Getting your fuelling right or wrong for a run can mean the difference between achieving a new personal best or hitting ‘the wall’ and not making the finish line as you’d hoped or even reaching it at all. Genetically we all operate in our own unique ways so there’s no hard set rule that works best for every runner but there are a few guidelines that can certainly help your progress.
Plan your meals well ahead of a run so you're best prepared.
Let’s start with smaller runs. For runs of up to up to 45-60 minutes your body should have more than enough stored energy to see you through without wilting but it’s still ideal to have right stuff inside and important to be hydrated ahead of time.
So what foods are ideal to charge you up before a run?
- Starchy carbs such as potatoes, rice and oats are a great natural source of energy than will sit well as slow release energy.
- ‘Pasta / pizza parties’ often happen the night before races with runners loading up for the big event. Personally I’m not so keen on pasta as it can take longer to digest than rice and potatoes so may make you feel a bit heavy during the run but don’t rule it out as it works for many and I’m a big pizza fan myself.
- Carb-loading couldn’t be easier than glugging down a high-carb drink like Bio-Synergy’s ‘PURE ENERGY’. This is quickly absorbed, easily digested and gives you the extra energy to have a great run and it also has those all-important electrolytes your body will need when you sweat out those body salts.
- Try to avoid spicy foods leading up to a run as all that bouncing around will cause a lot of sloshing around and the last thing you need when a few miles out is a belly ache and a sudden need for an ‘emergency stop’. So clean foods are best.
- Beetroot is recognised as a great natural supplement for improving endurance over longer periods and Bio-Synergy’s ‘POWERBEET capsules provide an easy way to add this to your intake and feel the difference t makes.
Good old H2O
If your run is due to be an early one then drink plenty of water the days before and have a glass of the wet stuff by your bed so you can sip it before you sleep and again upon waking. We lose a lot of water whilst we sleep, with every breath a little more moisture leaves our bodies so that dry cloth tongue and morning breath can be helped with a quick glug of water first thing. Again adding some soluble carbs to your water is a great way of sneaking some extra carbs in without needing to squeeze in an extra meal.
Longer runs
On a longer run as well as gels I’ll often have a bag of skittles for little top-ups, these pretty much give the same benefits as the more expensive ‘sports sweeties’ but for a fraction of the cost.
As a rough guide for fuel on the road if you can account for needing 1 gram of carbs per 1 kilo of body weight per hour of running. That’s should help avoid hitting your wall. So I weigh around 75kg therefore 75g of carb energy per hour is a rough amount that should see me to any finish line. That and of course keeping hydrated!
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