Eating on the Run by: Amy Isabella Chalker, RD, LMT

With sunny weather finally creeping in to replace the rainy season in Santa Barbara, new and seasoned runners alike are strapping on their sneakers and hitting the pavement, joining the ranks of those who participate in one of the most popular forms of exercise in the United States. Whether you are a weekend warrior or a twice-a-day runner training for a marathon, nourishing yourself with the correct nutrients before, during, and after a run becomes essential for optimal health and injury avoidance.
Like a car starting out on a trip, it is important to fuel up according to how long the route will take. Instead of forgoing a pre-run snack to save on calories, research shows that eating a “mini-meal” beforehand will actually help you work out harder and ultimately burn more calories. Of course, the size of the meal will depend on the duration and intensity of the intended run. For instance, if you are planning a long run (greater than 1 hour), it is important to eat a carbohydrate-rich mini-meal up to several hours before you exercise. It will become important to test the amount of food that works for you and how long your body needs to comfortably digest the food before you run in order to avoid discomfort and cramping. A runner intending to exercise after work may eat a carb-heavy meal at lunchtime (i.e. a turkey sandwich with an apple and corn chips), and then a late afternoon snack of yogurt and an energy bar in preparation for a run at 6pm, while an early morning runner may feel more comfortable eating a yogurt and a banana (also carb-rich) and then re-fueling afterward with a more substantial meal. The bottom line is that it is important to give your body fuel to work with, though it will be necessary to experiment with your own regime to find which foods are most agreeable with your stomach.
According to renowned Sports Dietitian Nancy Clark, “Research shows that people who eat a good meal four hours before they exercise perform better than those who eat no snack, and that a meal plus a snack just five minutes before exercise helps them work best.” Other carbohydrate-heavy options include a bagel or English Muffin, crackers, or a bowl of easy-to-digest cereal with milk or yogurt. Higher fat proteins like peanut butter and cheese will not digest easily and will often cause discomfort and sub-optimal performance. Though sports bars are always a convenient option, they are often more costly and sometimes more difficult to digest than a small meal that provides the same calories and nutrients in whole-food form.
If you are training and intend to run for 60-90 minutes or longer, it is important to allow your body fuel during the workout, in order to replenish depleted muscle stores and to prevent low blood sugar. The general guideline is to consume 100-300 calories of carbohydrates per hour, after the first hour. Again, there is no single magic food or liquid to supply these calories – it all comes down to what will work with your body, often discovered through trial and error. Potential foods and supplements to experiment with include a small box of raisins or a banana plus a sports drink; 1 liter of a sports drink alone; or an energy bar (plus extra water for easier digestion). During extended running, the body will treat the carbohydrates in liquid supplements and solid foods the same in terms of fuel – it is completely up to your own experimentation to determine which works best for you.
Though the recreational runner need not worry about specific “recovery foods” (a varied diet with a mix of carbohydrates, fat, and protein will suffice between workouts), a long-distance runner and/or marathon trainee requires a more detailed regime; it becomes important to restore glycogen in the muscles as soon as 15 minutes post-workout by eating carbohydrate-rich foods. For a 150-pound individual, this would equal approximately 300 calories. After 30 minutes, another 300 calories (of carbohydrates) should be eaten, and again 30 minutes after that. Generally, the body will ask for these calories in the form of hunger – the calories rarely need to be counted out or explicitly planned. These foods are often the same foods used to fuel pre-run, including cereal with milk and banana, juice, bagels, pasta, and so on. Though studies show that protein is not any better at replacing muscle glycogen than carbohydrates, protein can absolutely be included as a component of the recovery foods, in the form of meat on a sandwich, beans in a soup, or protein in an energy bar.
Though it may take several instances of nausea or stomach discomfort during a run to determine which foods are optimal for your own training, it is far better to experiment than to avoid snacks or meals altogether - a routine that can leave your body depleted of fuel and more susceptible to injury and chronic malnutrition. Along with sports hydration, (which requires a topic all its own!), eating as a runner is one of the most important components of training and deserves just as much attention as the run itself.

For a individually-tailored sports meal plan, please contact Amy through her website: www.isabellamontecito.com.
Ref: Clark, Nancy, MS, RD. Nancy Clark’s Sports Nutrition Guidebook, 3rd Edition. Human Kinetics, Champaign, IL: 2003.