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By Nancy Clark, MS, RD
For Active.com
3/5/2003
"I'm in a two-day rugby tournament. I need food help!!
"This weekend, I'm riding in a 100-mile
bike event. What should I eat the day before?"
"For a charity fundraiser, I'm participating
in a 24-hour aerobathon. How can I avoid hitting the wall???"
If
you have looming in the near future an endurance event — century
bike ride, marathon, or any other competition that will
tax your endurance — you may be concerned about the
best nutritional preparations.
The good news is, even if
your training is over, you can still significantly enhance
your performance with winning
food strategies.
Without a doubt, what you eat and drink
during the last few days and hours before exhaustive exercise
makes a difference.
By eating wisely and well, you can enjoy lasting energy
without
hitting the wall!
Here are eight last-minute nutrition
tips for enhancing endurance.
1. Carbo-load, don't fat-load.
Carbohydrate-rich foods include cereals, fruits, juices,
breads, rice, plain baked potatoes and pasta with tomato
sauce. Lower carbohydrate choices include donuts, cookies,
buttery potatoes, ice cream, cheesy lasagna and pepperoni
pizza. These fat-laden foods may taste great and fill
your stomach, but fat does not get stored as muscle fuel.
2. No last-minute
hard training.
By resting your muscles and doing very little exercise
this pre-event week, your muscles will have the time they
need
to store the carbohydrates and become fully saturated with
glycogen (carbohydrate). You can only fully carbo-load
if you stop exercising hard! You can tell if your muscles
are
well-carbo-loaded if you have gained 2 to 4 pounds pre-event.
Your muscles store 3 ounces of water along with each ounce
of carbohydrate. (This water will be released during the
event and be put to good use.)
3. No last-minute dieting.
You can't fully carbo-load your muscles if you are dieting
and restricting your calories. You will have greater stamina
and endurance if you are well-fueled, as compared to the
dieter who may be a few pounds lighter but has muscles
that are sub-optimally carbo-loaded. Remember: You are
supposed
to gain (water) weight pre-event!
4. Drink extra fluids.
You can tell if you are drinking enough fluids by monitoring
your urine. You should be urinating frequently (every two
to four hours); the urine should be clear-colored and significant
in volume. Juices are a good fluid choice because they
provide not only water and carbohydrates but also nutritional
value.
Save the sports drinks for during the event.
5. Eat tried-and-true
foods.
If you drastically change your food choices (such as carbo-load
by eating several extra bananas), you may end up with intestinal
distress. Simply eat a comfortable portion of the tried-and-true
carbohydrates you've enjoyed during training. You need
not stuff yourself! If you will be traveling to a far-away
event,
plan ahead so you can maintain a familiar eating schedule
despite a crazy travel schedule.
6. Eat a moderate amount
of fiber.
If you stuff yourself with lots of white bread, bagels,
crackers, pasta and other foods made with refined white
flour, you
may end up constipated. Include enough fiber to promote
regular bowel movements — but not too much fiber
or you'll have the opposite problem! Moderate amounts of
whole-wheat
bread, bran cereal, fruits and vegetables are generally
good choices. (If you are concerned about diarrhea, limit
your
intake of high-fiber foods and instead consume more of
the refined breads and pastas.)
7. Eat the morning of the
endurance event.
You'll need this fuel to maintain a normal blood sugar
level. Although your muscles are well-stocked from the
foods you've
eaten the past few days, your brain gets fuel only from
the limited amount of sugar in your blood. When you nervously
toss and turn the night before the event, you can deplete
your blood sugar and, unless you eat carbs, you will
start the event with low blood sugar. Your performance
will go
downhill from there.
Plan to replace the energy lost during the (sleepless)
night with a light to moderate breakfast as tolerated.
This will
help you avoid hitting the wall. Stick with tried-and-true
pre-exercise foods: cereal, bagels, toast, fruit, energy
bars and/or juice. These carb-based foods invest in fueling
the brain, as well as staving off hunger. If a pre-event
breakfast will likely upset your system, eat extra food
the night before. That is, eat your breakfast at 10 p.m.
8.
Consume carbs during the event.
During endurance exercise, you'll have greater stamina
if you consume not only water, but also some carbohydrates,
such as sports drinks, gels, bananas or dried fruit.
You should target about 100 to 250 calories/hour after
the
first
hour to avoid hitting the wall. (For example, that's
16 to 32 ounces of sports drink/hour.)
The slower you run, the more you need to fuel
yourself during the event. Some athletes boost their energy
intake
by drinking
diluted juices or defizzed cola; others suck on hard candies
or eat chunks of energy bar, animal crackers and other
easily chewed and digested foods along the way. Your muscles
welcome
this food; it gets digested and used for fuel during the
event. And hopefully, you will have experimented during
training to learn what settles best.
Copyright: Nancy Clark,
MS, RD 3/03
Nancy Clark, MS, RD is nutrition counselor at SportsMedicine
Associates (617-739-2003) in Brookline MA and author
of Nancy Clark's Sports Nutrition Guidebook ($23) and her
Food Guide
for Marathoners: Tips for Everyday Champions ($20). Both
are available via www.nancyclarkrd.com or by sending
a
check to Sports Nutrition Services, 830 Boylston St.
#205, Brookline
MA 02467. |
