Race Nutrition

Catabolic Jones said:

Hi Guys,

Just took part in my first race, a short crit. I ate sensibly enough throughout the day, and felt good in the race. I feel I have a good enough grasp on nutrition for these shorter more intense races.

I've got a longer road race coming up, 80km. I do plenty of training rides in around 100km, so I don't think the distance is necessarily going to be a problem; however, I'm concerned about nutrition. It will be a morning start, likely early, around 8 to 9 AM.

Specifically, what I'd like to know is what to take in both before the race (the couple of days leading up to the race) and during the race (on the bike nutrition).

Thanks!

I just had a 50-mile race (10 mile loop), which is roughly 80 km. The race was held in very hilly course: constant climbing and short, fast downhill. Some reason, they combined Cat 3,4,5 together, which I’m a Cat 5 and imagine what would’ve happened. But it was the coolest race that I’ve ever done. The wind was calm and the temperature was nearly 80F.

The race was on Saturday and I started eating more carbohydrate on Thursday and drinking a lot of water. I did the same on Friday and extra stretching, massage, and went to bed early.

Saturday morning, I drank protein shake, sport-drink and coffee. Ate a banana, energy-bar, about 4 hours before the race. I started drinking more sport-drink and ate another energy-bar about 2 hours before the race. During the warm-up, I drank some water and sport-drink. During the race, I had 3 packs of energy-gel, and 2 bottles of sport-drink, but it ran out. After the race, I drank nearly a half-gallon, little less than 2 liters, of water.

I felt pretty good through out the race and only bad thing that I’d like to say that Gatorade is TOO sweet to drink.

Hopefully this helped a bit. Maybe I’m not the perfect example, but it works for me.

Best luck,

Soo-re

Eat a lot of carbohydrate rich food in the lead-up with protein as well. Say 25% protein and 75% carbs.

The night before and 3 hours before the race eat lots of high carbo food like pasta, potatoes and toast etc. as little fat as possible because fat impedes gastric emptying and hence your body’s uptake of fluids etc. Don’t eat just before the race. If you have to have coffee and a piece of toast an hour before.

Just minutes before the race starts, drink 300 – 500ml of sports drink as long as it doesn’t feel like its bloating you. Take one bottle of sports drink and one of plain water on the bike and put a banana or energy bar in your pocket. Sports drink by itself is too sticky and can gum your mouth up when the going is hard just have water Eat the banana at about half way if you can and aim to get the sports drink into you by the time you are about 75-80% through the race. If you eat properly in the lead-up an night before your body will have enough fuel for about an hour at race pace the banana and sports drink during the race will be enough. Drink about 200ml of fluid every 15 mins or so depending on the temperature, you might even need another bottle if its hot. Look into sports drinks they are not all the same and some are useless. You need one with enough of the right carbs and salt to be effective.

It’s very important to eat after the race. High GI food like rice is ideal, again with 25% low fat protein. Say rice and fish with a bit of soy sauce to eat straight after will aid your recovery.

Good Luck Jay.

My personal prefs - for about 2-3 days before don't go anywhere without a water bottle (with water, maybe juice)
about 1.5-2 days before eat lots of carb rich food - I often make a big, light pasta salad, and some rice balls that I can easily take somewhere, or pick at.
About 0.5-1 day before, I switch my water bottle to weak sports drink.

On race day, I take rice balls and/or pasta salad, which I pick at, and stop about 1hr before the race. I keep drinking lots of sports drink.

During the ride - I take sports drink, the strength & quantity varies depending on the length of the race & the temperature.

Cold weather, I have stronger drink so I get lots of carbs. Warmer weather I make it weaker, and add a couple of pinches of salt per bottle. For an 80km road race I would probably take gels or honey. A longer race I would consider bars, but I don't like the feeling in the mouth I get with the bars in short, high intensity racing. A banana would probably go down nicely. Find what works for you.

As others have mentioned, eating afterwards is necessary - I eat more rice and pasta salad. I also drink sports drink for an hour or 2 after, then switch to water.

I usually only follow this rigorously for a race I'm taking reasonably seriously, or for a very long/intense race. When it's something I'm not taking so seriously, I usually just follow it as much as is convenient.

What I've written might not work for you, but it works for me, and I find that on race day I am usually bursting with energy, even after the race.

Thanks for the input! Will print these off and study them when I get home.

Cheesy said:

For an 80km road race I would probably take gels or honey. .

Dumb question...i'm not too into gels, but the idea of honey really appeals to me, because, like you, i don't like the feeling of bars in my mouth as i'm working hard. How does one package the honey? you buy those little pre-made foil-covered things you see in chain restaurants that accompany toast?

Catabolic Jones said:

Dumb question...i'm not too into gels, but the idea of honey really appeals to me, because, like you, i don't like the feeling of bars in my mouth as i'm working hard. How does one package the honey? you buy those little pre-made foil-covered things you see in chain restaurants that accompany toast?

I couldn't tell you where to go to get them, but I have seen honey packaged like fast food ketchup from a fast food chain that someone brought and left in our company kitchen. If you are out snooping around at a fast food place nab a few. 😉

Those may be better than the little tubs with foil tops to open and intake while moving at a good pace.

Catabolic Jones said:

Dumb question...i'm not too into gels, but the idea of honey really appeals to me, because, like you, i don't like the feeling of bars in my mouth as i'm working hard. How does one package the honey? you buy those little pre-made foil-covered things you see in chain restaurants that accompany toast?

Never tried them before, but you might want to check out Honey Stingers @ honeystinger.comhoneystinger.comOpen ↗

Catabolic Jones said:

How does one package the honey?

See if you can find a soft, squeezy bottle with a flip top. Look around for anything in your supermarket that fits the bill. (Here the ketchup bottles are very soft with a fliptop, and are also usually pretty small). I've heard of people packaging it up in small plastic bags, and tying the bag off. When you want the honey, just bite through the corner of the bag and suck.

I have seen at least one report that claims the benefits of honey are almost identical to that of gels, and both are significantly better than nothing.

Good idea.

Yeah, I've heard also that honey doesn't spike, but delivers a more prolonged source of energy.

Thanks for everyone's input.

Cheesy said:

See if you can find a soft, squeezy bottle with a flip top. Look around for anything in your supermarket that fits the bill. (Here the ketchup bottles are very soft with a fliptop, and are also usually pretty small). I've heard of people packaging it up in small plastic bags, and tying the bag off. When you want the honey, just bite through the corner of the bag and suck.

I have seen at least one report that claims the benefits of honey are almost identical to that of gels, and both are significantly better than nothing.

Catabolic Jones said:

Yeah, I've heard also that honey doesn't spike, but delivers a more prolonged source of energy.

GI for honey is almost the same as sugar, but it doesn't matter for this purpose.

I would use it, but my bike would end up a sticky mess because I am just not that skilled with eating while riding. 🙂

diet-i.comglycemic index sugar.htmOpen ↗

Catabolic Jones said:

Good idea.

Yeah, I've heard also that honey doesn't spike, but delivers a more prolonged source of energy.

Thanks for everyone's input.

just to add: during exercise the insulin response is greatly blunted, so nothing would "spike"

Thanks for the responses. I guess I was wrong about honey.

ric...why is the insulin response blunted during exercise?

LOL, screw it then, i'll just get a sack of sugar! Ah, maybe 'bite the bullet' and get the gels.

We'll see, obviously i need to practice with various things and see what works for me. I do know that bars don't work for me.

Does anyone put together their own drink concoction, or do they work with simple sports drinks? I kind of prefer the idea of E-load as it seems like more complete replenshment, except it tastes like sh**. I was thinking of perhaps mixing the E-load in with some grape juice and water. 😕

Felt_Rider said:

GI for honey is almost the same as sugar, but it doesn't matter for this purpose.

I would use it, but my bike would end up a sticky mess because I am just not that skilled with eating while riding. 🙂

diet-i.comglycemic index sugar.htmOpen ↗

Catabolic Jones said:

Thanks for the responses. I guess I was wrong about honey.
ric...why is the insulin response blunted during exercise?

I give you my simple minded version to the answer because I am simple minded. 🙂
I was thinking of the legitimate answer, but not enough time to type it.

It's kind of like pouring water into a bucket with holes.
As you pour the water in the bucket the water leaks out of the holes.
So the empty rate may or may not be the same as the fill rate, but it does have an impact to the fill rate as compared to a bucket that does not have holes. The body begins to release insulin because of the rapid absorption rate into the system, but the utilization rate is also increased depending on the level of intensity.

We could also get into the topic of impacting carbohydrates like you see in present day food marketing scams. Like "zero net" carbs. If you look at the nutrition information there could be 36 grams of carbs listed, but the front of the package states 3 grams of carbs. They may use fiber or fat to slow down the absorbtion rate of a the carbohydrates. A mixture of macro nutrients will impact the glycemic number. So if honey is rated at 58 it will lower if combined with protein, fat or a lower GI carbohydrate.

Hope I didn't make that more confusing.

Thanks FR, that makes sense, even to the scientifically-challenged like me.

Nice metaphor BTW, have you considered poetry? :p