Fueling Question(s) (Read 669 times)

I'm just curious if there is a rule of thumb out there pertaining to taking on food while running. I pretty much use the mindset of taking nothing on any runs under 40 minutes, and water only if the run is 10k or less. For longer runs I generally bring a little something but I really haven't gotten the mix right. More importantly, I do have some ( certainly unfounded ) fears about taking on anything but water during a run. My fear is that I am training myself to run carb-to-carb. I normally chew sugarless gum on runs anyway, just because it helps keep me relaxed and I would be grinding my teeth otherwise. But on a run of, say, two hours I will bring along a frozen Vector bar ( basic protein / energy bar ) and whittle away at it as I go. I try not to touch it for at least the first 40 or 45 minutes and will then take a bit at a time every 20 to 30 minutes or so. While I have noticed an improvement in my long runs as a result of doing this I noticed that I had started running bite-to-bite. What I mean is that I was able to artificially increase my pace as a result of the carb boost and then start to fade after 20 minutes or so until the next boost. I started trying to increase the amount of time between bites to combat this and found myself bonking a few times. So what I'm wondering here is whether it's even a good idea to take on the carbs because I don't want to get to the point where I can run X distance in X time, unless I forget my Vector bar, and then I can't even run X distance at all. On the other hand, I obviously want to avoid drifting into the catabolic range.

That was a whole lot of stuff. Firstly, nutrition is highly individualized. Secondly, from my observations, nutrition is way overthought by most people, and I think most people overdo it. Here's what I do: I drink water throughout the day. For the vast majority of my runs, I don't bring anything; no water, no food, no gels or whatever. Nothing. I have done as much as 15 miles this way. I've done 18 on water and an 8 oz flask of sports drink. Your body has enough glycogen in it to go for about 2 hours at a certain pace. Since all my longer training runs are slower than this pace, I can go longer without anything. How much do you need? I don't know. I'm willing to bet that you could probably get by on less than what you're currently taking in. For racing, I take in whatever is on the course. I hate gels, I think they are nasty, so I stick to sports drink, and candy if they have it. Tootsie Rolls and gummi bears, maybe a banana on occasion.

I'd only add that in warmer more humid weather, its probably better to bring water. For me, that means 32 oz of water in my fuel belt on any run more than about 8 miles. On this morning's long run, I think I started to really dehydrate at around 15 miles (fuel belt was empty by 11). I may be blaming dehydration but the last few miles sucked.

Me, I don't take water for anything under 15 or so miles... depending on temperature of course. Only use a gel pack (or equivalent) for my long 18+ mile runs, taking it around 1:30 or so. The thing to really keep in mind is that everyone is different, with different fueling needs. Take inspiration from what other people do, but don't take it as creed. If you need water or sport drink to do a 10 mile run, then do it. Likewise, if you need to take in food/energy for a 10 mile run do it. If doing these things helps you train harder and train longer then I say go for it, even if you don't neccesarily need all this extra fuel it may be serving a good placebo effect. In Lance Armstrongs first marathon he took a gel every 2 miles, or something ridiculous like that for the last half of the race. Did he need that much? Probably not, but it helped him finish the race. So in summary, I've always been of the school of thought that if your fueling techniques help you train harder and longer, then stick with what works for you.