Distance running nutrition considerations

It’s been a while since I’ve had something official to train for and since completing the GC Running Festival 10km, I’m a little hooked.

The 10km, including the 15km, half-marathon (21.1km) and full marathon (42.2km), are distance running events.

Whether you are a regular attendee of distance running events or fresh on the scene, it’s definitely worth considering your nutrition to get the most out of your training plan and performance on race day.

Have you considered the following?

• Meeting protein requirements and effective distribution.

• Meeting energy requirements and consistency.

• Carbohydrate and energy requirements on active days vs low volume/intensity days.

• Low carbohydrate vs carbohydrate consistency vs carbohydrate loading.

• Types of carbohydrates (low GI, high GI) and proteins (animal based vs plant based) chosen.

• Fuelling (pre-exercise) and recovery (post-exercise) nutrition.

• Pre-event meal/snack and timing.

• Hydration requirements.

• Consistency.

• Gastrointestinal upset/runner’s gut - stomach pain, cramping, bloating, diarrhoea, etc.

When you start to train for an event and find that you’re fatiguing quickly and/or recovering slowly, suddenly you find yourself considering all avenues, nutrition being one of them.

This isn’t a futile pursuit and most definitely worth exploring.

The list above is somewhat long but even just one adjustment can make a huge difference!