Running Nutrition Isn’t Hard. It’s Misunderstood. (Nutrition Masterclass)

[00:00:00] This is a banana. Some people swear it’s the perfect pre-run food, and this is a gel, basically candy with a bit of maltodextrin to help you perform better and some electrolytes and caffeine, but with a $4 price tag. And here is the thing. I’ve seen runners eat both of these perfectly and still blow up mid race.

[00:00:20] I’ve also seen runners eat almost nothing. And run the best time today. I’m putting together everything I’ve learned across almost 30 years of running, doing a 10 hour Ironman and a sub three hour marathon into one nutrition episode. No bro science, no fluff. Just what actually works with evidence and my research and my experience to back it all up.

[00:00:40] In this masterclass toolkit of sorts, so much information for you, you’re gonna learn why drinking more water can actually wreck your race. And the electrolyte protocol that fixes it, how to actually build a runner’s plate, food plate with the right carb, protein, and fat split. And why running more doesn’t actually mean losing weight.

[00:00:59] Exactly what to eat before and after run so you don’t bunk. And I’ve got a free cheat sheet and training guide that helps you take all this information and use it in real life. Pre-race, post-race, during the race, pre-training, after training, hydration, electrolytes, et cetera. And yes, not peeing during or before the race is the same exact hydration protocol used by NASA astronauts before they launch up into space.

[00:01:23] So you know it works. Oh, and two quick disclaimers. Number one, this nutritional stuff is all for informational and entertainment purposes only. And number two, I sometimes say the word glycogen, and what I mean is glycogen. Sorry about that. Internet. Thanks for playing. Let’s get into the episode. A pre-race meal, what is it?

[00:01:43] It’s not faster runs if you want to run for performance. Most runners think skipping breakfast is a badge of honor, but as Jordan sports dietician puts it, try not to train faster and let’s feel like doing a really chill session in terms of waking up and eating before going to training. Some form of the, like the flow of carb in that meal.

[00:02:01] You’re gonna burn a carb, whether it comes from a carb, whether it comes from a fat source, still are gonna be burning. Why carbohydrate? The energy translation. Eat something you’re not running on vibes. Think of your pre-run meal, like topping up your fuel tank before a road trip, alright? You’re not gonna win a drag race with this whole road trip.

[00:02:19] You’re just making sure you don’t stall out halfway to your destination. We’re talking about the pre-run meals, how to do a pre-run meal. There’s a lot of different ways. Here’s the best way I found. Stick to simple foods. Low fiber, low fat, and simple carb heavy. So simple carbs. Example. Toast with peanut butter and jam.

[00:02:39] Uh, a banana or quick oats with honey. Those are three different things. Protein shake with juice is another one. And if you want to add sugary fruits that are simple, apples and bananas, absolutely cool too. I would stay away from before a run. Berries, strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries. The biggest thing is to avoid fatty, oily and high fiber foods, like a salad with an avocado, bacon, and olive oil before running.

[00:03:06] It takes a lot of time to process all of that heavier stuff, the fats, the oils, the fiber, et cetera. And when you go out to run. Your digestive system actually doesn’t prioritize digesting food. So what happens is you got a whole bunch of stuff in your stomach that’s half digested, sloshing around when you run, going up and down.

[00:03:24] Some people doesn’t feel great. It’s also not good to have it in there because it’s also another thing that your body and brain are trying to sort out. The timing matters. Eat one to two hours before shorter runs. This is just a guide. Feel free to modify this for yourself. Everything is very personal. Uh.

[00:03:41] Or up to three hours. If your meal is heavier or your workout’s longer, you can do variations of this. So you can do three to 400 calories of, I’d say one to two eggs and toast. I wouldn’t do any veggies. If you like spinach with your eggs and toast, I wouldn’t do the spinach before a run. So that’s like three to 400 calories, and you can do that two to three hours before a run.

[00:04:01] So if you wake up really early or you do a lunch run again, or you do an evening run. That’s absolutely fine. And let’s say you only have like an hour and it’s a between 30 and 60 minute run. A light snack is fine. 50 to 150 calories. So, uh, again, the peanut butter and honey and banana’s, absolutely fine.

[00:04:20] Even as low as 30 minutes, I’d say give yourself a bit of time. Sometimes I mess around with it. You can experiment during training your stomach. Is super individual and unique, just like your running form. So I’d say to figure it out, try a little bit and then try that much. I can do a lot of fasting type stuff and I usually just need salt and I can do fasting for longer runs.

[00:04:39] I only do it at certain times and I make sure that I eat the night before. ’cause I usually train in the morning or I eat directly after. If I’m gonna do fasted, but this episode isn’t about fasted running. That is a conversation for another day. But why is the pre-run meal so important for most runners that are between 60 and 80 kilos?

[00:04:57] That’s between 130 and 180 pounds for the Americans that aren’t on the metric system. You’ve got around, I’m gonna be throwing numbers here, 1500 to 2000 calories of glycogen in your tank. When it’s full. So glycogen is what happens when your body digests carbs and then it’s stored in your liver and your muscles.

[00:05:15] You have less carbohydrates usually for smaller runners. And some people with different genetics and you have more carbohydrates for larger runners, but that range seems to be about right for most people. So we’ll just put that there as a, a rough guide if you want this to stick. A good metaphor is a phone battery that drains too quickly, so a solid pre-run meal tops up your energy store so you get that battery at least 80, 80%.

[00:05:38] You know it’s gonna die when you go out. And can run strong and it signals to your brain, this is very interesting that you’re ready to do work, that you can go long or you can go fast, or you can B go both because your brain and your gut, they’re connected and they need to actually know, like, I’ve got enough carb stores in there.

[00:05:53] I’ve done this before. I won’t shut things down if things get kind of hard. So you got your pre-run fuel, but what happens after the run if you’re still guessing and winging it with your nutrition, you’re leaving a whole bunch of performance and gains on the table. Yes, I said that. It is so true. That’s exactly why I put together a free five Best No Fridge Foods post run.

[00:06:15] It’s a bundle. It’s a nice little guide that you can take with you if you wanna print it out or have it on your phone or whatever. You’re like, what do I need? Boom, boom, boom. And you’re also gonna get in this bundle, a six week base training plan, a simple daily, 1% better running habit system in that six weeks.

[00:06:29] And again, that cheat sheet for how to eat smarter without overthinking. When you’re out with no fridge and you wanna make sure that you’re about to go for a run and you’re fueled up. So get that at the QR code right here, or the link below in the video description, or if you’re listening in your podcast player, open that up and go to show notes for the link.

[00:06:46] Sign up once and you’ll get that. Plus my five minute per week newsletter where I do deep dives on topics like VO two max and Strides and Lactate threshold, and mental fitness, and a whole bunch of other stuff to help you live that 1% better life. Let’s go into the next section and go into more detail about why post run fueling is so dang important.

[00:07:08] Post run recovery snacks. What is it? Recovering isn’t about guzzling protein powder like a power lifter. Uh, if you, if you lift your hybrid athlete, sure you do high rock. Sure you can, you can think of yourself like that. Everyone actually needs. Post-run recovery or post-workout recovery, it’s about giving your body the raw materials to rebuild and refuel.

[00:07:27] It’s kind of like patching holes in your tire. If you’re driving right after rolling over bad terrain, we’re back on the car analogies. If you don’t fill in those holes now. You are gonna go out for tomorrow’s miles with a flat tire. It’s gonna feel like a flat tire. So how to do it? Uh, I’m gonna get in the weeds with some numbers here, so hang with me.

[00:07:46] You want to aim for a three to one carb to protein ratio that’s in grams. So for every one gram of protein, you have three grams of carbs. I’ll get into exactly where this just multiply for your weight. So for longer runs and races, you could even do four to one carb to protein ratio, as I like to call it carb insurance.

[00:08:03] So for shorter. Strength focused or VO two max or interval types work? Uh, 30 minutes. 20, 20 minutes, even 40 minutes. You might be fine with two to one. I’m actually fine with lower carbs or even one-to-one on off days. That’s absolutely fine. Here’s that super easy and cheap recovery snack that I hinted at earlier.

[00:08:19] It is drum roll chocolate milk. You can do soy. Oat almond if you’re vegan, lactose free. If you’re lactose tolerant or just regular cow’s milk, if you can handle, uh, milk. I cannot personally, I am lactose intolerant. I get that lactose milk or soy milk pair that with this is like bonus, a baked sweet potato with salt and foil that.

[00:08:41] You cooked earlier in the week, you cooked a whole bunch of ’em in a week. You baked them ’cause it’s easy. And now you got yourself a meal that travels with you anywhere. It could be cool out of the fridge, it could be whatever, room temperature and it’s fine. Just scoop that up, eat it up. Remember, timing matters, but don’t stress.

[00:08:56] Eating within 30, 60 minutes is absolutely great. That works for me personally and from the studies I’ve found. But you can also go as far as 90 to two hours. Some people are fine with that. I cannot do that. My body is like, yo. If I need that food, give it to me as soon as possible, and then I need to keep eating for like three or four hours more than my body’s saying that I am hungry for.

[00:09:17] So if I’m. Kind of hungry, not really hungry. I know just keep eating a hundred, 200 calories, whatever. Uh, electrolyte drink with carbs in it or toast with banana and peanut butter, whatever. I’m just eating snacks for the next three, four hours and then I feel good. I don’t have a weird headache. ’cause sometimes when I wait till like two, two and a half hours, if I haven’t eaten enough, I don’t feel great.

[00:09:34] Do what works best for you. Experiment. This is your body nutrition. Super, super individual and figure out what feels good. So why is all this important after run? Your muscles are like a construction site. Any carbs to give them the. Energy to refuel and the protein is the actual building material to build it all.

[00:09:51] So you got your steel and your lumber and all those things and your nails and whatever, and recovery snacks. They set you up for tomorrow’s run. That’s the biggest thing. And they can, they can reduce soreness and they can speed up repair. Just generally make you feel like you’re ready to go. And here’s, uh, my top five list of recovery snaps that you can get at the free download.

[00:10:12] So at the QR code right here, I’ll go over them in a second. Um, and you’ll also get that base training and habits plan and sign up for the newsletter. But here we go. Number one, chocolate milk shelf stabled box. Most grocery stores sell lifelong boxed versions, so cow’s milk, lactose free soy almond, dairy.

[00:10:28] Super easy to get cheap. You can buy the packs of them, they have carbs. Plus protein tick and they’re portable and obviously shelf stable. And if you’re okay with room temperature, they’re fine. You can throw them in the fridge or the freezer if you know you’re gonna be out, it’s gonna be hot for a couple hours.

[00:10:41] And then it’ll be nice and cool a couple hours later if it was in the freezer. Number two, peanut butter sandwich on any type of bread. So if you’re trying to lose weight in the off season, you might wanna go whole wheat. Or if you’re a couple weeks out for a. I’d say go with regular white bread. Simple carbs are your friend when you’re running a lot.

[00:10:56] And you can again, make this ahead and the prepackaged version. So you put it in whatever packaging to go foil, whatever. And again, bonus add honey or cinnamon sugar and banana slices on top so you get some balanced macros, carbs, a bit of fat, some protein. Super fast to eat, no utensils required. Number three, trail mix and granola bar.

[00:11:17] Combo. So you could do a combo or just one or the other. Our granola bars are super easy slash protein bars. Look for trail mix with dried fruit nuts, obviously, and you can customize it depending on your appetite. And they have, again, carbs, fruit, and you get protein and fat from the nuts. And number four, tuna can tuna pouch or crackers.

[00:11:35] So pre-made tuna to go. Some people not a fan of. I love this stuff personally. It’s shelf stable, so sits in your cupboard without you having to put it in the fridge for many months and possible years. Tuna is high protein and it also just a lot of calories. You need that, and if you get the crackers, you can go whole grain or regular white crackers.

[00:11:52] It’s salty. It’s got the carbs. Feels great. You need that salt. I’ll talk about salt and hydration electrolytes. In a future episode. You can add a squeeze of lemon or mustard if you have that at your. Place of, uh, wherever you are during lunch or dinner or wherever, to flavor it up. And number five, you can do the broken shake.

[00:12:10] That’s what I call it. The, the piece by piece, open face shake, which is just oats protein powder. And let’s just do water. If you wanna do milk, you wanna carry milk with, you wanna drink some warm milk? The long life shelf type milk, that’s absolutely fine too, but it’s kind of gross. Water’s fine. So just instant os in a cup or in a bag.

[00:12:27] Um, you can have the cup with you. You can dump the bag in a scoop of protein powder. It’s like recovery oatmeal. A porridge, or it’s like a recovery shake. You have that shaker whisk ball, you can shake it up. It’s easy for travel, easy for if you’re office, school, wherever you’re in destination. And if you add a dash of cinnamon or nut butter in there.

[00:12:45] You get some flavoring and you also get some protein to make it fat. Hydration strategies, what is it? Hydration isn’t just chugging water really quick before a long race. That’s bro science from 2006. You chuck the water before it’s terrible for your gut. Hydration is about balance and getting enough fluids and electrolytes without overdoing either one.

[00:13:07] So imagine it’s like keeping oil in your car engine, so too little oil in your engine and the engine seizes up. Too much. It spills over and messes up the wiring. You need just the right amount. How to do hydration, electrolytes, right? Let’s start with balancing your water intake slowly throughout the day instead of gulping it all down before the run.

[00:13:27] So if you gotta run, you wake up at 6:00 AM you gotta run at 7:00 AM. Then you can start drinking immediately and don’t drink cold water. Cold water in your gut right when it’s empty is really, really bad. Try to get room temperature even slightly bit warmer and throw in a bit of salt in there. Bonus, use a electrolyte carb mix drink and you can sip that slowly.

[00:13:49] For the next hour, and I’m in the metrics zone here, you can sip 20 to 40 mils. That’s literally like that much every two to three minutes. And you’ll finish that drink within 20, 30 minutes and your gut will be happy and you’ll be nice and hydrated and you won’t have to pee so quickly. So for runs longer than 90 minutes, or in hot and humid weather, add balance electrolytes with your water.

[00:14:08] So that’s that carb mixed drink. Every company makes it. There’s cheap ones. There’s expensive ones. Get whatever you want. And with the electrolytes here, you need to make sure that they have. Sodium sodium’s, the big one, and then magnesium, potassium, calcium, and if you can get some zinc in there, great.

[00:14:23] Don’t overdo the zinc though just a little bit. It’s fine. If I say between 20 and 40 milligrams a day-ish for most people, don’t go over that. Use how thirsty you are as a guide, the old rule of eight to 12 glasses. So two to three quarts or two to three liters is about what you should go for daily. On a normal cool day that you’re not training that much, but new studies are showing that the number isn’t exact.

[00:14:46] And don’t forget the foods you eat has water. So different foods have different amounts of water. If you eat a lot of veggies. Simple carbs and fruits, then you’re gonna probably have way more water intake in you. Your body’s really good at letting you know when it needs water, so experiment with how much you need and feel it all out.

[00:15:02] Another rule is a guideline, a very soft guideline, is that your urine, your pee is a lemonade color. You wanna shoot for that right after a long, hot, humid run. If you didn’t hydrate properly for the run, you’re gonna have very dark pee. That’s normal. I’m actually gonna talk about in a second. How I over hydrated and then how to not do that.

[00:15:21] Why hydration is so damn important. So dehydration can destroy your performance. But here’s the absolutely crazy part over hydrating can be just as bad. It dilutes sodium in your blood leading to a negative condition called. Hyponatremia, which has similar symptoms of dehydration. It’s rare, but it happens especially in marathons when people drink too much in long events, people just drink way too much and they flush out all of the sodium and electrolytes.

[00:15:46] It actually happened to me in my Ironman triathlon back in 2016. I made that rookie mistake of not replacing enough electrolytes properly ended up with severe cramping, even though I was drinking plenty of water. It was like a 65 degree Fahrenheit 21, 22 degree. Celsius day, I didn’t need that much water.

[00:16:05] I drank a lot of water on the bike. I flushed out all the electrolytes, and that taught me a crucial lesson about smart hydration, which again, is not just water, it’s also electrolytes. So how do you avoid my horrendous situation in my endurance race and nail your own hydration strategy every single time?

[00:16:25] Here is my tried and tested formula for race day hydration. So wake up three to four hours before start time. Yes, I know it’s a lot, especially if you’ve got a 6:00 AM start time, but it’s absolutely worth it. Two and a half is fine too if you can get there. But three is best. And begin sipping water immediately.

[00:16:40] Not chugging, like I said before, sipping slowly. Remember, you wanna make it room temperature. Just put some hot water in there if it was in the fridge before, and that will make it room temperature. Just steady, consistent sips. So two hours before the start time of the actual race. Stop drinking. Yes, two hours.

[00:16:56] This gives you time for two, most likely, three bathroom breaks, and then you’re absolutely golden. No more porta-potty anxiety waiting out those long lines. No more men race emergencies. It’s absolutely beautifully. Simple, just you, your water bottle and good timing. I’ve tested this many times in marathons and even shorter distance triathlons in many races, and it works every time.

[00:17:22] So when all those other runners are at the bathroom, you’ll be focused on your race and you’re good to go. You don’t even have to pee anymore in the race. To make all of that easier for you, I put together something special. So this is the thing I talked about earlier, and if you’re tired of trial and error, uh, approach, you can grab my 1% better hydration and fueling guide.

[00:17:40] And it’s packed with real world strategies. Comes with a base training plan, six week base training plan and habits. Yes, the mental fitness. And you need that to become stronger, smarter, 1% better, no fluff, no bro science, all proven evidence-based methods, so you can join. 2000 other people that are getting this in their email newsletter.

[00:18:01] ’cause again, I go, come with the VO two max. Come with the mental fitness, the strides, many other things that will hit your inbox. Scan the QR code right here to get access or the link below in the video description. Or if you’re listening, open your podcast player, hit up the show notes and get the link.

[00:18:16] So you’re sipping smarter now, but sipping only gets you so far, especially on those long runs. When do liquids stop being enough? And when should you actually start reaching for all those hyper, neon colored, expensive gels, energy gels and energy chew. What is it? Energy gels and chews are concentrated.

[00:18:34] Carbs designed to keep you fueled during long runs. Won’t go into detail, but usually a mixture of malt, Dexter in the high end ones and fructose because your stomach can handle a lot of that. So a lot of people, they go, oh, I’m just gonna eat fruits. You know, real foods. Unfortunately, your body actually can’t digest and use that as easily and as quickly as.

[00:18:53] Maltodextrin, which is a very simple sugar. It’s fine a couple hours before, a couple hours after, but during an event, you, you really want maltodextrin and fructose and you want a blend of it, and that’s why the more expensive energy gels will give you that. So the best way is to pitch energy gels like jumper cables back to caries for your glycogen tank, your carbohydrate tank.

[00:19:14] You shouldn’t need them unless your battery’s nearly dead. Or you know, you got the 10 to 20% mark and when you do, the better it be the right type or you’ll fry the whole system. I take them before I need them. That’s fine. You need to practice that. But you wanna take them probably about one hour in. If you have a two hour race, maybe 45 minutes in, if you have like a three, four hour race, marathons, five hour race, you could take them every 30, 45 minutes.

[00:19:37] Some people feel sick, you gotta experiment. Like I said, experimenting is the biggest thing with nutrition. Everyone is individual. So how to do it, as I said before. For runs lasting longer than 90 minutes. Easy runs you. You don’t need them, I don’t think. If you need them, you might wanna sort out your fat adaption and maybe doing some shorter fasted runs, or maybe running on less nutrition, maybe eating about two hours before.

[00:20:01] But that’s a conversation for another episode. So if you really need them, maybe start them 45 minutes, 60 minutes into a 90 minute run. I’d say you can save your money. You can get. If you want just regular kind of bars that are really quick, you can run with a banana if you want. Take a quick break.

[00:20:15] People run with candy, that’s absolutely fine. Anything after 90 minutes, I’d say to start getting decent energy gels and chew. I like the cliff bar, chew ’cause they’re less messy gels. If you don’t open them right, they sometimes break in your pocket. If you don’t take all of them, they fold. They get sticky.

[00:20:30] I hate that sticky miss. So start with one gel every 30 to 45 minutes during a long run, make sure you wash it all down with water. I try not to do sports drink because you’re just putting sugar on sugar and then it’s actually a dental teeth issue. You’re running mouth breathing, you get all the sugar on your teeth.

[00:20:46] You got a cavity mess now. So you just layering on more and more problems. Test different brands and flavors to see what works for your stomach, what you like. Different timing, et cetera. I found the high end ones have a much better blend, and sometimes they throw in caffeine. They just try them out.

[00:21:00] There’s so many out there. Why are these gel stings so important? Your body, again, has only 90 minutes of glycogen stored up. As I’ve said in a previous episode, that’s about. 1500 to 2000 grams of carbohydrate glycogen in there. It’s just easiest to say that. So after the 90 minutes, your energy tank starts to run dry, and that’s when you hit the wall.

[00:21:19] And that wall is actually why people start slowing down and not to get in sports science, but it’s an a TP thing. You actually, your body’s not able to produce a TP as efficiently, so it slows you down. Your brain is actually like, no, you’re trying to kill me. That’s why you slow down. So the gels. Provide carbs to help keep you moving.

[00:21:36] Usually, if you’re not fit for the event, you can’t carb, consume your way into your fastest marathon. You gotta train for the marathon. This is just supplemental and helps you balancing macronutrients, micronutrients, and supplements. What is it? What is all that? All right, we’re getting to the weeds a bit with nutrition.

[00:21:53] Quick refresher. It’s the building blocks for a running diet carbs. Protein and fat, those three things. It’s that simple. Getting the mix of all these right helps keep you energized for your runs and helps you recover so you can come back and do more. To repeat the cycle, and this is slightly different for distance runners than it would be for sprinters that do running that.

[00:22:14] It would be for a general person that actually doesn’t really train that much versus a bodybuilder versus someone that does high rocks versus even a soccer player or a basketball player. It’s slightly different from that. So this works like a blueprint for building something mechanical and large.

[00:22:29] Let’s use the metaphor analogy like a house. Carbs are the scaffolding and the protein is the bricks, wooden steel and fat is the truck delivering all of those supplies. ’cause without them coming there in the right way, you can’t do anything micronutrients. They’re the nuts and bolts supple. Emergency backup insurance if you want to put it that way, of when you’re out of stock and you might not be getting enough and you just want a bit of a top up.

[00:22:56] So how to do it all? Gonna get into the weeds a bit more with numbers and I’ll have them on the screen. So if you’re listening, please go and watch this on Spotify app or check this out on YouTube. You just go to the link in the show notes and go straight to my website and get it. All right, so you want to, as a distance runner, an endurance runner, prioritize carbs.

[00:23:18] Yes. All you keto low fat people, if you’ve gotten this far, it doesn’t work that well. So it works. I’ve done it. I’ve done the keto, I’ve done the low fat, I’ve done the fasted runs. It works until a point if you come from a not being fit at all. Fast runs are fine. Low carb runs are fine. Keto runs are fine, but the minute you try to start going for your best time, you start going really far.

[00:23:39] It really, really does fail. So you can do it, but will you run your best time? Will you recover? Well, that’s what people don’t talk about anyway, so back to the numbers. They should make up 50 to 65% of your calories as a runner. That’s about five to seven grams per kilo. Or for the Americans, that’s about 2.3 to 3.2 grams per.

[00:23:59] Pound. Uh, it gets really messy that way, but you can figure that out. I personally have found I can go on the lower end of carbs, uh, medium to lower end. I go more. Medium is acceptable and do fine with the type of running that I do. So it’s more faster. 5K stuff and interval stuff. Yo two max. I’m a hybrid athlete, as they call it.

[00:24:17] I like to be in the gym, so I do fine. I like to do, I’ll get into protein a bit more like high protein, slightly more fat, but that’s me. Do as you need to. Everyone is different. It’s individualize this whole nutrition thing. But, uh, I do ramp them up on longer days, my carbs, and I’ll ramp them up as I’m training for a marathon, and especially the week before marathon, the three days out for a marathon the day.

[00:24:39] The night before marathon, the, the morning before marathon, during the marathon after marathon. Carbs are my, my everything, and I’ve learned to really embrace them. Simple, sugary white carbs. Those are the best ones. When you start running along, you can experiment with brown carbs and more of a, uh, the, the complex carbs, so sweet potatoes and brown rice and all that stuff.

[00:25:03] Protein is second important. Very, very close second. This should make up 15 to 20% of your calories. I’d say that’s about 1.2 to 1.6 grams per kilo of body weight. Some people go as high as two grams per kilo as I would, and for Americans. That’s about. Half to one gram per pound. So how would that look? I am 73 to 74 ish kilos, so I like to eat 150 ish grams of protein per day.

[00:25:33] And uh, I think I’m a hundred, I don’t know, 160 pounds. Maybe 165 pounds, 0.9 grams per pound, 160 grams per pound. This helps with recovery from the hard and long workouts and repairs, muscle and tissue damage. Eating foods high in collagen protein. Little bit of tip is great for older runners or runners with tendon and ligament issues, which is me.

[00:25:54] I’ve had Achilles issues for going on like 10 years now, and collagen. It helps with strength training. That’s the caveat. You have to strength train. There’s some, uh, very new studies the last couple years that say collagen plus vitamin C, 30 to 60 minutes before your training session, your run or your strength session, and it does help with preserving the Achilles tendon.

[00:26:17] So let’s get to the last macro fat. That matters a lot because it helps move around the micronutrients, the vitamins, and all that stuff in your blood and get to the right areas. But focusing on healthy fats for most of your diet is best if you can. Staying away from as many saturated fats for most meals is best.

[00:26:35] So you don’t gain unnecessary body fat, you don’t have cholesterol issues. I have some cholesterol issues and I need to very much make sure that my saturated fat intake is not too high. So I won’t go into too much detail about that as this is a very broad view and you can Google away. You can email me Daren at one better run, the number one better run.com, and I can help you out with any of those needs as best I can.

[00:26:58] I usually take in whatever fats I can get with my protein as it’s hard to get. High protein without high fat. When you eat natural food sources, so meats, cheeses, eggs, and nuts, they have high fat and also high protein and that’s great. You can get leaner meats that have less fat, but it’s still hard to get like zero fat when you get.

[00:27:20] Protein, but there’s a bit of a trick to do that with supplements. So this is why supplements like protein powders are great, especially whey isolate and whey concentrate. And I’ll go into supplements in the next section because the supplements, the protein supplements they have little to no fat, which makes it easier to hit your.

[00:27:36] Protein target without blowing up your calories and gaining unnecessary weight as a runner. ’cause we do that and I talk about that actually in the last section of this, about gaining weight. Losing weight and all that with running. ’cause it is a mind FUCK. It is so hard to do both for me actually. And I see a lot of runners do that.

[00:27:53] They run a lot, they gain weight. But we’ll talk about it in a second. Micronutrients could be a whole episode on its own, but I’ll go over why they’re important and how not to overthink them. So micronutrients, again, like vitamins and minerals, are essential for energy production, muscle function and recovery.

[00:28:09] You still need them. You can’t have a diet without fat. Fats do help. Fat does not make you fat in moderation, and you can get them naturally through colorful fruits. This is the micronutrients, vegetables, whole grains instead of relying solely on. Supplements, but supplements can help with a proper diet, which I’ll get into in a second.

[00:28:27] Overall focus on whole minimal processed foods to get your micronutrients as much as you can as a runner. We have all the packaged stuff, we have all the, the colorful supplements, we have all that stuff. Just, just try to eat a balanced diet with real food unless you have other health issues. And a balanced plate could look like one third carbs, one third protein, and one third veggies.

[00:28:48] Why is all this important? So runners often obsess over macronutrient ratios when they should be fo. Ing on consistency that is right for them with their food and balanced meals, again, gives you all that so your body can recover, run longer, feel better, get your gut moving when it has to digest real foods, et cetera.

[00:29:04] So you got your macros dialed in, your supplement sorted. But here’s the thing, none of it really works if your overall intake is absolutely misaligned. If you’re constantly eating too little too much, or just confused by how nutrition fits in your bigger picture, I made something for you. It’s a free download with two simple guides.

[00:29:20] One is a hydrate perfectly pre-race and never pee during your actual race or long run, uh, cheat sheet. It’s a mouthful. And the second is a five Best no fridge foods for pre and even post-run recovery. That’s another mouthful. Mouthfuls, nutrition, running, et cetera. So you can dial in nutrition to be ready for the next workout.

[00:29:40] That’s all of it. And, and, and there is more. There’s always more. I’m giving you a base training plan, six weeks and a 1% better daily habits tracker that comes with that and so many bonuses. This is the the five part bundle. When you grab that, you’ll get my weekly five minute email. You can read it in less than five minutes.

[00:29:59] That breaks down high impact topics that you will love. VO two max lactate threshold to talk about sprint strides mental. Fitness training and more stuff that actually helps you train smarter, not just harder. So make sure you get that the QR code right here below in the video description. Or if you’re listening, open up your podcast player and there’s a link right there in the show notes.

[00:30:21] If you’re still already eating well. Do supplements actually help or are they just expensive? Placebos, supplements for runners. So supplements add to an already proper diet. I think of it as insurance. You, you shouldn’t need it, but when you need it, you’re very happy that you had it. Supplements are like kind of in case the food that you’re eating, the whole foods, hopefully that you’re eating.

[00:30:43] Isn’t enough in a few areas and you know your micronutrients, you’re not getting that. Since everyone is different and has different objectives. I won’t go down this rabbit hole as I did an episode on that, and you can check that out right here on supplements. But a few key supplements that I think most runners should take regularly that I have been taking myself for years.

[00:31:01] And there’s studies backing all of these up with, uh, mostly no issues from, for most people. Again, consult a dietician or nutritionist if you have specific needs. This is all general information just for fun. So creatine, a naturally occurring compound that helps supply energy to muscle cells, enhancing strength and power output during high intensity exercise.

[00:31:22] Fun fact about creatine, new studies of finding that endurance athletes, people that are out there for 1, 2, 3 hours doing racist runs, et cetera. Actually need creatine more than bodybuilders. Creatine has just been this like bodybuilder thing in the nineties and two thousands, and now it’s like actually runners need it because they’re breaking down so much muscle and they need so much more protein.

[00:31:43] And creatine is a protein and they need that so much more to just maintain their, their, their muscle and their strength and all that. The a TP production, so cine does help with a TP production. A TP is how we go forward. Not to get too sciencey, uh, another. Supplement protein powder. It’s a concentrated form of protein, which is usually whey, casein, or plant-based, which is soy hemp or ah, pea protein.

[00:32:09] Uh, that helps with muscle recovery and growth. Collagen, loving collagen, as I said before, protein, if you’re using collagen for tendon or joint health, I’m gonna say it again, take it with vitamin C about 30 minutes before your run or strength session. Will help you. And that has been scientifically proven, very new evidence as of the last few years.

[00:32:28] I find that taking Collagen Whip strength chaining has really helped the slow down the, the degenerative nature of my Achilles issues. Magnesium glycinate, magnesium’s fine. A lot of people talk about magnesium. It’s really good. But, but look for the glycinate, or glycinate, however you wanna say it. Uh, it’s a highly absorbable form of magnesium bound to glycine known for better bioavailability, which means that your stomach just.

[00:32:51] Takes it in better and then gets it to the place that needs to go. And fewer digestive side effects compared to other magnesium forms. Magnesium’s, great post recovery before run, after run. Just taking enough, uh, I think 500 grams should be enough for most, most people. Any antioxidant I. Antioxidants are compounds that help protect cells from damage caused by free radicals.

[00:33:12] So free radicals are what your body produces when you are going long or going fast or both. So when you’re racing or when you, uh, again, you’re just training a lot, your body produces free. It’s like the exhaust fumes as I call it. And those free radicals cause a lot of damage. Antioxidants help with the damage that it does to your cells.

[00:33:32] So example is green tea. Extract. If you want, you can obviously drink a lot of green tea. I don’t like the caffeine, so I do green tea extract, decaf, tart cherry juice are my two. You can do echinacea, you can do, uh, pomegranate juice, you could do obviously berries and all that stuff. That’s like real stuff.

[00:33:48] But I’m a big fan if we’re talking about supplements, if those pills pop them in most days and I’m good to go. So macros, micros, and supplements, we know they’re powerful, but none of it matters. If you’re stuck in a cycle of eating too much or too little, what? If the real nutrition problem isn’t what you eat, but how and why Losing weight and overeating while running.

[00:34:10] Alright, I’m gonna quickly touch on a topic that most runners think about weight loss. So many runners, even super fit runners. A guy I’m coaching, Brenton, uh, I’ve coached him with his marathon. If you wanna check those episodes, you can check that. Actually that episode out where we did the marathon, trying to go sub three, almost got there and he’s super fit, super muscular, and he’s like.

[00:34:27] Always, always. And now Brent, if you’re watching, uh, I’m sorry if I gotta put you on blast, but he’s like, I think I need to lose weight. I’m like, bro, you, what weight are you gonna lose? You gonna lose all the muscle. You need the muscle anyway. And something that runners don’t think of and isn’t talked about enough is overeating.

[00:34:40] It’s something I’ve been thinking about the last five, six years because I’ve been having, I lose weight. I gain weight as I run a lot. Alright, so what is this whole overeating and then just the whole thing we’re talking about running to lose weight could work for some, but it doesn’t work for most.

[00:34:53] Again, myself included. And the reason why anecdotal thinking for most new runners is that when you run more, you burn more calories, therefore you lose weight. Duh. But what you’re doing is you’re actually increasing your appetite and you end up eating more and choosing not so great food options. ’cause your stomach and your brain, they don’t have an exact amount button.

[00:35:12] It’s not like, oh, I have eaten a lot. You know, people sit there and they have their spreadsheets and all that and the calorie counts. Uh, some pro runners do this, and I tried it and it just, it drives me insane. So I eat too hunger, which sometimes puts me. In a bad place, and I have a solution for that. So the, the solution is, and get ready for this, it’s eat not to be full, but instead to feel not hungry.

[00:35:36] Two vastly different things. They seem the same. I used to always eat to get that full belly, like I need to feel super, it’s called satiated and ah, I don’t need to, you know, oh, gluttonous and all that. But I actually just go, you know what? I’m not hungry. That’s fine. I don’t want to be hungry, but I also don’t wanna feel full and you gotta find that place.

[00:35:54] So everything in nutrition and mostly running is super individualized, especially with nutrition. Figure out where that point is for you. So, uh, a tool that I found is portion control and counting calories. For one to two days. It’s not glamorous, but knowing how many calories you need on an easy run day or off day and how many you actually eat on a hard run day is critical.

[00:36:16] It’s, it’s so like knowing how much it looks like or weighing it if you need to, or writing it down one, you know, like that’s how much I need on certain hard days. You can adapt and adjust as you need to. ’cause you’ll go, oh, actually I’m more hungry. That’s fine. And you can also run this through a basal metabolic rate.

[00:36:32] Calculator BMR, not to be confused with BMI Body Mass Index, which is something that we don’t. Need to be using. I don’t think most people need to be using, I personally don’t like using it. Some people like using it, but I don’t think it really helps me. Uh, you can use the BMR calculator online to find out what your macros and calories should be to gain weight.

[00:36:51] Let’s say you want to gain weight, if. Whatever reason. I don’t think most runners wanna gain weight, but let’s say you’re in the off season, you’re like, I wanna bulk up, I wanna jack up. Cool. Uh, what? You need to lose weight in a smart manner, consistently over time. You don’t wanna lose a lot real quickly.

[00:37:04] And how to maintain the weight, which is probably what most people want to do. I’m always trying to maintain weight in the off season, in the on season, the race season, et cetera. It’s not perfect. Like nothing is perfect, but keep experimenting and go about two weeks to see if you’re gaining or losing weight.

[00:37:21] This is best done in the non run slash off season because trying to lose weight while training for your fastest marathon are usually mutually exclusive activities. For most runners, myself included, I am included in this whole thing. Some of these episodes I do, most of them, they actually, for me, you need to be eating a lot.

[00:37:35] When you’re going the fastest you’ve ever gone or the farthest you’ve ever gone, you’re gonna need the calories to propel you forward. So I did a whole episode on that. Right here, actually, again, if you’re ready to finally align all your training, your fueling, and your race goals or life goals or whatever, go and get my free bundle, which is made up of my five No Fridge Recovery Foods cheat sheet.

[00:37:58] The no Mid-Race Dehydration Guide. That’s number two. Number three, the 30 day base and habits training plan. Number four, bonus, you’ll be signed up. To the newsletter that is five minutes or less each week, write in your email inbox. Get it out the QR code right here. But while you’re going to download that, if you ever felt like you’re doing everything right, you’re training consistently, you’re eating clean, and you’re not seeing the body and the composition changes that you want or that you expect ’cause you’re like, I’m running a lot, you’re not alone.

[00:38:25] I figured out why so many runners run more and still gain weight, myself included, and how to fix it without burning out. Or starving yourself. Two ends of the spectrum. Watch that at the episode here, the link below in the video description, or open up the show notes in your podcast player. If you’re listening.

[00:38:41] Let’s go check that out and learn more. Peace.