WIAW #23: Pre Race Foods

Hi everyone. I decided to give y’all an insight into what I tend to eat before races, more specifically night races. It always varies a little on how much/when I eat before races because of the different time schedules but the type of foods I eat tend to be the same. I know what works pretty well for my stomach and I stick to that! So last Friday night my 5k race was at 8:15 pm. That’s the latest I have had a race in about a year. I had all day to eat and make sure I did not over eat or upset my stomach before hand so I had to be careful.

Breakfast: 9:30 am (Slept until 9 am) Coffee, oatmeal with peanut butter, half a banana, strawberries, and walnuts. Plus my vitamins, and the other half the banana with peanut butter and more strawberries.

Lunch: (1:30 pm) IHOP- Egg omelette with spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes, peppers and onions with a side of fruit and more coffee and lots of water… plus a couple bites of someones pancakes.

We sat down closer to 1 and had to wait awhile for our food. This was definitely not my first choice but given the options around our hotel it was one of few that would have some basic meals for us to choose from… I think the last time I ate at an Ihop was 4-5 years ago!

Snacks: (3-4 pm) Bunnies with peanut butter, pretzels with a few m&ms and a few pb chocolate covered pretzels from Whole Foods.

Dinner: (9:30 pm) chipotle!!! salad bowl with brown rice, black beans, veggies, salsa, and quacamole. Plus snacked on veggie chips on the bus before we got dinner.

Yes,  this was VERY late but there was nothing to do about it with the women’s 5k at 8:15 and the men’s at 8:40. It was late by the time we got back to our hotel.

Now that is it track season and I am a distance runner I will have more and more late night races (like the 10k at Stanford that runs at 8:58 and 10pm) so I have to get used to this kind of schedule and fuel myself properly all day without weighting myself down. It is definitely an important part of racing!