268 – Nutrify

Although I did have a picture of it in my post about the Air Force Half, I figured the meal I prepared for my pre-race dinner was worthy of its own post.

You may have noticed that I do plenty of eating for pleasure, but eating the night before a race is all about fuel. That doesn’t mean it has to be a boring, unattractive meal, but the focus is different. There are ingredients I’ll leave out, like heavy applications of cheese, and ingredients I’m looking to emphasize, like starchy carbs and lean protein. My sister (whose blog you should be following) and I have had many passionate discussions about eating for fuel versus eating for pleasure, but we both agree that there’s no reason to exclude one for the other.

I’ve gone ’round and ’round with pre-race meals over the past few years. What works for one will not necessarily work for another, so this post shouldn’t be construed as advice, so much as anecdote. The basic premise of dinner the night before an endurance event, which I define as anything longer than an hour, is to “fill up” your body. Give it plenty of starchy carbs, water and electrolytes to top off your ATP/glycogen and salt stores, and make sure it has plenty of water to make everything work. Being deficient in any one of these areas at the starting line can mean painful and even disastrous consequences later in the race, so it’s best to pay careful attention the night before.

I’ve gone the routes of huge bowls of pasta, big sandwiches, various salads and casseroles, potato dishes and more. But for my basic carb, I keep coming back to quinoa (pronounced KEEN-wah). It’s light, it’s healthy, and it packs a nutritional punch that few other grains can. Besides being a great source of those happy, slow-digesting carbs we’re all looking for, it brings a substantial amount of protein to the fight, backed up with considerable measures of potassium, healthy fats, and even a little vitamin B-6. Better still, it brings water into your system rather than taking it out for digestion, which means you aren’t playing catch-up with the water after eating it, as I’ve found to be the case with a lot of pastas. The side effect of this is that it also doesn’t make you feel like you’re going to explode after eating a substantial portion of it, and you won’t still feel uncomfortably full the next morning.

For this weekend, I cooked up some quinoa and mixed it with a quick mango salsa, and served it with some simple, pan-fried pork chops that I prepared with a dry rub. Most of the recipes you’ll find for pan-fried pork chops call for breading, but I find that an unnecessary complication. If you buy quality meat and cook it right, it won’t be dry, and the flavor will stand up just fine with simple seasoning. For the dry rub, I used some garlic powder, salt and pepper. Simple, clean, quick, and tasty. All together, it’s a meal that makes you feel ready to tackle whatever the next day might bring.