Gang,
This is a large topic, that truly deserves more attention than a short blog post, but I will lay out a few guidelines to nutrition for a CF competition day as so many of you are heading to FrostFit in Winnipeg this weekend.
1. Schedule your day with regard to workout times;
– Know when you wrok out as you will then know when you need to eat and what all needs to be prepares. Knowing when you workout will affect your bedtime the night before and your wake time for the day of competition along with your breakfast timing. You may have time for a breakfast and asmall snack or you may need to rise early and have a slightly smaller breakfast as well.
Takeaway – prep your day before it comes to better time your breakfast and sleep schedule
2. Know what workouts you are competing as it will help with pre and post meal selection;
– IF WOD is a metcon (high energy system demand) – this typically will come with a high need for stored glycogen (energy source for workouts) and thus will require that post workout nutrition is high in carbs to replenish storage. Pre workout timing is importnat as you do not want to have a tonne of food in your gut before a workout that demands blod supply to the muscles. So a timing of a meal 60-180 minutes before is essential.
– IF WOD is a strength focus (no energy system demand) – this workout requires only mental acuteness and readiness – not more. You are not as concerned with blood supply as you are with dopamine and acetylcholine response to your meal (alerting neurotransmitters). So eating a meal 15-60 minutes before your workout is fine and it should be of high caliber sources of protein and healthy fats.
Takeaway – eat to satiation before strength workouts, but time your meals with regard to METCONS as you need blood flowing to your working muscles not your digestive track during a workout
3. Statt your day as you normally would;
– do not change anything with regard to your breakfast – if you eat meat and nuts or egg omelettes for breakfast – stick with it. Do not unnecessarily add oatmeal or fruit is you are not used to it. This will only raise seratonin levels (sleepy time neurotransmitter) and impact your regular eating schedule negatively.
Takeaway – do not change food sources or your breakfast
4. Never introduce new foods to your diet on the day of competition;
– This is not the time to experiment or to try to eat better than ever before. You need to eat the foods you normally eat and foods your digestive track are comfortabel with. Do not introduce new supplements or new products as they can hav negative effects that were unforeseen.
Takeaway – keep it simple and consistent – no new foods
5. Only easily digestible foods allowed;
– Choosing foods your digestive track can handle is important. Broccoli is great, but on competition day it might not be best. You body is under a high level of stress (from the workouts and the new environment) that your digestive track does soem new things – using foods that are typically harder and more time consuming to digest is a bad choice. Keep it simple and stick with foods that are lighter – dried fruit, small portions of nuts, yams, etc.
Takeaway – choose familiar foods for comp day.
6. Use liquid nutrition where you can;
– At a full day of competition the digest track is a little blunted due tot eh high activity level and recovery is an essential part of getting through the day properly. Liquid nutriton is a simple method of piling the needed calories into the body with an easily and quickly digestible form. Post workouts should all contain protein powder and carbohydrates (ones you are used to). Bananas and other fruit can work well, so can sweet potatoes or rice, if you have used carbohydrate powders before they work well. Especially after metcon style workouts the need for carbohydrates is higher, due to the need for glycogen replenishment and storage.
Takeaway – plan to use multiple shakes as it is fast, simple and easy to digest form of nutrition
7. Eat small throughout the day;
– It is important not to overload the digestive track with too much food so eating frequent smaller meals is advisable. Pack and prep small snacks (yams and apple sauce, carrots, snap peas, protein powders, chicken breast, etc) for use throughout the day. Plan around your workout times, if you have less than a 1 hour gap between workouts than it is advisable to stick solely to your post WOD shake. If you have 2-3 hours between workouts than it is best to have your post WOD shake plus a small snack an hour after to keep blood sugar regulated.
Takeaway – plan smaller meals throughout the day.
Example meal plan for FrostFit in Winnipeg;
7:30am- BKF – eggs and bacon + coffee
9:00am WOD #1 – clean ladder
9:15am – Post WOd shake (just protein)
10:00am – small snack of fruit and light nuts
11:00am – WOD #2 – couplets
11:30am – Post WOD shake – proteina nd carbohydrates (sweet potatoes, fruit, re-fuel, etc)
12:00pm – small snack – sweet potato, apple sauce, + chicken breast
1:30pm – small snack – same as 12:00pm
3:00pm – WOD #3 – KB press etc.
3:30 – post WOD shake of protein and carbohydrates (same as post WOD at 11:30am)
IF MAKE FINAL WOD’s
4:00pm – small snack similar to 12:00 and 1:30 if you feel the need
5:00pm WOD #4 – surprise
6:00pm and after – ENJOY!
Hope this helps leave comments is needed.
