Tag: Race day fueling

Proper nutrition can shave minutes off your race time and prevent the dreaded 'bonk,' as a high-performance athlete's body relies on carbohydrates for moderate to high-intensity exercise. Knowing what to eat before and during a sprint triathlon is critical for maximizing performance and avoiding digestive issues on race day.

During a 24-hour ultra event, some runners expend as much as 13,000 to 17,750 kcal, yet only manage to consume a fraction of that, leading to a significant energy deficit. This reveals the critical challenge of how many calories do ultra runners eat a day to sustain performance and why a strategic fueling plan is so essential.

According to sports nutrition experts, most athletes can store enough carbohydrates to fuel approximately 90-120 minutes of exercise. This makes understanding how many hours before a race you should eat a critical factor in performance, ensuring your energy stores are topped up and ready for the demands ahead.

Endurance athletes require strategic nutrition. Muscle glycogen stores typically deplete after 90–120 minutes of intense activity. This makes understanding pre-race fueling essential for gravel races.

Historically, ancient Olympic runners were known to consume honey to boost their performance. Today, runners are still exploring this natural fuel source and asking: Can honey help me while I run? The answer is yes, honey can be an effective source of carbohydrates for both energy and recovery during your runs.

A triathlete's sweat sodium concentration can vary dramatically, from as little as 200mg to as much as 2,000mg per liter, making personalized fueling critical. Understanding how much sodium do triathletes need is a non-negotiable step for optimizing performance, preventing cramps, and ensuring safety.

According to studies, 50–80% of ultra runners experience some form of gastrointestinal distress during races, highlighting the critical role of a well-executed fueling strategy. Knowing what to eat on a 100 mile ultra is a non-negotiable part of crossing the finish line successfully, often proving more challenging than the physical effort itself.

According to research published in the journal *Sports Medicine*, a high-carbohydrate diet can improve performance in endurance events by up to 3%. But to truly reap these benefits, athletes need to understand how does carb loading actually work on a physiological level to maximize the body's stored energy for race day.

According to sports nutritionists, consuming a meal 2–3 hours before a high-intensity event like an 800m race is ideal for peak performance. This timing strategy, focusing on easy-to-digest carbohydrates, ensures your body has the necessary fuel reserves without causing stomach issues during the race.

The average marathon runner burns between 2,200 and 3,200 calories during the 26.2-mile race, a rate far exceeding the body's absorption capacity. To avoid depleting your energy reserves and 'hitting the wall,' it is crucial to understand how many calories should I eat during a marathon to sustain performance.