if it’s a bit of a “train-through” race, you might benefit from a LOT more all around. That said…if this is for an IM, not many folks are treating that like “train through” event. I’m certainly not!
Rice, rice with soy sauce, rice with salt, rice with maple syrup, and rice with hot sauce.
That table is pretty solid.
I feel validated now. 
Carb needs 4, 5, 6 days out might be a little low, depending on training demands those days.
3, 2, 1 days out I’d switch it to more like 10, 12, 8, if I had to be picky.
I’ve updated my table for the next time.
I just eat more heavily on carbs the days leading in like others noted, lots of rice. Dinner the night before races is always a cheese burger, like a real and proper burger with good bun and cheese. For some reason that has never let me down as a pre race meal.
I do not do triathlons, but plenty of XCO, XCM Cross and road races. My wife has adopted this meal as a pre race for running as well.
Offshoot question… if you eat minimal fiber, don’t you get/feel clogged up? That is something I’ve struggled with if all of a sudden I’m eating less fiber…
Oatmeal and coffee for breakfast prevents that…
Good point…
Rice. We travel with boil in bag rice or pre-made rice for endurance races. I like my white rice with sugar and milk or brown sugar and milk. Always brown sugar and rice with milk for breakfast.
Is this chart geared towards a specific race distance?
I had it from my IM notes, but have used it as a rough guide for a 70.3 too.
ever tried with cinnamon on top? Weetbix and a bucketload of sugar plus a bit of soy milk and water also gets the job done
Oatmeal is actually not a great race morning meal as it digests slow compared to other sources. Toast with jelly/jam is a better option but my prefered choice is applesauce 3 hrs prior to start time.
If one has issues going in the morning add jsut a little more fiber back to your diet the day or 2 before.
Flat coke, if you know how to make it
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I am on team applesauce as well.
2-3 cups unsweetened, organic apple sauce (depending on if I am racing a 70.3 or 140.6)
Banana
Non-Dairy Protein Shake ~20g protein
For me, a few general things I switched to a few years ago and have had great success with personally:
T-2 Days: largely eat my normal diet, a bit more carb consumption, Last salad for dinner (to go along with my typical pre-race Margarita or cheese pizza)
T-1 Day: Large Pancake Breakfast, Turkey Sandwich on White Bread (w/ Yellow Mustard), Plain White Pasta with Grilled Chicken (no seasoning aside from salt and pepper). Snacks: pretzels, granola bars, low-fat fig newtons, animal crackers.
Eliminating the fiber in the 24-36 hours before has been a game changer for me (I know, a rather ‘duh’ statement, as well as eating extremely simple carbohydrates through the avenues of white flour.