The Week leading up to your Race

As you are heading into your race week your training phase will be Competition Phase. 

During the Competition Phase your macronutrient intake will switch slightly to slowly increase your carbohydrates and fully build your glycogen stores. 

During the Prep Phases you will most likely sit somewhere around a 40%P, 30%C, 30%F split (as a guide) as we are looking to build lean muscle to increase power and speed as well as maintaining a strong base of muscular endurance and cardio ability. 

In Competition Phase the split will be a little more carb heavy to ensure you are properly and fully fuelled for racing. Not the best for body composition but that’s not the concern now as that work has been done

A Competition phase will look more like 25%P, 50-55%C, 20-25%F (again as a guide, each athlete will have there individual needs). 

Do not leave your carb loading until the night before and just eat all the carbs thinking you’ll be good… you won’t be! 

Best Carbohydrate Sources

Increasing carb intake should be done smartly, using the best sources possible to maximise your results. 

You don’t want to smash the chips, crisps and pizza thinking “hey, it’s carb loading!” 

You want to include foods that are low on the Glycemic Index, especially the closer to race day you get as these are broken down more slowly in the body and do not cause spikes in blood sugar. 

Some of the best food choices are:
Bananas
Berries
Brown Rice or Quinoa
Yogurt
Oats 

Avoid Food that causes inflammation

This sounds obvious but some people are not aware of the inflammatory actions of some foods. As you approach race day you want to reduce and ideally eliminate your intake of all these bad boys.  

Biggest Offenders are:

Red Meat and Processed Meat
Refined Grains including White Bread/Rice/Pasta and a lot Breakfast Cereals
Snack Foods such as Crisps, Cookies, Pastries etc
Dairy Products 
Fried Food
Anything with added sugar
Soda and Sweetened Drinks
Alcohol