On the other hand, too many white flour, low fiber bagels, breads, and pasta might clog your system. For example, carbo-loading on an unusually high amount of fruits and juices might cause diarrhea. Drastic changes can easily lead to upset stomachs, diarrhea, or constipation. All during this week, you should maintain your tried-and-true high-carbohydrate training diet. This way, the 600 to 1,000 calories you generally expend during training can be used to fuel your muscles. You need not eat hundreds more calories this week. Allow at least two easy or rest days pre-event. The biggest change in your schedule during the week before your event should be in your training, not in your food.ĭon’t be tempted to do any last-minute long sessions! You need to taper your training so that your muscles have adequate time to become fully fueled (and healed). The last thing you want after having trained for months is to ruin your performance with poor nutrition, so carbo-load correctly! Training Tactics While carbo-loading sounds simple (just stuff yourself with pasta, right?), the truth is many endurance athletes make food mistakes that hurt their performance. This is enough to improve endurance by about 2 to 3%, to say nothing of making the event more enjoyable. While the typical athlete has about 80 to 120 mmol glycogen/kg muscle, a carbo-loaded athlete can have about 200 mmol. The more glycogen, the more endurance (potentially). If you are an endurance athlete who is fearful of “hitting the wall,” listen up: proper fueling before your marathon, triathlon, century bike ride or other competitive endurance events can make the difference between agony and ecstasy! If you plan to compete for longer than 90 minutes, you want to maximize the amount of glycogen stored in your muscles because poorly fueled muscles are associated with needless fatigue. Should I avoid protein the day before the marathon? Carbo-loading: Tips for Endurance Athletesĭoes carbo-loading mean stuffing myself with pasta?
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