Racing on Day 5

[mathgirl]

I am going to start my Whole30 on Sunday.  I have a 5 mile race up a mountain on Thursday which would be Day 5.  So I have a few questions:

 

1.  How bad will I feel?

 

2.  Anything I can do or eat to help with energy levels during the race?

 

3.  What do you eat for your pre/post workout meal?

 

Thanks so much!

[Tom Denham]

1. You could be feeling your worst on day 5. Tired, a bit of an achy stomach, legs feeling heavy.

 

2. You can eat starchy veggies at every meal - a fist size serving of sweet potatoes, white potatoes, parsnips, rutabagas, plantains, winter squash... It won't stop you from feeling your worst, but you can run five miles. 

 

3. I like a boiled egg pre-workout. The post-workout classic is baked chicken breast and cold sweet potato.

 

This issue has been discussed repeatedly on the forum. If you browse the athletes section you will find dozens of buys threads with discussions on all these points. 

[fmr_sailor]

I am going to start my Whole30 on Sunday.  I have a 5 mile race up a mountain on Thursday which would be Day 5.  So I have a few questions:

 

1.  How bad will I feel?

 

2.  Anything I can do or eat to help with energy levels during the race?

 

3.  What do you eat for your pre/post workout meal?

 

Thanks so much!

I'm racing tomorrow, my day 4. I'm making sure to get those starchy veggies in, and not expecting anything spectacular for this 4-miler. Just completing it will be enough. Plus, a July race in NC is hard enough to run fast in anyhow with the heat and humidity. Just want my shirt, and they have a medal too! Have a great race!!

[mathgirl]

Thanks so much for the replies.  I just want to make sure I get enough fat in.  That for is going to be the hard part.  I really don't like olives or avocado.  

 

Would a boiled egg and a handful of nuts be acceptable for a pre work out meal?  I will be doing a 12 mile run Sunday morning.  So I need to make sure that I get enough to fuel myself through that.  

 

Also, how long between a post workout meal and your next meal should you wait?  The problem is that I will be running first thing in the morning and I know that your post workout meal is not supposed to replace any of the three main meals.  But my post workout meal will end up being at the same time as I would normally have breakfast.  So should I eat my true breakfast a little later in the morning?  If so, how much later?

[ladyshanny]

Would a boiled egg and a handful of nuts be acceptable for a pre work out meal?  I will be doing a 12 mile run Sunday morning.  So I need to make sure that I get enough to fuel myself through that.  

 

 

The nuts are alright but they are hard on the gut for a lot of people.  Also, nuts shouldn't really be your main fat source.  You could do just the boiled egg for pre workout, there is enough fat in the egg itself.  

 

For other fat recommendations outside of nuts, try making homemade mayo, fattier cuts of meat, eating the skin on properly raised chickens etc.

[mathgirl]

I wasn't planning on using the nuts for my only fat source for all my meals, just a pre workout meal.  I just feel that one boiled egg will not be enough to sustain a 12 mile run.  Maybe I will eat 2 boiled eggs and see how that goes.

[GoJo09]

My coach always says that what you eat the night before is much more important than what you eat before a morning run. So make sure you have a big dinner (add well as the pre-workout snack) and note how you feel during the run so you can tweak for next time.

I've been having fish, steamed vege and two potatoes (chipped and baked in lots of coconut oil) for Friday dinner, and then 1-2 eggs an hour before a run and that's been working well (we're only up to 8 km long runs, but track sessions and tempo runs have been hard and I've been smashing them, and I'm running faster in the long runs than I have before, too - not saying Whole 30 is making me faster, just that I'm pushing and not hitting the wall).

I'm on day 6 now, but spent the two weeks prior eating Whole 30 during the week and not on the weekends, so I got through the worst of the hangover period then. I hope. This is my third whole 30, and I definitely feel much stronger at this point than I have previously.

[mathgirl]

Today is race day!  I've been feeling surprisingly well.  I haven't really had any slumps or headaches.  I'm very surprised at that. I'll let you all know how the race turns out tomorrow.  It doesn't start until 7pm and I probably won't get home until midnight.

[mathgirl]

So the race was awesome!  I did the Bear which is 5 miles up Grandfather's Mountain.  I made it in just under an hour!!  This was my first time doing this race and I did really know what to expect.  It was definitely tough but so much fun!

 

I packed all my food that morning to take with me so I wouldn't be tempted or accidentally eat something off plan.  Planning is definitely the key to the whole30!