artifice

Tell me about your training/racing food mistakes.

OK, so I've learned this more than once. I just seem to relapse often.

B-fast: Grapefruit and green tea.
Get to the office (intending to eat the instant oatmeal I stash)... chocolate donuts in the break room. So, I have a half donut.

Lunch rolls around: Wholesome sandwich.
Enter... chocolate CAKE in the break room. Yum. Sounds better than the yogurt + apple + granola bar.

5:30, off to the pool.

I thought I was going to sink.

Rogue Leader

That Nacho Burrito from Baja Fresh I had for lunch before swimming tuesday was a POOR poor choice........

cjbruin

I might exceed the number of characters allowed in a single post.

artifice

lol. yeah, I've had my share of faux pas myself.
I have found that a chipotle/baja/qdoba is always a bad idea about 1 hour after consumption.

travelmama

Consuming too much fresh pineapple on a 50 mile ride then trying to run a marathon the next day. Far too many potty stops. I now limit it to a slice or two.

Psydotek

Hearty steak dinner the night before a triathlon. It couldn't be helped though since it was an alumni reunion for the university at very nice banquet venue. I paid my $30. I'm going to enjoy this.

I did try to keep from eating it all and only ate about 60-70% of the steak.

Zephyr11

I love cereal. I can easily polish off a box in a sitting. One time, I decided to pretend to be healthy, and ignored the call of the Cinnamon Toast Crunch for a box of Fiber One Honey Clusters, with 13 grams of fiber per serving (8 servings per box, so 104 grams of fiber in the box). Brought it home, housed it, and half an hour later went on a 12 mile run. This was also on top of my usual breakfast of a couple bowls of oatmeal and an apple. I'll let you fill in the details.

Rogue Leader

It was actually like 3 hours later... still wasn't good... trust me.

mmmm chipotle, even better than baja....

Rogue Leader

I have my cousins 30th birthday at a nice restaurant the night before my first race of the season. I'm not sure if I'll just hang out for a little while and leave to eat at home (I have like a "safe" pasta and sauce at home) or see if they will just whip me up a big bowl of pasta and marinara or something there... but then again who knows what they use in their sauce.....

rumrunn6

I was going to write about my good habits but then I realized you wanted to hear about others' mistakes. You obviously know your weaknesses and you look healthy enough to know how to avoid them so no need for a lecture. But in case you need a reprimand - here it is: BAD GIRL! 10 more laps for you!

But since you want a confession, here's mine. My expartner broke her kneecap and needs my care and attention. People are bringing over food and that includes deserts. No one wanted any of the raspberry pie so I wound up eating 3/4 of it by myself. Not all at once but all in one 24 hr period. BAD BOY! 10 more laps for me!

BTW: I gave the last 1/4 pie to a neighbor.

Triguy

I used to eat sweets constantly. However, as far as nutrition ruining things... I've learned that too much fiber will kill a run, as well as protein.

robb.

i had only ever run a 10k and a couple 5ks before i did my first triathlon (400m/16k/5k). i figured it'd be a good idea to eat a banana when i got on the bike. my stomach was so grumpy that i didn't drink any water during the run and cramped up whenever i tried to go faster. awful.

i've since run a marathon and am training for a 25k, so i know a lot more about fueling for endurance.

when training for the marathon i had grown accustomed to having second breakfast. i wake up at 5 every morning and eat, and by the time i've been at work for an hour or so, about 8 or 8:30, i need another breakfast. after the marathon i kept this up for a couple weeks before i realized i was overeating, especially since it still hurt to run.

if you stop training, stop eating!

robb.

WhiteRasta

My first 10k while having yogurt in the morning. That didn't really sit well with me during the run, cramp, cramp, bathroom!

kevmk81 

My most recent experience:

Only a couple weekends ago, I went to Springfield IL to Charlie Parkers (a joint in town that was reviewed on one of the shows on Food TV). They specialize in pancakes that are the size of a pizza (if you eat the entire thing, you get to skip the paying for it part), and pony/horse shoe sandwiches. I went there for lunch with some of my family for lunch (around 12:30ish). I didn't go for the huge pancake, but I went with the double stack, along with a scrambled egg on the side. So later, around 4ish, I had a 1 1/2 hour run to do. Needless to say, I averaged about a 10 minute mile (normally I do an 8:30ish for that long of a run), I didn't do the whole 90 minutes, and had the walk of shame for the last 1 1/2 mile (with a sprint to the house 2 houses away from mine - while clenching the cheeks). It's amazing how long bad food hangs out in your stomach. No wonder why cancer is a big issue these days. I felt sick the entire run, every 2 minutes it felt like acid reflux, and it wasn't too tasty. I had to have my fiance help when I got in the house (needed a cold washclothe to put on my head), she's a sweetheart, that must've stunk to high heaven. Charlie Parker - never again do I want to set foot in that restaraunt.

artifice

I refer to that experience as the "Denny's Effect"

I feel your pain.

BFDD

Speaking of "Denny's effect". Last year my girlfriend and I were training for our california coastal bike tour. We had gotten up early at 5am to beat the phoenix heat and didn't have the time to eat much more than half a granola bar. anyways, we were on our way back when my girlfriend told me she was super hungry. We had just finnished a 60 mile ride and I thought it would be a good reward for a hard trained week for both of us to stop at Denny's. Waffles, Moons over my hammy, and a full carafe of OJ later and we were on our way home. We were only 6 miles away from home, but we were both in bad shape. Our average 19mph dropped to a sunday leasurly 10mph. That was the longest 40 minutes of choking back $30 worth of Denny's in my life. Never again Denny's, never again.

rumrunn6

do not swallow pond water

Calminian

aahhhh! made me queezy just thinking about it.

Calminian

What comes to mind is my brick after scrambled eggs and sausage (brown n serve). My daughter was begging me to make eggs that morning, so I caved. No energy at all, and all the hammer gel I poured down just sat on top of my greasy breakfast. A horrible combo, btw, eggs, sausage and hammer gel (raspberry).

rumrunn6

next time add toast & skip the sausage, then right before do a little box of raisins; b6 & b12

Calminian

Interesting. I was just reading an article, and it said raisins were every bit as good, if not better, than the expensive gels, when it comes to pre-race enerty. Just picked me up a big box of Sunmaid. And I was also surprised, they are preservative free. Even better!

artifice

prepped for a practice tri with my team saturday morning (500m swim, 15mi bike, 2mi run) by polishing off cookies & ice cream and a glass of wine friday night. surprisingly, it went well!

caelric

And this is why I do tris....because all the training allows me to do what I really love, which is eat whatever I want!

Jordan300

I had a bad experince with some of those electrolyte gels. I had a weird carmel coconut flavor or something and I had taken only a small amount of it as I was finishing an 18 mile bike leg of a Sprint. I had the worst taste in my mouth for the entire run, I was hitting every water station to try and rinse out the taste. Not good.

nmichell

Okay, I've got one, but I'm going WAY back here, and it doesn't have anything to do with training. In my college days, a couple buddies and I rode our bikes to the local pizza place for all-you-can-eat night. It seemed like a great idea to have a contest, which I won by eating 19 pieces of pizza. The rest of the story I'll leave to your imagination.

On the opposite extreme, and more recently, when I decided to take up cycling after a long absence, I went on my first long ride. I got up at 6am, ate a banana, hopped on my mtb and started riding. About 20 miles later I was pretty hungry, but I had no food or cash. About 10 miles after that I was starving, but still 10 miles from home, and struggling to go even 10mph. And 5 miles after that I hit a tiny little hill and had to get off my bike and walk. So learned pretty dramatically what it feels like to bonk.