Fueling for Quarterfinals
Quarterfinals season is HERE bb!
What is it and whyyyy do I care?
Quarterfinals is the second phase in the CrossFit Games season. This week teams start and in just 2 short weeks individuals kick off.
Athletes will complete anywhere from 4-6 (it's been 6 in the past, but 4 for teams this year) workouts over the course of 5 days.
This year teams will complete 4 workouts across the 5 days with higher skill demands and heavier barbells. Quarters presents a great test for comp-time fueling but with a lot less stress, since you're on your home turf.
Now you may be thinking… waaiiittt, I have to eat differently for this??
And the answer is yes. And no.
Competitions like this - whether it's the open, an in-house comp, or a qualifier - are more demanding both physically AND mentally so they require some slight tweaks to your intake.
STRESS
Competitions usually trigger feelings our bodies aren't super used to in regular training - helloooo nerves and stress.
You might feel butterflies in your stomach, shaky hands, or aversions to food.
It's so totally normal to feel like this before a comp. You've been working really hard to get to the point that you're at so the stakes feel a little higher. These feelings trigger an acute stress response.
We're built to shut down unnecessary systems to focus on staying alive in high stress situations. For example - if you're being attacked by a bear, your body will shut down other systems to prioritize fighting back and keeping you alive. Meet our 'fight or flight' system.
Unfortunately your body can't differentiate between positive and negative stress - so pre-comp jitters are basically the same thing as a bear attack. Feeling nervous before a workout triggers that same response - our body will shut down or eliminate any unnecessary processes that could detract from the ability to fight back and keep you alive.
Digestion immediately gets pushed to the back-burner as a non-essential process. Thus you might feel little desire to eat ORthe desire to eliminate everything in your body (aka having to run to the bathroom).
These feelings can kick in the day before, a couple of days before, or the day of. BUT it's SO important that you still get in the same intake your body's used to. Decreasing your intake (REGARDLESS OF ACTIVITY LEVELS) will leave you tired and slow. Two feelings you want to AVOID prior to a comp.
SOOOO What do I eat??
Pre-Quarterfinals
Keep doing what you've been doing. The last thing we want to do is decrease your energy supplies the week of an intense competition. Eat the same quantities and make sure as heck that you're hydrating properly (about 1oz/ lb of bodyweight).
Now logically it may seem odd to keep food the same if activity levels decrease (which they should the week before a comp as you taper your volume - which ps if you're not doing this you should). If you're tapering and decreasing your calories, your body won't have enough fuel to prioritize recovery, muscle tissues won't get the chance to repair, and glycogen stores are left depleted. This means feeling weaker and slower when it comes time to compete.
Again this is absolutely NOT optimal.
If you find you have little appetite due to nerves, try to find easy-to-digest food sources that are highly-palatable and low-fiber.
Simple carbs tend to fit the bill here - they naturally digest quicker and don't feel as heavy in your stomach. Now we want to keep in mind that we ideally want to mix complex and simple carbs to optimize our nutrient profile, but they can be a really handy tool when appetite's low pre-comp or during training/ competition time.
AND always remember that having something's better than nothing. Sipping on Gatorade throughout the morning or having a bite of a banana is better than eating nothing at all and having no fuel in the tank.
Easy to digest food sources for the days leading up to a comp:
bagels/ toast with egg whites
fruit smoothie with yogurt
rice cakes with PB2
oatmeal with protein powder & fruit
IF energy feels low in general and you feel tired/ burned out, try increasing your carbs a little bit that week. We want to make sure you have ample glycogen to pull from when intensity increases (glycogen -> energy supplies).
COMP TIME
Now there's a lot of variables that affect how exactly you should eat on comp day and we MUST keep in mind that every single person is different.
We currently don't know what the workouts are/ how many there will be for Indy. We don't know our schedule for them yet. We don't know how many retests we'll do. Etc. etc.
BUT there are some guiding principles we can lean on even when there are still so many unknowns.
If you're not doing them first thing in the morning, make sure you get in your normal breakfast, lunch, etc. Then 2-ish hours before the workout eat a balance of carbs and proteins with a wee bit of fat to top off your fuel reserves for the day. We want to keep higher fat foods farther away from the workouts since they slow digestion. The last thing you want is tasting your bacon in the middle of your wallballs or row sprint 🤢.
Continue to hydrate and sip on electrolytes throughout the day. Before you hit a workout add some carbs to your shaker bottle (gatorade, juice, intra-carbs, etc) to sip on during the workout (if you're doing team and you have rest) or before and immediately after.
Don't try ANYTHING new on comp day - no new pre-workouts, carbs, etc. You don't want to have a poor reaction to something your body's not used to. Now's the time to stick with what you know.
After the workout when your heart rate has decreased a bit, continue sipping on your carbs and try to get in some food source within the hour. Ideally a 2:1 ratio of carbs to protein. This could be a protein shake, acai bowl, yogurt and cereal, a deli sandwich, etc.
If you're hitting another workout that day this meal is SUPER important. You don’t want to go into another workout under-fueled. If you don't have an appetite lean on liquid sources of fuel since they're easier to digest or more processed foods (rice krispy treats, poptarts, cereal, etc) since they're more palatable. BUT getting in some type of energy is a non-negotiable.
At the end of the day when all the workouts are done, make sure you get a solid meal in. Prioritize complex carbs and protein with ample fats to aid in recovery overnight. This is your chance to get some fats in since we avoided them much of the day, but ALSO get carbs and protein in to prep for tomorrow.
You'll rinse, wash, and repeat this method for the remaining days that you do workouts.
Throughout this entire process take note of what feels really good and what doesn't. The more data we can gather now, the easier it's going to be for you at an in-person/ higher stress comp. You'll know the exact foods and timing that's most efficient for you - meaning one less stressor on game day.
Reach out with any questions, comments, and/ or concerns <3
-stay rad 🤘🏻
