Evening 10k - what & when to eat?????

Cartman78

Have a 10k race on Friday evening at 8pm and not 100% on what the best fuelling strategy is for an evening event?

Had another evening 10k last week and went with a larger than usual lunch (I tend to normally have a light lunch) and a few snacks throughout the rest of the day (fruit, oat cakes etc).

Felt a bit stodgy during the race so was wondering would a lighter lunch be a better idea with maybe a light snack also a couple of hours before the race??

Woddle

I'd have a later breakfast maybe 10am and a later lunch maybe 3pm and a banana at about 5pm and a gel before the race.
I need my system to be empty by race time or it'll be a disaster

Patrick_K

I'll be interested to see what people have to say on this Cartman as I have an evening race coming up soon too.
In general I hate running hard late in the day, without going into too much detail my stomach is never happy with it, bloating, pain - basically you wouldn't want to be running behind me ;-)
I never have the same issues running in the morning or lunchtime.

Cartman78

Patrick_K wrote: »

I'll be interested to see what people have to say on this Cartman as I have an evening race coming up soon too.
In general I hate running hard late in the day, without going into too much detail my stomach is never happy with it, bloating, pain - basically you wouldn't want to be running behind me ;-)
I never have the same issues running in the morning or lunchtime.

Yep....my stomach sounds like it has a similar personality to yours

Again, without going into too much detail, on Friday evening my body was insistent on making itself as light as possible before the race.

@ Woddle - do you take a specific type of pre-race gel or just the regular
ones? ie. Power Bar

Woddle

Cartman78 wrote: »

@ Woddle - do you take a specific type of pre-race gel or just the regular
ones? ie. Power Bar

I take the sis iso gels (don't need water) and it's really just to give the body sth before the race as it hasn't had anything since a banana

Patrick_K

Cartman78 wrote: »

my body was insistent on making itself as light as possible before the race.

I hear you - not literally!
I've been meaning to try Senocot (sp?) or some other anti-bloating tablets but haven't got around to it yet, ever try anything like that?

Krusty_Clown

Not too many evening races under my belt this year, but I would definitely be looking to top up energy levels a couple of hours before the race and staying well hydrated throughout the day. A bagel and Nutella or jam will give you a mixture of slow and quick release energy. Watch the fruit (particularly dried) and dairy, to minimize potential stomach issues before/during the race.

Perhaps a sports energy drink (home made is just as good) an hour before the race, and sip water in the up to 30 minutes before the start.

Cartman78

Patrick_K wrote: »

I hear you - not literally!
I've been meaning to try Senocot (sp?) or some other anti-bloating tablets but haven't got around to it yet, ever try anything like that?

Well, I'm obviously no expert, but I wouldn't recommend going down that route at all to be honest. I think Woddle and Krusty's advice is the way to do it.

I haven't had this type of issue in a good couple of years so not sure exactly what happened last Friday.

Strangely it didn't seem to affect my performance too much (scored a 20sec PB) but it can't imagine it's a good idea to be stressing your digestive system like that on a regular basis.

claralara

Patrick_K wrote: »

I've been meaning to try Senocot (sp?) or some other anti-bloating tablets but haven't got around to it yet, ever try anything like that?

Senakot is a laxative…be careful with that idea!

Patrick_K

Hahaha, thanks for that claralara, bloating would be the lesser of those two evils!
I was going to ask a pharmacist for some advice rather than just blindly try something but I think the advice above makes more sense so I'll try to control it that way rather that with meds.

nerraw1111

Big lunch around 2pm and a bagel around 5pm and sip from a sport drink until hour before race works for me.