The night before the race, I was putting together a nutrition plan for my son’s junior event at CJ Hakusan. I figured it would take ten minutes — onigiri and a gel, done. Ninety minutes later, I was still going back and forth with ChatGPT.
If you just want the final plan, skip to the summary table. But the process itself was interesting enough to write up.
Starting Conditions
- Race: CJ Hakusan, Junior category
- Race duration: approximately 60 minutes
- Start time: 13:30
- Pre-ride: 7:45–8:45
- Weather forecast: hot
The central constraint was cramping prevention. At a dirt criterium a few weeks earlier, my son cramped badly in the third race — completely derailed his effort. So from the beginning, this plan prioritized cramp and heat management over energy maximization.
Breakfast
The conversation started with a practical question: convenience store breakfast or fast food? For pre-race eating, the goal is low fat, fast-digesting carbohydrates. Rice-based options work well — rice bowls, udon, onigiri.
We ended up stopping at an AEON near the venue and picking up a small bento and four inari sushi. My son made the call himself from the options we’d discussed.
Nothing revolutionary. But it was the first time we’d actually thought through why we were choosing it, rather than just grabbing whatever looked good.
Pre-Ride to 10am
One bottle of Power Production drink during the pre-ride (7:45–8:45). Finished it after, then added one WinZone gel.
The next question: what to eat at 10am?
Candidates were onigiri and banana. We initially considered onigiri at 10, banana at 11. But working through the logic:
- A 10am onigiri is fully digested before a 13:30 start
- An 11am onigiri is cutting it close
- With breakfast → pre-ride → WinZone → banana, there’s already plenty in the tank
- Overeating is a bigger risk than under-fueling at this point
Final call: banana at 10am, skip the 11am onigiri.
There was genuine uncertainty — the pull of “maybe one more thing” is real. But the reframe that stuck was: the goal isn’t to eat as much as possible. It’s to arrive at the start line fueled but not heavy.
WinZone Timing
Four possible windows for the WinZone gel: after pre-ride, before start, during the race, or the caffeine version.
The breakdown:
- After pre-ride: standard WinZone for recovery and carb top-up ✓
- Before start: if cramp prevention is the priority → salt gel. If performance is the priority → caffeine WinZone
- During the race: unnecessary for a 60-minute event
On the “during race” question, the conclusion was clear: the downsides outweigh the benefits for 60 minutes. Opening a gel while racing, stomach load, the risk of dropping it — not worth it.
With cramp prevention as the priority, we went with salt gel before the start.
Salt Gel and Electrolytes
Salt gel at 13:05–13:10, with a small amount of water. The key electrolyte for cramping is sodium — potassium, magnesium, and calcium all play a role, but sodium is the main one. The combination of Power Production drink plus salt gel covers that sufficiently.
Various sports drinks came up in the conversation — Pocari Sweat, Aquarius, PH1000, SiS Hydro. The deciding rule: don’t introduce anything new on race day. Power Production is what he uses in training, so Power Production it is.
Bottle Management and Feed Zone
The Hakusan course runs a dual-side feed zone — the same feed zone passes on both sides of the loop, so riders pass it twice per lap. Starting bottle size: 300–400ml rather than 500ml. The plan was one to two sips per lap, at a spot picked out during the pre-ride.
No bottle swap planned initially. Instead, the feed zone hand-off was a chilled water bottle for external cooling — pour over the head, neck, and back. Simple, effective, no stomach involvement.
Cola came up briefly as an option. Rejected going in: sticky, carbonated, harder to drink while moving. Red Bull also dismissed — he doesn’t use it in training.
Warm-Up
My son tends to ride better when properly activated, not just loosened up. The warm-up was designed to bring heart rate close to race level before the start.
| Step | Target HR / Content |
|---|---|
| 10 min | 120–140 bpm, easy |
| 5 min | 150–165 bpm, building |
| 30 sec | 170–180 bpm |
| 2 min | easy |
| 30 sec | 175–185 bpm |
| 2 min | easy |
| 30 sec | ~180 bpm |
| — | Salt gel (20 min before start) |
| Final 1 min | 175–185 bpm, race pace |
| → | Roll to start line |
The goal: body fully awake at the gun.
Final Nutrition Plan
| Timing | Item |
|---|---|
| Breakfast | Small bento + 4 inari sushi |
| During pre-ride | Power Production, 1 bottle |
| After pre-ride | WinZone gel, 1 |
| 10:00am | Banana |
| (11am onigiri) | Skipped |
| 20 min before start | Salt gel + small water |
| During race | Power Production, 1–2 sips per lap |
| Feed zone | Cold water bottle — pour over head, neck, back |
The Key Takeaway
The biggest shift in thinking wasn’t what to eat. It was deciding what to prioritize first.
Starting from “prevent cramping and manage heat” rather than “make sure he has enough energy” changed every individual decision downstream. When the 11am onigiri question came up, the answer was obvious: risk of overeating outweighs risk of under-fueling. The cola and Red Bull questions answered themselves too.
I’m not a sports nutritionist. I can’t claim this is optimal. But building the plan around explicit priorities meant there was nothing left to second-guess on race morning.
How It Actually Went
The nutrition plan seemed to work. After six laps, he wasn’t running on empty — more like “could have had a bit more, maybe.” Notably, he drank more consistently during the race than usual and actually swapped his bottle mid-race.
On the back half, we tried giving him a sip of cola through the dual-side feed — he liked it. Gels he rejected during the race because of the sticky mouthfeel, though one might be worth trying in future.
Overall: a plan that worked. Plan to use this as the baseline going forward and adjust from there.
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