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Parkrun vs. breakfast
Parkrun starts at 9:00am in this country; so do you have breakfast before or after parkrun?
I generally prefer to have something to eat before I run, although I have been known to go out on a Sunday morning before breakfast. My usual breakfast is muesli or granola, followed by toast with jam or honey, washed down with tea; so nothing heavy or greasy that you wouldn't want to eat before running. But I do like to have a gap between finishing eating and starting running. The other important factor is that, whereas I am happy to set an alarm as early as necessary when going to a proper race, I don't want to disturb my sleep for a "mere" parkrun
I have only done two parkruns so far. On the first occasion, I woke up before 7am, so there was no problem having breakfast and still having well over an hour before starting to run. But today the clock said 7:43 when I woke up. Breakfast was finished by 8:15, which seemed a bit close to the start of the run; and allowing time for sitting on the "throne" and for the 17-minute cycle ride (at moderate pace) to the parkrun venue as well as changing shoes, etc, I thought I was cutting it fine. But I got to the start (just) on time.
In the event, I took 6 seconds off my time from three weeks ago, so my just-in-time approach didn't do any harm. Conditions for both runs were ideal for fast running. For the last few hundred metres today I felt that I was running on empty, and at the finish I felt as knackered as one should be after a good speedwork session. So I can't imagine myself going any faster.
As a postscript, I note from the results that today's Dishley (Loughborough) parkrun was graced by the presence of Yorkshire lass Hannah Oldroyd. Unlike some of her previous parkruns, she wasn't first finisher (there was one bloke ahead of her), but her 18:02 did carve a good chunk of the previous female record for this parkrun course. Lancastrian Nichola Jackson (fastest time at Dishley: 19:01) has her work cut out to beat that. Are the Wars of the Roses going to come back to Leicestershire after 533 years?
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For a Parkrun I just have a couple of spoonfuls of Greek yoghurt and a small handful of Special K cereal (my usual breakfast in the week), 90mins-2hrs before the start. I'd probably be ok with a swig of fruit juice to be honest.
But for a Fell Race I prefer to eat properly. For the Stretton Skyline tomorrow I'll eat around 3hrs before the start.... a proper meal, rice and probably some chicken in there, a bit of cheese.
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Rice, Chicken for breakfast Travs? You picked up some strange habits in Thailand!
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;)
Well I like routine, and whatever the time of day the race starts, if I can have a good rice meal 2.5-3hrs prior, I know I'm set.
Even breakfast time. I'm not a porridge eater, I wouldn't knock back a fry-up before a race, and I wouldn't bank on cereal/muesli/toast/etc to fuel me through.... so rice it is!
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I also like routine in fueling before a race, even a shortish one. Always porridge and bananas 2 hours before.I also carry a banana on a longer race but the ripeness has to be spot on. I took an under ripe one on last years Tour of Pendle and had horrendous stomach cramps.
I might experiment with the rice over the winter!
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Instant coffee, with milk and a large teaspoon of honey in it, I find this will fuel me for a 20 miler first thing in the morning, the milky coffee for some reason seems to stave off the dreaded stitch which I would get if I had nothing and my stomach was empty and slopping around
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I'd certainly do a training run of anything up to around 25 miles from the bare minimum breakfast, I.e a bit of Greek yoghurt.
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Saturdays for me:- Coffee and a banana at home; then a bottle of water to sip from on my one mile warm up to the park run.
Post run it's coffee and a couple of slices of toasted Bloomer bread with marmalade at the cafe in Williamsons Park in Lancaster.
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I feel much more comfortable racing on empty and using my glycogen stores, so any morning race for me (parkrun, road or fell) would be fuelled by what I ate for dinner on the previous evening. If it would extend beyond 2 hours I'd take nibbles to eat later on. Only if it would extend into the night and beyond and my pace would be slower from the outset would I consider forcing a breakfast down because I know I'd be able to digest it and it wouldn't 'sit heavy' with the slower pace.
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For ParkRuns, if i'm organised, I'm out of bed at 8:30, shot of coffee and a jog accross the park to do a little warm up.
If i'm not organised (the norm) it's stumble out of bed at 8:50 and sprint to the start just in time, without even a coffee.
For a 'propper' race that starts early I'd often get woken up at 5 or 6 (by the cat, not by choice), have a banana or cliff bar, then go back to sleep.