Ideal LWT weight coming up to a competition.

[Pie Man]

With the BRIC less than three weeks away I have started thinking about my weight. Last year I was around 72KG coming up the the comp so there was little danger of failing the weigh in. However this year I am around 74-74.5KG (and have been for the last few months).
Should i try and shed a kg or so? Should continue as I am and cross my fingers? Should i do something just before the competition? Or is there something else i should consider?
It would be annoying to fail the weight but as i will still race not the end of the world however i am a worrier so i don't want to as to the stress i will be getting anyway.
Thanks

[Edward4492]

I've had a lot of experience with "making weight". My walking around, non-dieting weight is around 168-169 lbs. My first thought is I never let it get above 170lb in the off season, so getting down to 165lbs (75kg) is always very do-able. I've weighed in at CRASH B's and other events (8) times so far and followed the same protocol. I give myself four weeks to gradually bring it down. The usual advice works, cut out all alcohol, sugar, breads, etc. Strictly meat, chicken, fish, vegetables, and quality fats like nuts and olive oil. I include cheese (this could bring some disagreement, but I'm okay with it). I weigh myself twice a day, morning and night. I want to see the trends and make sure I'm on track. I'll cut out fruit if I'm not getting down fast enough. Once I get down to the 162-163 range, I try and hang there. I'll have a sweet if I want it. Being at this weight a week out gives me the flexibility to eat some more junk carbs if I want to help fuel my training. This summer I had to get down to 160lbs to weigh in for two OTW comps where the standard is lower. I followed the same methods and just kept going and weighed in at 158lbs.

I don't think I could deal with the stress of cutting it close and relying on dehydration or other last-ditch efforts to "make weight". As you know we only have a 1-2 hour window to hit the scales before out event. I find it's relatively easy to dial up the discipline for short periods of time to knock off a few pounds. I've also found that there's been a pronounced shift in my metabolism. I eat a lot and eat what I want in between comps and seem to have re-set my body weight. I also train year round. This morning I stepped on the scale at 168.5lb s; I've been eating pretty heavily.

I've also found, and this could be a mental thing, after 8-10 weeks of eating perfectly clean I start to feel like I'm getting weaker. I don't know if there's a long term depletion of some elements the body needs. Or if I just start to feel deprived of foods I want. But I loosen up. It seems to work and I fall back into an 80-20 pattern of quality vs low quality eating. Seems to help.

So to answer your question, IMO drop another Kg, should be relatively easy to do with a little bit of focus. You'll relax more.

[Pie Man]

Thanks a lot Edward. That is very interesting. I will take your advice and drop a kilo and start weighing myself twice a day for my own piece of mind.

[Edward4492]

As a side note, over hear (USA) our indoor comps are all 165lbs (75kg) and OTW most are 160lbs (72.5kg). Not sure about BRIC (obviously you know!)

[Citroen]

As a side note, over hear (USA) our indoor comps are all 165lbs (75kg) and OTW most are 160lbs (72.5kg). Not sure about BRIC (obviously you know!)

BRIC follows the US indoor rules except the measurement is metric @ 75Kg (165.347lb).

[Pie Man]

Thanks I didn't realise I get an extra 0.347 pounds. For some unknown reason I weigh myself in pounds while I think in kg.

[Analytica]

Ideally I guess you'd want to be as close as possible to 75Kg as possible on race day as long as that was all functional weight (muscle not fat) but that then increases the possibility & stress of not making weight. I would imagine its not feasible to significantly change muscle mass in the next few weeks so I would agree that as long as your workouts (& race) are properly fuelled then dropping a little non functional weight might make race day easier.

Like Edward, in the run up to races I weigh myself first thing in the morning & last thing at night so as I can get a handle on daily fluctuations. At the moment I'm loosing about 2kg overnight so I can fairly accurately predict what I'll be on race morning the night before which helps reduce stress.

Depending on whether you're staying overnight before BRIC (and not taking your own scales !) you may want to have an idea how your overnight will pan out for weight. I'll be leaving home 24 hours before BRIC weigh in which in my experience is plenty of time to mess things up just from sight changes in routine. As the race nerves kick in, paranoia starts about not being properly fuelled/hydrated but this then competes with paranoia about not being able to check my weight.

I also tend to agree with not dehydrating or similar quick drops. With a maximum 2 hours to race after weigh in, that's got to affect your performance negatively. I've not always got my weight management right (earlier this year I has a dreadful cold weeks before a race and felt so rotten that I didn't make sure I was ok early enough) but if needs be a moderate 5k row is usually good for 0.5 Kg on the morning. Not ideal though.

[Pie Man]

Thanks Analytica, very useful. I have been weighing myself morning and evening for the last couple of weeks, and after dropping the carbs for a few days my weight seems to be 157+-1 in the morning and 161+-1 in the evening (oddly even though I do calculations in Kg, I weigh myself in lb...) . So I'm looking good for the weigh in, I will be leaving on the morning of the race, although as I race at 10am I'll need to leave home around 6:15 but I'll be able to have some food first and water as long as I keep on trend. I'm going to ensure I drink plenty every morning this week as I do fear dehydration, but at least I am able to stop worrying about weigh in, there again if last year is anything to go by my HR hit my max thirty seconds into the race and stayed there to the end even the last 500m where I blew up and pulled a 1:52.

BTW what sort of food would you eat before hand? I like peanut butter on toast, which seems to work well for me.

[Edward4492]

Nice job Pie Man; looks like you're in great shape and and nailed the diet. I'm super paranoid and purchased two digital scales, different brands, several years ago; they're within a couple of ounces. By race day, for a 2k, fueling is really a non-issue. Just find something that you know agrees with you and eat lite. By now you should have it figured out. You have the right idea keeping the fluids topped off. Another trick I picked up on was spraying my throat (I use a product called Biotene) as these erg venues seem to be brutally dry. It's made a huge difference for me, particularly after the event. Hit the weigh-in as early as possible, generally two hours prior to your event.Top off your drinking, then no more water with an hour to go so you can hit the restroom with time to spare. Good luck at BRIC!

[Cyclist2]

I wish I had that "problem" - making weight. I stand on the scale fully clothed, holding my gym bag and still have room to spare.

Anyway, concerning what to eat the day of the race. My experience at CRASH-B last year was that I didn't eat enough breakfast. Had to be at the venue early plus it takes me time to get things moving, if you know what I mean, so that by the time of the race my fuel reserves were inadequate. I felt it the last 500 meters - just didn't have any energy for a strong finish. So while I don't disagree with Ed - you don't want a full stomach for the race - make sure you are fueled up. Eat something you like, something you know what the effects are and stay hydrated, for sure.

Good luck at BRIC!

[Rod]

It's Tuesday morning and I'm 73.5 kilos/ 162lbs so 1.5k/3lbs under the Lightweight limit for Saturday.

I should be able to drop a little more which means I'll be able to have a few Bananas and a Coffee before my weigh in at 08:25 am on Saturday.

I'll be getting up just before 05:00am to leave the house by 06:00am so will need to have had something.....but not too much.

Energy wise....my Glycogen stores will be plenty high enough from the food I've eaten the day before and the lack of any hard exercise draining them. The body holds nearly 2000 Calories of Glycogen and a 2k race only uses up a few hundred at most so plenty in the tank but don't want to feel hungry.

After that I've got 2 hours to my race so a another Banana or two and plenty of water.

After that.........I think my weight will go up a wee bit!

[Analytica]

I think that's a good plan to guard against dehydration. A 2k is short enough that you don't need huge amounts of calories so I suspect water is more important as long as you're reasonably fuelled in the preceding few days. That said, I have a habit of snacking compulsively after weigh in largely through nerves which probably isn't helpful - I've not yet been hit by nausea in a race but I think most people would recommend not too much food to digest in advance.

Personally I try to keep it as light as I can on the day of the race & these days that would tend to be white rolls with a little bit of jam which isn't a million miles away from peanut butter on toast. I have had peanut putter in my rolls before now & to be fair it was fine, but my thinking in switching to jam is that being a bit less proteiny & fatty it's possbly a bit easier to digest. I'm also less likely to put too much jam on Jaffa Cakes are light enough to satisfy my compulsive snacking while being just sickly enough to remind me to stop eating.

Sounds like you've pretty much nailed the weight management so that stress is taken care of. I'd expect to be no more than 74Kg when I leave home on Friday morning & try & weigh in more like 74.5ish. If I drop much below 74 then I'm possibly at risk of under fuelling.

Best of luck to all at BRIC. I'll probably run into people at weight in I should think !

[Pie Man]

Thanks again everyone, really useful advice. I am feeling a lot happier about my preparation for the race. Good luck to all who are racing at the BRIC, hopefully I will bump into a few of you.

[Pie Man]

Another big thank you to everyone, weigh in went very well, and it really helped keep my race preparation calm leading to a good race and seventh which I am very happy with.

My one regret is I didn't take Edwards advice on Biotene as I said in my race write up my after the warm up I knew exactly what he was talking about, I will certainly be getting some before I next race.

[Edward4492]

Nice job Piers! Looks like your weight management was dead on and you pulled a solid time. Not sure why, but these erg events always seem to be brutally dry. Spraying the throat has become habitual for me; my daytime job involves a lot of teaching and training. I got in the habit of spraying when I have to do a lot of talking; definitely helps. Make sure the Biotene (or whatever product you settle on) agrees with your stomach. Nice job!