Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Aquadawg Weekly Update #3 Eating Before Practice

3 September 2014

Aquadawgs:

Sorry about my post being later than normal, I took Labor Day weekend to go up to Zion National Park to hike and explore and had no service. 

Last week was a great week at practice! In all the groups we have finished going over all the strokes and now are transitioning into a workout phase but still focusing on technique. As a result of this expect swimmers to be more tired after practices then the last few weeks.

With our older groups starting to get into workout mode combined with our later practices, I have had some swimmers ask me what they are supposed to eat before practice and when they should eat dinner. This article from USA swimming has some good advice as well as some suggestions of foods to eat.


I would suggest for my advanced and possibly intermediate swimmers to eat a larger snack before swim and then another meal after practice. It is hard for these swimmers to eat a full sized dinner before practice as it makes feel sick if they are putting in the proper effort. But I also do not want swimmers shorting themselves on calories especially on those hard practices.  Good foods before practices are power bars, trail mix, nuts, oatmeal, smoothies, plain noodles, toast, bananas, muffin, instant breakfast, and gummy bears. These are just some of my suggestions and things that I liked to eat before hard swims. But the idea is that the swimmers eat at least 30 min before, they eat something that sticks to their stomach and is easy to digest. It is not a good idea to eat a chocolate bar, red sauce (this seems to be a big one), or anything heavily seasoned.

Overall, I just want swimmers to be mentally and physically prepared to work hard. If they are throwing up in practice they can’t get the benefits of the practice.

Our star swimmers of the week will be awarded on Thursday.

Coach Alisha 

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