timing actually matters more than I thought

Been training for years and I still underestimated how much the when matters, not just the what. Had a session on Tuesday where I ate well overall but the timing was all off — big meal about 40 minutes before, thought I'd be fine. AMRAP at the end nearly finished me off. Felt heavy, sluggish, couldn't string my pull-ups together. Just felt like I was running on lag the whole time. Honestly the rough rule I've landed on: something proper about 2-2.5 hours before if it's a big meal, or something small and quick 45-60 min out if I've misjudged the timing. Post-WOD I try to get protein in within that first half hour, not because I'm being precious about it but I genuinely notice a difference in how I feel the next morning. The delayed soreness is just less brutal. Creatine and whey go in the shaker basically the moment I'm done, sometimes still sweating. Not glamorous but it does the job. The pre-workout window is the one I kept getting wrong for ages and I don't think I'm alone in that tbh.