Taco Bell as a pre-race meal?

I ran another time trial on August 21^st. It was a 3200M/2-mile where we began at the primary start line of the track, then walked off another 18M past that to allow us to measure both marks in the same race. Based on my time from a mile time trial a few weeks before, I used my past 1600M/3200M PRs, as well as a professional’s PRs, to calculate what I could expect that day.

The night before the time trial, there was an overwhelming vote at my house to have Taco Bell for dinner. This is not what I would normally eat the night before a race. However, a couple of times in the past year, I’d eaten Taco Bell in the evening and had a good training run the next morning. Based on the content of the food, this was surprising. In spite of these good experiences and that I love Taco Bell, I still hadn’t been ready to use it as a pre-race food. It was just too risky.

And yet, while I was initially inclined to suggest we push Taco Bell to the next night, I thought this might be an opportunity to test it. I hadn’t paid to enter this race and if it didn’t work, I would just never try it again. So, I headed out to pick up our dinner. My only concession was to order five items instead of my usual six.

In a downhill mile (1609M) time trial several weeks ago I posted 5:17. My past 1600M/3200M PRs were 4:49 and 10:22. Splitting the 10:22 into 5:11 splits would mean my 1600 split was 7.6% slower than my 1600 PR. Hicham El Guerrouj, the mile world record holder, had 1500M/3000M PRs of 3:26 and 7:23 and his 3:41.5 splits for the latter are 7.5% slower than his 1500M PR. Taking my 5:17 downhill mile, if I could assume a 5:35 mile on a flat course, which was optimistic by two or three seconds, adding 7.6% would yield a 12:00 flat two-mile.

Based on my 19:00 5000M from several weeks ago, I felt like I should be able to dip well under 12:00 but I took the more pragmatic route of settling on that and running 90-second quarter miles. In general I’ve always been a stronger distance runner, meaning my conversions as the race gets longer tend to be better than what the math would normally suggest. In other words, the math will tell me that the 19:00 at 5000M is faster than what I should expect based on a 12:00 two-mile, but based on where I thrive in running, it makes sense. The only part of my plan to go further under 12:00 was that if at any point past the one-mile mark I felt I could comfortably push under 90 seconds for a lap, I would go for it.

My friends and I were meeting at 6:00 a.m. to do a quick warm-up, followed by the race. For a pre-race breakfast I go for two pieces of bread with peanut butter on one of them, a banana, and one cup of coffee. Ideally I eat three hours ahead of time. In this case, I wasn’t going to get up at 3:00 a.m. so I got started at 4:15 a.m. and hoped two hours would work out in terms of my breakfast, the caffeine, and the previous night’s dinner settling.

By the time we had warmed up and were ready to run, I felt pretty good. One thing I was focused on was staying patient on the opening quarter. It’s not unusual to go out too fast but I’m not sure that the payoff is worth it. For me, this meant not hitting the 200M any faster than 41 or 42 seconds, and being no faster than 87 seconds at the quarter mile. Off the line, I held back just a bit and at 200M and then the quarter, I was at 43 and 87 seconds, respectively. I went through the half-mile in 2:58 and didn’t feel that strong until I remembered we were on an 8-lap race and not a 12.5 lap race. For the next four laps, I settled in but never felt that I was ready to push to go much under 90 seconds. As such, I came through each of the next quarters in overall times of 4:27, 5:58, and 7:27. I was pleased with my splits and with 800M to go, I was at 8:57 and the Taco Bell seemed to be working well enough. Yet, I was on the fence on whether I would get sub-12:00. It seemed likely, but it would be close. I hit the bell lap at 10:27 so I could run a 92-second final quarter and stay under 12:00 for 3200M. Doing the same for the two-mile would be tougher. With 150 meters to go, I checked my watch. I was at 11:23 and fairly confident I would make my mark. On a final surge I crossed the 3200M mark in 11:54 and the two-mile in 11:59.

The verdict? Directly relevant to racing, I was pleased with the result and a large part of that was because I had run at the higher end of what the data had suggested I could do. Immediately afterward, I wondered whether I could have pushed the pace more and gone for 11:45/11:50. Yet, knocking even a second or two off per lap can cost you. When you cross the line feeling good, it’s easy to assume you could have gone faster. When you cross the line feeling wiped out, you wonder whether you started too fast and ran out of gas, or maybe started out too slow and had to work too hard to make up time. Self-evaluation reigns supreme. But, when you hit a time that you calculated was at the higher end of reasonable expectations, it’s fair to feel pretty good about that.

The other verdict? Taco Bell works! Okay, I’m not sure if I would willingly use it before a large race but if I’m “outvoted” again, I won’t argue.

Running food review: (note–gels, bars, chews, and other items affect everyone differently. Try them on a short run before using them for a key training run or race): I’ve actually covered Taco Bell as a pre-race meal and that review is in the Running Pantry. For this post’s review, it’s, Nuun Hydration Citrus Fruit: Nuun typically carries a very light taste and this flavor is no different. Mainly I used it as a past-run drink but for the run where I used it as fuel, I enjoyed it. Similar to Tailwind, because the flavor isn’t so heavy I would see that being a big advantage on a longer training run. The citrus flavor is accurate and I do like this one.