Nutrition For The Big Day
Photo Credit: https://michaeldawson.nz/
Event Day Nutrition. Is it a logistical nightmare for you? If you are still figuring out what works for you, or if you haven’t started thinking about it at all, then I would suggest that you read on!
When we sign up to an event our current level of fitness can vary greatly. The first thing that we often focus on is how much training we need to do to get us to the finish line or to improve on previous performances. Often nutrition can be an afterthought. We end up taking a swing in the dark, asking friends for gel recommendations a couple of weeks out. Or we just wing it with no plans at all. The thing with winging it is that sometimes it works out just fine. Sometimes you end up in the porta-loo with massive regrets. Rather than taking the risk, we should be treating nutrition like we do physical training; allowing our body time to adjust and improve.
With training our nutrition, where do we start? Our nutrition training should begin when our physical training does. In our performance series blog, we talked about building the foundation of our house where we start increasing our cardio and strength which naturally increases our energy outputs. What that also means is that our energy requirements increase, so we need to provide our body with the right amount and types of nutrients to meet our performance. This ensures that we can maintain or increase muscle mass, maintain body composition required and help our body recover and continue to improve through the demands of the training.
The key is upregulating our energy intake to meet the needs of the increased energy output. For a lot of people, they are surprised how high their nutritional needs are once their nutritional intake has been calculated. Some people go from needing around 2000 calories to up above 3000 calories to meet their training needs as well as maintaining standard physiological function. People often ask, how am I supposed to eat that much in one day!? However, that is the reality that we face to cater to our daily exercise and physiological needs. As the guys in the lab put it, “food is fuel”.
Increasing daily calories can be challenging for a lot of people, especially if they may not be used to eating before exercise. It is important to think about it in two stages. The first stage is simply being able to comfortably meet the required calories. Then the second stage is being able to meet that calorie intake with prioritising the most important nutrients to help the body grow and recover to maximise training outcomes and increase overall performance.
One technique that often proves helpful is to form habits around preparation. Just like laying out gear the night before a big race. Nutritionally, this may be a specific meal you always default to the morning of a big event. Preparing and trialling that meal can make the difference of having enough energy to last the distance or intensity required. The aim is to not only be able to meet calorie needs but to get the body familiar to taking on food before the event and not causing unexpected event abnormalities. This is the same for using supplements during an event. It helps to trial different brands, different compositions and allow time for the body to adjust to take on the supplement and be able to use it effectively. This avoids the scenario where the body hits an energy low but is unable to stomach anything during an event because it’s not trained to take on anything. It is important to reiterate that this adaptation all takes time, so we need to consider nutritional planning well before event week.
Once the basic requirements are met and we’ve found what works well for us, it’s easy to think we’ve got it sorted and just stick to that plan, but perfecting event day nutrition will always be an ongoing process. This review process is important to adjust the amount of intake, type of food groups, and timing of eating, including snacks and post-event fuelling. Taking the time to perfect this plan will minimise any underlying nerves about whether nutrition plan is going to work on the big day. Here are some good questions to ask ourselves in this refinement process. Am I feeling over full? Did I feel that I lacked overall energy? What was the frequency of going to the bathroom?
This concept is important for all events, whether it is a sports tournament, all day event like athletics, running events such as the marathon and half marathon, and endurance events like ultra’s and ironman.
The key ideas to take away are:
- Understand the needs of your body
- Take time to trial and allow your body to adjust
- Review and improve
So if you are getting ready for a big event coming up, ask yourself if you are not only including physical training, recovery through physio and sports massage, and making sure you have the right footwear, but are you also taking the time learn your nutritional needs and perfect your nutrition plan? Don’t be the one having regrets in the porta-loo.
Eliot Fenton is a Sports Lab nutritionist who is passionate about food as fuel and food as enjoyment. He is currently completing his Master’s in dietetics.