Which carbs do you eat on race day?

Triathlon Forum
1

Hi there,

I’m a relative newbie and I’m still confused about what kinds of carbs to eat to fuel for a race.

I’m used to eating a very healthy diet with complex carbs, mostly low on the glycemic index, for health reasons. Vegetables, fruits, slow-cooking oats, brown rice, lentils, etc. I almost never eat bread or spaghetti unless it is composed of whole grains. That is my LONG TERM (not necessarily race-day or big-training-day) diet.

What confuses me is how to eat on race day. On the one hand I read stuff about how you need to eat carbs that can provide very quick energy. That would seem to point to carbs that are high on the glycemic index…in other words, not my usual whole grain cereal, but something more white-bread. Then, somewhere else I read about how you shouldn’t eat straight sugar (gels, honey, etc.) because…well I don’t remember why. A third opinion says that maltodextrin is the only thing we can digest in time anyway, for shorter races. Okay, that leads me back to gels. Or, what about a banana? Another opinion says don’t eat anything with fiber in it, because that will slow digestion.

This is enough to thoroughly perplex a tri newbie. Please help set me straight!

I’ve also tried those newer energy bars that have raw food contents only - nuts, cranberries, etc., nothing processed, and supposedly they are therefore easier to digest. However, I thought nuts (since they’re mostly protein & fats) were slow to digest anyway, so why would I include them at all in my race-day diet?

By the way, I train for sprints, Olys and now my first 1/2 IM.

Also, my stomach is made of iron and it seems I can digest almost anything without upsetting it. It’s not poor digestion that concerns me so much as getting the right fuel into my body in the right time frame.

And yes, I do know the part about also consuming electrolytes (particularly with increased heat/distance) and a small amount of amino acids in my energy drink.

thanks!!!
Oleander

2

Eat whatever you would eat prior to and durring a long or hard training day. Real simple.

Theres no such thing as quick energy. If you’re falling apart or durring high intensity there are things you can do to get energy quicker but you really dont want to get to that place. You should have your energy well maped out from training before race day.

So… what do you eat prior to and durring your longest/hardest training day?

3

I eat multigrain (whole grain) cereal 2-3 hours prior. (The stuff has tons of fiber in it.) During my long training days and races, I have tried various energy bars, gels, and bananas. They have all worked for me, meaning they have satisfied me and haven’t caused digestion problems. But note that I have not raced beyond the Oly distance or a 1/2 marathon run. So I haven’t yet tested my glycogen stores or electrolytes. Now that I am preparing for a 1/2 IM, I wonder what else I need to know. Also, I’m told that in a sprint distance race, my energy bar eaten during the first few miles of the bike, though satisfying, probably digests too slow to provide me any real energy before the race ends.

4

Well…I would stick to eating what you normally do before a long day. Durring, start trying some of the better sports drinks out there that more closely resemble your normal diet. Products like Carbo-Pro, that crap Dave Scott endorces (good stuff) and hammer nutrition (Great website and great products).

You really just want to avoid the simple foods. Simple sugars, carbs, whatever. It’s early in the year (assuming you are a north american) so try out a few things durring training and see what works. My mother used to make me these great muffins full of all sorts of nuts and soy and flax and whatever she had in the kitchen and those were the best foods I ever had for hard days.

The biggest thing is to avoid ANY sort of shock to your system durring a race. You should have consumed a TON of whatever you choose to race with prior to racing. Go to http://www.e-caps.com/ and do a little reading. Keep it simple stupid! dont confuse the issue with all sorts of talks and coaches blowing all sorts of smoke and babble up your ass. You seem to have a good grasp on daily nutrition so just apply good common sence to race nutrition and continue to eat healthy.

Start with a formula and play around with it till you are comfortable. I used pure liquid with Carbo-pro mixed into about 400 calories an hour (about what Dave Scott recomended) in 16oz water. Took a swig every 12 minutes on that and I was topped off for as long as the day lasted.

I’m kinda drunk so take whatever I say with a grain of salt. Visit the site I posted and do some reading. Keep it simple (but with complex carbs) stupid. always worked for me…

5

For Olympic distance I take two scoops of CytoMax Preformance 2 hours before the event & a Carb Boom gel 20 minutes before. For events longer than Olympic I add one scoop per hour of racing.

I tried combinations of bagels, cereal, fruit, etc. & found this to be the most effective as well as the easiest.

http://www.cytosport.com/products/preformance.html

6

I’ve read to eat low-fiber carbs on race days and the day before so you don’t upset your tummy. But seriously, eat what you do during training.

Pre-race for me is a plain bagel, occassionally with a little butter.

7

What are some examples of low-fiber carbs? I’d like to experiment with some of them over my winter training days. What ones have you tried?

Also, a lot of people on this site seem to like CarbBoom gels. Is it because you prefer the taste, or do you think that they are they actually superior (for fueling) to all the other gels?

Thanks!
Oleander

8

Pepperidge Farm plain bagels for the morning.

Night before, Near East CousCous or Rice Pilaf.

9

Now that you are trying a HIM there is the total caloric intake to consider. When racing sprints and Oly’s you can complete the race at a high intensity with only a sports drink for fuel. With a HIM you will be slowing your pace and needing more calories over the 4:30-5:00 period as opposed to the 1:00-2:00 hour races you’ve done. So when you are considering how much and of what remember that you will need to digest it to use it. You basically have to find what works for you, I know that is not very useful advise, but experiment what types of fuel you can digest and then run for 1:30-2:00 hours on. For a HIM I like to use the liquid approach for the bike (2 bottle of 400 cal, powerbar endurance drink + carbo pro, and 1 bottle of water to help with the concentration issues) and for the run I do PowerGels, about 1 every 3 miles with water from aid stations. The PowerBar Endurance drink contains Maltodextrin (glucose polymer), Dextrose (disaccharide) and fructose (monosaccharide), which all take slightly different amounts of time to be broken down to become available for you muscles. (BTW many sports drinks contain these types of simple sugars so I would recommend finding the one you like the taste of the best. If you don’t like how it tastes you probably won’t drink it.)

As for the morning of based on your size, body comp, and carb loading you could try eating something not very high in fiber (slow digestion among other things) nor high in fat (but it does not sound like you have a lot of this in your diet). Try to be done eating about 2-2:15 before the race and then use a diluted sports drink to top you off in the 30 min before the race starts.

Remember these are only guidelines, you really have to experiment with the food in training and keep in mind that you will be at a higher intensity for race day and weather could be different for race day (if its cold where you train but you will be racing in Hawaii the heat and humidity can play a role in race day nutrition.)

I hope this helps,

10

Okay, I’d love to get even more more ideas of low-fiber carbs that people have tried. Is there such a thing as a complex carb that is also low-fiber? (I’d rather not have to consume 10 gu’s in a 1/2 IM.) Ideas??? Thanks. Oleander

11

bananas are complex carsbs w/o that much fiber.

12

Pre race breakfast is pretty much always:

banana (lots of potassium, digests quickly)

apple (digests slowly)

bagel (lots or carbs and protein)

multivitamin

water (not sure exactly why, but Friel book says no sports drink unitl about 15 minutes before race)

Never had a problem with this, so I pretty much never tweak it. For some reason I added smoked salmon to the bagel before the Boston Marathon this year and I was on the Port-o-John at mile 19. Lesson learned, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.