What Should I Eat Before and After a Run?
This week, our performance nutrition habit is going to focus on getting the nutrition right around our workouts.
We’re going to dial in our pre-run nutrition and post-run nutrition.
Why This Matters
This matters for three main reasons.
Performance
We want to make sure we have the right fuel in place to perform the workout at our best, and the correct nutrition available afterwards to adapt to our training and improve our running performance.
Injury Recovery and Prevention
Having the correct resources available after our workouts to adapt to our training allows us to reinforce the tissues and become stronger and more resilient.
Appetite and Consistency
When you fuel properly around your runs, you avoid the crash that leads to binge eating later in the day.
Energy stays more stable.
This is important because many runners use running to manage their weight, and we need to make sure that we don’t have cravings later that lead us to make poor food choices.
How We Do This
How are we going to do this?
Pre-Run Nutrition
Pre-run nutrition means having a small, easily digestible snack about 30 to 60 minutes before each run.
Think simple carbohydrates.
- A banana.
- A piece of toast.
- A granola bar.
Post-Run Nutrition
Post-run nutrition means fueling within two hours after each run.
That meal should be:
- Two to three handfuls of carbohydrate
- One palm of protein
This Week’s Performance Nutrition Habit
This week, our performance nutrition habit is:
- Eat a carby snack 30–60 minutes before every run
- Eat a meal within two hours of every run
- 2–3 handfuls of carbs
- 1 palm of protein
Since we will be having three meals a day anyway, we’re just going to try and time one of those meals to be within two hours of every run.
Download your Performance Nutrition Habit Tracker, and put in pre-run snack and post-run meal. Check it off every day this week when you complete that habit.
This will help us dial in our pre-run and post-run nutrition, making sure that we have the correct resources available to perform well in our training, adapt to our training, recover from our injuries, and help us avoid binging on unhealthy food.
Let’s get to work 🙌