gym-6

Runner’s Diet – Preparing for Race Day

As a runner, you cannot avoid burning plenty of calories and preventing an energy deficit, especially when you’ve been running for miles. When you run your body uses glucose to provide the energy to fuel your run. When you’re run intensifies or prolongs, more carbohydrates are used for energy. However, the body has limited supply of carbohydrates, and as you continue to run your stored fats are utilized. It’s a good thing right?

Unfortunately, the decomposition of fat is less metabolically efficient compared to that of carbohydrates. Metabolizing fat is a lot slower and needs more oxygen to continue. This whole process happens when you’ve actually hit the wall. Hitting any kind of wall is hard and it can affect your performance for the rest of the run. Fortunately, there is a good nutrition strategy to further fuel your run.

The focus of eating should be on the carbohydrate content of the diet. Do a regiment of eating nutritious foods not only to enhance your performance but also to keep your body healthy. Going inside the supermarket will not be easy given the variety of choices. Just bear in mind what your body needs and what your body can take. If you believe that the food choices doesn’t work for you after a trial marathon race, try another choice. The key here is getting acquainted with your food choice and helping your body adapt in digesting it, whether it is before the race or during the race.

The meal plan the day of the race: high carbohydrates, low fat, moderate protein. And you shouldn’t feast on it since it will make you sluggish and might not do good for your digestive system come race day. Instead eat in small servings but eat as often as you can throughout the day. Common sense will tell you to avoid alcohol since you don’t want to get a hangover the day of the race and also avoid gas-forming foods such as beans and cauliflower so your stomach won’t feel bloated the next day. You should also make sure that you are hydrated throughout the day.

Two to four hours before the race, eat a high-carbohydrates diet. If you are too nervous to eat, try yoghurt, shake or smoothie. The thing here is that you need the carbohydrates and two to four hours is plenty of time for your stomach to digest it. You should also avoid fried foods. These will take longer for your stomach to digest, as well as it can make your stomach upset. It is also wise to check the weather to know what clothing you should wear and to plan what kind of food you will be bringing along.

You could bring sports drink such as isotonic drinks interspersed with water. Not only is it quickly absorbed by your body but it also replaces electrolytes lost through sweat. You could also bring gels, sweets and energy bars. Just remember to eat them every 40 to 45 minutes on the road to avoid energy deficiency.

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