competition nutrition - paleo style

today i competed in the crossfit ireland invitational no 7. heres the workouts:

workout 1

3 Rounds of:
7 Deadlifts (140Kg/90Kg)
7 HandStand Push Ups

workout 2

3 Rounds of:
Run 400m
7 Snatches (50Kg/32.5Kg)

workout 3

3 Rounds of:
7 Clusters (45Kg/30Kg) - squat clean and thruster
14 Burpee Box Jumps
21 Pull Ups

i have been resting most of the week, some very light training and eating lots of food ,
last week i bought a book by doctor loren cordain called "the paleo diet for athletes"
i would recommend it for anyone who trains and eats paleo , although you should probably read his original book "the paleo diet" first to familiarise yourself with the basics.

this book goes into detail about adressing the more specific needs of athletes especially in relation to simple carbohydrate, it also discusses the timing and nature of meals that should be consumed before ,during,and after a competition,
i decided to use the crossfit competition as a guinea pig for trying some of the strategies outlined in the book.

in the week coming up to the event , i upped my fruit intake in order to top of the glycogen stores , plenty of dried fruit ,fresh fruit , tons of water and lots of protein too,
basically i just ate a shit load more than usual :)

the first thing was to ensure i ate my last solid meal between 2 and 3 hours before the event ,
as the first workout was at 0900 , i got up at 0600 and ate a cantoloupe and 3 eggs(he advises eating low fiber fruit such as melon and bananas as it wont sit in your stomach or gut for a long time but will give you a nice slow release of fructose into the bloodstream, especially when coupled with the protein in the eggs)

between breakfast and the  1st event i drank nothing but water, (eating anything now will leave food in the stomach and probably give you a sugar dump which will leave you feeling tired going into the event.not good!)

10 mins before the event i drank 200 ml of home brewed "sports drink"
(cordains recipe is 700ml of water 200 ml of fruit juice(slow release fructose)
2 tbsp of glucose powder (fast release sugars)
this tops up your glycogen stores and doesn't give you a sugar dump because when you start training , your cells become very receptive to glucose and this is basically sucked straight into the muscles, neat eh.

as soon as workout one was finished , i consumed one of cordains homebrew recovery drinks:
4tbsp of glucose -instant glycogen replacement
600 ml of fruit juice -slow release fructose to keep the glycogen stores topped up and keep you fresh.
1 banana - potassium and electrolytes
3tbs protein powder- amino acids to replace any used muscle fibre and slow the release of the sugars,

this provides a 4:1 ratio of carb to protein which is what you're looking for in these recovery drinks

besides being delicious , these recovery drinks really did the job, they left my feeling fresh and energised for the next workout, without feeling hungry or full, perfect!

this is the strategy i followed with workout 2 and 3 as well , "homebrew sports drink" 10 mins before  and "homebrew recovery" after, i think it worked a treat and i was well happy with my podium placement of 3rd considering the quality of the competition  :)

i think all to often you can mess yourself up on game/race/event day with bad nutrition management , which is a shame considering all the effort you put in for weeks and even months before an event, this gave me a clear concise proforma to follow, and this experience has cleared up a lot of grey areas for me,
i highly recommend loren cordain's books (the paleo diet , and the paleo diet for athletes) very interesting reading.