Eat or not before swimming in Early Morning?

I don't know, maybe it's as simple as: if you're hungry eat. Good advice. You won't swim well if your gut isn't happy. Personally, I don't eat anything before an early morning workout. I have no doubt that I'd swim better if properly fueled, but I can't do it. My stomach is in no more mood to do any work before dawn than the rest of me is. When I try to make myself eat, the bagel or banana just sits on my car seat mostly uneaten on the way to the pool. If I'm exercising long enough to get hungry (I usually don't), I just opt for something with calories in my water bottle. Science provides some constraints on personal preference, though. Any pre-workout calories will take 30+ minutes to do you some good, depending on the type of food. Liquid sugary drinks (OJ, Gatorade, energy drinks, gels) are easily digested, and can contribute to muscle glycogen within 30 minutes. Eggs Benedict would take longer. Digesting food does draw blood away from muscles, and decrease performance. If you doubt this, try sprinting on a full stomach. So you may not get cramps or drown, like our mothers warned us, but eating a big breakfast too soon before swimming could be counterproductive.

I don't know, maybe it's as simple as: if you're hungry eat. Good advice. You won't swim well if your gut isn't happy. Personally, I don't eat anything before an early morning workout. I have no doubt that I'd swim better if properly fueled, but I can't do it. My stomach is in no more mood to do any work before dawn than the rest of me is. When I try to make myself eat, the bagel or banana just sits on my car seat mostly uneaten on the way to the pool. If I'm exercising long enough to get hungry (I usually don't), I just opt for something with calories in my water bottle. Science provides some constraints on personal preference, though. Any pre-workout calories will take 30+ minutes to do you some good, depending on the type of food. Liquid sugary drinks (OJ, Gatorade, energy drinks, gels) are easily digested, and can contribute to muscle glycogen within 30 minutes. Eggs Benedict would take longer. Digesting food does draw blood away from muscles, and decrease performance. If you doubt this, try sprinting on a full stomach. So you may not get cramps or drown, like our mothers warned us, but eating a big breakfast too soon before swimming could be counterproductive.