Fuel

Though I blog about food and I blog about running, I haven't really blogged about what I eat to prepare for and recover from my runs.  I have to say that as my runs have gotten longer, I have had to be waaaay more conscientious about proper fueling and hydration, and I've tried to educate myself about how best to do that.

HOWEVER, proper running nutrition and hydration is a subject that is incredibly contentious among runners and I have been scolded by other runners for eating/drinking the wrong things, so I know that people can get really judgey about this.   If someone gets in your face about not using goo or not getting the right kind of sugars or not balancing your protein/carbs ratio, they need to get a life.  Yes, doing those things might improve performance, but unless you are considerably faster than I am, not enough to really matter.  Doing those things might also improve recovery and make your life more comfortable while you're training, but really, whose business is that but yours?   My take is this: don't be an idiot, and listen to your body.

Don't be an idiot: if you are running more than 4-5 miles, in any weather, it is critical to carry water unless it is easily accessible on your route.  If you are running more than a mile or two in summer weather or direct sunlight, the same applies.  If you are running more than 6-8 miles, especially in the summer, put some electrolytes in your water.  I was a convert to this after I finally started doing it on my long runs this summer, and wow!  I didn't feel dead afterward.  Yay.  Along the same lines, if you are doing a long run, eat something first, and if it is really long, eat during.  Don't eat things that will make you puke.  (Kali, I'm looking at you and your vegetarian jerky)  If you have just run off 2000 calories, and all you ate for breakfast was a banana, eat something.  Duh.

Listen to your body:  If you are thirsty or you are hungry or you are feeling really dead after your long runs or like your muscles aren't rebuilding very well, then you need think about making some fuel changes, and they should be things that actually work for you and your training style.

Anyway, here's what I do:

On long run days, I wake up and eat a Larabar and two bananas if I can choke them both down.  Sometimes I put agave nectar on my bananas.  I drink a few glasses of water.  I hate eating first thing, but I make myself do it.  Then I wait 45 minutes or so before I go out, so I can digest and because I can't get my butt in gear to get out the door most weekend days.  On my run, I pack another Larabar and sometimes some dried blueberries.  I eat those at the halfway or when I first start to feel hungry, whichever is sooner.  I drink water with electrolytes.  For electrolytes, I use packets of Emergen-C.  They are cheap in bulk at Trader Joe's and we had a big box in the house from when The Husband was travelling a lot.  I add one to my water bottle and pack a few more on hot days.  On hot days, I refill my water bottle approximately every five miles, or at least three times per long run.  I drink it all, and then more as soon as I get home.

Also, when I get home, I immediately drink a smoothie.  I cannot tell you how critical this is.  I used to wait a while to eat so I could stretch and also lay around moaning about how far I'd run.  Then I'd feel like crap all day and not be able to do anything but shovel pasta in my face and flob on the couch for hours wishing my muscles worked.  My smoothie is a compromise between ideal nutrition and speediness/ease of keeping all the ingredients on hand.  It consists of:

2 bananas (why yes, I do go through a lot of bananas!)
1 cup blueberries (maybe less, I don't measure, I just dump things in a blender)
3 tbsp soy protein
2 tbsp flax seeds
1 tbsp agave nectar
1 whole lemon
1 cup unsweetened almond milk

According to my research, this concoction has something close to the right balance of carbs to protein, a variety of sugars that will be processed at various speeds to help something something with glycogen blah blah, some acids and enzymes that will somewhat counter-intuitively reduce the acid levels in my muscles, protein for rebuilding muscles, lots of anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals and other important nutrients, and it tastes good.  I don't include dairy or juice, which I think is good.  I also don't include any greens, which is probably bad, but oh wells.  I just can't stomach the look of the thing when you put alfalfa in it.  Blech.

Anyway, the smoothie has probably (pause for mental math) 500-700 calories in it, which is great for after a run, but wouldn't be so awesome for breakfast.  I am a bit of a cheater for using processed protein powder, and I wish I didn't, but the convenience really can't be beat.

I have had great luck with this fueling and hydration plan, and it works for me.  But, if you like those nasty gu thingies, by all means, use those instead.  They have invested in some real science, I imagine, and you won't have to pick flax seeds out of your teeth.