By Chris Balbo, Swimming World College Intern.
Thanksgiving is a time to spend with family, friends and relatives. With all this family time, comes tons and tons of food: mashed potatoes, turkey, pies, breads, sweet potatoes, pumpkin bread, mac and cheese you name it. With all foods and desserts comes the inevitable: a Thanksgiving food baby.
Being swimmers, we know how to pack away the calories but Thanksgiving is a whole different challenge. Most families eat enormous amounts of food, but when you multiply that by the swimmer diet, we might as well be eating thanksgiving for a small family of four. For some, Thanksgiving is one of few days off from practice– allowing time to sleep in, relax, and enjoy the holiday. For others, an early morning practices awakens them early to celebrate the day of thanks. The holiday is full of family togetherness, delicious foods, and in some cases football and early black Friday shopping.
The real problems don’t start until the day after Thanksgiving with THE Thanksgiving Food Baby. All the indulgences from the day before lay undigested in your stomach. *Disclaimer: Food babies may persist due to the inescapable leftovers from Thanksgiving festivities.* Once you hit the water you might feel slow, lethargic and could be sporting a bit of a tummy. The water feels like cranberry sauce, arms feel like green beans and you can still feel the apple, pumpkin and pecan pie in your gut from the night before. Regardless of how you feel, the grind physically and mentally never stops.
Photo Courtesy: Kevin D. Liles-USA TODAY Sports
The coaches however, have a plan to deal with the residual “food baby”. Some teams have a specific set crafted for the occasion– a daunting threshold set, maybe an active rest one, or a never-ending lactate set. These sets might be tradition or just a belly buster to work off your newly minted thanksgiving pooch. Swimmers must push through these grueling sets in their groggy, food coma state against their body’s wishes. The coaches have your best interests in mind as they help craft their swimmers into lean, mean, fighting machines for the month of December.
Another way to look at Thanksgiving feasting is carbo loading for your winter taper meet. Carb loading is the excess intake of carbs used for endurance athletes. Commonly, swimmers host pasta parties before meets to build up their carbohydrate reserves. This process stores extra energy in glucose and glycogen. Once race time comes around, your muscles will be thankful for the Thanksgiving reservoir! Your body will use these energy reserves to propel you through the water. So, bring on the mashed potatoes, pumpkin bread, mac and cheese, pie, and stuffing. The carbs will all be used for energy…eventually!
All nutritional research was conducted by the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Swimming World Magazine nor its staff.