[CoachKW]

CoachKW on February 24, 2010 at 2:36 am #16558

Mike, moderators et. al.

I am always looking to upgrade my knowledge on what to advise sprinters to eat during a meet. Some of the invitationals we go to are all day affairs. My better sprinters can sometimes run up to 6 races in one day including prelims. We always tell them to bring something light and nutritious like bagels, granola bars etc as well as plenty of water.

For the experts on board, what would you advise? At the end of a long practice we drink chocolate milk to recover, but I don’t advise it during a workout or in the middle of the meet because I think that could cause some GI issues. I’m thinking about the ratio of protein to carbs and the ease of digestion during a 6-10 hour day.

[johnstrang]

johnstrang on February 24, 2010 at 10:00 am #95090

As a multi-eventer I always had this problem of an all day meet without a chance to leave for food. I think a good breakfast is key, then at the meet I recommend a good trail mix with almonds and berries and some chocolate, a peanut butter and honey sandwich with whole wheat bread and a Mix 1 (an all natural energy/protein shake). I would snack on the trail mix or granola bars during the events, and in the middle have the sandwich and the mix 1.

[Craig Pickering]

Craig Pickering on February 24, 2010 at 10:30 am #95091

Sprinting is a body weight carrying event, therefore it follows that keeping body weight as low as possible is ideal – to do this, I follow a low residue diet in the 2 days pre-, and the day of, the event. This involves eating foods that are digested quickly – so wholewheat stuff is out of the question. Granola bars also fall into this category. On race day, for breakfast I would have cornflakes (low residue, carbs), and probably scrambled egg on white toast (protein and more carbs). Lunch (assuming the meet hasnt started) would be white race and chicken. If the meet has started, and is an all day thing, which yours sounds like it is, fast recovery stuff is good, like carb gels or stuff like powerbars, which are low residue, high energy. BCAA tablets are also good for protein intake. This is all quite in depth, so a chicken sandwich on white bread would also do the trick!

Post comp, chocolate milk would be fine. An evening meal high in veg and fruit would be good from an antioxidant/vitamin point of view.

You might also want to look at caffeine (although this might be banned at NCAAs?), and electrolyte replacement during the meet.

Its worth remembering that sprinting isnt a high energy demanding sport per se; the warm-up is the most energy costly part of the race day, so modifying the warm-up for rounds etc., should help that.

Hope this helps, any more questions please ask!

[johnstrang]

johnstrang on February 24, 2010 at 10:38 am #95093

How much of a difference do you think it makes if you ate wheat bread over white in sprinting event?

[Matt Norquist]

Matt Norquist on February 24, 2010 at 2:48 pm #95100

Meet days, I always liked following:

1. Breakfast – Oatmeal with some egg whites
2. Snacking all day with following as needed:
a. water/red-bull mix (1/2 and 1/2)
b. fig newtons
c. some sort of high sugar drink (not sodas but a nutritional/recovery drink – currently a huge fan of “surge recovery”)

[Pete Diamond]

Pete Diamond on February 24, 2010 at 2:55 pm #95102

The only thing I ever ate during meets in college was Utz pretzel rods.

After the meet I’d eat what ever I could get my hands on, but breakfast and lunch were Utz pretzel rods.

[Josh Hurlebaus]

Josh Hurlebaus on February 24, 2010 at 3:55 pm #95105

Honestly, I’ve been at meets and had a burger before from the concession stand. Collegiate meets take forever and if I’m not racing until 8pm and i got there at 10am, I’m going to give myself a nice burger or two for lunch.

I’ve tried the whole eating lean and light for meets before, and if its a marathon meet I simply die by the end.

[mortac8]

mortac8 on February 24, 2010 at 4:12 pm #95106

I don’t think it makes much difference especially at low to intermediate levels. We had a steeplechase guy a few years ago eat strawberry pancakes with maximum orange juice at 8am (while everyone chided him for being stupid for doing so), eat little the rest of the day, and break the school record at 3pm.

The main goal may be to just have some food so you’re not hungry whatever it may be.

[utfootball4]

utfootball4 on February 24, 2010 at 5:53 pm #95109

Sprinting is a body weight carrying event, therefore it follows that keeping body weight as low as possible is ideal – to do this, I follow a low residue diet in the 2 days pre-, and the day of, the event. This involves eating foods that are digested quickly – so wholewheat stuff is out of the question. Granola bars also fall into this category. On race day, for breakfast I would have cornflakes (low residue, carbs), and probably scrambled egg on white toast (protein and more carbs). Lunch (assuming the meet hasnt started) would be white race and chicken. If the meet has started, and is an all day thing, which yours sounds like it is, fast recovery stuff is good, like carb gels or stuff like powerbars, which are low residue, high energy. BCAA tablets are also good for protein intake. This is all quite in depth, so a chicken sandwich on white bread would also do the trick!

Post comp, chocolate milk would be fine. An evening meal high in veg and fruit would be good from an antioxidant/vitamin point of view.

You might also want to look at caffeine (although this might be banned at NCAAs?), and electrolyte replacement during the meet.

Its worth remembering that sprinting isnt a high energy demanding sport per se; the warm-up is the most energy costly part of the race day, so modifying the warm-up for rounds etc., should help that.

Hope this helps, any more questions please ask!

I agree speedfreak, I perform my best when eating very little 48hrs leading up to a game/meet.

[Craig Pickering]

Craig Pickering on February 24, 2010 at 9:07 pm #95112

How much of a difference do you think it makes if you ate wheat bread over white in sprinting event?

I tend to drop about 1-1.5kgs in the 3 days pre-comp by taking out wholewheat and veg/fruit. I also feel much less bloated, and have no “toilet” issues!

[sizerp]

sizerp on February 24, 2010 at 10:20 pm #95116

I tend to drop about 1-1.5kgs in the 3 days pre-comp by taking out wholewheat and veg/fruit. I also feel much less bloated, and have no “toilet” issues!

That’s curious. I used to carb-load the 2 days before a meet (flour-based foods and sweet stuff), and indeed I had a lot of energy during the meet days (60/100m, long and triple jump + rarely shot put, 4×100 and 200m). However something didn’t feel right, and I couldn’t point my finger on it, until I found out the increase of the concentration of carbs within the muscle cells lead to and increase in water uptake. That explained the restriction of freedom of movement (for lack of better words) that I felt.

What is interesting is that quickly digested foods cause a higher volume of glucose to enter the bloodstream faster, which leads to a higher insulin spike. I’d think the higher insulin spikes combined with the higher availability of sugar in the blood would cause the muscles to suck all of that sugar up faster, causing ever more bloat.

Of course, if the overall intake of food significantly drops during those 2 days, then most likely less carbs would be able to remain within the cells, and would be used for energy instead.

As far as the original topic of the thread goes, almost anything is game on meet day 🙂
However if the meet is going to be long, I like to ingest some amount of fats after breakfast and lunch in an attempt to avoid too sudden drops of energy levels that usually happen to me when I eat high GI carbs.

[Craig Pickering]

Craig Pickering on February 24, 2010 at 10:25 pm #95117

You are right, carb loading also causes an increase is water retention! Fats in and around breakfast is also a good idea, as there is nothing worse than been hungry when you are competing!

[Owen]

Owen on February 25, 2010 at 2:04 am #95120

[quote author="speedfreak1" date="1267025901"]

I tend to drop about 1-1.5kgs in the 3 days pre-comp by taking out wholewheat and veg/fruit. I also feel much less bloated, and have no “toilet” issues!

That’s curious. I used to carb-load the 2 days before a meet (flour-based foods and sweet stuff), and indeed I had a lot of energy during the meet days (60/100m, long and triple jump + rarely shot put, 4×100 and 200m). However something didn’t feel right, and I couldn’t point my finger on it, until I found out the increase of the concentration of carbs within the muscle cells lead to and increase in water uptake. That explained the restriction of freedom of movement (for lack of better words) that I felt.

What is interesting is that quickly digested foods cause a higher volume of glucose to enter the bloodstream faster, which leads to a higher insulin spike. I’d think the higher insulin spikes combined with the higher availability of sugar in the blood would cause the muscles to suck all of that sugar up faster, causing ever more bloat.

Of course, if the overall intake of food significantly drops during those 2 days, then most likely less carbs would be able to remain within the cells, and would be used for energy instead.

As far as the original topic of the thread goes, almost anything is game on meet day 🙂
However if the meet is going to be long, I like to ingest some amount of fats after breakfast and lunch in an attempt to avoid too sudden drops of energy levels that usually happen to me when I eat high GI carbs.[/quote]

I agree with you in that i would think a slightly lower carbohydrate intake in the few days leading up to a meet would be good. Especially in the speed / power events where glycogen stores are not going to be a limiting factor on performance as much as the endurance events. Regarding the wholemeal versus white forms of carbs i dont know which would cause the greatest water retention. It may well be as simple as which has the highest carbohydrate content rather than the actual GI effect that determines water storage.

Back to the question at hand, on meet day i think the most important area is recovery post race. Especially if you are doing multiple events. This is often most easily achieved when using recovery based products, powders you mix with water are a great way to get the fast acting sugar you need and as a bonus also aid in hydration.

[Jay Turner]

Jay Turner on February 7, 2011 at 6:14 pm #105308

Does what you eat and how you eat change if you are at an all day meet. Alot of our indoor meets begin at 9am (roughly), and usually end somewhere around 6pm. What can you do to avoid hunger/dehydration/fatigue, etc.?

[Matt Norquist]

Matt Norquist on February 8, 2011 at 1:24 am #105314

Just keep them snacking as hungry. Simple carb stuff – and drinking some sort of recovery drink. Main thing is just never letting them get “full”.

[Jay Turner]

Jay Turner on February 8, 2011 at 8:57 am #105328

Just keep them snacking as hungry. Simple carb stuff – and drinking some sort of recovery drink. Main thing is just never letting them get “full”.

Gimme some examples of recovery drinks. I’d like to be able to give them as many options as possible.

[Matt Norquist]

Matt Norquist on February 8, 2011 at 9:15 am #105331

Surge
G Series Pro Prime

[Jay Turner]

Jay Turner on February 8, 2011 at 9:32 am #105334

Surge
G Series Pro Prime

Do they taste good? Keep in mind these are teenage girls I am dealing with, haha.