Knowing how to plan your everyday meals around run training is tricky!

Today we are sharing our tips and planning techniques to help you plan to eat the correct foods at the correct times in the correct amounts to fuel training.

This becomes increasingly important as a runner increases their training load. Very few people have the same daily routine so it’s helpful to be able to be flexible with your food choices as well as your training schedule.

If you eat at the same food at the same time every day, regardless of your run training that can result in hunger, cravings, and low energy and poor recovery.

Today we are going to cover:

1. What to consider when syncing your training and food plan to support you

2. Planning your food around morning run training

3. Planning your food around evening run training

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SHOW NOTES

(04:26)

Where to start when synchronising food plans with training. Consider:

Training plans/intentions - consider distance, type of training, timing of training, and then start planning out your training “on paper” so you can factor food into your plan.

Ideally map out one week so you can see at a glance what training you’ll be doing and at what time.

On training days it’s key to ask yourself what your requirements are for pre/during and post fuelling and what athlete plate should you be following i.e. for easy or moderate or hard training.

It’s also important to consider what you have been eating and drinking before your run and that may include the day before your training run.

(10:11)

Pros and Cons of being an early Morning Runner

Positives:

• Fasted state running – if you are planning an easy run of less than 90 minutes in duration you may run in a fasted state – so no food, only water. Fasted state running will support fat metabolism
• Energy boost before work – gets the endorphins active

Cons:

• Waking early – make sure you are getting enough sleep so perhaps going to bed earlier
• Time restrictions – you’ll need to factor in time for your run and recovery before going on with the rest of your day
• Enhanced warm up after a night in bed – remember to warm up before starting your run

(11:29)

Planning Tips for Morning Runners

1. Our advice would be if planning a long run early morning so a run that will be 90 minutes or longer:
2.  Prepare the night before e.g. lay out running kit, snacks and water for during the run and prepare your pre run breakfast
3. Eat a carbohydrate rich meal the night before
4. Prepare breakfast the night before - maybe eat it before you get dressed so you are factoring in some time to digest your food. Choose easy to digest foods and you may even consider a liquid breakfast like a smoothie

(14:31)

A planning example for a morning runner who is doing a long run say 2.5 hours plus covering 13-14 miles and they plan to set off from home at 630am.

Most people will need at least 1 hour to digest food before setting out on a run. So, if you plan to start running at 630am, you’ll need to eat at 530am. When you are practiced in eating before running, you may be able have a shorter eating window.

Our suggestion would be to have a glass of water as soon as you wake up, then eat your pre run breakfast, then get dressed and do your warmup...