DAVENPORT METRO SWIM TEAM

Hydration/Fuel/Effort   

What and When to eat.

            Swimmers, like all athletes, need to have energy for their muscles to operate.  The place where the energy comes from is food.  Three types of food give off energy when it is broken down in the process of metabolism.  Those are carbohydrates, proteins and fats.  Carbohydrates give the most immediate energy boost, however, there are two classes of carbohydrates.  Simple carbohydrates (sugars) can give an instantaneous boost of energy, however the body reacts to this boost by producing insulin which soon causes a drop in blood sugar.  Complex carbohydrates (starches like potatoes, bananas, breads, cereals, rice, pastas, and beans) will fuel the body, but take a few hours to see the result.  Fats will create energy, but for practical purposes take hours of sustained activity to start getting a benefit.  Therefore, if you plan to swim the English Channel fats would be the energy choice. 

            Two nights before a meet, a full balanced meal is important.  A small to medium portion of meat, milk, vegetable of choice, and a large helping of complex carbohydrate (starches like potatoes, bananas, breads, cereals, rice, pastas, and beans) is the meal of choice.   As the carbohydrates digest, glycogen actually gets stored in the muscles and liver and will be readily available to give off energy.  The day before the meet, keep the pattern of three full meals including complex carbohydrates, but meats become less important.  Two hours before warm up, eat a medium sized breakfast.  If eaten early enough, any effect of increased insulin due to sugar (syrup on waffles, or jelly on toast) will be worn off.  During a 4 hour meet session, swimmers should stay away from eating large amounts of food, but cereal, breakfast bars, energy drinks should be consumed to keep up the energy for the duration of the meet.  A full meal should also be consumed after the meet, especially if the meet continues the next day. 

            What to stay away from?  Stay away from new foods that your body isn’t used to.  Also, stay away from foods you think are bad.  If you think a glass of milk with breakfast will harm your performance, then it will.  If you think it will help your performance, it probably will.  The most important thing is to get the complex carbohydrates into the body starting 36 hours or so before competition. 

What and When to drink.

            The only time water is bad is if you drink so much you have a bloated stomach feeling as you go up to the starting blocks.  Dehydration can adversely affect how your muscles perform and make the energy forming systems slow down.  At a typical meet, 8 oz (one cup) of water every half hour starting after breakfast (2 hours before the meet) is a good rule of thumb.  If the conditions are hot (like Sterling this weekend) then maybe drink 8 oz every 20 minutes.  If preferable, one of the waters each hour could be substituted with an energy drink, but more water should be taken in.  It is also important to drink water after the meet is over.

Effort

            I’ve got just a quick note on effort at practice.  There is a huge cause and effect relationship with effort and improvement.  Just coming to practice won’t necessarily make a swimmer improve.  A swimmer needs to put forth effort ALL THE TIME.  Does this mean a swimmer needs to constantly race everyone at practice?  No.  Roughly half of all practices are easy swimming.  When we are doing easy swimming sets, the effort needs to be on stroke technique.  Easy swimming doesn’t mean sloppy swimming; it means efficient swimming working on something a coach has asked you to focus on.  When swimming easy, count your strokes and stretch out.  On fast or sprint swimming, the effort needs to be on getting out of your comfort zone, getting your heart rate up and going as fast as you can.  The intensity really needs to be taken up. 

Coach Paul