Pre-Race Decisions

Hey guys, put this under the podcast category since it might lead to a good discussion.
I had my final race of the season for XC MTB California State Championship last weekend. Before the race I only had enough time to either eat and not cramp/throwup due to going really hard too soon after eating, OR I could go preride the course and be extremely hungry during the race.
Lucky me, I had already secured the overall win for the championship so I technically could have walked the course and still got my medal but obviously I still wanted to win that day (which I did).
I chose to eat instead of warmup/preride because of my SPECIFIC circumstance, but should this decision happen when an overall ISN’T guaranteed what would you recommend? Fuel for the impending race or try to preride the course so you can take turns, jumps, dips and drops that much faster?
Thanks team.

You need to fuel before a race. Depending on the length of the event and intensity really would depend on what and how much you eat. You can slam something quick that would still allow you to pre ride and fuel. Certain energy bars, bananas and etc. would be good. Then you can still use your fueling strategy during the race that may include gels, blocks and etc.

This is something we always talk to with our athletes about proper planning. It should never happen with these circumstances, but of course they do.

Congrats on the win and the overall!

1 Like

Congrats on the “W”! I agree with everything Coach Jake says, ‘you have to eat’ but you don’t have to warm up to win.

But what was the special circumstance? Late to the race , car trouble? Do tell - I like to say you gotta be a boy scout and ‘be prepared’.

Congrats again on the win!