Food And Nutrition

[[old] wgreene0588]

Hey, just wondering what people find to be the best food to eat before a race or major workout. I never have any idea, so let me know!

[[old] NJhsRower]

my coach says pasta is good... i ususlly have pasta and chicken

[[old] aledieps]

God, you've just opened the pandora's box equivalent of this forum. There's so many opinions on eating (I've asked and been told literally like 10 or 15 different things) It would be better to ask a professional nutritionist or just find out through trial and error what is the best for you. You'll get too many responses here.

[[old] jamesg]

During a trip to various parts of China I found myself eating scorpions, bear stew, bees, moths, baby catfish straight out of the river and into the wok, worms that live in bamboo roots, snake's blood and something they called "mountain rat". And after this I thought I'd reduce the erg to scrap iron at the first go. However nothing changed, so must conclude that it doesn't matter what I eat. I wouldn't eat scorpions just before a race though.<br /><br />The Chinese told me that such a diet helps to keep the wife happy, which is considered very important in those parts.

[[old] samdkrc]

<br /> I usually have something sugary or something like a peanut butter and jam sandwich a few hours before the race, nothing too major and nothing in the hour before the race otherwise you run the risk of seeing it again after your race! Things like pasta take a bit too long to be broken down and turned into energy. Simple carbohydrates are turned into energy far more quickly and might give you those few extra seconds in a race<br /><br />

[[old] rspenger]

<!--quoteo(post=56025:date=Feb 16 2006, 02:58 AM:name=samdkrc)--><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'><b>QUOTE(samdkrc @ Feb 16 2006, 02:58 AM) </b></div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'>I usually have something sugary or something like a peanut butter and jam sandwich a few hours before the race, nothing too major and nothing in the hour before the race otherwise you run the risk of seeing it again after your race! Things like pasta take a bit too long to be broken down and turned into energy. Simple carbohydrates are turned into energy far more quickly and might give you those few extra seconds in a race<br /> </td></tr></table><br /><br />The jam shouldn't be any problem since it is mostly simple carbohydrates, but the bread is mostly starches and will certainly need more time. As for the peanut butter, it is 50% fat and 25% protein. Its metabolism is going to sap off energy to your digestive system for a long, long time. I dug up the following digestive times from a short net search:<br /><br />Fat 12 hours<br />Protein 12 hours<br />Starch 5 hours<br />Fruit 2 hours<br />Sugar 2 hours<br /><br />Bob S.<br /><br /><br />

[[old] ancho]

Appart from pasta eating or cereals breakfast about 3h before the race, and hydrating very well, I have the ritual of eating a banana about 1 h before, and 0,4l water wit some isotonic stuff about 20 min before the race.<br />Works quite well, specially for long dstances, but also for 2k (as a matter of fact, 2 k is terribly long!)

[[old] jbell]

I usually just have a roast beef sandwich (roast beef and roll) about 2hrs before a 2k /6k. My coach said that a bread was good because whens its broken down it releases alot of nutrients.