This is a HUGE break through for me – I have ticked one of my “New Years Revolution” boxes!!!! I have started running a whole lot more seriously! I have been doing races from bay to bay, through forests, along mountain contours, up monster hills and I love it! It’s the adrenaline rush and the pulse of endorphins that fuels an excitement and happiness for life!
Being a Nutrition Nut I end up counting every gram of carb and protein (well not really but I am aware) before and after the race. So this first post is to outline the pre-race nutrition you should focus on.
Carbo-loading is a very controversial topic at the moment…so I have experimented….
Carbo-loading:
For the Bay to Bay 15km race, I chose the more traditional option of carbo-loading and filled up on a chicken and mushroom pasta the night before. I had about 2.5 cups of pasta and 60g of chicken (quite a healthy portion).
Protein / fat -loading:
For the Hoenhort 15km race I opted for a higher protein meal of about 135g of grilled fish, focusing more on getting a reasonably big portion of protein and healthy fat in.
The result:
Well, this is the interesting part – my time was 1h29 and 1h30, respectively, practically identical. However I felt much heavier and slower on the Hoenhort race, which shouldn’t have been the case as it was second in line so I should have been fitter.
My take is to carbo-load, it seems to agree with my body and taste buds 🙂 I also suggest experimenting with your own nutrition.