Eating Prior To Rowing

Montanaandy · Post by **Montanaandy** » March 9th, 2009, 3:16 pm

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

DavidA · Post by **DavidA** » March 9th, 2009, 3:59 pm

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

djh · Post by **djh** » March 9th, 2009, 9:23 pm

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.

Cyclist2 · Post by **Cyclist2** » March 9th, 2009, 10:52 pm

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.

Markopolo400 · Post by **Markopolo400** » March 9th, 2009, 10:58 pm

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

Montanaandy · Post by **Montanaandy** » March 10th, 2009, 4:51 pm

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

iain · Post by **iain** » March 13th, 2009, 11:12 am

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

konarzewski · Post by **konarzewski** » March 14th, 2009, 1:51 am

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.

Deewen · Post by **Deewen** » March 30th, 2009, 3:40 pm

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

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