What should I eat?

Of all the questions a runner might ask before a marathon, half-marathon, or even a 5k, this is probably the most common. And it’s not easy to find an answer. There is a lot of conflicting advice in the running community, which has led to several very popular misconceptions.

For example, eating a big spaghetti dinner the night before your run will not make you faster. Proper pre-race nutrition should begin much earlier. Here’s an outline for the days leading up to the race, and the morning of:

One Week before the Race

Over the weeks or months of training, you craved plenty of protein, fats, and carbs. Now, even though your mileage has tapered, your hunger probably hasn’t.

Feed it. Now is a bad time to deprive yourself of anything. Your body is trying to reconstruct and re-energize itself. It needs nutrition; without it, you’ll likely continue to break down, resulting in sickness, fatigue, and even injury.

Three Days before the Race

This is when the well-known (and very enjoyable) “carb-loading” should begin. Carbohydrate-rich food like bread, rice, potatoes, and pasta should make up about 65-75% of your diet for the next few days. All those carbs turn into glycogen—the fuel your body uses on longer runs—which is stored for the race.

Carb-loading comes with some weight gain. Don’t let this psyche you out. Carbohydrates make your body retain more water, so you may gain up to 4 pounds in water weight before the race. It shouldn’t hurt your performance; on the contrary, more water will help you run.

Night before the Race

Most runners agree that your last big meal should be at least 12 hours before the race. If your race starts at 7:00 am, make sure you’ve eaten dinner by 7:00 pm the night before. And no matter how good the blackened oyster livers may sound, now isn’t the time to try anything exotic.

Pasta is great fuel, but only in moderate amounts and with some chicken or fish or broccoli mixed in. Tomorrow, when you’re standing on the starting line, your stomach will feel lighter and you more energized.

Morning of the Race

Your last meal should take place about three hours before the race itself. Wake up early if necessary to make sure you have time to digest. Few things will mess up a good race as quickly as an upset stomach.

As for what you should eat, try a small meal that’s low in fiber and fat. This meal should also give a lot of energy but without spiking your bloodsugar levels. The best foods contain complex carbohydrates with a low glycemic index. For example:

Sweet potatoes

Carrots

Cereal (avoid sugar and fiber)

Oatmeal (look for steel-cut or sugar-free)

Broccoli

Sourdough bread

These foods are packed with energy—lasting energy—and they won’t sit in your stomach during the race.

After all, with all the concerns you may have on race day, why worry about your stomach? Follow this easy outline, and you shouldn’t have to.

This morning at 10:00, The Blue Cross Broad Street Run began accepting registrants.

Do I have to tell you to sign up? This is the biggest 10-miler in the US, and for those who haven’t run it (are there any?), it’s a LOT of fun. It’s a fast course, you’re never alone, and Philadelphians make excellent cheerleaders. It’s also being capped at 30,000 runners; that may sound like a lot, but don’t put it off– trust me.

Register now!

Hope everyone had a fun Halloween.

Now seems an appropriate time to mention last week’s high-heels Race in Washington DC (I’m not kidding, high-heel races are a real thing). How does this connect to Halloween? Well, the entire race is done in drag.

Good form, all things considered.

It’s the annual DC Drag Queen Race, and it’s a pretty big deal. The race starts at 9 a.m., but enough people watch that there’s a crowd by 6. And apparently there’s a lot to see; just check out the gallery here or watch last year’s video:

Congratulations to Brian Segal, the winner of the 2010 DC Drag Queen Race. I say any guy who can run in a polka-dot dress and heels deserves respect.

I must admit, when I was asked to test the HPL #020 Race Vest by Nathan, my gratitude was mixed with disdain. After all, unless you’re on a bike or in the army, Hydration Packs are dorky. There’s a good reason why, when one appeared in The Office, it adorned the socially inept Dwight K. Schrute.

Sorry, couldn't resist working The Office into this one.

Yes, they’re dorky. But so what? If a runner is wearing a hydration pack, chances are they’re at a level of training which necessitates it. And at that level, fashion tends to take a back seat to function (way, way, way back). After all, we wear ugly shoes and short shorts and heart rate bands. The typical elite runner does not look cool when he’s working out. So what’s a little extra uncool, when it yields results?

And now, with that digression out of the way, I can get to the actual review:

Nathan HPL #020 Race Vest Review

—Cons—

The water tube sometimes grinds against the eyelet through which it feeds—it makes an annoying sound every other stride. Pulling on the tube ends the noise, though. This has only happened once to me while using the product

I wish there was a tighter/Velcro loop to hold the end of the water tube when I wasn’t drinking from it. There are two loops on the front straps, which makes it seem as though one is meant to stabilize the tube on your body and the other is meant to hold the nozzle (so that it’s not flapping in the wind). The nozzle is too small for these loops, and kept falling out.
My solution was to tuck the nozzle through the strap and under one arm. It worked, but seemed clumsy and made the nozzle hard to retrieve sometimes.

Hydration packs don’t look strange on a biker. On a runner, though, they’re dorky. With the pack on, I attracted a LOT of hate from passing drivers.
Of course, the kind of training/racing that warrants a hydration backpack is demanding enough that fashion shouldn’t matter. As an ultra runner, looks are pretty close to the bottom of our priority list.

—Pros—

I didn’t notice any sloshing sound from the water bladder, even when it was three-quarters empty.

The pockets don’t look like they hold much, but they can contain everything I need for safe travelling and distance running (cell phone, “power” food, keys, cards, money, etc.).
This eliminated the need for a second bag, which was great because I didn’t know if there would be a safe place to store one—having one bag grants peace of mind.

I loved the fit. My nipples chafe easily and so I was leery of the big straps that’d be going over them. But the straps fit perfectly to minimize rubbing. After a 22 mile run, I suffered less chafing than I would have in a cotton shirt.
The snug fit also makes the pack less noticeable. No jostling!

The material is super light and dries quickly. And even after long runs, it doesn’t stink.

Great for Gu on the run. Gu’s consistency demands big gulps of water, which means diverting runs to pass water fountains or pre-placed water bottles. This eliminates all such worries.

Most importantly, the steady stream of hydration meant fresher-feeling muscles throughout and after a long run, and less recovery time.

Since I graduated from college in May, I’ve been working days as a substitute teacher. After school, I help coach a high school level cross country team. I’m not paid for it, so I can’t officially call myself an assistant coach. I do, however, do all the stuff that’s expected of one. I clear courses, time during races, pace on difficult runs, and fill in for the coach when he’s not around. I have a great group of kids and it’s been fun, but not too challenging.

Yesterday I experienced my first real test.

I was timing the first mile of my racers’ 5k. The mile mark was right before a shady copse, which then led out into roads. It was under these trees that I had stationed myself. I was shouting out splits and encouragement, and waiting for the last runner to pass by. After they all passed, I was to follow and take care of any breakdowns (which happen an awful lot at the high school level). One breakdown, however, came directly to me.

One of our girls fell right after the mile. It wasn’t out of clumsiness, though. She cried out that she couldn’t see. When I crouched down beside her, she was reeling, and seeing double. Her vision had turned purple and black and then she, understandably, went down.

She was embarrassed for dropping out of the race, but I can’t blame her. It must have been scary as hell to lose her vision. Even I was a little spooked by her description. Being the best damn volunteer assistant coach I could be, I stayed with her, sent someone to get water, and called the trainer.

The trainer arrived and, after questioning her, came to the conclusion that she had bonked. The solution was simple enough– We grabbed some soft pretzels and some bottles of Gatorade and we forced her to cram them in.

So what is to be learned from this?

It doesn’t take a marathon distance or superhuman effort to bonk. The term brings to mind images of Chris Legh in an Ironman. It makes us think of ultras and marathons and triathlons. But bonking can happen to unprepared runners even over short distances. It can happen in a casual 5k, and it can even happen during training.

Chris Legh in 1997; unprepared for a brutal Ironman

So please, please make sure you take in the calories you need… If only so that you don’t scare the crap out of any volunteer assistant helper coach-type guys.