Episode 149 - What NOT to Eat Before a Triathlon

What NOT to eat before a triathlon

Could you be sabotaging your race-day performance by eating the wrong pre-race foods? 

Having worked with triathletes for the past 16 years, I've seen far too many show up to a race with no clear plan for their nutrition and undoing the months of hard training they put in.  

I don’t want that to happen to you, so today, I’m talking about what you should NOT eat before you get to the start line. 

I will explore minimising fibre, monitoring your fat intake, avoiding spicy foods, dairy, carbonated drinks, alcohol, and unknown foods you should avoid.

Links:

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It’s for you if you’re a triathlete and you feel like you’ve got your training under control and you’re ready to layer in your nutrition. It's your warmup on the path to becoming a SUPERCHARGED triathlete – woohoo!

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Episode Transcription

Episode 149: What NOT to Eat Before a Triathlon

Welcome to the Triathlon Nutrition Academy podcast. The show designed to serve you up evidence-based sports nutrition advice from the experts. Hi, I'm your host Taryn, Accredited Practicing Dietitian, Advanced Sports Dietitian and founder of Dietitian Approved. Listen as I break down the latest evidence to give you practical, easy-to-digest strategies to train hard, recover faster and perform at your best. You have so much potential, and I want to help you unlock that with the power of nutrition. Let's get into it.

[00:00:00] Taryn: Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Triathlon Nutrition Academy podcast. I'm your host, Taryn. I'm an advanced sports dietitian from Brisbane, Australia, and I've worked with triathletes for the last 16 years now, helping them to understand how to feel their bodies properly with evidence-based nutrition.

[00:00:38] Taryn: And today's episode is all about what not to do before you tow the start line. It is something that blows my mind that triathletes have absolutely no plan. For what they're doing, heading into a race, you know, you've done all these hours of training you've put in your preparation, you've practised your transitions, you've hopefully got a race nutrition plan that's very well practised, but as race day approaches, making sure you have an understanding of what to eat to hit your right targets, whether you're carbohydrate loading or not, as well as what you do.

[00:01:11] Taryn: on waking on the morning of race start is a really crucial step to make sure you have a successful race. There are so many things that you can do right there to set yourself up, and there are also so many things you can do really, really badly. And the last thing you want to do in those last few days when we're tapering and, you know, there's no more fitness that we can lay down.

[00:01:36] Taryn: The last thing you want to do is undo all of that hard work that you've put into training hours with poor nutrition choices. So what I want to go through is some of the things like not to do, which still boggles my mind that people do these things heading into a very important time of your life. Alright, so I have a list and I want to make sure that you aren't doing these things as you head towards race start. So the first one, which a lot of people are probably quite aware of, is not eating too much fibre. Fibre is normally in your diet is great.

[00:02:10] Taryn: We want to have a quite high fiber diet, at least making sure you meet your daily recommendations for fiber. there's so many processes that we need fiber for in our body to keep our gut microbes happy and our immune system and so many different components. So fibre generally is great, but heading into a really important event where you're exercising for a long period of time, it's a really good idea to minimize the fibre.

[00:02:36] Taryn: in your gut. It is going to reduce your risk of gut upset on race day and just make sure everything is, you know, smooth or as smooth sailing as possible. So things like whole grains, go for more white choices to lower the fiber. Watching your fruit and vegetable intake, things like nuts and seeds and legumes, they're all quite high in fiber.

[00:02:58] Taryn: I would keep those to a minimum. In the Triathlon Nutrition Academy program, we have a carbohydrate loading masterclass where we go through exactly what to have to hit your right targets if you need to carb load for an event, because not all of them you need to do that for. But when you do, we have targets for each component of your nutrition.

[00:03:18] Taryn: So carbohydrate, fats, protein, calories, fiber, all the things so that you know that you're stepping forwards to the start line, having done the best job you can to set yourself up for success before the day even begins.

[00:03:31] Taryn: Because what you do before a triathlon is that whole week before. So fibre is a big one. Keep that as low as possible. You can have some, but we want to minimize it as much as possible. The other one heading into race start is trying to minimize how much fat you have. Fat is, you know, not bad for us.

[00:03:52] Taryn: We want to have a certain amount in our daily diet. As long as they're the right types of fats, we want to have a good focus on those good fats rather than the bad fats. But too much fat can slow down digestion and absorption and slow the gastric emptying that we're trying to really promote heading into an event.

[00:04:10] Taryn: So things like. Fatty sausages, croissants. We have this joke in TNA about croissants. Croissants don't form part of carbohydrate loading plans because they are too high in fat, even though they are absolutely delicious. So fatty sausages, fatty meats, bacon, , deep fried foods.

[00:04:30] Taryn: So if you are not a croissant eater but you have some other sort of pastry, I would avoid those. Creamy sauces, heaps of avocado,

[00:04:40] Taryn: heaps of chocolate, those sorts of things. Anything that's really high in fat. Is not going to serve us during the race. So you want to keep that within a certain threshold as well. If there's anything else that I have not mentioned, that is very high in fat, add that to your list as well. What I find when I work with triathletes is that they're eating things before race that they thought was good.

[00:05:01] Taryn: Cause they read it on the internet and it's completely the wrong macro targets. It's the wrong guidelines and fueling for them. So fiber's a big one, fat's a big one. Both of those are going to slow down your digestion and put too much bulk in your gastrointestinal tract, which we want to avoid on race day.

[00:05:22] Taryn: The third one, which should be intuitive, but again, blows my mind that it's not, is spicy food. Spicy food, you know, you might have a very high tolerance for spice in life, but spicy food before a race I'd probably avoid it as best as you can. It is, you know, not setting our stomach and digestive tract up for success.

[00:05:46] Taryn: if we are putting that into it. You also run the risk of increasing heartburn and just intergestion and any other gastrointestinal problems that we want to try and avoid on race day. So, you know, keep it nice and mild, keep it like baby level of mild, and super gentle to make sure that you aren't regretting those choices.

[00:06:06] Taryn: No really hot curries the night before your race. The next one's a little bit controversial. Some people like to avoid dairy type foods right before an event. Now, that is personal preference. It's not something I recommend for everyone. But some people find dairy problematic. And if that's you, you will know about it already.

[00:06:24] Taryn: So, if it's not you, don't avoid it. Just ignore this one. But some people, you want to keep the food choices that you're making Kind of mild, just generally. Not a spice mild, but like, just keep them plain, keep them simple, not too rich, not too complicated. and dairy might fall into that list for you. So if that's you, make sure you do a good job of actually avoiding those things that you know are problematic for you.

[00:06:49] Taryn: It is again, mind blowing that athletes have intolerances or issues with particular foods, but then think that they can, you know, wing it before an event and just include it anyway, or it's only a little amount. You want to set yourself up for success, right? We don't want to undo all that hard work. So if there's anything that you don't tolerate, maybe dairy is one of them.

[00:07:11] Taryn: Don't risk it for the biscuit and just make sure you have multiple days without it to give your gut a rest. Make sure you're not putting anything in there that is going to, you know, maybe rear its ugly head out on the race course and that's not what you want on the day. The next one is carbonated drinks.

[00:07:30] Taryn: So, in Australia, we call it soft drink. In America, it's called pop. anything that has lots of bubbles, even if it's sparkling water or soda water, a lot of people drink that. Now, in Australia, It's kind of trendy, but it's just something different. It is putting extra gas through your gut and increasing your risk of burping, regurg, bloating, and just gas through your whole gastrointestinal tract, which we don't want on race day.

[00:07:57] Taryn: So if you're somebody that does drink a lot of sparkling water, or you have some sort of pop or soft drink heading into an event for whatever reason, I would. probably suggest avoiding that just to make sure everything is smooth sailing on the day. Okay. Number six is alcohol. Now I probably shouldn't have to say this, but I feel like it needs to be here.

[00:08:22] Taryn: You would think it's a no brainer, but I think it's definitely still worth discussing. It's not, you know, an elephant in a room. Alcohol. can absolutely throw off your sleep the night before. It can lead to dehydration and it's putting more stress on the liver, which we don't want as we're about to put our body under a big stress anyway, and it will affect your performance.

[00:08:45] Taryn: So if you're somebody that likes to race for like the party vibes, or, you know, you're very social racer, that is totally fine. Like we're in it to have fun, right? I would suggest though that you avoid alcohol heading into an event. And well, I have other thoughts around what you do after with alcohol, but that's a story for another day.

[00:09:07] Taryn: So steer clear for, I guess, as long as you can heading into an event. I know a lot of people, if they do an Ironman, they will do their 20 week training block of no alcohol. And I think that's a good strategy, but I'm very much all about balance. So it's about, can you enjoy the occasional drink.

[00:09:25] Taryn: That'd be okay. And you can stay within some limits or are you a all or none type personality? And if you have one glass, you end up drinking the whole bottle of whiskey. So. Make sure that you're not having even just a glass of wine with your spaghetti bolognese the night before.

[00:09:40] Taryn: Try and avoid it altogether for as long as you can heading into an event. It is counterintuitive for health. It is counterintuitive for performance. And if you're out here and you're listening to this and you want to do the best that you can, alcohol is one of those things that you want to minimize as much as possible.

[00:09:58] Taryn: All right, number seven. I would group this into anything that is unknown. Any unknown foods, any unknown ingredients or something that's new and novel, I would avoid anything like that heading into race day. So if you're somebody that has, you know, a particular way of eating, , or a structure or cuisines that you like, I would stick with those and things that you've had before and know that it's okay, rather than throwing something new into the mix.

[00:10:29] Taryn: Everything that you do heading into your event should be tried and tested in training. And that includes what you do in the days leading in, what you do the night before, what you do the morning of. So most people kind of switch into race mode with what they're having for dinner the night before an event.

[00:10:44] Taryn: And that's generally the same. as well as what you do before an event. And I love that too. So don't do anything weird and wonderful in those two occasions of eating. Everything should be well practiced, well rehearsed, but also the meals and the days heading in.

[00:11:00] Taryn: If you are traveling for a race, say you're going to Asia for an event and everything is new, I would look ahead and do whatever you can to plan and prepare for that so that you are still eating foods that are healthy. practiced, rehearsed and known to you rather than making weird choices from a menu.

[00:11:19] Taryn: Okay, particularly more challenging when you're not at home, you might need to do a bit of preparation to have a look at restaurants that are available, what their menus are like. Can you do any practice of that stuff at home in training before you go and race?

[00:11:31] Taryn: So that's my list of seven worst things to do heading into an event. If you would love to know exactly what to do, what to eat, the timing, all of your targets, and that is something that we cover inside the Triathlon Nutrition Academy program. We cover your recovery nutrition and pre training nutrition for your daily training very quickly.

[00:11:53] Taryn: It's our first two weeks in our phase one of the program. our pre race meal is something that we tackle as we head into phase two. And when people get there, generally their mind is a little bit blown with just exactly what they need to do because they'd never heard of that before.

[00:12:09] Taryn: We do some practice for that in daily training with your pre training nutrition. But your pre race meal, like what you do in the morning when you wake up, from the moment you wake up to the moment the gun goes off to go, we have a specific plan for everything in between there, , as well as the days heading into that.

[00:12:28] Taryn: So race nutrition starts from like a week out, really, in essence. And race nutrition also goes all the way through to once you've crossed the finish line and beyond that for at least another week. So typically triathletes, I find they cross the finish line and all nutrition plans go out the window.

[00:12:48] Taryn: But I like to set my athletes up for success so that they recover as quickly as possible because there's always going to be another race and there's always going to be training because we don't know how to sit still as a triathlete. We always want to just get back out there again. So nutrition for a race is not.

[00:13:06] Taryn: It is a whole week or so heading in, as well as the months of practice you've done before, as well as at least a week heading out. So we need to think more globally and holistically around our race nutrition plan. It is not just how much you're having on the bike and how much you're having on the run.

[00:13:23] Taryn: It is the things, all the things when it comes to nutrition. And, um, If that's something that you have no idea about, then the Triathlon Nutrition Academy program sets you up for success with all of those components. I'm going to show you how to build a specific and customized plan for you for every single event.

[00:13:42] Taryn: We talk through sprint race nutrition, Olympic distance 70. 3 and full distance racing. We also, in our alumni program, extend that thinking even further into multi stage, multi day events. Things like Ultra 3, 5, 5 and Ultraman. We have some athletes that now they've got their nutrition sorted.

[00:14:00] Taryn: They're like, I, I could totally do this. I can see myself doing that now because I know I will survive, but not only survive, thrive because all of the right building blocks of nutrition are there, which is really exciting. That makes me so happy that we have athletes that had written off Iron Man because.

[00:14:20] Taryn: they were just so smashed and in low energy availability and getting sick and getting injured to now going, I'm going to do another one because I know that this one is going to be so much better. And then going, all right, I've done that. now what, like, what, what else can I do? And the world is your oyster when you have the right nutrition laid into whatever training and racing it is that you're doing.

[00:14:44] Taryn: So cool. Now I'm looking for some more listener questions. I am at the end of my list. So if you want to ask me something on the podcast and I can try and answer. I will absolutely do my best to do that. So if you go to dietitianapproved. com forward slash subscribe, we put out in our weekly email a link to go and submit questions.

[00:15:06] Taryn: The other place that you could find is the podcast page on the website, dietitianapproved. com forward slash podcast. If you scroll down a little bit, you'll see the button to submit a question for me on the podcast there.

[00:15:19] Taryn: We have some awesome things coming up in the podcast. I am deep in planning and organization mode for what we've got coming out over the next couple of months. I want to talk to you about creatine because it is like the buzz-hot supplement at the moment, and I'm a little bit frustrated with the advice Everyone should take creatine.

[00:15:39] Taryn: So we're going to talk about that. I have added to the list, talking about extra virgin olive oil and performance, because I think that's a really cool, sexy study and something that is super easy and super practical for everyone to do.

[00:15:52] Taryn: . We also have an episode in the works with a long list of book suggestions that every triathlete should read or add to your reading list. Which I'm really excited to share with you. There are some really good things on there and I know that you will love that episode. and if you have any requests, please just flick me an email, send me an Insta DM, uh, I am at, the end of the Instagram line. sometimes you get the chat box, but it is generally me, responding there. So if there's anything that you want me to cover, please let me know.

[00:16:19] Taryn: Always happy to take requests. All right. Thank you for wrapping me around your ear holes today. I will talk to you next week.

Thanks for joining me for this episode of the Triathlon Nutrition Academy podcast. I would love to hear from you. If you have any questions or want to share with me what you've learned, email me at [email protected]. You can also spread the word by leaving me a review and taking a screenshot of you listening to the show. Don't forget to tag me on social media, @dietitian.approved, so I can give you a shout out, too. If you want to learn more about what we do, head to dietitianapproved.com. And if you want to learn more about the Triathlon Nutrition Academy program, head to dietitianapproved.com/academy. Thanks for joining me and I look forward to helping you smashed in the fourth leg - nutrition!