Swimmer’s race day lunchbox
Swimming events can be hectic, demanding and normally spread over multiple days. As a swimmer, you might have one race on day one then three races on day two ranging from 50m up to 400m. The meet may be kind to your race schedule giving you a large amount of time between each race or you may have less than 60 minutes between races. All of this makes nailing your race day nutrition that much more important and equally challenging.
If only a perfect nutrition plan existed to fit all swimmers and race schedules, however, it does not. Your nutrition is very individual and will take time/practice to get right. What you can do is focus on strong habits and evidence informed approaches thinking about the TYPE of food you’re eating, the TOTAL amount you’re eating and the TIMING of when you’re eating it.
With all that being said, what should be in your race day lunch box?
First up, you want to have a fast acting, white carbohydrate to provide your body with the energy it needs to deliver in your race(s). For all races up to 400m carbohydrates will be your dominant fuel source, making sure you have a large portion of this in your lunch box is key. What foods should your carbohydrates be? It could be white rice, white pasta, couscous, white potato, white bread/tortilla or even a breakfast cereal like Coco Pops (if that’s what works for you). The amount you need is individual to you, a 50kg swimmer will need far less than an 80kg swimmer. As a benchmark aim for 1.5g of carbohydrates per kg of bodyweight, for a 70kg swimmer that would work out as 105g.
Next up, protein. Racing will be highly demanding on your body with soreness and damage almost inevitable. On top of that, the demand placed on your body and environment that you’re in means picking up an illness is higher than usually. Factoring in after a draining performance your body’s immune system will be weakened for a brief period. In a nutshell, including protein in your lunchbox is important to initiate the recovery process before a stroke is swum/as soon after the race finishes and that your immune system will be better supported. Yes, specific nutrients have a greater effect on your immune system but unless your protein intake is where it needs to be they won’t be as impactful. What foods should your protein be? Look to have a lean, easily digestible protein so lean meats (chicken, turkey, tuna, white fish), eggs or tofu. In terms of how much, aim to have ~30g of protein in your lunchbox or if you want to be specific aim for 0.4g per kg of your bodyweight.
If you were to have any vegetables in your lunchbox, these should be low fibre and easily digestible options. Tomatoes, cucumbers, courgettes, bell peppers and sweetcorn are all great options.
Lastly, fluids. You should be on top of your fluid intake throughout race day(s). When you’re properly hydrated your reaction time will be greater, your cardiovascular system and blood flow will be more efficiently among many other benefits. If you were dehydrated your performance can be massively hindered, decreasing your performance by 5-7%. In race terms, over a 100m freestyle that could be a 65 second finish instead of a 60 second finish. Again, there’s a theme here, your hydration is highly individual but as a benchmark aim for 400mL. This could be too little or it may be too much, without working with a sports nutritionist it will be down to trial and error.
A few popular options might be: Tuna pasta with red bell pepper and sweet corn, using low fat sour cream in place of mayonnaise. Chicken breast wrap filled with cucumber, red bell pepper, sweetcorn and a little couscous. The protein option in both ideas (tuna or chicken) can be substituted for tofu.
