Sports Nutrition for Runners and Walkers

Sports Nutrition Tips

by Nancy Clark, MS, RD (www.nancyclarkrd.com)

Without a doubt, what you eat and when you eat affects your athletic performance. A wisely selected sports diet can help you be stronger, train harder, and compete better. In this article we'll address nutrition as fuel, nutrition for quick energy, importance of fluids, along with pre-workout, pre-competition and recovery nutrition. Use the following sports nutrition tips to help you eat to optimize your performance.

Performance Diet for Endurance Athletes

By Matt Russ, USAC, USATF, CTS

nutrition-foods1 The athletic diet has changed very little over the years. The reason being is that there are not many pathways to fueling the body most efficiently. A diet consisting of 60-65% carbohydrate, 20-25% fats, and 15-20% protein is the proper ratio of macro nutrients for most endurance athletes and has been the mainstay for years. A highly trained endurance athlete would not last very long on a high protein diet, because their glycogen stores would quickly become depleted and they would no longer have the energy reserves to train effectively. There is little controversy in athletic nutrition when compared to the general population. The reason for this is athletic nutrition is based on hard science and fact, rather than sensationalism and circumstantial evidence.

What is the Glycemic Index?

Not all carbohydrate foods are created equal, in fact they behave quite differently in our bodies. The glycemic index or GI describes this difference by ranking carbohydrates according to how quickly after ingestion their effect on our blood glucose levels. Choosing low GI carbs - the ones that produce only small fluctuations in our blood glucose and insulin levels - is the secret to long-term health reducing your risk of heart disease and diabetes and is the key to sustainable weight loss.

glycemic-index1 Remember, carbohydrates provide sugar to the muscles, and carbohydrates are ranked (indexed) based on their immediate effect on blood glucose (blood sugar) levels.

Pre-workout, Post-workout Guidelines

Carbohydrates are fuel for training and performance and athletes will typically consume 60-70% of calories from carbohydrates. High protein diets will decrease athletic performance.

Pre-Workout Meal

High carbohydrate meal elevates blood sugar and boosts energy level.
300-400 calories an hour before; 1 gm/kg of carbohydrate. (kg= wt in pounds/ 2.2).
Powerbar and 8 oz of sports drink; 2 slices of whole wheat toast with jelly and a banana.
Never try something new on race day.

Nutrition and Carbohydrate Window

by Suzanne Girard Eberle, MS, RD

Racing to Recovery

Have you ever wondered why it's so hard to get out the door some days or why your Wednesday after-work run with the group often turns into a heavy-legged slog? Many runners attribute their lack of motivation or desire to being weak-willed. Others simply accept a plethora of unfulfilling runs and workouts as inevitable. Poor training days, however, are often linked to poor eating days. Feeling good on tomorrow's run hinges, to a large degree, on what you did following your previous workout. The key to a speedy recovery is to provide your body with the fluids and nutrients it needs before and after exercise. And the sooner you do it, the better.

Coach Steve’s Green Slurry

By popular demand, I have posted my recipe for the slurry I prepare 4 or 5 mornings each week during a marathon training season. The idea of the slurry (a bunch of vegetables, fruit and proteins blended together) came to me as a way to save time while getting the nutritious ingredients my body needs, and at the same time providing a way to “standardize” part of my diet so that I could count calories easier.

Plus, this recipe is fairly inexpensive and you can purchase fresh produce each week. I consume a serving before each long distance to fuel my body, and immediately after to help my body recover. The ingredients below provide nutrients from several different color groups – and included fresh phytonutrients.

Best Grocery List of All Time

15 foods for good health and top performance
By Liz Applegate Ph.D. (Runner's World)

Most supermarkets stock more than 30,000 items, yet every time we race up and down the aisles of the grocery store, we toss into our carts the same 10 to 15 foods. Which isn't such a bad thing, as long as you're taking home the right foods--ones that will keep you healthy, fuel peak performance, and easily cook up into lots of delicious meals. So before your next trip to the grocery store, add the following 15 foods to your must-buy list. Then, when you get home, use our tips and recipes to easily get them into your diet and onto your menu.

30 Minute Recovery Window: What to eat?

Enhance your body's recovery process by consuming carbohydrate and protein rich beverages and foods within 30 minutes following endurance exercise when muscles are most primed to resynthesize muscle glycogen. Consume 200-300 calories within this recovery window. Here are just a few examples. Experiement with what works best for you.

Recovery Drinks

Sports drink (PowerAde, Gatorade)
chocholate milk
juice (Fruit juice, Orange Juice)
Meal replacement beverage

Recovery Foods

Banana with honey/peanut butter
Fresh fruit
yogurt or cottage cheese
Bagel
energy bars
Rice cakes or low-fat crackers, with hummus or bean dip
turkey sandwich
Low-fat cookies (Fig Newtons, graham crackers, gingersnaps, etc.)