{"id":7942,"date":"2010-03-02T12:52:48","date_gmt":"2010-03-02T17:52:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nomeatathlete.com\/?p=7942"},"modified":"2020-04-13T15:48:06","modified_gmt":"2020-04-13T19:48:06","slug":"what-to-eat-during-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nomeatathlete.com\/what-to-eat-during-run\/","title":{"rendered":"The Least You Need to Know About Fueling Your Run"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"RedAfter having a lot of fun researching exercise nutrition for the previous two posts in this series, those on pre-workout nutrition<\/a> and recovery drinks<\/a>, I figured the “during the run” post would be a breeze.\u00a0 After all, everyone drinks (or eats) something during his or her run; only those who take fitness more seriously bother to think about the before and after.<\/p>\n

To my surprise, this was the hardest of the bunch.\u00a0 But that turns out to be good news: The guidelines for during-the-run fuel are few and simple, allowing you to tweak whatever works for your specific body to meet the requirements.<\/p>\n

Please note that this list is the result of my own research, fusing bits of information from books like Chris Carmichael’s Food for Fitness<\/em><\/a>, Thrive<\/em><\/a>, Core Performance Endurance<\/a><\/em>, and The Paleo Diet for Athletes<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0 With endurance running comes the risk of dehydration, bonking, and hyponatremia, which are not things to f\u00a0 around with.\u00a0 So don’t blindly follow my advice without doing some research of your own.<\/p>\n

Without further delay, I present to you…<\/p>\n

How to Eat and Drink During a Run<\/h2>\n

1.\u00a0 Get off the commercial drinks and gels. <\/strong>Or at least, check them out to make sure they don’t contain artificial colors and sweeteners.\u00a0 While some sports drinks are truly designed for athletes, many of the more popular ones must also cater to the masses of non-athletes who buy them as soda alternatives.\u00a0 Much better to make your own natural sports drink<\/a> and raw energy gel<\/a>, both courtesy of pro vegan triathlete Brendan Brazier, in his book Thrive.<\/em><\/p>\n

2.\u00a0 Consume mostly liquid or easily-digesting food like gel.<\/strong> Solid food takes more energy and blood to digest than liquid, leaving you with less for hauling ass.\u00a0 And it’s more likely to cause intestinal distress, which can ruin a race.\u00a0 Except for the longest events, skip the solids.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0 For all workouts, take in 4 to 6 ounces of water every 10 to 20 minutes. <\/strong>Your goal is to replace most of what you lose in weight, so if you want to get precise, you can figure out what you lose during a standard workout and drink the exact amount you need to replace it.\u00a0 Or just chill out and just follow a rule of thumb like this one.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0 Get 500 milligrams of sodium with every 16 ounces you drink. <\/strong>When you sweat, you lose electrolytes, and that puts you at risk for hyponatremia if you hydrate without replacing them. For those of you making your own drinks and gels, 500 milligrams is a little less than the amount in a quarter teaspoon of salt.<\/p>\n

5. <\/strong>For workouts and races lasting over an hour (and up to 4 or 5 hours), you need 30-60 grams of carbohydrate per hour.<\/strong> 30-60 grams is a commonly-cited figure, but it’s a big range.\u00a0 More useful might be to divide your body weight in pounds by 4 to get a minimum hourly carbohydrate requirement, in grams.\u00a0 Accomplish this with a sports drink or a combination of energy gel and water.\u00a0 Some claim a little bit of protein, in a 4:1 carb-to-protein ratio, helps minimize muscle damage.<\/p>\n

6.\u00a0 For anything lasting much more than 5 hours, the nutrition focus shifts to fat, with a smaller amount of carbohydrate. <\/strong>For details, go find an ultrarunner who has run more than a single 50K!<\/p>\n

For more posts and recipes on natural sports nutrition, check out my Running Fuel<\/a> page.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After having a lot of fun researching exercise nutrition for the previous two posts in this series, those on pre-workout nutrition and recovery drinks, I figured the “during the run” post would be a breeze.\u00a0 After all, everyone drinks (or eats) something during his or her run; only those who take fitness more seriously bother […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":7952,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-7942","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nutrition","8":"entry"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Least You Need to Know About Fueling Your Run<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How to fuel yourself during a run or other endurance workouts. 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