I enjoyed participating in the St. Nick's meet at Ga Tech on Saturday! It was a well-run meet, everybody was very friendly, and the facility is beautiful. Thanks to Atlanta Rainbow Trout & everybody who worked on the meet. It was great.
Here's the question -- I don't like eating anything very heavy on the day of competition, so for breakfast I had a banana, a bagel with cream cheese, and about 6 cups of coffee. Warmups were at 10 am, I swam the 800 around 11:30, a few more events, and finished with the 400 around 5:30. Throughout the day I had plenty of water, red grapes, two more bananas, and three carbo power bar type things.
By the time the meet wrapped up around 6, I was RAVENOUS and about ready munch my way through downtown Atlanta. So I'm not sure this is the best eating plan for the day of competition, and even less sure how well it would work for a multi-day event.
What do you eat on the day of the meet?
I try to eat a bigger than normal breakfast and keep it pretty easy to digest. Scrambled eggs, whole wheat toast, fruit, oatmeal, etc. I try to drink lots of water or diluted gatorade at the meet and bring the following to snack on: Power bars, gel shots, string cheese, grapes or other fruit, trail mix, maybe some low fat crackers. I tend to drink lots and eat sparingly - but need to have some stuff available. If the meet is short, say 3 hours or less, I might not eat anything. If it's all day, I will usually snack a bit.
I know I can swim on a fairly full tummy - I did all the time as a kid. But it feels better to not have too much in my stomach.
--mj
I try to eat a bigger than normal breakfast and keep it pretty easy to digest. Scrambled eggs, whole wheat toast, fruit, oatmeal, etc. I try to drink lots of water or diluted gatorade at the meet and bring the following to snack on: Power bars, gel shots, string cheese, grapes or other fruit, trail mix, maybe some low fat crackers. I tend to drink lots and eat sparingly - but need to have some stuff available. If the meet is short, say 3 hours or less, I might not eat anything. If it's all day, I will usually snack a bit.
I know I can swim on a fairly full tummy - I did all the time as a kid. But it feels better to not have too much in my stomach.
--mj
