It’s recommended that you finish your meal 3 hours before the race/workout start. The reason being that the first fuel your body will use when the race/workout begins (intensity depending) is the muscle glycogen you’ve stored up in training and your previous post-workout refueling. Eating a prerace meal 1-2 hours prior to the race/workout will cause your body to burn through its finite stores of glycogen more rapidly, and decrease its ability to use body fats efficiently for fuel.
However, if burning through that glycogen more rapidly doesn’t exceed the demands of the race/workout (only 60 mins or low intensity), then I suppose you could do so without issue. But not having an “issue” with the meal (gut distress) and getting the most out of your body and performance are two separate concerns.
I’m asking out of curiosity. I don’t have any issues doing it this way but I am questioning my strategy now. I will be doing Marcus Baker tomorrow morning using this nutrition strategy. I guess if it works for me then it’s fine, but I’m really intrigued by the subject
If you don’t feel the impact you’re probably okay. From my understanding, not everyone responds the same way.
And you’re right, you can rebound in your workout. I find there’s a 20-30 min period where aerobic work feels like death, but if I make it through that I feel better.
I hate feeling like that so I try to avoid it like the plague.
