Hi all!
I'm preparing to swim the Chesapeake Bay Swim for the first time.. (well complete it for the first time!) and I'm struggling with what to do for pre race nutrition and during race nutrition.
Anyone done it? What did you do during? Before?
Thanks!
Kristen
Are you swimming with the fuel belts strapped to your ankles? How does that work? -- I am new to this and unfamiliar with this approach but it sounds cumbersome.
Thanks
Hi all!
I'm preparing to swim the Chesapeake Bay Swim for the first time.. (well complete it for the first time!) and I'm struggling with what to do for pre race nutrition and during race nutrition.
Anyone done it? What did you do during? Before?
Thanks!
Kristen
I guess we should start before race day. On a handful of your workouts make sure you are replicating race day conditions as closely as possible. So maybe during a 2 hour workout you only take a sip of water one hour in and then again at 1.5 hours and don't take any calories. Or a couple of extra long workouts with no calories at all, they become kinda miserable at the end but they do indeed help. It looks like it has to do with ampk signaling. But I think the easiest exaplanation is that you get a little bit accustomed to swimming with low blood sugar.
Before the race, eat! Your favorite meal, something you are used to eating and goes down well. One thing to rmember is to pack your sack lunch. If you leave from Belair, drive to Annapolis, take the bus back across etc, you will be swimming hours after you left your house. I pack sandwiches and eat them once I get back to the park.
There are more high-speed methods of timing what you eat and exactly what to eat but the people I work with have all had good results just eating something they normally eat about an hour before. Maybe sip on some gatorade from then until the race start.
During the race, I take two fuel belt bottles in my wetsuit at my ankle. I fill them up with gatorade and drink them at about 3 miles in, it increases my sugar and i can really feel it speedme up.
On the other hand if you plan on stopping at the boats, you should consider having a gel pack with you, take the gel before you get to the boat and wash it down with water. This is definitely something to practice in a workout beforehand through.
That's how I have done it.
