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nutrition for sprint tri

aolin's picture
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started by aolin on September 16, 2008

should i be eating differently the week of the race? Should i bring gels or do they usually provide them? What should I eat for breakfast the morning of the race?

jnrice's picture
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jnrice posted 1 year ago.

It might just be me, but I don't eat during a sprint. The race isn't very long and i'm trying to go hard enough that if I ate Ii think I'd leave some sidewalk art behind. I do carry a bottle on my bike with some Heed/acelerade/whatever in it. I plan on consuming 1/2 the bottle on the bike, a big gulp before the run (as I run back to my transition area) and then finish it after the run on my way to wherever I'll find more food and water (typically my car).

Make sure you have a solid breakfast a few hours before the race, I'd say nothing atleast an hour before the gun. You have to remember that if you eat something say after the bike it will not have a chance to really hit your blood stream before you finish the race. there you have it, my advice plus tax, $.02 The biggest thing for me and sprints is to be the zen master before the race, relax, know that your training is good and fretting won't make you any faster. Don't be intimidated by $10,000 TT bikes, they get passed just as easily as a huffy if the rider doesn't know how to use it. Unless your racing for blood and glory, have fun with it. If you are looking for blood, then give'm hell.

beads1985's picture
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beads1985 posted 1 year ago.

jnrice wrote:
It might just be me, but I don't eat during a sprint. The race isn't very long and i'm trying to go hard enough that if I ate Ii think I'd leave some sidewalk art behind. I do carry a bottle on my bike with some Heed/acelerade/whatever in it. I plan on consuming 1/2 the bottle on the bike, a big gulp before the run (as I run back to my transition area) and then finish it after the run on my way to wherever I'll find more food and water (typically my car).

Make sure you have a solid breakfast a few hours before the race, I'd say nothing atleast an hour before the gun. You have to remember that if you eat something say after the bike it will not have a chance to really hit your blood stream before you finish the race. there you have it, my advice plus tax, $.02 The biggest thing for me and sprints is to be the zen master before the race, relax, know that your training is good and fretting won't make you any faster. Don't be intimidated by $10,000 TT bikes, they get passed just as easily as a huffy if the rider doesn't know how to use it. Unless your racing for blood and glory, have fun with it. If you are looking for blood, then give'm hell.

I don't eat during a sprint either. Your glycogen stores should carry you thru.
Have a good meal the night before(don't overdo it) and have breakfast a few hours before the event. maybe top off the tank just before the race with a gel and drink some sport drink on the bike.

'Nothing to it, but to do it!'

CadenceGuy's picture
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CadenceGuy posted 1 year ago.

Give yourself a good meal the night before. Stay away from the greasy pizzas and things like that. Go with a good pasta instead. Ill do a breakfast of a begal and PB with banana on it the morning of usually within a few minutes of waking up then sports drink on the way to the race site. Ill take a gel usually one hour before the start and then another one about 15-20 minutes before my heat goes off. Consume fluids during the race or the run will be painful. Good luck this weekend, cant wait for the report!

tri-ac's picture
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tri-ac posted 1 year ago.

week of race: can't emphasize this enough...stable foods...eat what you know allows you to poop on schedule and gives you energy

day of race: eat a normal meal 3 or 4 hours prior to the race. you shouldn't really need much during the race unless it's particularly adverse weather conditions.

jonovision_man's picture
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jonovision_man posted 1 year ago.

I've only done one sprint, drank a bottle of eLoad during the bike and had a gel before the run. That's about it. I'd planned to eat more, but dropped a gel and found I didn't miss it.

jono

warrenp's picture
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warrenp posted 1 year ago.

for sprints i made no adjustments to diet whatsoever.
i think i ate wendy's the night before.
on the day a few hours before the race lots of fluids and something that YOU can digest well

TriSooner's picture
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TriSooner posted 1 year ago.

tri-ac wrote:
eat what you know allows you to poop on schedule and gives you energy
For a sprint, you really don't need to modify your race-week diet. Just eat as usual. And pre-race for a sprint should be whatever you've been eating before your early AM training. And for a sprint you really don't need to worry too much about in-race nutrition. Or at least not more than maybe a gu and a bottle of hydration replacement.

I wish I could find the cite for this, but I read somewhere it takes 36 hours to turn what you've eaten to glycogen and stored in the liver. So if this is true (the operative term is 'if'), your most important meal would be dinner two nights before (Friday night for a Sunday am race) - not the night before. When I first started, I would way-over-carb-load very late at night the night before and pay for it with a long visit to the sh*t shack pre race.

And your colon should dictate when you eat. A rule-of-thumb I picked up somewhere is 'no solid food' 12 hours prior to race. That way you have time to poop well in advance of those horrifically long lines at the porta-potties pre-race. Or you could just go with coffee and a cigarette to jump-start your lower GI.

beads1985's picture
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beads1985 posted 1 year ago.

Long stretches of time depletes both your glycogen stores and vital body fluids lost as sweat.
It takes anywhere from 24 to 48 hours for full recovery, provided you are eating a high carbohydrate diet and consuming plenty of fluids.
For example, an average male who weighs about 160 pounds, needs about 2,400 carbohydrate calories to fill up his glycogen storage in the muscles and liver.
Eating a larger amount of carbohydrates is usually manageable over a 36 - 72 hour period.

The more carbohydrates you eat, the more glycogen you can store.
This process will continue until your full capacity is achieved.
The key to keeping your glycogen stores filled is easy:

Eat Carbohydrates: Avoid fatigue. Eat smaller amounts more frequently and eat a sufficient amount of carbohydrate.
Rest: Since it takes 24 to 48 hours to recover completely spent glycogen stores fully, it is better to rest or exercise very lightly two days before competition and in-between intensive exercise sessions.
This recovery time is needed to allow your muscles and liver time to re-build glycogen stores.

If you eat moderate meals with carbohydrates in the 2-3 days before a race, combined with easier workouts and rest your glycogen stores will stay near capacity.

'Nothing to it, but to do it!'

tri-ac's picture
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tri-ac posted 1 year ago.

TriSooner wrote:
For a sprint, you really don't need to modify your race-week diet.

agreed..i probably overstated it a bit

groovyjen's picture
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groovyjen posted 1 year ago.

As far as the gels during the race thing, if you think that are going to be out there for 90 min or more (depending on course length and/or (in my case) slowpoke factor) you might want to eat a gel on the bike leg.

Otherwise I bet you'd be fine with some sort of sports drink on the bike leg.

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...

jonovision_man's picture
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jonovision_man posted 1 year ago.

IMO...

Better to pop a couple gels you don't need than miss a couple you do. I made a bad bet on a 1/2 marathon and paid for it...

jono

deepbluex's picture
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deepbluex posted 1 year ago.

For me, it's not the meal the day of the race or even the day before the race that really matters.
It's the meal 2 days before the race that counts. So if your race is on a Sunday, have a carb rich dinner on Friday evening, and eat lightly on Saturday - don't starve yourself but don't get filled up because you might not be ready to get rid of it on Sun morning when you wake up or hit the portapotty...