Sure you completed your training sessions but did your physiology change? Did you get stronger, more resilient, fitter or faster? Were you able to recover properly to gain the necessary fitness for your upcoming event? Did you gain confidence in your race day fueling and pacing plan?
Underfueling can be from many reasons:
- Fear of gaining weight
- A desire to lose weight
- Trying to be more "metabolically efficient"
- Not knowing how to use sport nutrition products appropriately
- Worrying about the sugar from sport nutrition because its not "healthy"
- Not feeling that (more) calories are needed during training session
- Getting by with minimal nutrition
- Not planning stops accordingly to refill bottles
- Poor meal planning/feeling rushed to get in a workout
- Not knowing how much energy/fluids are needed to support the trianing session
Yet come race day, athletes are so worried about running out of energy that suddenly, eating "enough" becomes a priority. Sadly, you can't outfuel a body that was not well-trained. If you underfueled in training, you spent months compromising your ability to maximize your fitness for race day. Loading up on carbs and sodium before and during the race will not give you the fitness that you didn't gain in training.
Overfueling on race day is often due to fear of not having enough energy. Sadly, no amount of calories on race day can make the body perform at a sustainable effort that was not created in training. If you constantly underfuel in training, not only are you missing an opportunity to maximize fitness but a body that has been underfueled in training will likely underperform on race day because you never gave your body a chance to gain the necessary fitness for race day. Additionally, overfueling on race day will increase the risk for GI issues.
Yes, you may be checking off workouts, making you think that you are getting yourself race ready but you an underfueled body will constantly underperform in training. A performance minded athlete recognizes that a well-fueled body can adapt well to training.
Every time you go into a workout underfueled (or avoid sport nutrition or proper recovery), you are missing out on an opportunity to gain fitness and confidence for race day.