Concept2 Forum

I posted a question a while back re: hydration and how much/when to hydrate prior to rowing and got some great advice that I use each time I row so I thought that I would throw this one out there to you rowers to see what people are doing with respect to eating prior to rowing.

My situation is this - I am up early and have breakfast (mug of coffee and very large yogurt/fruit smoothie) early AM. I try to row over the lunch hour (which can range on any given day from 11:30am - 2:30pm) so sometimes I can go 8 hours without food prior to rowing.

I have been hesitant to eat anything too close to the time that I row because I don't want an upset stomach. Also, since my late mornings/early afternoons are in a constant state of flux it is difficult to time when to eat and also how much.

I am also pretty tired after rowing and really don't have much of an appetite and so I often skip lunch altogether or have a snack which means that I can go from breakfast to dinner without eating much which I know is not a good idea.

I am curious as to what others do - what is your cutoff for eating prior to a row (if any), what do you eat and/or drink, what do you have after you row (i.e. protein shake or whatever). Thanks, Andy

Andy,
I find that I like to have a couple of hours after eating a regular meal before erging.
I also don't usually eat my lunch at a particular time, it just usually ends up being sometime later in the afternoon. I don't get to erg until evening. After erging I am usually not hungry - just thirsty. I usually drink water or orange juice. (I usually also manage to eat some ice cream .)I try to eat a larger amount at lunch since I know I won't want to eat much later, but need the calories.

David

I get up early in the morning, eat breakfast, and row right afterward. I used to have all bran and milk, but read about some nasty-sounding reactions to exercising right after cow's milk. Based on some research I've switched my breakfast to all bran mixed with orange juice. This is better than it sounds, and I believe the sugar in the orange juice helps my workout.

An alternate breakfast that works for me is raw oatmeal mixed with fruity yoghurt.

Cooked oatmeal is highly regarded, but I find it makes me feel sluggish if I eat it right before rowing. I like soy milk by itself, but soy milk on cereal also seems too heavy.

Without getting into what actually to eat, the timing IMO is not too critical unless you are really into intense training. As a cyclist who rides for several hours at a time, I have to eat during the exercise or I'll "bonk", so have gotten used to having food in my stomach during exercise. However, if I plan on doing hard intervals on the erg, I won't eat for a couple hours before. If I'm doing long moderate rows, it doesn't matter. So, to summarize, I think you should just go with whatever your schedule dictates and what feels OK; eat, row, whatever, unless you are in serious training, and then you would schedule eating - and everything else - around the erg workouts.

If I eat anything within 5 hours of erging, Im going to puke it up, no question about it.

Quite a range of options/opinions which is great. Thanks for the input - Andy

I eat first thing and row 90 mins later. This is a little early for interval sessions as occassionally a small amount makes a reappearance, but this is a large high fibre breakfast a more quickly digested breakfast would probably be fine. I would have thought the 2 hours would be fine. However, after an absolutely all out trial you may heave regardless of anything in your stomach! I think you should always eat before or shortly after an erg session in the morning or you risk burning hard earned muscle. I find a pint of milk after helps.

Hope you find a solution that works for you.

- Iain

In the morning, I have a light early breakfast (2 slices of toast with Marmite, which is a savoury yeast extract popular in the UK) and drink 2 litres of fluid - tea, fruit juice and water. 90 minutes later, I'll do my warm up and then a "serious" workout 2 hours after breakfast. In the evenings I'll eat a couple of bananas and a slice of toast and then get straight on the erg for a low rate 10k. I wouldn't do an interval session for at least 2 hours after a meal.

Hi, I'm new to the forum and just thought I'd add what I eat. I'm up at 6am to train, since I have two small girls and if I don't do it then, I risk not being able to train at all.

So I'm up at 6am and on my rower by 6:30. About 10 minutes before I row I eat half a banana. I have done training without having anything to eat beforehand, but my body performs better when I eat half a banana - whether I do an easy, medium or interval session.

I have a few sips of water to drink before my workout and then about a cup right after I've finished. Then my day begins, in terms of taking care of my family. So I have two cups of tea to see me through the next 1.5 hours of getting my girls ready to leave the house, then I have my morning smoothie, which consists of kefir (cultured milk), flax seeds, pumpkins seeds, yoghurt, frozen berries and 1 banana. This smoothie hits the spot until lunch, roughly three hours later.
I'm a creature of habit when it comes to eating. So it's a breakfast smoothie by 09:00, lunch at 12:00, snack at 14:30, dinner by 17:00 and evening snack at 20:00. I have to eat regularly, otherwise I just can't function.

"I think you should always eat before or shortly after an erg session in the morning or you risk burning hard earned muscle. I find a pint of milk after helps. "

There is an everlasting debate about this, but I agree with you iain. My body makes it very clear that it needs a little something before and something substantial within a couple of hours after my workout. I've read that you need to eat something within two hours after a hard workout in order to not sacrifice muscle - but as said, an everlasting debate, it seems.

Deborah