Traveling with a team to a weekend-long track & field meet or running event presents many sports nutrition challenges—especially when some runners may have special dietary needs (vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free, nut-free, etc.). Add in back-to-back events with limited recovery time, and optimal fueling gets even more challenging. Many of today’s professional, Olympic and collegiate teams hire a Registered Dietitian (RD) who is also a Board-Certified Specialist in Sports Dietetics (CSSD) to help reduce those challenges. This RD CSSD makes arrangements for proper meals and snacks for when the team is on the road—and may even travel with the team. In comparison, athletes and coaches on high school, club, and community teams are commonly left to fend for themselves and figure out how to eat well.
While a coach, athletic trainer, or parent might step in and attempt to manage fueling needs, this can easily fall outside of their area of expertise. The goal of this article is to heighten awareness of the importance of managing a traveling team’s fueling needs and offer some tips. This summarizes a webinar presented by Professionals in Nutrition for Exercise & Sport (PINES, a global organization) and the American Sports and Performance Dietitians Association (ASPDA).
• Inevitably during running events that involve travel and hotels, food challenges arise, such as needing food for an event that unexpectedly starts in 45 minutes; replenishing a dinner buffet that runs out of food because another group got there first; finding budget-friendly food choices, etc. Ideally, a RD CSSD can take charge, handle food issues, and offer the team a huge advantage.
• Event-day fueling tests nutrition knowledge the runners may have learned during the season, including how to plan in advance for meals and snacks on the road—and how to be adaptable when food expectations fall apart. When athletes understand WHY it matters what and when they eat, they are more likely to apply optimal fueling practices, even when routines disappear.
• Back-to-back events are challenging to runners who may have little time to refuel optimally. They need to be taught how to take advantage of every opportunity to eat and drink—before, during, and between events, as well as before bed and in the early morning. A team nutritionist can educate runners during training sessions, so they understand the important role food plays on a daily basis to enhance performance, recovery, and injury prevention.
• If traveling by plane or bus, some teams get handed a travel pack (fluids, food, protein bars, energy bars, ear plugs, eye mask). That is a nice touch, if budget allows. At least, someone wants to make sure each runner is carrying a water bottle. Never travel without fluids being readily available!
• On-site snack shacks may sell hot dogs, French fries, and other inappropriate sport foods. Whoever is responsible for feeding the runners will want to find out in advance the location of nearby grocery stores, bring a rolling cooler for fluids, and pre-pack quick, carb-based sport snacks (pretzels, bagels, grapes). Gathering information from other teams who have previously been at that site can be very helpful. But even with the perfect plan in place, good intentions often fall apart.
• Pre-event anxiety can heighten runners’ fears about suffering from GI distress or “feeling heavy” if they eat before they compete. Ideally, the team nutritionist has encouraged them to experiment with event-day fueling prior to the trip. Popular and well-tolerated carbs include gummi chews, gels, and applesauce, as well as cut-up fruit. Note: athletes generally prefer cut up fruit, such as orange slices, over whole pieces of fruit.
• Back-to-back events require rapid refueling to start as soon as possible. Runners should prioritize calories and carbohydrates (not protein). When the event starts, someone needs to start preparing recovery fluids, shakes, and snacks so they will be ready and waiting to replenish sweat losses and energy stores. Ideally, someone has packed a cooler with a variety of shakes and recovery products that are ready to be grabbed post-event. Writing the athlete’s name on the shake increases compliance.
• When athletes finish events at differing times, such as happens at track & field events, the best plan is to have the post-event dinner delivered to the venue. This is far preferable to wasting refueling time by waiting several hours for the whole team to dinner at the hotel.
• By mid/end of the season, traveling teams often have become tired of “travel food.” A creative dietitian can nudge hotel chefs or caterers to tweak their standard menus and add some of the athletes’ favorite meals while keeping sports nutrition principles in mind. Offering special meals and some fun foods encourages adequate intake of carbs and calories.
• Travelling to an international event adds even more food challenges, given the meal/food that gets ordered may not be what the runner expected. For example: an American rice cake might be entirely different from a Japanese rice cake.
• At the elite level, some Olympic & Paralympic teams create their own performance pantry that is well-stocked with desired sport foods. Given the main dining hall in the athletes’ village caters to thousands of athletes, volunteers, and staff from over 200 countries and over 30 sports, having a food panty can trouble-shoot potential food problems.
• Food safety is of critical importance at all sports events. No athlete wants to lose an event due to food-related illness. Unfortunately, the ever-present self-serve buffets are known to be one of the riskiest food-service environments when it comes to infection control…
Concluding comments:
When participating in multi-day regattas, you can spot the runners who do not have sports nutrition knowledge or a food plan. You don’t want them be on your team! With prior nutrition education and pre-travel meal-planning, your team will have an advantage. A sport dietitian (RD CSSD) can be instrumental in helping a team overcome fueling challenges before, during, and after repeated days with back-to-back events. If you are going to be a serious competitor, why not eat to win?
Boston-area sports nutritionist Nancy Clark MS RD CSSD teaches casual and competitive athletes how to fuel well. Her best-selling Nancy Clark’s Sports Nutrition Guidebook is an invaluable resource. For more info: https://nancyclarkrd.com