What to Eat Before an Ironman to Get Race-Day Ready
You need to be fit enough and have put in the training to get across the line. But you also need to ensure your nutrition is on-point, too!
Nutrition has perhaps the biggest impact on your race day performance, so in this article I’ll go through what to eat before an Ironman.
I know getting up at 3am to have breakfast right before an ironman doesn’t sound great, does it?
I’ve had lots of people ask me whether breakfast is really necessary before an ironman, and when you put it into context of eating at such a ridiculously early hour I can see why.
This is something I’m always keen to talk through with my 1:1 clients as well because it is a super important area.
If you get it right, an amazing meal and great timing with it can help reduce the risk of tummy problems during your triathlon and let you race faster.
That’s why I’m going to break this topic down for you so that you’ll know how, why and what you might want to eat before an ironman.
And in case you don’t have a race-day nutrition plan in place, you can check out this Ironman nutrition plan for a sample plan that’ll help you smash your race.
Is breakfast necessary before an Ironman?
You might have heard the term macronutrient before, and there are 3 that are generally discussed.
These are protein, fat and carbohydrates, and when it comes to race specific nutrition, like ironman nutrition, this carbohydrates are what you should focus on.
You have about 90 minutes of hard steady exercise before your carbohydrate stores get to such a low level they essentially run out, and when that happens it's termed hitting the wall or bonking.
Fat does contribute to energy and is a super important part of ironman nutrition, but the average individual has over 50,000 calories worth stored as energy, so enough for an ironman several times over.
Protein only contributes to around 5% of your energy so it's not important in terms of race nutrition.
There are 3 areas of race nutrition that you need to focus on in terms of carbs, and that's the carb loading period, your race breakfast and then what you consume during the race.
Today we're focusing on your breakfast.
Now, you use up carbohydrate stores even while you sleep, which means that come morning those stores are going to be down a little bit, and this is where breakfast comes in.
You need to top those stores back up again, and this is why I would always recommend that you don’t skip breakfast before racing.
What should I eat before the ironman?
When it comes to how to prepare for an ironman, the idea is to essentially top up your carbohydrate stores so you go into your race with a full tank of energy and race as well as possible.
But you don't want to go crazy with breakfast and this a common mistake that I see when it comes to ironman nutrition.
It doesn't have to be huge where you're cramming as much in as possible. It should be filling and make you feel good but not so much that you’re overfed.
A massive breakfast is just gonna increase the risk of tummy upset but not provide much more benefit compared to a smaller breakfast.
So, breakfast? Let’s do that.
How much should you have? Depends on how long you're eating it before your race.
This is the general advice when it comes to amounts of carbohydrates to eat, and don't worry if you don't know how many grams of carbs you're eating for breakfast
The key thing here is that you understand that the further away from your race the more you can and should eat, the closer you are the less you should eat and may want to consume liquids only.
So with this in mind, let's talk about what you should actually eat so you can build your perfect breakfast.
What to avoid in your meal before an ironman?
It's probably easiest to start with what not to eat though because it makes it better to understand.
The nutrients more likely to cause tummy upset are protein, fibre and fat, so we want to carefully consider how much of those we have in our breakfast.
These nutrients harder and slower to digest, and so a breakfast containing large amounts of these are more likely to contribute to stomach problems, and cause symptoms like bloating or diarrhea because they’re harder to digest.
These unpleasant symptom are definitely not what we want to experience during the run.
Dietary protein, fat and fibre also don't contribute meaningfully to energy when it comes to racing either so they just aren't a priority.
This isn't to say you can't have these things at all. It's just being much much more cautious about them and limiting their amount.
A good example would be to go for low fat and fibre options, as well as avoiding things like nuts and seeds on the race day.
What is a good breakfast for an ironman?
Now you know what to avoid, let's talk about what to focus on during your race.
As you might have guessed by now, it's the wonderful carbohydrate.
You want to pick a breakfast focused around carbs which means things like oats, bread, pasta and rice.
In your normal daily diet, I would usually suggest wholegrain versions of these, but to nail your ironman nutrition you should go for white varieties of these things, so for example white rice over wholegrain rice.
White versions have less fibre and protein which again is going to help your tummy absorb everything easily and minimise the chances that you get forced into a stop during your run to take a dump.
The super fun thing here is that you can pick your carb of choice. If it hits the right carb numbers I mentioned before, isn't high in fibre, fat or protein and it's something that you get on with and tolerate, go wild.
Think about what you're most likely to want to eat on race day, especially early in the morning when you're a bit nervous.
Examples of race breakfasts:
- 120g (uncooked) rice and chicken or tuna
- 3 slices of white bread and jam
- 60g oats with maple syrup and semi-skimmed milk
- 1 tin of rice pudding and jam
- White bagel, jam and a banana
- Scotch pancakes with honey
- Sports drink and a gel
All of these are great options for a race day breakfast. You'll notice all these are generally quite straightforward and that's exactly what we want on race day.
Make it as simple as possible and you'll do great, thanking yourself for all those great food choices when you manage to finish the run feeling strong and full of energy.
Practice makes perfect
When it comes to how to prepare for an ironman, a huge tip I always tell triathletes is to practice their intended race day breakfast at least 6 weeks out from their race.
The ideal scenario is to consume your exact planned breakfast in the morning before a run that includes race pace efforts. If you can tolerate it on the run then you might have gotten yourself a winner.
Otherwise, it might be worth considering changing things up. You may need to give more time before your race and meal, reduce how much you eat, or you just need to try something different.
It's all about learning what you can eat that makes you feel satisfied but not too full.
Another tip I always give my clients is if it makes you feel full then it's probably a bit too much and the best option is to dial it back a little bit.
As much as breakfast is important, so is carb loading and what you consume during your race. That’s why I made the carb loading plan and even threw in a free recovery guide to help with just those!
With all those great strategies on how to prepare for an ironman in mind, you’ll be sure to have nothing about nutritionally as you plan for your next race
