One week.
Only one week to go until I zip up my wetsuit (if it gets here in time…) and line up at the starting line.
Only one week until I’ll pedal my heart out on the bike to make up for my lack of swimming/running skills.
Only one week until the day I’ve been waiting for for as long as I can remember.
I am beyond excited and nervous.
Can I carbo load yet?
Speaking of carb loading, I learned a lot about it from this article on Runners World. It’s very consistent with what I’ve learned from studying carbs in biology and I think it has some good tips that I’ll definitely be using this week.
As you probably remember from Into to Bio, your body can use both glycogen (stored carbs) and triglycerides (stored fat) to fuel itself, but it wants to reach for the glycogen first. I remember my professor referring to glycogen as “cash on hand” and triglycerides as “stocks that take a while to trade in.”
Since the fastest way to get energy is through glycogen, thats what you want to make sure your muscles have plenty of before your race.
Random side note: Run to the Finish recommends emptying your glycogen stores and starting fresh. I think I’ll try this just to see what happens (Ill do this on Tuesday anyway– 4 mile run, 1/2 mile swim, 1 hr spin class.)
So with all that said, here are some of my pre-race plans (for meals and other stuff):
- Replace some of the fat and protein in my diet with carbs, starting tuesday.
- Eat good carbs that I know will digest well (sweet potatoes, rice, quinoa, veggies, fruit)
- Limit my fiber the day before the race (sorry, fruit. Ill miss you…)
- Get an extra hour or two of sleep every night starting now.
- Spend an hour the day before the race stretching — other than that its a total rest day.
- Drink a little more water than usual the day before the race.
- Honestly, I don’t want to eat the morning of my race. I never eat before I workout and I don’t think my body is ready for me to switch it up like that.
And heres some meals I’m planning on making for the week:
snacks:
- Energy Bar Bites (dates= carbs my tummy likes)
- Gluten Free Blueberry Muffins (recipe to come!)
- Apples and peanut butter
- Hummus and Carrots
- Guacamole (as an incentive to eat corn chips which are too boring on their own)
Breakfasts:
- Quinoa Granola (inspired by this from Oh She Glows)
- Sweet Potato and Egg hash (recipe to come!)
- Zucchini Apple Spice Muffins from Paleomg
- Toast with peanut butter. Back to the basics.
- Fruit Smoothies
Lunch/Dinner:
- Quinoa Pizza Crust from Deliciously Ella
- Turkey and Veggie Stuffed Sweet Potatoes (recipe to come!)
- Gluten Free Chicken Teriyaki with Rice and Broccoli (recipe to come!)
- Red Quinoa with Butternut Squash, Cranberries, and Pecans from Gluten Free Goddess
Well that’s all for now, folks. If I start cooking these now, I might be done with enough time to eat them before race day 🙂
Tri-orbust 