LANCASTER & MORECAMBE AC

COMPETITION DAY REQUIREMENTS

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as a printable document here

I would suggest when traveling to competitions that you take the following in your kit bag:

Clothes:

Club vest
Shorts Socks
Tracksuit trousers
Tracksuit top
Sweatshirt T-shirt x 2 (spare in case you get wet!) Waterproof top
Hat (important if hot or cold – in hot sunny weather you will be outside a long time and it is important not to over heat) Gloves
Hair grips and ties
Sun glasses

Shoes:

Good quality trainers – lace up properly for warming up in please!
Running Spikes – spare spikes and spike key
Shoe Bag
Spare laces for spikes (accidents do happen – believe me!!)

Other items:

Drinks bottle – at least 1 litre of water or your favourite sports drink (no fizzy drinks before competition)
Food (see below for competition day food advice)
Towel
Watch (important to stay in touch with time)
Entry forms and safety pins
Money – for entry fees or souvenirs etc
Mobile phone

Top tips

• Familiarise yourself with the venue and timetable on arrival
• Walk around on arrival to loosen up from sitting down during the journey
• Keep warm and dry
• Warm up properly
• Unless a very hot day – keep track bottoms and sweatshirt on until 5 mins before your event starts
• Drink a little but often throughout the day
• Ask your friends to look after your bag whilst competing
• If doing more than 1 event take your spikes off between events

Competition Day Food and Fluid

Although sprint events only last seconds or minutes and the 800m is over in less than 3 minutes, competition can be a drawn out affair with 2 events 2 hours apart.

Your nutritional goals should be:

• Keep hydrated
• Maintain blood glucose levels – if you do not your energy levels reduce quickly
• To feel comfortable - avoiding hunger but not risking the discomfort of a full stomach.

Night before - eat a balanced meal with lots of carbohydrate to maintain energy levels. The following are good ideas (finish meal with fresh fruit):

• baked potato + cottage cheese filling + glass of milk
• pasta or rice with a sauce based on low-fat ingredients (e.g. tomato, vegetables,lean meat)

Start the day with a carbohydrate based meal

Breakfast ideas - which should be 3-4 hours before exercise:

• crumpets/brown toast with jam or honey + flavoured milk 
• breakfast cereal with milk 
• bread roll with cheese/meat filling + banana 
• fruit salad with fruit-flavoured yoghurt 
• baked beans on toast

1-2 hours before exercise - the following foods are suitable to eat (choose one of the following!):

milk shake or fruit smoothie

sports bars (check labels for carbohydrate and protein content)

• cereal bars
• fruit-flavoured yoghurt
• fruit – bananas are ideal

Less than 1 hour between events - the following foods are suitable to eat (choose one of the following!):

• sports drink or cordial (do not try new drinks on competition days)
• carbohydrate gel
• sports bars
• jelly lollies

Avoid Fatty Foods e.g. chocolate, crisps and burgers until after competition and night before as fatty products can take longer to digest and do not provide energy as quickly

Top tip – Use this as guidance and experiment with your favourite foods and see what suits you best

David Croxall

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