The perfect pre-race nutrition starts well before the day of the race. Ideally, you would be consuming healthy, balanced, nutrient-dense meals from the moment you decided to train. Your nutrition, especially the days leading up to the race, has a major impact on your overall performance and recovery.

Nutrition 1-2 Days Before the Race

Carbohydrates:

Consume a dinner that is higher in carbohydrates on the nights before your race. Often coined as “carb loading,” higher-carbohydrate meals consumed 1-2 days before a race event lasting over 90 minutes helps to saturate liver and muscle glycogen.1 When you start your race, stored glycogen will start to break down into glucose for fuel.2 Reduction of glycogen stores can occur as early as 60 minutes into an intense aerobic workout. This can be a major cause of fatigue, affecting your overall performance. The recommended amount of carbohydrate intake for a race is dependent on the duration of the event.3 For exercise events lasting under 90 minutes, increasing carbohydrates is likely not necessary. For exercise events lasting over 90 minutes of sustained or intermittent exercise, you should consume around 10-12 grams of carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight (g/kg) each day in the a 36-48 hours leading up to the event.3

The type of carbohydrate you consume is important, too. Skip the pizza, alcohol, and questionable buffet food. Experiencing gastrointestinal discomfort before or during a race is not fun and will likely affect performance. Focus on whole food carbohydrates like sweet potatoes, squash, dried fruit, bananas, and rice. Vejo Pina Greens or Pina Strawberry blends are great sources of healthy carbohydrates in a smoothie form that is easy to digest.

Protein:

Although carbohydrates fulfill an important role, don’t forget about protein. Dietary protein is important for muscle recovery, repair, remodeling, and protein turnover. Protein is also important for non-muscle tissues like tendons and bones.4 Focus on high quality protein sources like grass-fed, grass-finished, organic, and pasture raised meats. You can also consume protein though a protein shake. Vejo’s Whey Coffee blend contains 9 grams of whey-based protein that is a good source of the amino acid leucine. For dairy-free racers, Vejo also offers plant-based Earthbar protein blends.

Fiber:

Most people do not consume an adequate amount of dietary fiber in their diet. Although fiber has a vital role in cardiovascular, hormonal, and gastrointestinal health, the days leading up to the race are not the time step up your fiber intake. Too much fiber before race day can cause gastrointestinal issues like gas and bloating.

Hydration:

Hopefully you have been staying hydrated daily, but now is the time to make sure you are adequately hydrated. Take a good look at the color of your urine. Aim for a lighter yellow color. If yours is darker, drink more water. If you take supplements, especially B vitamins, your urine might look bright yellow or orange in color, making this method harder to use.

Day of race:

Simplicity is key when it comes to nutrition the day of the race. Depending on your start time, keep your meal light and focus on easily digestible carbohydrates to refill your liver glycogen stores. Race day is not the time to start mixing things up or trying something new. Stick to meals that you have thoroughly tested and consumed before. This is a good way to ensure that you won’t have gastrointestinal upset while running your race.

Timing:

Timing is everything when it comes to your pre-race meal. For your body to be able to break down and utilize the energy from a large breakfast, you would ideally need to consume the meal at least 3-4 hours before the race. This is not always realistic since start times are usually early and quality sleep is vital. However, if your race doesn’t start until the afternoon, then you have time to digest a larger breakfast.

Carbohydrates and Protein:

If you have time for a larger meal (3-4 hours before race), focus on consuming carbohydrates and some protein. Your carbohydrate intake should be around 1-4 g/kg. Examples of pre-race meals include oatmeal with nut/oat/low fat milk and fresh fruit, topped with walnuts or almonds; Greek yogurt with nuts, fruit, and a piece of toast; or a piece of toast with natural almond or peanut butter and a banana. As you get closer to the race, smoothies can be an easier way to get in easily digestible energy like Vejo’s Banana Almond blend that contains banana and plant-based protein. Now is also time to take your pre-workout supplement (if it has passed the tolerance test during your training). I like Vejo’s Pre-Workout blend—formulated to fuel your mind, body, and spirit toward greatness! This high energy performance blend helps to improve focus, endurance, and immunity while reducing muscle soreness. Its natural ingredients will make your climb up the podium of the last obstacle you’ll face on race day.

Hydration:

Continue hydrating as soon as you wake up. Focus on drinking a cup or two then continuing to take sips throughout the morning. Drinking larger amounts of water at one time will lead to more bathroom trips. Remember to pack along your favorite electrolytes to help regulate the balance of fluids in the body and facilitate muscle contractions.

Perfecting your pre-race nutrition should be part of your overall training program to get the most out of your performance. You do not have to wait until race day to test out your nutrition plan—in fact, do not wait until then! Sample different meal ideas while you are training to see how well you tolerate each meal and how you feel before, during, and after your exercise to get the most out of race day.

Works Cited:

Jeukendrup, Asker E. “Nutrition for Endurance Sports: Marathon, Triathlon, and Road Cycling.” Taylor & Francis, Journal of Sports Sciences, 15 Sept. 2011, www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02640414.2011.610348. Burke, Louise M. “Carbohydrates for Training and Competition.” Taylor & Francis, Journal of Sports Sciences, 9 June 2011, www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02640414.2011.585473. Thomas, Travis, et al. “Position of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Dietitians of Canada, and the American College of Sports Medicine: Nutrition and Athletic Performance”. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Mar. 2016, 4. jandonline.org/article/S2212-2672(15)01802-X/fulltext. Babraj, J, et al. “Sequential Extracts of Human Bone Show Differing Collagen Synthetic Rates.” Biochemical Society Transactions, U.S. National Library of Medicine, Apr. 2002, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12023825?dopt=Abstract.

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