Optimal Nutrition Series: 3 Days Before You Ride
Scenario: While you might not be the healthiest eater in the world, you try and limit your fast food intake as much as is convenient for you. So you have a little extra work to do before your next event three days from now. You want to be on top of your game and maximize your results in as little time as possible.
Time-frame:
With the event three days out, you have approximately 74 hours until the event starts. If you get around seven hours of sleep per night, that leaves you with 53 hours to prepare yourself diet-wise for the event.
Nutritional Goals For Your 3 Day Meal Plan
- Build your body’s energy stores. The three-day mark is where you start to focus on adding more carbs and healthy fats into your diet. Both will supply your body with prolonged energy during the event, which means more endurance for you.
- Supply your body with adequate vitamins and minerals. Both vitamins and minerals are essential for almost all of your body’s functions – one of the major ones being energy production.
Guidelines For Achieving These Goals
Your goals are not much different than a ‘2 Days Before’ meal plan, with one exception:
- Eat more complex carbs. Carbohydrates supply your body with energy and your mind with mental acuity. Both are essential for staying sharp on the track. For the first day, aim to let carbs make up 50% of your calorie intake. After that, increase it to 60% until the event day.
- Increase in fat consumption. Traditional motocross diets are high in carbs and lower in fats and proteins. However, fat is crucial for prolonged energy during an event. For that reason, you want to ensure your body has enough on the event day. 20% is a good target goal for the first day, followed by 25-30% for the rest of the days.
- Eat every 2-3 hours. Energy levels need to remain stable and consistent – neither dropping too low or too sharp. The key to doing that is to eat regular meals every 2-3 hours. Keep in mind that not all meals are full three-course affairs but should have a sufficient amount of carbs and fats.
- Take a multivitamin. Your secret weapon to peak performance on the event day is a multivitamin. But why take one on a 3-day plan and not on a 2-day plan? It’s because it takes approximately three days for the multivitamin to take effect. Find high-quality men’s sports multivitamin and take as directed.
Sample Meal Plan (Days 1-3)
The sample meal plan for three days before is very similar to 2 Days Before. The major difference is that you now include the multivitamin once per day.
Breakfast – (8 A.M.):
- Four whole eggs
- Two pieces of whole-wheat toast w/almond butter
- Banana
Snack – (10 A.M.):
- Whole wheat bagel with fig jam
- Banana
Lunch – (noon):
- One large bowl of lentil soup
- Banana
Snack – (3 P.M.):
- A cup of Yogurt w/ blueberries
- Handful of cashews
- Banana
Dinner – (5 P.M.):
- Whole chicken breast
- Sweet Potato
- Broccoli
- Banana
Snack – (7 P.M.):
- Apple slices with almond butter
- Banana
* For the day before the event, see the 24-hour meal plan.
If you have any questions or anything to add, please leave them in the comments or on our FaceBook page!
