What should I eat to help me run my best mile in pe/track today?

ok thanks! i think if we have some pasta i’ll have pasta salad this morning…. id that considered light?

A mile is not long enough an event to use up the glycogen in your muscles so there is no need to carb load with pasta or such. Your best bet for a mile is to eat fairly normally but time your meals such that you won’t have eaten within 3 hours of your mile run. This way at least you won’t have your stomach competing with your legs for blood. Note that longer events will have different strategies. If you already drink caffeine containing beverages than getting a little hopped up on caffeine will probably help. If you aren’t used to caffeine and don’t know how you will react than this isn’t the time to experiment though. Also, don’t consume more than you normally do since you don’t want to find out while running that this much causes cramps and nausea. Mental preparation is probably going to be more important than what you eat or drink. The mile is a tough event being too long to treat like a dash but too short to treat as an endurance event. Your pace should not be so quick that you blow up in the middle and struggle to finish and it should not be so easy that you finish with anything left. Try to get into a rhythm that you can maintain for the entire run but mid way if you feel like you started too fast or slow you can adjust. The end of the mile is a test of mental toughness. A fast mile is painful; if you are at the right pace, toward the end you will be entering oxygen debt and your muscles will be screaming at you to stop. Gutting the last lap out is the hardest part. As coaches like to say, “welcome the pain.”

ok this helped a lot! we have only practiced the mile in PE a few times, so i have no idea how im going to do. I know i won’t do horrible, but idk how fast i can place….is pasta still ok for this morning’s breakfeast? or just plain cereal?

For me dairy tends to make phlegm so I avoid it but if it doesn’ t bother you than don’t worry about it. The pasta is probably a good choice as long as it isn’t too rich or heavy.

i got an 8:35 time on the mile, thanks you guys! how’s that time?

drink water, mentally prepare, and eat starch (pasta, lasanga, etc.)