What do you eat before the race, and days leading up to it?

[PRINCESS VIJA]

I am getting ready to test for my black belt for TaeKwonDo, and I am looking to you, my WISH friends to help if you can. The testing is long, like 3+ hours so I know I will need my energy reserves ready to go.

when you are preparing for race day, what types of foods are you eating up to that day, and what do you eat the day of, or I should say Morning of the race?

 

[FFigawi]

My pre-race meal is always one of two things: a yogurt or a Clif bar, along with some water too, of course. That's enough to get me through a short race or to the point in a long race at which I need to start eating goo, sport beans, blocks, etc. The week before a long race for me is more important. I drink 10-20% more water than normal, eat plenty of brown rice and pasta, and add in some extra protein too.

 

[FireDancer]

Well, I have no idea if the correlation will be one to one from race to a TaeKwonDo competition but here is what I do. The only meal I really worry about for a morning race is the dinner the night before. Other than that the only thing to watch out for is not to try anything exotically new in the 3 or 4 days leading up to the competition. I wouldn't decide to try sushi for the first time for example 3 days before a race (or competition) just in case.

I go for a carb-heavy meal the day before that also has some protein. Pasta with red sauce and grilled chicken is the old standby but sometimes I just have regular meat balls.

The morning of the race I usually go with a banana, plain bagel, and have some Gu gel with me all ready to go (at least when I don't forget it).

I eat it at least an hour before the race so the stomach has at least started to digest it before the gun goes off.

Good luck with the competition.

 

[BlazerFan]

The secret is to practice with what eat when you are training so everything is the same on race day. I usually each 3 egg whites and a whole egg in a sandwich thin and some greek yogurt in the morning before the rate, at least an hour before. This holds me through a 1/2 marathon with adding some carbs in drinks during the race.

Remember what my coach always says......

No New is Good New!


Take all the free samples you find at the expo but don't use them on race day unless you've used them in practice.

Good luck!

 

[PRINCESS VIJA]

thanks for all of your helpful tips!