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Nancy Clark is a sports nutrionist who specializes in nutrition
for exercise and has written top selling books on nutrition for
sports and exercise.
She also has created several teaching tools for nutrition professionals
throughout the country and counsels casual exercisers and competitive
athletes.www.nancyclarkrd.com
Carbo-loading: Eight last-minute
nutrition tips for endurance athletes
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.
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