Best Pre-Race Meal For Mountain Bike Racing
Performance Nutrition – The Pre-Race Meal
It’s the first mile of the mountain bike race and your stomach is playing tunes you don’t like. Sounds of “bloat” and “blot” are on Stomach Radio and reminding you that maybe you ate a bit too much this morning.
So how do you figure this pre-race meal plan out? Sometimes what you grab out of the refrigerator works, but other times it doesn’t. Here are some guidelines to keep the tunes in your stomach to a minimum.
1. Recover from your last mountain bike workout with adequate supplies of complex carbohydrates and proteins. Doing so will top off your glycogen stores, which is the first fuel used during exercise and constitutes 80% of your total glycogen storage.
Keeping it simple – recover from your last workout with products like Endurox or Perpetuen, eat right the night before the race, and you’ll have 80% of the energy necessary to compete.
2. With your glycogen levels topped off from a good recovery meal, most sports nutritionist suggests eating a pre-race meal between 200-400 calories with minimal fat, simple sugars, and fiber.
Adding small amounts of protein to a carbohydrate pre-race meal has been shown to improve performance. Products like Accelerate, Endurox and Perpetuen are good for starters.
If you want solid foods…bananas, rice, pasta, skinless potatoes, plain bagel, low fat active culture yogurt, and low fiber hot cereal are some good pre-race suggestions.
3. For races longer than 90 minutes, eat your pre-race meal three to four hours before the start of the race and consume 10-12 ounces of fluid each hour up to 30 minutes prior to the start (24-30 ounces total). This will minimize excess insulin release which lowers the glucose in the blood.
For races under 90-minutes where total muscle glycogen stored is not as important, consuming easily digestible fuel an hour or two before the race is ok. This assumes you have been working out for some time and actively refueling your muscles, which increases your muscle glycogen levels. If not, or you are new to mountain bike riding/racing, use 60-minutes as your cut off point.
4. If you are starving before the mountain bike race and can’t wait, consume a gel five minutes before the start.
5. Only eat and drink the foods you have used in training. The rule – nothing new on race day applies here too.
Your body is highly stressed on race day and it’s not the best time to find out your stomach does not react well with certain foods or supplements. For longer races, make sure you eat and drink the foods/supplements that are being offered on the race course.
Use these tips as guideline for your next mountain bike race or workout, but always remember to test the foods and supplements out to find the best pre-race meal for you.
Tagged with: mountain bike foods • mountain bike nutrition • mtb foods • mtb nutrition • Performance Nutrition • pre race meal • pre-race nutrition • race day supplements • Sports Nutritional Supplements
Filed under: Performance Nutrition
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It takes a while to get to know what is the right thing to eat pre-race and I’m still not always sure, so this article is real useful. It’s sometimes difficult for newbies to remember that their needs will change depending on experience and the length of the race.
So the two key things here are to eat according to the length of race ahead and to be prepared? Bananas are a real asset in this case as they come pre packaged. No more excuses for eating badly and paying the consequences later.
I always dig for solid foods like pasta and plain bagel as my main meal and low fat active culture yogurt as my main dessert. These are one of the top energy foods on my list to eat before the race starts. The tips here are great, I’ll make sure that I’ll eat if I’m starving five minutes before the race.
Yes, the length of the race determines the timing of when you can eat. Longer than 60-90 minutes (depending on your fitness level), eat 200-400 calories three to four hours before the race. I keep it simple – I eat 400 calories four hours before any race distance.
This is wonderful information for a newbie, who may not have known about the importance of timing your meals before the race. I will definitely follow the tips and eat a simple carbohydrate meal with a little protein in the timing specified.
These are some good pre-race meal tips. No wonder I get hungry in between races because I often lack 80% of energy to be used for the next day. Tonight I should not miss dinner.