All liquid pre-IM breakfast?

Kkaufer

It's getting late in the game, but I'm thinking of changing my pre-IM breakfast to all liquid.  I just struggle with solid foods in the morning and no matter how applesauce I throw in, I just can't process it fast enough.  My question is, I don't think it's enough to drink 2 bottles of Perform( @ 210 cals) + 1 honey stinger waffle (180 cals) race morning.  Should I jsut chug another bottle of Perform, or are there recommended pre-race drinks with better nutritional value?

thank you!

Coach Rich

Posted By Kate Kaufer on 10 Aug 2013 03:59 PM

It's getting late in the game, but I'm thinking of changing my pre-IM breakfast to all liquid.  I just struggle with solid foods in the morning and no matter how applesauce I throw in, I just can't process it fast enough.  My question is, I don't think it's enough to drink 2 bottles of Perform( @ 210 cals) + 1 honey stinger waffle (180 cals) race morning.  Should I jsut chug another bottle of Perform, or are there recommended pre-race drinks with better nutritional value?

thank you!

In the past I've had 2-3 x Naked Juice smoothies, about 350cals each. I think you'll want something more calorie dense than Perform. 

ezellrh

Kate, like Rich, i tend to load up on the smoothies (starting the night prior right before bed). I add a small bagel or english muffin to the mix in the morning for something solid, but not too much.

Greg Fay

Kate, two races this year, and been following Rich's plan: 2:00am wake up, 2 Naked Juices (600-800 cals), back to bed, up at 4:30...power bar an hour before race, GU 15 before. Both times, able to do a solid (pun intended) #2 around 5/5:30...woo-hoo!


Greg

Kkaufer

Which Naked Juice product do you drink? I looked at the Berry Blast Smoothie and it has 26g of sugar. If I drink 3 of those, that's 75g of sugar. Isn't that a bit much?

Greg Fay

Kate-Good question and yes, I also avoid the sugar: Varies depending on the grocery at the venue city -- I glance at all available in the store and grab one with no (or little) sugar, as much calories as possible, and avoid high protein. And try to add up to 600-800. Sometimes takes one (large size) and sometime three (smaller ones, or less calories each)

Here is a list of all of them - quite a variety!

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/nutrition-facts-calories/naked-juice

All the best,

Greg

Greg Fay

Hmm, well just realized that chart doesn't show Sugar. And have to be aware that "No Sugar Added" doesn't mean much since Sugar comes from the fruit.

Here is a better chart:
http://www.pepsicobeveragefacts.com/infobycategory.php?pc=prod_catg.1060&t=1026&s=15.2&i=ntrtn

And now I'm wondering the same, since most of them have a lot of sugar...

Greg

Steve West

IIRC - a few years ago Rich suggested Ensure x2 for the 2 AM feeding.

Care to chime in and clarify Rich?

Pedro Diaz

I use Ensure for my pre-IM nutrition and it works great for me. I take two Ensure Plus (http://ensure.com/products/ensure-plus-retail) between 1-2am which give you around 700 calories. For breakfast at around 430am I take one of the normal Ensure (http://ensure.com/products/ensure-nutrition-shake) for another 250 cal and try to take in something solid like PB&J on white bread, if I don't feel up to it I just keep to the Ensure. I don't take Ensure Plus in the morning since it tends to make my a little nauteous for reasons I still don't understand and I usually have to lie down a few minutes after taking one. I keep the Ensure Plus for the post-midnight feed since I take those in bed and and go back to sleep/rest. I've used this combination for two IMs and several HIMs with great results.

Best.

Sheila Leard

Kate - if you have a little blender like a  Magic Bullet make a smoothie of soy or regular milk, TBL of peanut butter, banana, berries and a scoop of protein powder if you want more protein than what you get from milk and peanut butter. You can experiment with full fat coconut milk. You want some fat to keep you from getting hungry and protein to stabilize blood sugar.

On the road I drink the Naked with protein.

tim cronk

I'm not a nutritionist , but I have read quite a bit and put a lot of thought/practice into this.... I practice plant based or vegan nutrition going on 3 years now and I train/race with lots of simple carbs. All other times its high fiber complex carbs.

I tried liquid breakfast and liquid only racing... Didnt work for me.... I was hungry and low on the energy.... But having said that I have a couple thoughts I'd like to throw out there.....

Is equal amounts of liquid calories really any different than simple easy to digest solid calories assuming its consumed a few hours before?

Obviously foods with lots of fat/protein/fiber will be harder/slower to digest.
I say this only because I did 3 days of smoothies, nothing but liquid fruits and veggies blended whole with water and juice and yet had no problem with regular bowel movements. There was still plenty of solids and calories in the smoothies . NOTE: juicing would be different that removes the fiber.
When you eat a piece of white bread or simple white carb like rice you can feel it dissolve into sugar in your mouth, essentially liquid. This stuff digests very fast.

Sugar is sugar? Raw sugar or fruit? Naked smoothies vs Perform? Can your body tell?

My guess is for our purposes NOT! There are other factors like blood sugar spike etc which are efffected with again fiber,fat, protien. You can find lots of articles like the one below about Kenyan runners with 20% of there calories being from raw simple sugar! Works for them...

http://runnersconnect.net/running-nutrition-articles/diet-of-kenyan-runners/

I'm not saying simple processed sugars are good or better than fruit or any other source.... Practicing good plant based nutrition I limit myself to the simplest most processed sugars and carbs mostly just before , during , and after my workouts/races, I find these while not nutrient dense calories , very low on fiber and easy to digest .

@Kate... to offer an opinion to answer your question , if you want to stay liquid nutrition for a pre-race meal , I would choose Naked Juice smoothies (this is similar to applesauce which I tried and didnt like either) over perform or Ensure.... But its a what works best for you scenario..... Lots of people have good luck with Ensure (not vegan and has lots of stuff in it) .... Drinking perform all day during a race = last thing I want for breakfast!

Jenniferlyn Kryvicky

Everybody is different, but for me, I work well on an all liquid breakfast. 

I am a whole-foods plants-based triathlete, and before IMFL I made my own smoothie of unsweetened almond milk, CarbPro, PB2, Vega Sport protein powder, banana, and various veggies/fruits for my early morning feed.  It was around 600 calories in total and was all whole foods that were very easy to digest.   I found that I had no issues with this - but then again this smoothie is something that I eat darn near every day of my life - just with varying calories.  Before every big workout I do the early AM feed smoothie as well so it is something that my body knows very well.

I personally do not use perform or ensure simply because I am breaking free from processed sports nutrition and processed food-like substances.

 

richmiani

Love this thread, great stuff folks! My two cents... I did Core Diet race fueling plan this year for IMLP and while it solved my cramping issues,  I really did not like the pre-race-applesauce coupled with 24oz perform-bit (I'm a larger dude at 183lbs and had to choke down almost 2 whole jars!). Too much liquid and I felt a bit queasy. Will revise/drop that item going forward.

rlh2000

Have you tried yogurt? I know a lot of people want to stay far far far away from dairy, but I've had good success with it. Only done up to 70.3 so far, but yogurt (fruit at the bottom sugary stuff) + white rice + a banana has worked well for me.