Fuelling before you run is so important. If you don’t do it properly, it can really mess up your run. And I’ve definitely been the fuelled and not so fuelled runner, and I know which I prefer!
So let’s break down what to eat before running.
When and what to eat before running?
It depends on the distance you’re running as to how much to fuel. I’ve made the mistake before of over-eating the night before because I was worried I wouldn’t be fuelled enough.
Instead, here’s my advice. If you’re running for less than an hour, I would eat normally the night before! You don’t need to ‘carb up’. I make sure I eat a balanced meal the evening before. So, protein, carbs, veggies – and healthy fats too.
And then the morning of a short run, I’d either run and then eat a wholesome breakfast afterwards. Or, for a run over an hour, I’d have a little snack 30 minutes before.
Best snack to eat before running?
I would make sure you’ve got something inside you about an hour before you run. Find what works for you. I’ll get up and have a banana (and peanut butter if I have some in) and that works for me, if I’ve had the right meal the evening before.
What to eat the night before a morning run
If you’re running less than an hour, I’d have a balanced meal as you would normally eat.
If you’re doing a longer run like a 10k, a half marathon or a marathon, here are some of the foods I’d eat to ensure I’m getting a balanced diet; I paid for Eli Brecher’s (Registered Associate Nutritionist with a 1st Class Degree in Nutrition) ‘Mind Body Gut‘ course. There are lots of gut-friendly savoury dishes to get inspired by.
What to eat before a half marathon
Carbohydrates:
- Wholegrain pasta
- Brown rice
- Quinoa or beans
Protein:
- Chicken
- Fish like salmon, tuna,
Healthy fats:
- Nuts and seeds
- Drizzle olive oil on your meal or include salmon
- Incorporate avocado
SMASH! This is something I learnt from Eli’s course. SMASH stands for:
- Salmon
- Mackerel
- Anchovies
- Sardines
- Herring
They’re all great for those oily fish types that are high in healthy fats (not the bad greasy ones), and also omega 3 (great if you have eczema like me).
What happens if you don’t eat before running
I think the biggest thing is making sure you don’t overeat, or undereat! If you overeat, you’ll feel bloated and a bit nauseous and you’ll feel too heavy on your run. Not great. If you don’t eat properly before you run, you’ll struggle. Obviously. I’ve felt like all I can think about in the second half of the run was food. And then you start feeling really hungry and you lose motivation. You don’t want either!
If you’re running very early in the morning, like I do sometimes, you might not want to eat in the morning – I think listen to your body!
What to drink before a run
Make sure you drink 2 litres the day before you run. That’s the guideline anyway from most health professionals. And then before your morning run, I’d drink something and get some fluid in you before you run.
I’d then rehydrate after you’ve done your run. You’ve sweat a lot of it out!
Eat after you’ve run too!
You need to refuel. Make sure you get some food back inside you. It will help your energy levels throughout the day. But more importantly, your muscles need to recover. For example, this is what I eat before and after a 10km run.
Before
- Banana (peanut butter if I have it)
Soon after
- Wholemeal oats
- Cacao powder (has magnesium and protein in it – and lots of polyphenols, so good for the gut)
- 1/2 a grated carrot
- 1/2 a cup of skimmed milk
- Frozen berries
- Ground cinnamon
Later that day
- Beef dinner accompanied by:
- Swede-mash
- Veggies; Asparagus, carrot, broccoli, green beans, cabbage, courgettes and parsnips!
Your body needs to break the fast
Telling yourself that ‘I can just use the energy from last night’s dinner’ is unhealthy. It’s called breakfast for a reason. You’re, quite literally, breaking the fast.
Your body has just experienced a whole 8 hours (if you’re lucky, more) of no consumption. Let’s say you typically have dinner at 6pm. You then sleep from 10pm til 7am. It might feel like your last ‘activity’, so to speak, was eating, but you haven’t fed your body for 11 hours. That’s almost half a day.
If you’re one of those people who prefer to eat a later breakfast and get easily tempted to skip breakfast or wolf down a tiny snack pre-run, I want to let you in on a short story of mine. Because don’t get me wrong, I’ve been in exactly that self-convinced situation before too, but I’ll never skip breakfast or eat 5 minutes pre-run again.
The moral of the story is to eat a healthy portion of healthy food, in good time before exercising.
The science of eating before you run
People, that’s both runners and non-runners, say that distance running is different to a high intensity workout or interval training. And yes, I agree, to an extent.
But in this case, if the question you’re asking is “should I eat before I run and how long do I leave the gap before I start?”, the answer is yes. Like a car needs fuel, be it petrol or diesel, to run, you need fuel to run too, be it sweet, sour, cheap or expensive. Eat before you run.
The gap you should leave does depend on the distance and the food you’re eating. Morning run of 5 miles? A decent bowl of cereal or a wholemeal slice of toast, 30 minutes to an hour. Evening run of 10 or more? A healthy portion of dinner and then at least 2/3 hours.
You can Google the science behind it if you want. But just think about it. Not fuelling up before you run is just not clever. It can’t be good for you. The rules are simple: eat before you run. You’re being nice to your body by running at all, so give it the energy to do so.
Let’s wrap up!
Why is eating pre run so important?
I’ve touched on that in that blog post. Whether you’re going from couch to 10k, training for a half marathon or something else, knowing what to eat and when before (and after) is important. Hopefully you feel better equipped now..
