Race Day Nutrition

As all runners know, what we put into our bodies has a profound impact on how we perform. I've really been trying to clean up my eating habits and while I consider myself to eat healthy 85 or 90 percent of the time, I do indulge from time to time. Typically though, I eat pretty healthy. I've been tracking my foods this week just so I can see exactly what I'm putting into my body (which may not have been a good idea since my birthday was yesterday!).

We all know that what we eat a few days before a race is really more important than what we eat on race mornings, but that's another post for another day. Today, let's talk about pre-race fuel.

I normally only race 5Ks and 10Ks so my nutritional needs are entirely different from someone running 26.2 miles or even a half marathon.

I like to keep breakfast simple before races. On a regular weekday when I run before work, I don't eat breakfast first, but on the weekend when I race or go for a longer run, I always eat first.

I used to strictly eat oatmeal before races. I love Better Oats Maple and Brown Sugar oatmeal. It's easy to prepare and quite tasty.

Lately, I've been eating two scrambled eggs and cinnamon toast. I went through this cinnamon toast phase and it seemed to work well on race morning.

I always drink a full glass of water before I race, too, however, I don't drink anything at all after thirty minutes or so before a run. I hate feeling the side stitch feeling you get when you've had too many liquids.

How about you? What's your go-to pre-race meal?