Eating for Endurance By NutritionWise EnduranceSource.com

  When is the most important time to eat carbohydrate foods?

   Prior to training

You can enhance the availability of fuel to your muscles during prolonged training by eating a carbohydrate rich meal or snack in the 2-4 hour period before exercise. Aim for the meal to provide 1-4g carbohydrate per kilogramme of body weight (e.g. a 70kg athlete would require a meal containing at least 70g carbohydrate and up to 280g carbohydrate). If you are training early in the morning, rising 4 hours beforehand to eat is not really a viable option! So in that case, try a lighter snack approximately 1 hour before training (Table 2) and continue to take in carbohydrate during the session.

Table 2. Carbohydrate meal ideas pre training session

2–4 hours before session:

• Pasta/rice with low fat pasta sauce
• Fruit salad with low fat yoghurt and honey
• Baked potato served with baked beans
• Meat/salad sandwiches
• Toast with jam and sports drink
• Crumpets or English muffins with jam/honey + fruit smoothie
• Breakfast cereal with low fat milk plus tinned fruit
• Lean meat, vegetables and noodle stir fry

1 hour before session:
• Sports drink
• Cereal/muesli bars + banana
• Jam sandwich + yoghurt drink
• Milkshake

   During training

You can’t build up glycogen stores during exercise, but you can try to minimise glycogen losses during prolonged training sessions with a regular intake of carbohydrate. This will reduce and/or delay fatigue by maintaining blood glucose levels at later stages of exercise. Aim for 30-60g of carbohydrates every hour. Options include commercial sports drinks, gels, jellies, raisins, bananas or cereal bars. Specialist sports drinks are ideal for this purpose as they also contain fluids and electrolytes, killing a number of birds with one stone. Fluids are often the preferred choice anyway (particularly by runners), as they are better tolerated by the digestive system. However, compact foods such as raisins or sultanas are also a handy food providing 50g carbohydrate in 2 tablespoons.

We often get asked about the use of gels – and yes they are an effective and easy source of carbohydrate for endurance runners. They can contain up to 30g carbohydrate per sachet but, be warned, they need to be taken with water and you must trial them during training as the concentrated carbohydrate can lead to runners trots. Furthermore, often no more than 4 should be used in one day and if running over 6 hours, you will need at least 180g carbohydrate which would exceed your gel limit. The best thing is to trial different carbohydrate replacements during your training months, so that by competition time you know exactly what suits you best.

  Post training

The recovery period after your training is a crucial step in helping muscles recover and optimising your performance at the next session. Remember, it takes up to 24 hours to replenish body glycogen stores fully, but storage rates are enhanced in the first couple of hours after exercise. Therefore, the timing of carbohydrate is just as important as the amount. Aim to eat 1g carbohydrate per kg body weight within 2 hours of stopping training. So for a 70kg athlete, this would amount to at least 70g carbohydrate.

If you are going to be training again within 8 hours, eat this amount of carbohydrate within the first 30 minutes after you stop training. If your next training session is going to be over 8 hours later, then your next meal, as long as it is within 2 hours of stopping training, is adequate. If you find it difficult to eat immediately after training, drinks such as isotonic drinks, or milkshakes, are particularly useful and may be easier on your stomach. The main message is to have nutritious carbohydrate snacks on hand to start the refuelling process ASAP.

  *Carbohydrate and protein post exercise – a match made in heaven*

Eating protein combined with carbohydrate after training work together to prevent the breakdown of muscle. You need to eat 0.1-0.2g/kg body weight of protein with your 1g per kg body weight of carbohydrate after your training session. See Table 3 for ideas.

Table3. Post training snacks containing carbohydrate and protein

Snack Carb content (approx) Protein content (approx)
500ml Sports drink (6% carbohydrate)  30  0
Banana + peanut butter sandwich 56g   12g
Lean Meat/chicken/cheese sandwich and piece of fruit 60g 10g
Scone and low fat fruit yoghurt 35g 9g
Cereal Breakfast bar Check label
Sports bar Check label
1 tinned fruit (in juice) plus low fat yoghurt 50 8g
Smoothie (200ml skimmed milk blended with banana/berries/mango) 40 9g
1 med baked potato + baked beans 50 9g
Breakfast cereal (60g) + 200mls low fat/skimmed milk 60 10g
2 slices toast + honey/jam/marmalade + 1 glass fruit juice (200ml) 60 7g
Yoghurt Drink (200ml) + bagel 65g 7g
Baked beans + 2 slices toast 50g 12g

  Carbohydrate and your immune system

There are benefits of eating carbohydrate rich foods and snacks during exercise and the recovery period other than simply refuelling. Prolonged intense exercise typically results in a rise in stress hormones and suppression of the immune system, leaving you susceptible to picking up colds, flu and any other infections doing the rounds – the worst possible outcome during intense training in the run up to an event! However, a sufficient carbohydrate intake, both during and after prolonged exercise, appears to limit these negative processes following exercise whilst benefiting the immune system.

Richelle Flanagan, BA, MSc, PgCert Allergy, MINDI is a Sports Dietitian whose clinic is based in Dublin and works across a broad range of athletes including marathon runners, ultra marathon runners, cyclists and team sports such as Gaelic football, and is currently working with Bohemians football club. She is the co-founder of NutritionWise, the nutrition consultancy , and works with her

colleague Joanne Corbett, BSc, DBS, MSc, MINDI, who sees athletes in her NutritionWise clinic in Cork. If you would like to see a Dietitian just phone to make an appointment: Dublin: 01 2964890 richelle@nutritionwise.ie; Cork: 086 3961860 email: joanne@nutritionwise.ie. 

Copyright (C) EnduranceSource.com 2008

Copyright (C) EnduranceSource.com 2008