One of the most hotly debated and discussed items in all of sports, ask three different people about nutrition and training and you’ll likely get three different answers. I have been told some of the best ever and worst ever pieces of advice regarding what to eat when you’re training hard and I shall regale you with some of the best and worst. Just as an aside, this post is just my two cents here. I’m not a nutritionist by any stretch, nor do I hold any kind of medical degree. I just have a hankering for data and a healthy love of research and experimentation. So…well, here goes.
It was mile six of eighteen…ish of one of my favorite ever races, the Georgia Jewel. I’d been running for long enough in the race to fall in with a loose pack of folks running roughly the same pace. At mile 6.5 like clockwork, I pulled out yet another gel pack and stopped to walk. Some of my pack looked back at me. “I’ll catch up,” I yelled and waved them on. “You’re eating again?!” one of them good-naturedly razzed. “Yep, I am.” I said between slurps. I could tell by their expressions they didn’t expect me to catch back up.
Not only did I catch back up, but at about mile 10 or 12, I started passing some of the razzers, one of whom looked so out of it, he thousand-yard stared through me from a rock. “Need some food?” I asked as I passed him. His eyes slowly focused. “No,” he said. “I’m fine.” I shrugged and continued on my way. I never saw him again, and I believe he actually dropped out of the race. The point is– no one can tell you how much or what you need to eat! It’s really a science of one– you. What works great for your friend might leave you running for the bathroom or worse…just plain old running out of gas. The dreaded BONK. Eater of worlds. Destroyer of dreams. I avoid the bonk if at all possible
Bonking, for the uninitiated, feels a little like the entire world is coming to an end. It’s way, waaay worse than just feeling hungry. People often ask me how you know you’re bonking, and my reply is, “Oh, you’ll know.” If suddenly every step feels like an elephant just jumped on your back for a free ride, you suddenly begin to feel like everything is the literal worst, you get irrationally angry or weepy, you feel hopeless and like you have to just give up right now and sit on this stump. You will just live here now. Yep, you’re bonking, my friend. And in the immortal words of one of the great ultrarunners Gary Robbins, if you start feeling really low, “stuff some food in your face.”
Before I knew what worked for me, I read as much as I could and got various pieces of advice. (See Gary’s advice above…the absolute best!) Some said eat every 30 minutes, every hour, by intuition, not at all. (Yes, I actually heard a lady once say that you shouldn’t need any food at all for any distance marathon and below. Riiiiiiight. I’d be passed out on the road…) You need carbs–you need fats–you need plant-based– You name it. I’ve heard it.
The problem with some of this advice is that it’s laced with disordered eating. The notion that thinner is better is prevalent, well, just about everywhere. Over the years I’ve learned that to do these awesome things, I have to feed my body what it needs. How do I know? Literal years of trial and error. And let me tell you, it’s not all just raw calories. For instance…
I have three brands of gels: Gu, Cliff, and Spring. All roughly 100 calories. They should work the same, right? Well, they don’t for me! If I eat the Gu, I might as well say sayonara to my goals because my body just doesn’t register it. It’s like I haven’t eaten at all. If I eat the yellow, red, or purple Spring gels, I’m in business! If I eat the Clif gels with caffeine– also GTG. If I eat a coffee-flavored Spring, nope, nada, nothing. The what I eat also depends upon the activity and weather. Usually Tailwind does nothing for me, except when it’s really hot. Then it’s like I’ve eaten a four-course meal. I can’t eat solids before a run at all. But at mile 67 of 112 on the bike leg of a full Ironman? Bring on the PB Uncrustables! Mile 15 of twenty on some gnarly trails: I’m all about some salted, boiled potatoes and jelly beans.
Depending on the event, I try to snarf down around 100 to 200 calories of my preferred snack every 45 minutes. I also supplement with Base salt if it’s warm out around every 2 miles or so. I really like a 300 calorie Spring Wolf Pack before a long event, and I will literally eat you out of house and home afterwards. Drew has learned the hard way if he tries to touch my food after a hard effort, he will draw back a nub! But that’s what works for me and it doesn’t mean it’s going to work for you.
When in the throes of Ironman training, I attended a work training in a very, very small Southern town near my home. They delivered a boxed sandwich meal for lunch and I proceeded to chow down like it was my last meal. I was interrupted from wolfing down my lunch by a lady sitting on my right, apparently scandalized at my eating. She proceeded to tell me how she took off the top bun before eating because “that’s an awful lot of bread.” (It came out bray-yed.) “You won’t be young forever,” she quipped. I snorted, resumed snarfing, and asked if she was going to eat that and snarfed some more.
The thing is, my body thrives on carbs. Meat not so much– I really have to be mindful of my protein intake. That bread was going to be the difference between a mediocre training session and a really great one. We, as women, are told from near birth that we must fit a certain mold: thin, quiet, demure. Honestly, I’m so over it. I weigh more now than I ever have in my life and I’m certain that I’m in the best shape of my life. I can scale mountains, run marathons, hike forever in the woods and still be ready for more. If it means eating more carbs and weighing a bit more to have the energy to do these awesome things, then that’s what I’m going to do! Whenever someone balks and proceeds to preach dropping some weight, I remind them that at one time it was thought that women couldn’t run or their uteruses would fall out. Yeah, not taking advice from those people, thanks.
So for me coconut water and carbs, along with my collagen recovery is my go to. On long runs nothing beats a whole bunch of salted potatoes. Sometimes jelly beans are king and sometimes they taste to me like stomach acid. If I’m going to be out for longer than 1 hour 30 minutes, I have to eat something. If I’m going to be on the bike for a long time, I have to have some Uncrustables. If I have a hard block of training coming up, I prioritize fresh foods and nix the super salty chips and alcohol. But hey, that’s what works for me. If you hear some random person saying he knows the magic answer and can tell you exactly what you need to eat — run away! Save yourself — and your stomach — some grief.
Tales from the Back of the Pack 