Ep. #397: How to Fuel Your Runs Without Overcomplicating It

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Hey, hey runner, and welcome back to the show. For anyone who has ever felt like they didn’t belong in the running world because of their pace or their size. Or their sheer hatred of spandex. Today we are talking about fueling and more specifically how to fuel your runs without turning it into a second job.

Because let’s be honest, the internet has made running nutrition feel like you need a degree in biochemistry in order to do it right, but actually you don’t. You just need to know a few simple guidelines and then listen to your body. So let’s break it down. The reason why fueling matters. Is because your body needs energy to run, and that energy comes from food.

It does not come from willpower or caffeine or vibes. It just comes from good old fashioned calories. And when you don’t fuel properly, your runs can feel a lot harder. Then they need to, you hit the wall, you feel sluggish, you might get dizzy or nauseous, and you might even start to think, I suck it running, but it’s not you.

It’s your fueling strategy. So let’s make that part easier. We’re gonna talk about what to eat before, during, and after you run. Before you run, if you are going to be running within 30 to 60 minutes, I want you to think light and quick like a banana, a slice of toast with peanut butter, a small handful of pretzels, something simple carbs that’s easy to digest, and that’s not a huge meal.

Okay, the one caveat to this is if you are going to be running within 30 to 60 minutes of waking up, so you’re basically gonna get up and half an hour later you’re gonna be out there doing your run. Um, and your run is a short one. It’s like less than an hour. In that case, you don’t necessarily need to eat anything before you run.

So I recommend kind of experimenting and playing around with it. Try running with a little food one day. Um, and this is again, if you are specifically somebody who’s running. Right after you wake up, you can try it one day with a little bit of food and then try it another day and see which feels better because everyone’s body is different when they first wake up, especially if you’re a coffee drinker.

Um, this is something you may need to play around with a little bit. There is no hard and fast rule. It’s more what works for you and your body. But in general, if you’re gonna be running within 30 to 60 minutes. Um, from, like, imagine it’s like 10 o’clock in the morning and you’re gonna be running at 11 o’clock.

You want something light and quick, simple carbs that are easy to digest. Okay? Now, if you’re gonna be running two to three hours from now. So say it is 10 o’clock in the morning and you’re gonna go eat for a run at noon or 1:00 PM before you eat your lunch. You can eat a little bit more than that. Light and quick snack.

Okay. Maybe some oatmeal with fruit or uh, a smoothie. Nothing super heavy, nothing greasy or rich, unless you wanna get well acquainted with the nearest porta-potty. But you’re gonna want a little bit more food than if you’re gonna be running 30 to 60 minutes from now. Okay? So it goes without saying, please don’t try any new foods right before a run.

So you know before your run is not the time to say, oh, that. Uh, pineapple and ham pizza that I’ve never had before. Looks really yummy. Let’s see what happens. If I eat that right, save that for afterwards. But again, to recap, pre-run fueling, if you’re gonna be running within 30 to 60 minutes. Light and quick.

If you’re gonna be running two to three hours from now, you can eat a little bit more. And if you’re running first thing in the morning right after you wake up, you are gonna wanna play around with it a little bit and see whether running with or without fuel makes sense for you. Okay? Now that’s before run.

Let’s talk about during your run. You only need to fuel yourself during your run if you’re gonna be going longer than th, than like an hour. Okay? If you’re running longer than an hour, I want you to aim for 30 to 60 grams of carbs per hour and that you don’t need to sit down with a calculator and figure it out.

Okay. Uh, it could be something like a sports drink or a gel or a chew or a fruit snack. You know, like a fruit rollups, a handful of jelly beans or dates. It could also be some kind of whole foods that you’ve created. Uh, one of my favorite long runs snacks is to take little baby potatoes and sort of toss them with olive oil and, uh.

Uh, kosher salt, like the really, uh, chunky kind, and then roast ’em and put ’em in a little baggy. Each potato is like one to two bites. They’re super easy to chew, chew and digest. The salt gives you some electrolytes and you know, you put a few of those in the pocket of your, um, hydration pack and you’ve got like a super easy snack that isn’t highly processed.

If that’s something that is. Important to you. Okay. If you’re wondering about different snacks that you can make for yourself, um, that aren’t things like pre-prepared. Running fuel. There is actually a whole book out there called Feed Zone Portables. I’m gonna link to it in the show notes, and it’s got lots of recipes and ideals for ideas for fuel that is tasty and homemade.

There’s some sweet, there’s some savory, depending on what your tastes are. But in general, during your run, you want things that are high in carbs. And easily digestible. You don’t want to give your stomach a lot of work to do while you’re running because you know the way the body works your, your body’s busy running and it’s not gonna be sending as many resources to your digestive system to process food.

So you want things that are gonna be easy to get through. Otherwise, again, you’re gonna end up. In the porta-potty or with a stomach ache. So try out different options on shorter runs to see what your stomach tolerates best. You know, maybe, um, you know, if you’re trying to introduce a new running fuel, take a couple bites on a shorter run so that you can be like, all right, um, this is a 60 minute run.

At 45 minutes in, I ate these jelly beans or whatever, and everything felt good. Awesome. Right then you can use it on a longer run, but make sure that you do a little bit of experimentation. Walking intervals are probably the best time to snack. So if you are a run walk interval runner, which I think most of my listeners are, you have a beautiful number of pre-planned snack intervals ready to go.

Okay. You don’t need to just stop and set up a picnic. You can just snack while you are taking your walk breaks. Now, as far as timing, again, if you’re gonna be running for more than an hour, that’s when we wanna think about fueling during our run. But you don’t wanna wait till the hour is up to start your fueling.

Okay? So if you’re gonna be running for more than an hour, I want you to start fueling after you’ve done two miles or 30 minutes. However, that works out for you. It’s, there’s no exact science to it. 30 minutes, two miles, somewhere in that neighborhood. Have a couple of bites of something. A couple of bites, right?

And then every mile or every 15 minutes or so, you’re gonna have a couple more bites, and that is gonna work out to your 30 to 60 grams of carbs per hour on long runs. You wanna start fueling yourself before you’re hungry. That’s why I say start at two miles. Because you wanna get ahead of it so you don’t run out of energy and bon if you wait till you’re hungry, you are already, your body’s already in a deficit and you know it’s not gonna feel good.

So again, just a couple of bites. You’re not going to eat a whole sandwich after four miles and then expect that the next four miles is gonna feel great. ’cause again, you don’t wanna overwhelm your digestive system. So too much at once. You’re gonna be in the porta-potty before you know it. Take small quantities, a couple of bites every mile or every 15 minutes, and you’re gonna be kind of giving yourself a steady state replacement of the carbohydrates that your muscles are using up now.

And I, I should also. Reinforce if you’re running for less than an hour, you don’t need to fuel unless you’re using it as some kind of an experimentation run. You, your body, your muscles should have enough glycogen in storage for you to knock out an hour run without needing to replenish. You’ll, you can replenish after you’re done running, but you don’t need to fuel during your run if it’s gonna be an hour or less.

It’s more when we’re looking at like a 90 minute run or a two hour or a three hour run, that’s when you wanna start thinking about fueling during. Okay. After you run, this is when fueling gets. Pretty important. Okay. ’cause your body needs two things, carbs and protein, because you just used a bunch of fuel.

You just depleted all the glycogen stores in your muscle. So we need to replace that with more carbohydrate. And speaking of muscle, you broke down some muscle because you were training, so you need. Protein to repair it. So think of things like, uh, a Turkey sandwich or um, Greek yogurt with some fruit, or a smoothie with some protein, powder, eggs, and toast if it’s still morning, right?

Even chocolate milk, which is actually a classic post run choice for a reason because milk has a lot of protein and chocolate milk has a lot of sugar in it. So it’s, you know, if you are somebody who tolerates dairy after you’re done running. Chocolate milk is actually a great idea. The goal is to eat something within 30 minutes or an hour of finishing your run, okay?

Don’t wait three hours and not like it’s important to kind of like replenish your glycogen and replenish your protein stores. When your body is getting ready to start, its repair work, okay? So don’t overthink it. Just get some food in your system. Okay. And if you’re running late, you know, ’cause you finished your run and maybe you, you gotta hop in the shower and get in the car and drive to work right away.

Um, keep something easy on hand, like a protein bar, trail mix, a pre-made shake. One of the things I love is those. Core pow, fair life, core power protein drinks. They, they’re super tasty. Sometimes I will take one and dump it in my iced coffee and it tastes kind of like a latte. Um, it’s high protein, there’s a fair amount of carbs and uh, and they taste good and they’re easy.

You can keep ’em in the fridge and they keep for weeks and weeks, probably months and months in the fridge. Okay, so that’s food. Right before, during, and after. Now, let’s talk hydration. You should be drinking water throughout the day, not just right before your run or during your run. Okay? Please, please be someone who drinks a lot of water all day as much as you can.

I mean, I recognize sometimes we have jobs or situations where we can’t be sipping on water, but do your best, right? Make it a priority, um, especially in the summer, because if you’re sweating a lot in the heat, you’re gonna need to replace that, and you’re gonna need electrolytes too. All right. So you do, I mean, if you’re gonna go out for a 30 to 45 minute run, you probably don’t need to drink water with you.

But if you’re going out for more than 45 minutes to an hour and it’s a hot day, you wanna think about bringing water with you and maybe even some electrolytes, but definitely before and after you run. And all through the day, you should be drinking water. Now as far as electrolytes, if you’re super sweaty, if you finish your run and you’ve got white crust all over your skin.

Right. That’s evidence that you’ve lost a lot of electrolytes and we wanna replace them. So, um, things like noon tablets, NUUN, those tablets are great. You can just throw ’em in some water. Um, get some electrolyte replacement. Gatorade. Gatorade serves well to replace electrolytes and, um, as long as you’re not drinking the sugar free kind, it can give you some carbohydrates back.

Coconut water. Plain water with a salty snack like pretzels or salted nuts is also a great option. You don’t really need fancy products unless you like them. All right? Hydration doesn’t have to be expensive, but it needs to be intentional and consistent. Now, real quick, here is what not to do. I’m gonna bust some BS right here.

You do not need to run fasted. You do not need to earn your food. You do not need to count macros. You do not have to fuel like a marathoner for a 30 minute run, and you don’t need to envo avoid carbs because you need carbs. You have to have them. Your body will not run without carbohydrates. But overall, this is not about perfection.

It is about supporting your body, knowing what works for you. And that means you’re gonna have to experiment a little bit and doing the best you can with what you’ve got. All right, so here’s your cheat sheet. Eat something light before you run. Fuel during your run. If you’re out longer than an hour, small quantities are where it’s at.

Get carbs and protein afterwards. Hydrate and most importantly, experiment to find out what works for you. Again, you don’t have to do it perfectly. You don’t have to track every gram. You just need to pay attention to how you feel and treat your body like it deserves to be supported because it does.

You’re not just a runner. You are a runner who fuels like a pro, and I’m so proud of you. Now go grab a snack. Get those miles in and I’ll talk to you next week.

Real quick before you go, I’ve got a fun challenge for you. Take my exerciser personality quiz to find out exactly what kind of exerciser you are and how to make running feel easier and more enjoyable.

Just head over to not your average runner.com/quiz to take it and get your results. That’s not your average runner.com/quiz.