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Carb loading

Afternoon all, 

 

I have my first Olympic dist tri on sunday and I thought I'd take nutrition a bit more seriously this time out. 

I've got my plan for on the bike, but pre loading/carb loading has me abit confused.  

the common theme is 8-10g per kg of body mass.  Being a rather chunky monkey at 86kg, that guideline would suggest I need to consume between 688g and 860g of Carbs a day!!

Thats a hell of a lot!

How do you manage it while eating clean? Having porridge, potatoes, rice 6 slice of bread yesterday I only managed to shoe-horn in 267g 

 

Comments

  • HarryDHarryD Posts: 425
    Rob,



    First things first. Don't try anything new in a race! Try it in training first.



    Second. Carb loading as you describe never took off for many reasons. For most competitors it simply didn't work and for many others athletes were bloated/heavy and didn't race well. A case of sports science not reflection sports reality. Remember that what goes in at the top must come out at the bottom and your gut can only process so much per hour so an increase in consumption can lead to a backlog



    Your body can only hold so much glycogen/carbohydrate (typically 500 to 600g) and pushing more into your stomach won't push any more into your body stores. Eating normally and reducing training load by tapering should top up your energy stores to their maximum.



    So do you really need to carbo load? Probably not.



    A good breakfast with gels an the bike & run should work well.



    Have a good race



    HarryD
  • gavinpgavinp Posts: 168

    Great reply from HarryD

    I would add drink well through the week and the day before make your last meal before 7pm (what goes in must come out...)

  • to be honest i have been training with the same nutrition as I'll race with so thats nothing new. 

    I'm going to slightly increase my clean carb intake in each meal on the run up to sunday. Nothing daft like nearly a kilo of rice a day though! ( I though that sounded odd). 

    As for the last meal, I'm very conscious of the need for Carb-unloading during the race, but I also find a pre-7pm meal helps me get to sleep  - so with you on that one

     

  • Great advice from above.

    The only thing I'd add is if you can get away without eating in the race (depends very much on what your training has told you) then you'll avoid using energy digesting the food, and the time/money getting hold of it all.

    Coincidentally, I posted my Ultimate Flapjack recipe today! goo.gl/AGmY8m

    Good luck Rob!

  • To be honest I stuck with my known race routine of about 500ml of SIS enery per hr and 1 SIS go isotonic gel per lap (2 lap, 1h35 bike). Started the run feeling really great, with plenty left in the tank.  

     

    No 'real' pre-load other than a slightly bigger portion on brown rice the night before!!

  • HarryDHarryD Posts: 425
    Rob



    Looks like you've got it sussed. Keep reviewing your races to see if anything can be improved
  • I need a new wetsuit, lost a bit if chub since I bought this one and its now takes on water!

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