The unglamorous answer: eat before, not during

Started 5 September 2024 · 24 replies · 291 hearts · read 4k times

NolanHalifax, CA · 5 September 2024

1.9 years ago

Starting a thread on this because it keeps coming up in ones and twos: The unglamorous answer: eat before, not during

The logistics of this are defeating me more than the medicine is.

The arrangements are the hard bit for me. Nothing medical has been difficult; the organising has been relentless.

Practical question, and possibly a silly one, but the logistics of this are defeating me considerably more than the medicine is.

I have a plan for the ordinary weeks and no plan at all for the unusual ones, and the unusual ones are where everything has gone wrong.

Thank you. This circle has solved four practical problems for me already and I am hoping for a fifth.

RinManchester, UK

What surprised me was how much better my joints felt, which had nothing to do with anything I was aiming at.

OndineLausanne, CH

Building on what Rin wrote rather than answering the original question.

The competition side needed a proper conversation with somebody who understood both, and finding that person took a while.

11me too 8

NoleneDurban, ZA

I would gently say that if training has become the thing you use to justify eating, that is worth saying out loud somewhere.

RenFacilitatorBristol, UK

Speaking as a facilitator: the person who asked wanted company for a difficult week rather than a plan, and the thread has given both, in that order.

RohanPune, IN

My sessions are shorter and heavier now and that has worked better than the volume I used to do.

BaySt Ives, UK

Quietly agreeing from the other side of the country.

RunaAarhus, DK

Bay — yes, and the bit that took me longest to accept was the next part.

Something that helped was eating on a schedule rather than on appetite, because appetite stopped being a reliable signal.

BramGhent, BE

I had a period where I was clearly underfuelling without meaning to, and my coach spotted it before I did.

ClemmieNorwich, UK

Building on what Bay wrote rather than answering the original question.

Something practical: I have a shake ready for after training because on a low-appetite day I will not eat and I will drink.

BoWhitby, UK

#10

I keep a very simple training log alongside everything else and the two together tell me more than either does alone.

ClémenceNantes, FR

#11

Clemmie — yes, and the bit that took me longest to accept was the next part.

Something I got wrong was trying to train through a difficult fortnight. It achieved nothing and set me back further.

BertrandToulouse, FR

#12

The recovery side was where I noticed it most. Same session, slower recovery, for about two months.

9me too 2

HarriSwansea, UK

#13

My honest report is that my strength has been maintained across two years, and it was not automatic, and lifting was the reason.

MaritGroningen, NL

#14

Clémence, thank you for that. It gives me somewhere to start from.

I found the early weeks difficult for training because of the tiredness, and going lighter for a month was the sensible call.

TabbyMargate, UK

#15

The endurance side was different again. Long sessions needed planning that short sessions did not, and I got that wrong twice.

13me too 7

TressaSt Austell, UK

#16

Reading this properly rather than skimming, which is all I have to offer today.

MaryamBirmingham, UK

#17

Gently disagreeing with Marit, or rather adding the other half of it.

I kept lifting three times a week throughout and my numbers dipped for about six weeks and then came back.

InêsPorto, PT

#18

Something practical: I moved my training to the morning because my appetite is more reliable earlier and the fuelling became simple.

BronLincoln, UK

#19

My training did not change. My fuelling around it changed enormously and that took about four months to get right.

RufusGuildford, UK

#20

What I found is that eating enough before a session was the hard part, and everything else followed from solving it.

NadineLyon, FR

#21

What helped was working with a coach who took the appetite change seriously rather than treating it as a discipline problem.

PamSouthport, UK

#22

What I would say is get the protein sorted before anything else. Everything I read agreed and I ignored it for a season.

RenFacilitatorBristol, UK

#23

Facilitator note: this is a logistics thread rather than a clinical one, which is a relief, and I would still rather nobody offered instructions.

PolaGdańsk, PL

#24

Gently disagreeing with Pam, or rather adding the other half of it.

My experience is that this is entirely compatible with serious training and requires deliberate attention to fuelling.