I’m Elliot, a writer and marketer. Two years ago, I found myself recovering from the doldrums of the pandemic, living a very sedentary life. I knew I needed a change, so I started doing triathlons.

This year, thanks to a fortunate scheduling quirk, we planned a trip to Italy for the week immediately after finishing my 8-week training plan in anticipation for my first olympic distance race. This timing perfectly aligns with my preparation, more specifically my tapering and carb loading week.

If you’re unfamiliar with these concepts, here’s a quick rundown:

Tapering is all about giving your body time to rest and recover from the fatigue of intense training. While it’s important to maintain optimal fitness, continuing training right up until the race can leave you too exhausted to perform at your best. Typically, endurance athletes will taper for a few days to a few weeks, depending on the distance and difficulty of their race.

Carb loading focuses on ensuring that your body is well-nourished to handle the effort required on race day. Without delving into the science, carbs or carbohydrates are stored as an energy source known as glycogen in your muscles, and the more carbs you consume before the race, the more glycogen your muscles can store. Simply put, these extra carbs help sustain your energy throughout the race.

And you know what Italy is known for right? 

Pasta! Pizza! Pastries! Carbs! 

So, the plan was set! I made a list of all the carbs I wanted to eat and off we went. In this video, I’m going to share my experience carb loading in Italy and answer an important question: Is traveling during taper week a good idea? 

Now! Let’s head to Italy. 

One day after my final workout, we woke up at the crack of 3 am and skipped off to the airport.

After a 15 hour travel day, we arrived the next morning in Rome. 

Our plan is to spend 2 days in Rome and 3 days in a villa in Assisi, and then one more night in Rome before travelling back to Vancouver just in time for 2 days to rest and prep before the big race. While the main purpose of this trip is to attend our friends’ wedding, the second purpose of this trip is to taper and carb load. So my goal was to eat as much as I could.

The general math is that while carb loading, you should consume 8-10g of carbs per kg of body weight per day. That means, I should aim to consume around 330-460 grams of carbs per day for the first 3 days of the trip and then increase to 530-660 grams of carbs per day for the next 3. That sounds like a lot! 

Now, I’m going to do my best to add up all the carb heavy meals I had, and omit any dishes that I don’t think have that much carbs, just to keep things simple. On top of that, it’s important to note that I’m just grabbing a general estimate. None of this should be taken as science. I repeat! I am not a scientist. Or a chef. And some of the food, I’m not even sure what the names are. So yeah! That’s the kind of video this is. You’ve been warned. 

With that aside, let’s get to it. 

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Day 1: 

My Italian adventure kicked off with a delightful lunch of Pasta Amatriciana, packing in 85 grams of carbs. The whole reason we went to this specific restaurant in the Jewish Ghetto neighbourhood was to try one of the famous Jewish artichokes, adding 4 grams. Of course, I washed it all down with a refreshing beer, contributing 26 grams. It was good to know that beer has more carbs than wine! 

Dessert was our first of many gelato, offering 42 grams of carbs.

On the way back to the hotel, I grabbed one of these world-famous Italian sandwiches from a popular place called All’Antico Vinaio, which added another 46 grams of carbs. We went back to our hotel for a quick nap to recover from the travel and the food before trudging out again to enjoy the evening.

For dinner, I had a Carbonara (85 grams of carbs), shared half a tiramisu with my wife (17 grams), another beer (26 grams), and a second round of gelato (42 grams).

Day 1 Total: I was nice and full and had managed to hit my target carb intake for the day. 347g Can I do it again tomorrow? 

Day 2: 

The next morning started with a traditional Roman breakfast: a Maritozzi pastry (23 grams of carbs), a cappuccino (4 grams), and some biscuits (12 grams).

For lunch, I opted for Spaghetti alle Vongole, spaghetti with clams (85 grams), accompanied by an obligatory beer (26 grams) and finished it off with gelato in a cone (51 grams). 

Later, we meandered over to the Trastevere neighbourhood, and I got one of the famous Trapizzino (46 grams), a delightful pizza pocket.

Then we went for a long, hot walk to the Vatican and through some wonderful Renaissance piazzas before arriving back in our hotel for another nap. 

Dinner was another pasta feast with a Roman classic, Cacio e Pepe (82 grams), which was probably the best pasta I had in Italy so far. I also got another beer (26 grams) for the carbs specifically, and half a burrata (1 gram), which was just—dare I say it?—heavenly. Of course, I ended the day with more gelato (42 grams), which also happened to be the best gelato I had in Italy so far. An evening of bests! But how did I do on the carb loading? Let’s check the tally. 

Day 2 Total: A day well spent with plenty of pasta and carbs, I consumed 398g! Well within the range. Celebrate! But the next day, carbs may be harder to come by. 

Day 3: 

Our travel day to Assisi started with a quick breakfast of a cream-filled croissant (25 grams), cappuccino (4 grams), half a meringue (8 grams), and half a cookie (10 grams) before we headed off to the train station. 

All and all, it was a five hour journey from Rome to Assisi. 

Upon arriving at the villa for the wedding, dinner was a BBQ affair. Unfortunately, it wasn’t very carb-heavy, but I did enjoy some bread (14 grams), two beers (52 grams), wine (3.8 grams), and a tiramisu (32 grams). After dinner, we did discover these Nutella cookies (36 grams) and Focaccia flavored Pringles (4 grams). 

Day 3 Total: Carbs were a bit sparse, and even with the extra snacking, I missed my mark this day with only 188.8g. To be expected, but all is good. More meals to come. 

Day 4:

Today, our wedding party had plans to explore the town of Assisi. 

Before heading out, I had some room bread with jam (56 grams). 

Then while touring the town, I, of course, had to grab a gelato (42 grams) to get a little pick me up from being on my best behavior in the church. 

We continued our tour, got caught in the rain and then we took a break to grab some lunch. 

Lunch featured a Prosciutto Sandwich (45.5 grams) and finally, some sort of craft beer aka not Perronis (26 grams). More gelato followed (42 grams), I was getting adventurous with this one — I literally got licorice flavor, and you know what… It’s pretty good! Forgive me, I have sinned. 

Before we returned to the villa, we enjoyed a glass of wine (3.8 grams), focaccia bread (21 grams), some salty meat and cheese (which probably had little to no carbs, but was so good) and a macchiato (1 gram). 

Dinner was the highlight of the evening that started with a gnocchi-making class where we then got to enjoy our creation (156 grams), I washed that down with a beer (26 grams). 

For dessert, I tried Zuppa Inglese (34 grams) which is like trifle, and if you’re like me and you don’t know what trifle is… well, it’s a thing of little value or importance.  We stayed up late this night, watched the lightning storm roll in and out, and I stayed up for about an hour extra alone in the kitchen, snacking on Nutella (21g), jam (13g) and Fetta Dorate (39 grams), which are these melba toast things.

Day 4 Total: An excellent day of eating, there seemed to be a little of everything and it all tallied up to 526.3g. Mission accomplished! Well, for this day at least. 

Day 5:

Today is a big day! The wedding day! 

The morning started with cappuccino (4 grams) and biscuits (12 grams). The groom’s father treated us to a variety of Middle Eastern sweets (40 grams).

Lunch included two ham sandwiches (96 grams) and a beer (26 grams). Not sure about the science of carb loading with beer, but I wonder if all the alcohol may have negative effects on my race. I guess we’ll never know. 

Then, we had the wedding and afterwards, I snacked on some Hors D’oeuvre (28g)

Finally, we sat down for the wedding dinner, which included a couple of Arancinis (10.8 grams), bread (14 grams), Farro Salad (35.5 grams), Risotto (54 grams), and potatoes (9 grams). There was also a meat dish there as well. It was really good, but sadly, no carbs, so we don’t need to talk about it any further. 

For dessert, there was this really awesome Mille Feuille (18.5 grams) cake.

Day 5 Total: Yes, while I did consume 346.8g of carbs one must believe that I burned all of it off on the dance floor that night… and let’s not forget an impromptu workout session that… might have been detrimental to my tapering. One will find out later. 

Day 6:

Well, our stay at the villa is over. 

After a final breakfast of beans (10 grams), pita (16 grams), baklava (14.5 grams), and what I believe is called basbousa (20 grams), we caught the train back to Rome. 

The funny thing about traveling in Italy is that you never really know how long a journey will take. What we expected to be a 3 hour direct ride back to the city, ended up taking over 5 hours thanks to some delays and a mid-ride train switch half way through. So… we didn’t get back into Rome until late that evening. 

Still we made the most of our last night, and I did all I could do to load up on carbs in just one meal.  

Dinner in Rome was a carb-lover’s dream with a beer (26 grams), Anchovy Pizza (99 grams), Suppli (34.4 grams), and Pasta Marinara (98 grams). Of course, I capped it off with gelato (42 grams).

Day 6 Total: An excellent final night of indulgence before heading back home gave me a total of 359.9g

Day 7: Farewell to Italy

And just like that.. Our Italian trip was over. It’s time to say goodbye to the humidity and the old stuff, and return to Vancouver.

But not before we had one last breakfast. Our last morning in Italy included a cappuccino (4 grams) and a cream-filled donut (58 grams). 

At the airport, I enjoyed a final Italian meal: half a croquette (3.9 grams), half an arancini (2.7 grams), pizza (50 grams), and lasagna (35 grams). For the flight, I had a chocolate croissant (33 grams) and half a donut (20 grams), with additional pasta onboard (49 grams).

And let’s not forget about the A&W burger (35g) and fries (54g) I got during layover.

Day 7 Total: It was a sweet ending to my Italian adventure, giving me a total of 344.6g. Although the last few days in transit made it hard to get all the carbs in… it doesn’t change the fact that when I did get some carbs in, it was delicious.

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Italy turned out to be a great trip, but I did return real sore and tired. I’m really thankful for the extra day of rest before the race. Do I recommend going to Italy for a taper/carb loading experience? Yes! But you should actually plan out the meals a little better than I did. And make sure you also have a few more days to rest. 

Of course, once I got home, I was able to fill up a bit more and spend the whole day Saturday recovering before getting my race package and dropping off my bike on Sunday. 

Could I be more rested and carbed up? Yes, I could. But I could also say the same about training and pretty much every factor of my preparation. Life is life, and I’m as good as I am going to be. 

So… here it comes… the race. 

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