You’ve been training for months, your workouts are on point, and race day is nearing. But one aspect of training that many endurance athletes overlook until it’s too late is their training and race day nutrition.
Whether you’re running a marathon or tackling a triathlon, your fueling strategy can make or break your performance. Avoiding these nutrition errors that can wreck your race will have you running through the finish line ready to tackle your next race.
Trying New Fuel on Race Day
Testing a new gel or drink on race day that you came across during the race expo might seem harmless…until your stomach revolts. While it may seem perfectly fine when you test it at rest, it can be completely different when used during higher intensity training and racing.
If you’ve never tried a sports nutrition product before, you won’t know how it will interact or if you’re sensitive to any of the ingredients. GI distress, bloating, or nausea can result from new fuel combined with race day intensity.
Instead, test your sports nutrition products during long workouts. Treat your training like a dress rehearsal for race day.
Under or Over Fueling
If you train or race with too little fuel, then you’re not feeding your muscles for the demands of the race, leading to fatigue and reduced performance.
If you’re overfueling, then you risk GI distress and negate the benefits of any metabolic efficiency gains you may have made leading up to your race.
Since everyone is different and there are many factor that effect how many and how often you should consume carbs, there is no easy cookie-cutter answer to how much you should fuel.
One key point to keep in mind is that your daily nutrition plays a role in and influences your sports nutrition. So if you are metabolically inefficient and consume a high amount of carbs in your daily nutrition, you will require more carbs during a race than someone who is more metabolically efficient than you.
The biggest takeaway is don’t do anything new on race day. Race day is not the time to make changes. Stick to how you’ve trained during all those long workouts. Remember, those long workouts are a dress rehearsal for race day. Even if your goal is to be more metabolically efficient, that’s something that’s trained during the months leading up to your race.
Forgetting About Electrolytes
Water may be fine during a meal or other times during the day, but it’s not enough when you’re working hard. The electrolytes you lose in sweat (sodium, potassium, magnesium, chloride, and calcium) need too be replaced along with fluids in order to avoid poor race performance, fatigue, dizziness, or hyponatremia.
Sweat rates and sweat sodium concentrations vary among individuals, so just like with fueling, don’t copy someone else’s plan and assume it will work for you.
When working out or racing, add electrolytes to your water or consume a drink that already contains enough electrolytes. In your training leading up to race day, do a sweat test and sweat sodium concentration test so that you know how much you need.
Skipping Pre-Race Fueling and Recovery Nutrition
Your fueling plan starts before the race and continues after the race. Skipping pre-race fueling or neglecting to time your workout or race around your daily meals will cause fatigue. Skipping your post-race recovery fueling can lengthen your recovery time.
Plan out what and when you’ll be fueling before your workouts and races. You can coordinate them around your normal meal times so that you’re fueled prior to the workout while giving yourself time to digest. On race day, this might mean getting up earlier to have an easily digestible breakfast before the race.
Refueling post-race will help aid your recovery. Within 30 to 60 minutes after your race, rehydrate and consume a combination of carbs and protein.
You can’t out-train a poor nutrition plan. Rather than leaving your fueling strategy to chance, test it out during training and fine-tune it. A smart nutrition strategy could be the final piece to your best performance.
Want a personalized fueling plan based on your race goals and sweat rate?
Learn more about our Nutrition Coaching.
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