Pre-race

Hi. It's Laura.



I mentioned to you that The Husband and I are riding in the 5 Boro Bike tour this Sunday.



The ride itself is 40 miles. Depending on what kind of rider you are, you can finish in two hours or you can finish in 5 hours. I plan on finishing in about 3 hours but of course that does not account for bike traffic and getting stuck behind slow riders. So the question is how do you fuel up to make sure you can make it that long and still feel pretty good?



Start the day before: Hydrate, Hydrate, Hydrate. You definitely want to stay away from alcohol the day before a race as alcohol can dehydrate you.



Since you have been training for the race/event, your diet should have been pretty balanced so far between carbs and protein. But as you get closer to race day, you want to increase your carb intake. No need to go to crazy, remember those energy stores we talked about on Friday? Your body has enough fuel to carry you for a long time.

And remember, carbs are filled with fiber. Fiber takes a while to digest so eating too many on the day of the race could potentially inhibit not help your performance. You don’t want your body to be too busy digesting food and not using the food for energy.



On the day of the race, you will definitely want to eat breakfast. I would suggest only a slightly larger breakfast than usual. Depending on the length of the race, you will continue to fuel during race day. You want to choose your fuel wisely. You certainly want to utilize carbs that your body can process quickly into energy like fruit or energy fuels.



You also want to continue to hydrate.



Note: if you have issues with muscles cramping you will want to either increase your salt intake. Salt helps the body retain water and most muscles cramp because they are dehydrated.



Water in most cases is sufficient. If you will be in a race/event lasting more than one hour, you will want to look for a good sports drink to help you replenish the electrolytes that you are sweating out.



Post-race:

Again, depending on how long the race, you want to replenish you energy stores by consuming carbs within the first 30 minutes. Doing so decreases risk of muscle damage.



This is the time too to replenish water and electrolytes.

After that 30 minute window, you should resume you normal diet.

Race day is not the day to try something new.  Just like you train for your race by running or riding you should be experimenting with nutrition and fuel during your training to see what works best for you.



If you have a race coming up and want to discuss what to eat pre and post, please contact me. What I have provided here are some general guidelines for pre and post-race fueling and everyone has different caloric needs based on their level of fitness & age.



Play hard!

Laura