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“PRs to one and all,” said the lady with the magic wand as she glided down the center aisle of the bus. We laughed nervously as we made our way to the starting line, silently hoping she’ll be right. A personal record at the Boston Marathon would be a most excellent way to end the day.
But as most athletes know, PRs are hard to come by. Even if we have all the right equipment and
have used all the right training techniques, we can still fall short of that elusive time goal we
set for ourselves. Why? Well, the most common reason for finishing slower than what we
predicted is dehydration. The second most common reason is energy depletion—better known as
“bonking” or “hitting the wall.” Both are highly preventable. With proper nutrition planning, you can maximize your chances for getting a PR, maybe even an age-group award, in your next endurance event.
Rules for racers
The golden rule for this day is “Don’t try anything new.” This is not the time to sample a new restaurant or munch on free goodies at the grocery store. In fact, it’s best to stay home and eat what you normally eat. This is one of those rules most endurance athletes learn by experience, usually upon visiting their third or fourth port-a-potty during the race.
H20: Your new best friend
Next, drink plenty of water. In fact, you should be drinking plenty of water several days before
the event. If you wait until the morning of the event to hydrate yourself, you are not only too
late, but you risk losing time (again) in the port-a-potty.
Hydration is serious business, especially in the summer. During an endurance event in the heat,
athletes can lose up to 2 liters of fluid per hour or about 2 to 4 pounds of body weight. Each
pound of weight loss is equal to 450 ml (15 fluid ounces) of dehydration. For every liter of fluid
lost, heart rate increases by eight beats per minute and cardiac output drops by 1 liter per
minute. The result? Poor performance and—if not rectified early in the race by drinking
water—heat cramps and, even more severe, heat stroke or death.
Food for the day before
As for food, be sure to eat plenty of carbohydrates the day before the race. What you don’t use for energy will be stored as glycogen in the liver and muscles for use during tomorrow’s race. Despite the popularity of low-carbohydrate diets, adequate glycogen stores are vital for endurance events that last longer than 90 minutes. Protein and fat are important too, but the majority of your calories should come from carbohydrates. After all, the energy from carbohydrate can be released into exercising muscle three times as fast as energy from fat or protein.
So how much should you eat? For most women, 400 to 600 grams of carbohydrates the day
before the event should do the trick. Men should take in 500 to 700 grams per day (depending on
body weight and caloric needs).
Can you say carbs?
What you eat the day of an endurance event depends mostly on how much time you have before the
race begins. Aim for 1 to 4.5 grams of carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight, eaten anywhere
from one to four hours before the event begins. As a rule of thumb, the less time you have, the
less you should consume. Studies have shown that high-carbohydrate meals before an endurance
event can prolong the time to exhaustion.
During the race it’s also vital to consume carbohydrates in order to maintain blood-glucose levels and to sustain a high rate of energy production. In essence, you are helping to prolong the
depletion of your glycogen stores by providing your muscles with a readily available source of
energy. Also, because carbohydrates requires less oxygen to burn than protein and fat, it is
the most efficient fuel the body can use during prolonged exercise. Most experts recommend 25
to 60 grams of carbohydrates per hour in the form of glucose, sucrose, or starch.
You can easily get this amount of carbohydrate by drinking 6 to 8 ounces of a fluid-replacement
drink every 15 minutes of your event. Most running road races and triathlons provide such
beverages at frequent intervals. Gel products also provide quick energy and are easy to tuck into
a pocket.
Many athletes believe it takes too much time to slow down or stop at an aid station to get
something to drink. But the time you lose drinking will be made up at the end of the race
when you are able to sprint for the finish line. In other words, if you fail to take in enough
water and carbohydrate during the race, you risk becoming dehydrated or bonking, both of which can
greatly slow you. And that, my friends, can mean the difference between a mediocre finish and a
great finish—maybe even a PR.
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