Running
What to eat before, during and after a run
Whether you’re building up to your first 5km or are aiming for a marathon PB, follow sports dietitian Alexandra Cook’s running nutrition guide to find out how you can fuel for running success.
The 11th edition of the Wings for Life World Run will take place on Sunday, May 5, 2024. For registration updates, complete global results and unforgettable highlights: visit www.wingsforlifeworldrun.com and download the new Wings for Life World Run App for iOS or Android.
It seems a common theme that nutrition is the last piece of the jigsaw when it comes to running performance. First comes the new trainers, followed by the training plan... your pre- and post-run fuel is often the final thing you will consider when setting yourself a new running challenge.
However, what if you look at it right at the start? What if you use your training plan to help shape your nutrition from day one? Even small changes can make a significant difference to how good you feel and how well you perform when you run.
But where do you start?
Building a good foundation
Your nutrition should be tailored to your weight, size and training load
© James Mitchell / Red Bull Content Pool
Nutrition for sport isn't complicated. It starts with a healthy well-balanced diet. Keeping a food diary can help you to identify areas of your daily diet that can be improved. Questions to ask yourself are: am I eating three meals a day? Am I drinking enough water? Do I have large gaps between eating and training?
Once you have addressed these basic fixes for your diet, you then need to look at tailoring your nutrition to the training you are doing or are about to embark on. To work out how much you need to be eating – including the quantity of carbs and protein you should be aiming to include in your diet – you need to look at the volume of your training, as well as your size and weight.
Guidelines state that, if training for less than one hour, you should be aiming for approximately 5-7g of carbohydrate per kilogram of bodyweight per day. If training for something like a 5km or 10km race this would be perfect, but if training for anything longer – undertaking sessions that exceed an hour – you should be looking to up that to 6-10g of carbs per kilo of bodyweight.
Then comes protein – the main nutrient needed for muscle repair and recovery. The recommend guideline for active adults and competitive athletes is to take on 1.2-2.0g of protein per kilogram of bodyweight a day to support the recovery process. The greater your training volume, the greater the need for protein.
Once you've calculated your daily target, it's worth having a look at the amount of carbohydrate and protein in particular foods, so you can get a sense of what – and how much – you should be eating each day to meet your daily targets. It might seem a little involved at first, but once you've got a rough idea of the amount of carbs and protein in particular foods, meal planning will soon become easy.
The main thing you really need to focus on is your energy intake – ensuring you're eating enough to fuel your training (you can find a handy formula here to work out how many calories you should be aiming for each day). If you increase training volume without addressing your energy intake, you could find that, as well as a reduction in your ability to train, your overall health may suffer, too.
Pre training
Consuming a Red Bull before exercise will top up blood sugar levels
© Ian Corless / Red Bull Content Pool
Getting your nutrition right isn’t just about what you eat – it’s about when you eat. To get this right, you need to think ahead.
Research has shown that eating carbohydrates three-to-four hours before endurance exercise increases liver and muscle glycogen (the body's stored form of glucose) and subsequently enhances performance.
If this meal is going to be smaller, such as breakfast, you may not need to wait so long. You simply want to make sure you have enough time to digest the meal and have enough energy readily available to fuel your activity.
Taking a caffeine source 45-60 minutes before exercise can also help you to performance positively
The meal should be high in carbohydrate and moderate in protein and fat. Protein and fat take longer to digest than carbohydrate, so if you eat those in large amounts before exercise, they may still be sitting in your stomach when you run, causing discomfort. Some good pre-run meal options might be frittata with new potatoes and salad or homemade granola with milk, nuts and fruit.
Granola with fruit and milk is a solid pre-run breakfast choice
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Some may want an energy top-up an hour before they run to ensure they are fully fuelled. For this, a carb-rich snack or drink will help to top up blood sugar levels. As a general guide, a 250ml can of Red Bull contains 28g of carbohydrates, while a medium banana contains around 27g and a cereal bar contains around 16g. All are possible pre-run options.
Taking a caffeine source 45-60 minutes before exercise can also help your performance positively. Most individuals seem to benefit from a moderate dose of 5mg per kilogram of bodyweight but intakes as low as 2-3mg/kg of bodyweight have been found to enhance performance. As a general guide, a single espresso, 250ml can of Red Bull and standard caffeine-based energy gel all contain approximately 80mg of caffeine.
During exercise
Keeping blood sugar levels topped up will preserve stored carbohydrates
© Brian Bielmann / Red Bull Content Pool
It is well documented that the main cause of fatigue in exercise over 60 minutes is diminishing energy stores. The body mainly uses carbohydrate and fat for energy and, although it uses a mixture of both energy sources, carbohydrate is its preferred energy source. The body generally has a small amount of glucose circulating in the blood, with most being stored in the muscles and liver as glycogen – but you only have enough of it to last for about 90 minutes of exercise. When glycogen stores become depleted, the muscles and brain run out of fuel, making you feel exhausted and drained. This is why you should take on carbs when on the move to keep blood sugar levels topped up.
When to fuel?
When it comes to running long distances, the longer you can preserve stored carbohydrate, the more efficiently you will be fuelling. If you can keep blood sugar levels topped up, you can keep saving stored carbohydrates for later in your run. With this in mind, it is important to maintain your energy levels as early as possible – if you are waiting to take your first gel or drink until an hour into your run, your glycogen stores will already be getting low. The key is to start early – after about 20 minutes. Although you won’t necessarily be feeling low on energy, topping up the tank from the word go will only benefit you later in the race where fuelling may become harder due to fatigue and potential stomach problems.
Although you might not feel hungry, it's important to start fuelling early
© Predrag Vuckovic for Wings for Life World Run
How much carbohydrate?
If exercising at a high intensity for an hour or longer – for example during a 10km race or half-marathon – or at a lesser intensity for a prolonged period, such as during a marathon, taking on carbohydrates is beneficial. Research shows that consuming 30-60g of carbohydrate per hour maintains blood glucose levels and sustains exercise performance.
It does have a limit though and the body can't physically absorb more than 60g of carbohydrate per hour when ingesting a single carbohydrate source, such as glucose. But by combining your sources, such as consuming maltodextrin and fructose together, you can utilise up to 90g per hour. In reality, this is a large amount of carbohydrates to take on and may cause stomach discomfort (unless you've trained your body to tolerate such an amount) but can come in handy when exercising for longer than two-and-a-half hours – such as during a marathon.
If you are waiting to take your first gel or drink until an hour into your run, your glycogen stores will already be getting low
It's worth flagging that some may find that sports nutrition products containing even moderate amounts of carbohydrates can cause stomach upset. All is not lost though. One study found that just 16g per hour improved performance by 14 percent, compared to relying solely on water. And, if you really struggle to tolerate anything apart from H2O, research has found that simply rinsing the mouth with a carbohydrate drink (without swallowing) can improve performance, potentially due to receptors in your mouth triggering reactions in the nervous system associated with motivation. It can’t do any harm to try!
Post training
It's important to take your recovery seriously, if you want to improve
© AzmanJaka / E+ / Getty
As tempting as it is to put your feet up after a long training run or race, getting your nutrition right will not only help you get back to your previous form but adapt to the training load, so you come back even stronger.
Nutrition plays a pivotal role in this process, with what you eat – and what time you eat it – impacting the rate at which you recover. Post exercise, quick recovery is key, as the quicker you can recover, the harder you can train during your next session.
Carbohydrates and protein are the main nutrients runners need to get this process going. Although both play equally important roles, protein is the main nutrient associated with recovery and training adaptations. Get into the habit of having approximately 15-20g protein within your post-training snack or meal (for example 500ml milk), and then again with each meal and snack for the remainder of the day.
Carbohydrates are also just as important to the recovery process. Unless doing very low-intensity exercise, the body will mostly be using carbohydrates for fuel. When your run is over, especially if you've trained over longer distances or periods of time, your tank can be close to empty.
If you have 24 hours between sessions, simply ensuring you have a carb-rich snack or meal within an hour of finishing, and then continuing to include carbohydrates at each meal for the rest of the day, will help you to hit your recommended carbohydrate quota. (More careful planning is needed if you are training twice a day, as the recovery window is much smaller.) A good post-training snack or meal that combines 50g of carbohydrates and 20g of protein is a banana and oat smoothie.
High in carbs and protein, peanut butter on toast is a great post-run snack
© happy_lark / iStock / Getty Images Plus
Rehydrating is also a focus point. Dark coloured wee post-training is to be expected but the aim is to get it nice and clear again within a few hours. Once you have achieved this, you know your body is rehydrated and back in balance.
When your run is over, especially if you've trained over longer distances or periods of time, your tank can be close to empty
Finally, it's important to include some fruit and veg, too. A certain amount of inflammation and stress occurs when you train, and foods containing antioxidants (molecules that fight free radicals in your body), and with anti-inflammatory properties, will help you to recover. Look for brightly coloured fruit and vegetables, as they contain antioxidants, and ensure you have at least five portions a day (more is ideal). Good fats found in fish oils can also regulate some of the stress and inflammation that we get from hard exercise.
Practical top tips
A 250ml can of Red Bull contains 28g of carbohydrates
© Ian Corless / Red Bull Content Pool
• The science provides the guidelines but be flexible, as no matter what the science says, you are more constrained on the day by what your stomach dictates
• Use your long training runs to conduct experiments of how much and what type of fuel you can tolerate
• To start, trial 20-30g carbohydrate per hour, little and often and aim to work up to 50-60g per hour. Remember your gut is trainable!
• Set your watch or running tracker to bleep every 20-30 minutes to remind you to fuel
• Start fuelling early while the gut is fresh and absorbs carbs easily – things might not be so easy a few hours into the race!
• The golden rule is: don’t do anything new on race day, no matter how tempted you are!
