Racing Weight: How to Get Lean for Peak Performance

A 5-step plan to optimal body composition and better performance.

If you're like most endurance athletes, you're concerned about your weight. You know that every extra pound you carry costs time, wastes energy, stresses your joints, and hurts your performance.

Racing Weight is the first book to explain how endurance athletes—runners, cyclists, triathletes, cross-country skiers, rowers, or swimmers—should lose weight. Using sound scientific principles gleaned from the latest sports research, Matt Fitzgerald lays out 5 easy steps to get lean for races and events. His guidelines will help you hit your target numbers for weight, body composition, and performance, while maintaining your strength and conditioning.

Fitzgerald makes good nutrition simple with 21 great recipes from pro triathlete and dietician Pip Taylor, and a look at the diets of 14 elite professional athletes. He explains how to avoid the most common mistakes in training and embark on a strength-training program that works.

The Racing Weight plan will help you close in on your performance goals while feeling—and looking—great.

Matt Fitzgerald is the author of eleven published and forthcoming books on running, triathlon, nutrition, and weight loss. A contributor to Bicycling, Runner's World, and Senior Editor of Triathlete magazine, he is also a featured coach for TrainingPeaks.com and Active.com. He is a certified sports nutritionist (CISSN) licensed by the International Society of Sports Nutrition. He lives and trains in San Diego.

Matt Fitzgerald is a prolific journalist and an authority on sports nutrition and endurance sports. Since 2005, he has authored 10 books, including Brain Training for Runners and The Runner’s Body. He lives in San Diego, CA.

Endurance athletes are weight-conscious and given the miles and hours spent training, there’s a lot at stake. Weighing in just five or ten pounds over the ideal weight can dramatically impact race results. Author Matt Fitzgerald shows athletes how to identify their optimal weight and body composition to realize their goals. This 5-step plan to get lean is the key to faster racing and better health. With tools to improve diet, manage appetite, and time important nutrients, Racing Weight will inspire and equip athletes to make the subtle changes they need to start their next race at their optimal weight.

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1 Body Weight, Body Fat, and Endurance Performance

2 How to Determind Your Optimal Performance Weight

3 Tracking Your Progress

4 Seasonal Considerations

5 Sport-Specific Racing Weight Considerations

6 Guidelines for Beginners

7 Improving Your Diet Quality

8 Balancing Your Energy Sources

9 Nutrient Timing

10 Managing Your Appetite

11 Training for Racing Weight

12 What the Pros Eat

13 Endurance Fuel

14 The Role of Supplements

Appendix: Recommended Strength Exercises for Endurance Athletes

References

Index

About the Author