I’m doing a trail half-marathon in 2 weeks and it’s an 11am start
I never run in the mornings, only in the evenings and I’m a bit worried about energy levels for the event.
Has anyone got any advice on how to fuel myself the day before + the morning of the race? The only thing I can think of is to lay off the booze the night before, get up early and have a big bowl of porridge.
thanks

That sounds good, but not a massive bowl of porridge. Stick to what you know.

I once had beans on toast for breakfast before a race instead of the usual porridge / muesli / low sugar cereal breakfast and didn’t feel properly energised.

A gel 45 minutes before start is good as well, but only if you know it won’t give you a dicky tummy. A couple of gels for the run may be handy too.

Has anyone got any advice on how to fuel myself the day before + the morning of the race? The only thing I can think of is to lay off the booze the night before, get up early and have a big bowl of porridge.
thanks

That’s pretty much what I do, seems to work. I usually leave a couple of hours between porridge and the run.

Like Pieface says, take a some gels with you, depending on how long you think you’re going to take (and how hard the trail is) you may want to take more than just a couple though.

Another thing you could do would be to try it out next weekend, do an early run instead of late?

I’d try all that out with a morning practise run. Coffee works for me (porridge and coffee are guaranteed to get the morning poo out of the way too – too much detail?) Drink water/electrolytes/drug of choice on the way and start nicely hydrated. Stuff a few jelly babies in your pocket for a cheap and cheerful portable boost. Try stuff out first.

cheers
I’ll try to do a long morning run this weekend after a porridge and coffee “boost”

I avoid all dairy the morning of a race, but that could just be a personal thing.

Why avoid dairy?

Dairy screws the stomach, or has been shown to in a lot of people.

Toast with honey and coffee for me. Definitely trial a routine beforehand!

Dairy screws the stomach, or has been shown to in a lot of people.

Might look into that. My pre-race nutrition is imodium instants 🙂

For me, training runs of up to 10 miles, just a coffee and a couple of gels during the run (plus water depending on heat).

For racing, 5k coffee, 10k coffee and a gel before, half-marathon two toast with jam plus two gels during, marathon four toast with jam, or porridge, plus 5 gels during. Water to thirst in any race, which usually means nothing in a 5k, a mouthful in a 10 and then whatever is appropriate in half and marathon.

Ultras, it depends.

That’s pretty much my nutrition plan as well Bensales.

Gel every 40 minutes, chewy thing inbetween, water at the feed stations.

Toast and coffee in the morning, eat well the day before but not one huge meal, more evenly spaced out during the day.

This dairy being a problem does that include porridge with some milk in it?
Also it sounds like you guys are serious runners. I’m just a fat bloke who wants to get round without having a cardiac. Do the same rules apply to us carthorse types as well as the racing snakes?

Oh and thanks for all the advice

Porridge has always worked for me in the past. Also a poached egg on two toast seemed to work.

Did a half marathon on just a cereal bar once, felt fine tbh.

If you’re just hoping to get round in a respectable time then as long as you make sure you go to the toilet before you should be fine really. Obviously don’t have a full fry up or anything though!

I’m a slow runner. Yesterdays early morning 22k was fueled by 2 chocolate biscuits and a glass of squash. For an 11am start I’d go for banana and nutella on toast.
For mid race boost, those little bags of haribo that wiggle send you are ideal.