3 days
8, 10, then 10 g of carbs per kg on the 3 days before races of 90 minutes or more.
Real food
White bread, bagels, rice, pasta, juice. Everyday UK foods, nothing to buy from us.
Race day
Breakfast, a pre-race snack, fuel during, and recovery after. Pizza included.
Your race
What a carb load is
For the 3 days before a race of 90 minutes or more, you eat a lot more carbohydrate than usual and train very little. Your muscles and liver go to the start line full of glycogen, the fuel you burn fastest at race pace, so you can hold your pace for longer in the second half.
Why carbs go up and fat, fibre and protein come down
8 to 10 g of carbs per kg of bodyweight a day is a lot of food. To fit it in without feeling stuffed, fat, fibre and protein come down for these 3 days: white bread over brown, juice over whole fruit, low-fat over full-fat. Less fibre also means less in your gut on race morning. It's the opposite of how you'd normally eat, and that's fine for 3 days.
Expect to be 1 to 2 kg heavier on race morning. Your body stores water with glycogen. That's fuel, not fat.
Shorter races
Under 90 minutes, your normal glycogen stores cover the race, so there's no load: just a good high-carb day before.
Practise it first
Practise it first. Try the full load before 1 or 2 long training runs or a tune-up race, breakfast and race fuel included. Race week is no time to find out how your stomach handles this much food.
Want this built around your whole training block?
The FlowState App plans your fuelling every week from your training, and 1:1 coaching adds a coach who reviews every number.