This week, we’re focusing on eating enough carbohydrates to fuel our performance and support injury recovery.
For runners, this would roughly be ~4–7 g/kg per day.
Don’t worry, we’re going to make it simpler than that.
Why This Matters for Runners
Many runners unintentionally under-fuel on carbohydrates.
This usually isn’t deliberate.
It’s because carbs have been framed as something to limit or avoid — crucially, in the broader non-running population.
Here’s the problem with that.
Carbohydrates are the body’s preferred fuel for running.
As endurance athletes, we need an adequate carbohydrate supply.
If we don’t eat enough carbs, this is what it feels like:
- Runs feel harder than they should, and we struggle to hold pace
- We feel drained after a run
- We don’t enjoy our training or look forward to our runs
- We get the feeling of bonking on runs that should be easy
I’ve had this low-carb experience before during marathon training.
When I tried to run home from work in the evening, I struggled to run all the way home. I felt flat, like I was bonking — I just had no energy.
So for us runners, this is really about energy availability.
If your body doesn’t have enough fuel:
- It can’t adapt to training, so we can’t run faster or further
- It can’t rebuild tissue efficiently, so we can’t recover from injury
Healing, adaptation, and tissue tolerance are energy-dependent processes.
Low fuel equals low capacity to recover and adapt.
That’s why we need to nail our carbohydrate intake.
How to Do This in Real Life
How are we going to do this as runners?
Let’s start with what counts as a carbohydrate.
What Foods Count as Carbs?
Carbohydrate foods include:
- Rice and grains
- Potatoes and sweet potatoes
- Pasta
- Bread
- Oats
- Cereal
- Fruit
For foods like rice, bread, and pasta, try to choose brown or whole-grain options if possible — but don’t lose sleep over it.
Now, in terms of portions, we measure carbohydrates by the handful.
A handful means a cupped hand of cooked food.
For our performance nutrition habit, we want to eat two to three handfuls at every meal.
- Start with 2 handfuls
- Move toward 3 if you’re training more, running longer, or feeling flat
This doesn’t need to be perfect.
The goal is consistency, not precision.
This Week’s Nutrition Habit
This week’s performance nutrition habit is simple:
2–3 cupped handfuls of carbohydrate per meal
Every day this week.
Download your Performance Nutrition Habit Tracker to dial your carb intake!
Fuel the body so it can adapt to training and recover from injuries.
Let’s get to work! 🙌