You said it, it works for you. Its best to test what works best for your own workout. Everyone can handle different items and what works for one just may not work for another.
here is what NOT to do...cinnimmon toast and orange juice...oh thats like drinking lava bomb
Haha! I think it may be the orange juice. I have cinnamon toast regularly pre-practice with no trouble. But I have had trouble with OJ regardless of what it's eaten with. I think because of the concentrated sugar, not the acidity.
Yeah it really depends on the individual: what kind of workout they do, how long they've been awake, how long the workout is, how sensitive their stomach is, if they are in "good shape" or not, what time of day they workout, how tall they are, male or female, etc.
Through years of trial and error (some doing non-swim years) I've learned:
- I need some sort of electrolyte or sugary drink when my workout is longer than 45 minutes. Usually you'll find people saying an hour or even more is their tipping point. For swimming, at the moment I prefer a 50/50 water/Gatorade mix. I like Jelly Belly Sport Beans when doing land activities. I find breathing while chewing sport beans in the pool messy & difficult. For 1-1/2 hours, I might only drink 6 ounces of Gatorade total. I also have a water bottle on the side in addition to my Gatorade bottle. For me, this 45 minutes is accrued throughout the day. So when I swim in the morning, regardless of how long, and then lift in the afternoon for 30-45 minutes, I do much better with diluted Gatorade, or a couple sport beans for that second workout than when I just do water.
- I recover with much less fatigue if I have something with protein & carbs within a half hour of working out. If I wait longer, it doesn't work as well for me. Between stretching, shower, change & drying hair this means I'm usually still at the pool during this window. I've settled on 2 scoops of P2life mix for now because it's convenient and I know it's working. But I bet a half a peanut & Jelly would be sufficient as well. I tried only protein and only carbs and neither work as well as a mix of both at warding off exhaustion.
- When I follow those first two steps extra weight flies off much faster for me. If I don't do one for a few weeks weight loss completely stalls.
- Too much sugar in my stomach at once while swimming is evil. A whole banana, a whole bakery muffin, most sport drinks undiluted, orange juice they'll make my stomach spin if eaten within about 1-1/2 to 2 hours before swimming. I can do a 1/2 a banana, 1/2 a muffin or diluted sport drink just fine.
- If I'm waking up and swimming within 2 hours, I'm better off keeping breakfast mostly carb-y. My favorite is making a bunch of French toast on the weekend with a little (like 1 tsp) maple syrup in the batter and freezing. Then I pop 2 or 3 in the toaster and eat it plain maybe with a handful of berries or half a banana. If it's more than 3 hours, I can eat pretty much anything. 2-3 hours, I need to keep proteins and greens really light.
Yesterday between breakfast (45 minutes before), during a 2 hour swim, and 30 minutes post I ended up consuming 800 calories. When I put it into My Fitness Pal, the final ratio was 60% carb, 20% protein, 20% fat. That seems about right for a morning meal amount for someone my size (6', 170, F), who considers themselves "training" rather than purely "swimming to be healthy".
Clearly, I've gotten awfully technical with my food but that's years of learning, experimenting and most importantly having fun doing it.
Sometimes I don't eat before the race, then become eaten by the competition, but it depends on who shows up.
I think whatever your routine is during training should be no different than race day. One thing I don't eat anymore is alcohol, despite the cardiovascular benefits when consumed moderately
