Many athletes blame a poor race day performance on nutrition, which doesn't surprise me since most athletes underfuel in training and guess their way through race day sport nutrition. As it relates to long-distance racing, nutrition is a critical component to race day success. While what, when and how you consume sport nutrition during the race can optimize your ability to perform with your body from start to finish, equally, if not more important, is your nutrition going into a race. From my personal experience as a Board Certified Sport Dietitian, who specializes in working with endurance athletes, here are some of the common pre-race nutrition mistakes that I see often, that keep athletes from reaching athletic excellence. Unhealthy relationship with carbs - A fear of carbohydrates can keep athletes from properly loading muscle and liver glycogen stores going into a race. On the other edge of the spectrum, eating every carbohydrate in sight can leave you feeling lethargic...
3x Author, Board Certified Sports Dietitian, Master of Science in Exercise Physiology, 2017 IM CHOO Amateur Female Champion, 19xIronman finisher including 6xIM World Championship finisher, Triathlon Coach, 30-year Vegetarian.Trimarnicoach.com