Carb-Loading for Rowers

Carb-loading for rowers is worth doing only before efforts of about 90 minutes or more, such as a marathon row or a very long head. For a 2k or a normal head race, eat your usual carbohydrate-rich meals and leave it there. Loading means eating extra carbohydrate in the day or two before an event to top up glycogen, the fuel stored in your muscles and liver.

Do you need to load?

Event	Typical length	What to do
2k erg or race	6 to 8 minutes	Normal meals
5k or short head	15 to 25 minutes	Normal, carbohydrate-rich day before
Long steady row	60 to 90 minutes	Extra carbohydrate at the meal before
Long head or half marathon row	90 minutes or more	Consider a 1 to 2 day load
Marathon row	3 hours or more	Load, and fuel during the row

If you are between two rows of the table, stick with the shorter option. Overdoing it costs more than a small shortfall.

Why it works

When you eat carbohydrate, your body breaks it down into glucose. Some goes into the blood to be used straight away, and the rest is stored as glycogen in your liver and muscles. Your stores are limited, so in a long event you can run them down, which is when pace drops and everything feels suddenly heavy.

The harder you row, the more you rely on carbohydrate. In a 2k the race is over long before stores run out. In a marathon row, at 2:20 per 500 m, you are on the machine for 3 hours 17 minutes. For the opposite approach, see whether the keto diet can affect your rowing.

How much is a full load?

Published guidance for long events runs from about 8 to 12 g of carbohydrate per kg of body mass per day, with one recent review suggesting 10 to 12 g for 36 to 48 hours. Here is the sum for a 70 kg rower.

Target	Sum	Daily carbohydrate
Lower end	70 x 8	560 g
Middle	70 x 10	700 g
Top end	70 x 12	840 g

That is a lot more food than most people expect, and it needs a dietitian’s eye if you want to get it exact. Most club rowers do better at the lower end, using easy foods and drinks, than forcing down the top figure. Training should drop at the same time. For a sense of how much elite rowers eat day to day, see how many calories an Olympic rower eats.

A sample day before a long event

This illustration comes to roughly 540 g, close to 8 g per kg for a 70 kg rower. The figures are rough, rounded from typical labels. Portions depend on you and are best set by a dietitian.

Meal	Example	Rough carbohydrate
Breakfast	80 g oats, banana, 2 tablespoons honey, 2 slices toast	135 g
Mid-morning	Bagel with jam, 150 ml juice	75 g
Lunch	120 g dry pasta with chicken and a little sauce	95 g
Afternoon	3 slices malt loaf, 500 ml sports drink	75 g
Dinner	100 g dry rice, simple sauce, some protein	100 g
Evening	2 slices toast with jam, glass of milk	60 g

How to do it

1. Plan to start 36 to 48 hours out. For a Sunday race, begin on Friday.
2. Cut training to a short, easy paddle the day before, so you are not burning what you are storing.
3. Shift your meals towards carbohydrate rather than adding to everything: pasta, rice, potatoes, bread and fruit.
4. Cut back on high-fibre and very fatty foods if they upset your stomach.
5. Keep some protein in your meals rather than eating only carbohydrate.
6. Keep drinking. Glycogen is stored with water, so you may feel a little heavier. Expect that and ignore the scales.

Race morning

Eat a familiar breakfast 2 to 3 hours before racing. Guidance for the final few hours is 1 to 4 g of carbohydrate per kg, which is 70 to 280 g for a 70 kg rower, and the lower end is usually enough for short racing. Do not try new foods.

For long events, plan what you will take during the row too. Sports science reviews suggest 30 to 60 g of carbohydrate per hour for longer efforts. Over three hours that is 90 to 180 g, or 1.5 to 3 litres of a 6% drink, which is why many marathon rowers mix drinks with gels or solid food. Our guide to fuelling for long-distance rowing covers the detail, and the hydration guide covers fluid.

Common mistakes

• Trying a new food or a huge portion for the first time the night before.
• Eating lots of high-fibre food and then having stomach trouble on the water.
• Forgetting to cut back on training, so the extra carbohydrate goes to waste.
• Treating “carb-loading” as an excuse to overeat all weekend. Fat-heavy pizza and pastries add little carbohydrate for the discomfort they cause.

Practise first

Test your plan before a long training row, and note what sat well. If you have diabetes or another medical condition, ask your GP or dietitian first. The nutrition hub has more on everyday fuelling.