ironguides

I can’t really blame you guys. You have no glucometer to know what you are doing with your energy levels, so there is no way to know there are some very common habits made by athletes, that are just hindering their performance, here is a list of the most common and how to avoid them:

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Cultural nutritional habits:

For most of the people that I meet, it is interesting to see that their diet habits are totally related to their country and culture.

As I’m living in Asia right now (Thailand) I’ve been having trouble trying to explain at the local restaurants that I don’t want rice with my meals. They just don’t get it, rice is the base of this country, Thais (and Asians in general) eat rice or noodles for breakfast, lunch and dinner. How can I explain them that I only want the veggies and chicken, but no rice? In Brazil it wasn’t much different, but at least they eat a big amount of meat, which I consider a great food for endurance athletes.

North Americans athletes are crazy with their oatmeal for breakfast. I will tell you something, I’ve never seen my blood glucose so high after trying a bowl of those with milk, bananas and honey.

Europeans generally have a pretty balanced diet, a bit of everything and in moderate amounts.

The bottom line is, don’t be afraid to think outside the box when it comes to diet. People do eat WRONG, and you shouldn’t be afraid to be the ‘weirdo” friend or family member that is always eating something different. You are already the “sporty freak” so no one will even bother!

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Pre-training/racing snack:

Timing before training or racing is KEY if you want a nice sugar level, that is high enough to make you feel good, but not extremely high that will trigger insulin and make you feel weak

If you have been training, resting and eating properly, you won’t need too much food before a workout. Eat something within 30minutes of the training start, a cup of coffee with a piece of fruit will work wonders, the coffee will wake you up (caffeine) and the small portion of fruit (banana, apple, etc) is light on your stomach but enough to give you a small rise in sugar levels.

Sometimes I see athletes eating huge meals, of dense carbs 1 hour out of training, they have no idea that by the time they are out for the session, that meal has already been absorbed by your stomach, released into your bloodstream as glucose, and taken into your fat or muscles cells, depending what sort o training you did earlier on that day and what you’ve been eating. That means, is you do this in the morning, you will be putting on weight AND start training with a lower sugar levels, the worse of both worlds!

Tapering – Carboload:

I remember when I first started doing triathlons 10+ years ago, I read all those magazines with “periodization” and I started tapering for races as much as 4 weeks before it! To make he mistake even bigger, they would suggest that the athletes should start carboloading, that is, increase the consumption of carbohydrates up to the full week before the race. Bottom line, I would get to the race unfit and fat!

The decrease in training hours and intensity in the few days (not weeks!) before the race are enough to also decrease your caloric needs, so if you keep eating basically the same things and amount, you will already be loading up on carbs, no need to go for seconds!

Keep your routine as close to the normal as possible, racing is just another “training day” when you will only execute what you have been doing in training but with rested legs and the extra race mood kick. The reason you see so any people underperforming after races or DNF as “that never happens in training” is that athletes tend to overthink when it comes to racing, they change way too many things, and obviously their mind and body can’t process everything.

I hope that helps some of you, you can also always buy a glucometer at the local pharmacy and do some testing yourself.

Vinnie