The Pre-Training Meal
The pre-training meal is foundational to consistent and successful training. Your pre-training meal can be in the morning, mid-day, or afternoon depending on the time that you train. No matter what time of day you normally train, the principles of the pre-training meal remain the same.
There are many reasons to consume an appropriate meal before your training session, and there are well-researched ways to approach nutrition before your session to maximize its quality. One of the main reasons to consume a pre-training meal is to ensure adequate carbohydrate availability to fuel working muscles and delay the onset of fatigue. Having adequate carbohydrate availability in the form of high muscle glycogen, liver glycogen, and stable blood glucose sets you up for the best chance of success in the subsequent workout. The pre-training meal can influence this fuel availability and how you’ll feel greatly.
To start with the structure of the pre-training meal, carbohydrates and should be the main focus. For endurance activities lasting more than 90-120 minutes, carbohydrates will be a critical fuel to perform your best and delay fatigue (bonking). A great structure to follow is to consume 1-3g/kg of carbohydrates in your pre-training meal 1-3h prior to the time you plan to start that session. For example, the correct way to follow this recommendation would be to consume 2g/kg of carbs (140g for a 70g rider) 2 hours prior to the start of your session (eat at 4:00pm if you plan to ride at 6:00pm).
The volume of carbs and the digestion time are proportional and critically important. Larger meals require more digestion time and will allow more time to store carbohydrates as liver and muscle glycogen. If you do not have lots of time before your session, opt for the 1g/kg meal (70g for a 70kg rider) 1 hour prior to the session. Taking in more will not benefit your training as you will not have sufficient time to digest it. Starting a workout with undigested food content in the gut will make you feel sluggish, tired (due to the parasympathetic dominance of digestion), and may even cause reactive hypoglycemia.
Reactive hypoglycemia can be explained as a bonk that occurs shortly after beginning exercise despite a high-carb pre-train meal, and happens when you do not allow sufficient time to digest and absorb a high-carbohydrate meal. The reason you become hypoglycemic after ingesting a high-carb meal and beginning exercise shortly after is that insulin levels are high at the onset of exercise. When insulin levels are high, the muscle cells' glucose uptake is high. Starting exercise also causes cells to uptake glucose at a higher rate. When both muscle activity and insulin are driving glucose into cells, you get a double whammy of blood glucose uptake by the cells, causing blood glucose to fall into a hypoglycemic range rapidly. Since the brain relies exclusively on blood glucose, the drop in blood glucose will cause the associated symptoms of a bonk, even though you have high carbohydrate availability.
To summarize, you’ll want to plan your pre-training meal to be high in carbohydrates (~60%), and aim to consume 1-3g/kg 1-3h prior to the start of your session. Allow sufficient digestion time in accordance with the size of your chosen meal, and continue to fuel during the workouts at a normal rate of 30-90g/h. It is okay to consume fats and proteins in your pre-race meal, but have them in an appropriate balance and find what works for you. Avoid consuming ONLY carbohydrates in your pre-race meal as this can lead to macronutrient imbalances across the entire day and may leave you less satiated overall compared to consuming a pre-training meal with a good balance of all three macronutrients.
What I Practice:
My normal training time is 9:00am. In my experience, a 2g/kg meal 2 hours prior at 7:00am works great. A normal pre-training meal I consume is plain whole grain oatmeal, raw almond butter, one banana, cinnamon, organic whole milk, and sprinkle some chia seeds on top. This meal provides plenty of quality carbohydrates, fluids, fiber, vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, fats, complete proteins, calcium, vitamin D, for potassium for sustained health and energy. Eggs are a simple way to add some protein to this example.
Disclaimer* I am only offering general nutrition advice and I highly recommend working with a registered dietician for more professional nutrition guidance. This is not intended to be medical advice to diagnose or treat diseases.