Are You Overlooking a Crucial Part of Training for a Race?

After our 2nd half marathon in 2017

My husband and I are both runners. It’s not unusual for us to have a training plan hanging from our refrigerator, with workouts carefully crossed off as we complete them, strength sessions planned out, and yoga scheduled every Friday.

We work diligently to complete every workout to the best of our ability. We pay attention to mileage, long runs, recovery weeks, and strength training.

But there is another part of the training plan that runners often overlook: nutrition.

I completed my specialization in running nutrition while my husband was training for his first 100-mile race. I generally try to avoid giving my husband nutrition advice unless he specifically asks.

And yet, he did ask. Frequently.

He made changes to both his everyday meals and his fueling during runs. He noticed enough of a difference from previous training blocks that he kept saying, “There may be something to this nutrition thing!”

He’s not wrong.

He has always been a strong runner and has completed many races, but paying closer attention to his everyday nutrition and his fueling during runs made a noticeable difference in how he performed.

Could it do the same for you?

Your fueling plan deserves the same attention as the miles in your training plan.

What I See With a Lot of Runners

Undereating is one of the most common issues I see when working with runners, especially female runners.

We have been conditioned to believe we are failing if we eat more than 1,200 calories a day.

We are so busy that sitting down for a full meal can feel like a pipe dream.

We worry that increasing our food intake will automatically cause weight gain, even when we have also increased our activity level.

And many of us have never been taught how much energy a grown woman’s body needs just to keep her alive.

For many adult women, basal metabolic needs alone are somewhere around 1,300 to 1,500 calories per day, although individual needs vary. That is the energy your body uses to keep you breathing, pump blood through your body, regulate your temperature, and keep your other organs functioning.

That number does not include getting out of bed in the morning.

It does not include walking to the bathroom, going to work, running errands, caring for your family, doing chores, digesting your food, or exercising. All of those things require additional energy.

Most women need significantly more than their basal metabolic rate to support an ordinary day. When you add running and training on top of everything else, your energy needs increase even more.

If I could get all my running friends into one room, I would give them one piece of advice:

Please eat enough.

That’s it.

Eat enough to support this crazy hobby we have and love so dearly.

It’s Not a Magic Bullet. It’s Insurance.

Eating enough during training does not guarantee that race day will go perfectly.

It certainly didn’t for me.

Getting ready to run my 3rd 50k!

I toed the line for a 50K on July 18, and believe me, I had fueled to the best of my ability throughout the training block.

I wasn’t perfect. I’m honestly still working on consistently eating the amount of carbohydrates I need every day. It’s harder than you might think.

But I had intentionally increased my food and carbohydrate intake as my mileage grew. I had practiced eating different foods during my long runs. I had paid attention to my meals in the days leading up to the race.

I also had a race-fueling plan, with carbohydrate amounts calculated and a schedule for when I would eat each item.

I was ready.

As it happened, the weather had a different idea about how my race was going to go.

Despite the 7 p.m. start time, it was blazing hot and humid. I did well for the first 10 miles, and my fueling was pretty much on point.

Then I started getting overheated. My heart rate was spiking, and eventually I had to stop moving for a while and sit down on the gravel.

When I was finally ready to keep going, I left my appetite behind at that spot on the road.

I choked down as much food as I could during the rest of the race, but it wasn’t anywhere near the plan I had carefully created beforehand.

Here’s what I realized during the second half of the race:

I was struggling, but I was okay.

I had not reached mile 12 already running on fumes.

Eating enough throughout my training had helped me recover between workouts and arrive at the starting line prepared. The meals I ate leading into the race and the fuel I consumed during those first miles gave me a stronger starting point when my plan became difficult to follow.

After finishing the 50k

Was it pretty? No.

Was it ideal? Definitely not.

But I didn’t bonk, and I crossed the finish line with a smile on my face.

My fueling plan did not keep everything from going wrong. It helped me keep moving when things did go wrong.

My fueling plan did not give me the race I expected. But it helped me finish the race I was given.

Training for a Race Is Not the Time to Give Your Body Less

A demanding training block is not the time to chase an aggressive calorie deficit.

It is not the time to routinely skip meals.

It is not the time to ask your body to do more while deliberately giving it less.

Training is the time to honor the hard work your body is doing by giving it enough food to recover, rebuild, and prepare for the next run.

Your body is doing a lot of hard work.

Show it some love.