Nutrition Tips for Race Day

Eating a balanced, nutritious diet every day will be more beneficial than a pre-race meal. Making proper, wise food choices leading up to your competition should be given considerable thought. The pre-race meal cannot compensate for a poor training diet. By making food choices from the food pyramid you will be able to make healthy, wise and balanced selections that will benefit your racing.

But, let’s get back to tips for race day.

First of all, don’t try anything new. Experiment during training as to what foods work best for you. Race day is not the day to try a new meal, a new bar or eat what your friends eat. It’s about you on race day.

The day before your race make sure to eat normal, well- balanced meals. In addition, drink plenty of liquids.

The night before (or 12 hours before your race) don’t overeat. Stick with light, digestible foods like small sandwiches, energy bars, bread, portions of pasta, veggies, proteins, etc. - all of which you should have experimented with during training. Keep on drinking as well.

4 hours or less before a race a small to medium sized light meal is good. Recent research has shown that consuming a snack that is 80% carbohydrate and 20% protein helps deliver energy to the muscle during exercise and restocks the energy stores afterwards.

• Race-proven Examples
• Energy Bars
• Fruits: Bananas, oranges, melons, watermelons, grapes, pineapple, dried fruits, raisins.
• Potatoes: Baked, boiled, mashed,
• Bread and Bagels
• Sandwiches, Burritos and Roll-ups: Peanut butter and jelly, bananas and fruit jam, fruit jams, turkey, ham, cheese, egg.
• Pancakes
• Pasta, Noodles and Rice: Plain and in soups.
• Pretzels, Chips, and Crackers
• Cookies and Pop-Tarts: Fig Newtons, Vanilla Wafers, Graham crackers.
• Cereals and Granola

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• Tip of the Month

  June 2010

  Abdominal Workouts: Frequency, Intensity, and Duration

  Over the past 15 years, there has been countless advice on how to “properly” train your abdominals, or core.  There isn’t a fitness magazine out there that doesn’t publish a different abdominal workout each and every issue.  Opinions and research may change over time, but there are a few things you should look at before you alter your workout with each Fitness Magazine you read!
  First of all, it is important to know what your overall fitness and health goal is before designing a strength program for any body part, especially the mid-section.  For overall fitness, it is smartest to treat your abdominal muscles as you would any other muscle group.  The tried and true guidelines for most exercise programs is to work specific muscles to fatigue within a 30-60 second set time limit (intensity and duration,) while giving the worked muscle group at least 24-48 hours of rest (frequency) before working it again.  The amount of sets you do in a given workout (frequency again) can vary from as little as 4 sets to up to 12 for the average workout.  The science behind these theories is sound.  While exercising, pushing your body significantly past the 60 second mark without fatigue generally incorporates aerobic energy, thereby not stressing the muscles most efficiently.  And rest is necessary so that your body can properly rebuild the muscle fibers that you have broken down.  Additionally, you want to be at 100% energy levels for your next workout!

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• Recipe of the Month

  June 2010

  Ham and Cheese Breakfast Casserole

  This healthy update of a traditionally rich ham-and-cheese breakfast strata is made lighter primarily by losing a few egg yolks and using nonfat milk. Gruyère cheese has a delicious, nutty aroma and flavor, which means that with the relatively small amount in this recipe you still get a big impact. To finish the makeover use nutritious, fiber-rich, whole-grain bread instead of white. The results: plenty of flavor, half the calories and one-third the fat of the original.

  4 large eggs
  4 large egg whites
  1 cup nonfat milk
  2 tablespoon Dijon mustard
  1 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary
  1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
  5 cups chopped spinach, wilted (see Tip)
  4 cups whole-grain bread, crusts removed if desired, cut into 1-inch cubes (about 1/2 pound, 4-6 slices)
  1 cup diced ham steak, (5 ounces)
  1/2 cup chopped jarred roasted red peppers
  3/4 cup shredded Gruyère, or Swiss cheese
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