OK this is an odd post I know, but it occurred to me that in major sim races cattering is a hugely overlooked factor in sim racing. Here's my "how to" on it, but is diet even worth considering?


Motor racing is a competetive sport and any advantage you can take is worth considering. Diet isn't something that all competitors worry about, but on the day of a big league race it can make all the difference.


The physical challenges on a sim racer are not that great, but diet can have a huge influence on mental concentration.


Special consideration must also be given to dietry intake during big team events like 24 hour endurance races. Do you want to let your team down because you ate a chocolate bar? It might sound silly, but food is an important part of sports.



For optimum mental energy during an event eat small and regular meals before the event. Eating every 2-3 hours. Don't eat processed foods and avoid starchy stuff like bread and pasta. Go for low fat food like white meat, low fat dairy, fruit & veg. If you need to use cooking oil for your meal, use Olive Oil.


Avoid suggary drinks before the event, water is ideal. Fizzy drinks are a huge massive no-no. If you can stomach the taste don't put milk in your hot drinks but do consider the merits of caffeine, especially for longer events.


Eat last roughly 2 hours before the event starts so the body is releasing energy at the right time.


In the hour before the event make sure you keep your water level topped up. One of these new fangled sports science drinks with carbs and protein is also a good idea at this stage.



To help in recovery after a race take on board starchy foods like rice, pasta, potatoe, bread etc.



Yep, they work and there is merit to drinking them. Our bodies do not process food terribly quickly so for focused energy release a sports drink can give us extra energy when we need it. The effect is quite potent because they have a lot of carbohydrate in, but they do not have proteins and this is why they do not work alone, you must get the protein from your diet.



Omega 3 is an important part of our diet and we get it mostly from fish, what about those of us who dont like fish?


Linseed is the answer, try to get eggs from chickens fed on linseed rather than grain. Alternatively add it to salads, or grind it up and put it into a drink or cook it into something. It has a kind of nutty flavour.


Failing that fish oil supplements might also be of use.



Amasingly some people believe that sweets give them energy, they're right of course because they are packed with sugar. However, sugar delivers an energy peak for about 2 minutes and then an energy deficit for around 20 minutes. Avoid sugar on race days unless your idea of a race is a 100 metres track and field sprint.



Cattering on endurance races can be a significant hurdle and requires prudent planning. You cant just leave it until the day of the race and 'figure something out'. Not only must you consider each drivers energy levels but you have to work with your catterers to provide the scheduling flexibility that the track team needs to compete most competitively.


There is no greater challenge to a racing drivers concentration than a 24 hour race, do not under-estimate the important role of cattering in achieving success on the track.


Co-ordinate with your team mates and catterers to ensure that you always have a fresh driver on standby incase your active driver has difficulties. It takes months of planning to compete in such a long race, dont throw it away because at 2am your driver on track has a low sugar-level in their bloodstream.


Try not to run on caffeine alone. Consider your intake of carbohydrates and proteins and when you are going to take them, when you are going to be sleeping, and have your drink on hand.


As with everything in endurance racing, planning is everything, so when you are competing in a big race make sure that cattering considerations are part of that planning.

Very nice post!

few questions, why should you not eat carbs during the event? and what has protein got to do with this?

Wouldnt expect this, But i guess it will help some drivers!

I drink soy milk before a race. Not the processed one but the homemade one

Diet definitely effects your ability to focus..

Not only diet, but physical fitness is a huge boost, not only physically, but mentally, even in sim racing it makes a difference.

Also, mental attitude is something that can make or break a race.

Quote :

why should you not eat carbs during the event? and what has protein got to do with this?

hun i'm just repeating what i've been taught, i'm not a sports scientist, well sort of, actually the more I think about that... Did the subject at school, work in sports telemetry now.. hmm, well i'm not a nutritionist but i've had the advise of a professional sports nutritionist and i'm repeating it here.

What I do know is that carbs are needed to release energy but aren't the energy themselves, they also do the same for storing fat in our bodies. I'm guessing the reason you dont eat carbs 2 hours before an event is to prevent energy release in the build up to the event that your going to need later? Then the new fangled sports science drinks, like Lucozade sport, which are packed with carbs can then unleash it all. That'd be my non medical opinion anyway.

Quote from Becky Rose :

What I do know is that carbs are needed to release energy but aren't the energy themselves, they also do the same for storing fat in our bodies. I'm guessing the reason you dont eat carbs 2 hours before an event is to prevent energy release in the build up to the event that your going to need later? Then the new fangled sports science drinks, like Lucozade sport, which are packed with carbs can then unleash it all. That'd be my non medical opinion anyway.

Thats not strictly true, Carbs supply gylcogen to the muscles, your body uses these as it's main supply of energy.

The main reason you shouldn't eat (pretty much anything, carbs or not) before an "event", is because your body will be using your energy to digest your food, rather than supplying the body, which is what it should be doing.

Isotonic sports drinks do a couple of things, one of which is supply gylcogen to your muscles so the body can cope with any anaerobic demands you put on it, because the first 10 or so mins of any strenious activity mainly relys on anaerobic energy untill the body switches over to supplying the muscles aerobically, also, they contain electrolytes which help the body stay better hydrated.

Carbs are a good source of energy, well, complex carbs are, I always eat a bowl of porridge 3 hours before a running event to top up the gylcogen stores, any carb energy you put into your body, and don't use, will be turned into fat, so they body can use it later.

I have plenty of literiture about the two different fuel sources, it's "vats" and "taps" should anyone want to read up on it

As a disclaimer, I am not a sports scientist, nutritionalist or anything like that, my opinion is based on personal experiance, and the ingestion of a LOT of literiture on the subject, and others professional opinion.

Quote from danowat :

Thats not strictly true, Carbs supply gylcogen to the muscles, your body uses these as it's main supply of energy.

The main reason you shouldn't eat (pretty much anything, carbs or not) before an "event", is because your body will be using your energy to digest your food, rather than supplying the body, which is what it should be doing.

Isotonic sports drinks do a couple of things, one of which is supply gylcogen to your muscles so the body can cope with any anaerobic demands you put on it, because the first 10 or so mins of any strenious activity mainly relys on anaerobic energy untill the body switches over to supplying the muscles aerobically, also, they contain electrolytes which help the body stay better hydrated.

Carbs are a good source of energy, well, complex carbs are, I always eat a bowl of porridge 3 hours before a running event to top up the gylcogen stores, any carb energy you put into your body, and don't use, will be turned into fat, so they body can use it later.

I have plenty of literiture about the two different fuel sources, it's "vats" and "taps" should anyone want to read up on it

As a disclaimer, I am not a sports scientist, nutritionalist or anything like that, my opinion is based on personal experiance, and the ingestion of a LOT of literiture on the subject, and others professional opinion.

Gylcogen is for msucles. Muscles use glycogen.

It's all down to the efficiency of a body's mitochondria and their ability to produce ATP quick - which is something you inherit directly from your mother (eggs have mitochondria, sperm do not). Another interesting part, since digression is fun, is that mitochondria are likely (as shown from the DNA) the result of a symbiosis between bacteria and singlecell organisms which occured several million years ago. The latter basically "decided" it was a good idea to assimilate the former. Somehow I find that fascinating. The main reason we're able to have so much energy at our disposal to keep our tissue going is because of essentially two different entities at a microscopic level merging.

EDIT:

But to get back to the part of glycogen, what's consumed and what not - the body can store about 1500 calories of glycogen readily available for immediate use in muscles and liver. 1500 is quite enough to get you going without isotonic drinks and the like - in fact isotonic drinks are more relevant to later stages of exercise and mostly for rehydration (after about an hour or so at >75% of your maximum heart rate you can lose quite a bit of salts). However they are not a must - even a glass of water or juice with a pinch of salt is enough to avoid dehydration. For really long and strenuous events one could go for a hypertonic drink that provides more basic sugars for energy. But that can never really be a good substitute for complex carbohydrates - even a slice of wholegrain bread can keep you going for much longer after your glycogen supplies are depleted or nearing depletion. Too many simple carbohydrates/sugars can cause an insulin surge, which has the exact opposite effect than what we'd hope to gain from consuming such "raw energy" - it makes us feel tired, drowsy and hungry and, ironically enough, at times it can make one crave more sugar - which leads to a vicious cycle.

wow, I really needed this. I always wonder why I can never focus while simracing, too much bread hah! This will also be useful for my cycling. Thankyou!

All I would do before races would be to drink plenty of water, stretch and then relax muscles, take a pre-piss, and get comfortable overall. If it is a hot day or you know you are bound to get all sweaty, make sure you have a fan blowing on you .

Most importantly, the meal before needs to be something safe... as in... doesn't make you fart or feel like crap. Usually I'd have just a simple sandwich or something that is easy to digest and nourishing. But still, water is the only thing I can stress more. Doing a lot of races where I had to get up super early in order to race you guys across the pond... I sometimes would just get right out of bed, not eat anything (which is the best), drink a bottle of water, and warmup about 30 minutes before the actual race. Sometimes I'd even be drinking water whenever I found the opportunity during a race (in pits or long straights).

You don't have to eat something to win a big race.

So basically, atheltic performance is pre-determined at birth by your genes?, there is a heck of a lot of information, most of it inconclusive, either way, however, I do think that the base atheltic performance is probably genetic.

Mind you, a hell of a lot of atheltic performance can be gained through training.

As for glycogen storage, don't know about calorific value, but I do know that the body stores enough glycogen to power an average runner for roughly 10 miles, at this point is when you "hit the wall", this is when the bodies store of glycogen is exhausted, and basically the body starts eating itself for fuel.

Incidentally, I use juice and salt as a post race/hard speed or tempo session recovery drink, simply because I lose a lot of electrolyes through sweat, I get big salt streaks down my face.

It's a very interesting, to me, subject, and wish I'd have paid more attention in biology.

edit : most of this in not that relevent to sim racing, because it's unlikely that you are ever going to be working hard enough to hit your anaerobic working zone anyway.

Quote from danowat :

So basically, atheltic performance is pre-determined at birth by your genes?, there is a heck of a lot of information, most of it inconclusive, either way, however, I do think that the base atheltic performance is probably genetic.

A lot of our bodily traits and abilities are indeed hardcoded. From where the body stores it's fat, percentage of muscle fibres (slow twitch vs fast twitch), max heart rate, etc. Which all in turn dictate the aptitude of an individual in certain forms of sports. You can't expect a person with a high percentage of fast twitch muscles to be really good at endurance events and vice versa.

However, for the performance discrepancy itself to be visible a high level of training has to be attained first - then you can start "blaming" things on genetics and whose mum baked better mitochondria.

Quote from danowat :

edit : most of this in not that relevent to sim racing, because it's unlikely that you are ever going to be working hard enough to hit your anaerobic working zone anyway.

Unless you've been simracing for far too long and your zone is really really low. In which case Becky has to write up a "Living" how-to.

Quote from xaotik :

You can't expect a person with a high percentage of fast twitch muscles to be really good at endurance events and vice versa.

This is true, however, it is possible to build endurance, it's something we build anyway as we get older.

Bottomline, if you want to be your best at something, then you have to work at it, it's just that one persons best will be better than yours because they are lucky to have been born with a genetic advantage.

because blood will be used in digestion rather than in the brain. thanks,

No offence meant Becky, but diet for sim racing is 6 cans of Heineken and a 250g bag of dry roasties!

Science and reason sure does take the fun out stuff.

For the sake of realism for weekend racers, it's a bit different. Someone picks up doughnuts early in the morning. Coffee, water, and Gatorade throughout the day. The grill is fired up around noon for burgers and dogs. Eat untill stuffed, especially true for the driver (makes early afternoon track sessions interesting). As soon as the car comes off the track at the end of the day, the beer makes its appearance from the cooler tucked in the back of the hauler (seems like magic after a long day). Dinner is usually pizza delivered to the motel, chased by a few more rounds of beer. rinse and repeat on day 2.

And people wonder why wrecks tend to occure most often on the last session of the last day...

This is true for us over here. If we have to take off of work to go racing, we'll make it count as a vacation. For most of us, it is our only time away from work.

Quote from petercollins :

No offence meant Becky, but diet for sim racing is 6 cans of Heineken and a 250g bag of dry roasties!

or a bottle of beer, cup of coffee and a large selection of chocolate bars for me