Should I eat during a run?

I admit, I was a late adopter to fueling my runs. I used to eat two hours before, and then nothing while running because I did not like food bouncing around in my stomach. Little did I know that I was slowing my pace and recovery by improper fueling.

It takes trial and error to find what works on a long run. Initially I started with whole food fueling. Running around Mt. Saint Helens, I carried salami and cheese, along with some vegetarian sushi and tailwind drinking powder. Much of the food weighed down my pack, and the fat sat in my stomach and made me nausous. Then when I ran around the Wonderland trail I ate roasted potatoes covered in butter and salt, and pureed fruit/vegtable packages. I tolerated the food better but it became squishy in my pack and by day three the fiber from the fruit was threatening. I eventually started to experimenting with gels. Now I practice my long runs with them consistently.

Recent research shows we can train our stomach to adapt to increasing fuel consumption. The gel evolution now gives us the opportunity to slurp down 30-90 carbs per package. Humans can adapt to processing high carb fueling over a couple of weeks, and ingesting more carbs per hour correlates with all the recent broken race records. Some of the elite runners are ingesting over 100 carbs per hour! Personally, as a middle packer, my goal is to hit 50-70 per hour, but I admit I am still working on it. It takes some discipline. The best way I “remember” is to set an alarm on my watch, otherwise when I am tired I can skip eating because it takes energy. But it’s worth the discipline! I notice when I fuel properly I not only run better, but I recover better. As a master’s runner, the recovery is most important!

If you want to improve your running I highly recommend working with a sports nutritionist/dietitian. They can review your overall diet and discuss fueling strategies to level up your game. It might make the difference between a lackluster run vs a personal best!