How to Train Your Tummy
Sports nutrition is complex, it’s so individualised and unique, there is no single formula that will produce optimal results for all athletes for all races in all conditions. This is an area where something might work for one person that just doesn’t work for another. And what might have worked for you in the past now doesn’t work as your body changes as you get stronger and, of course, older.
Let’s just get to it- and hopefully I’ve timed this well enough so that when you’re reading it you won’t be eating breakfast- I’ve seen runners puke up as they sprint to the finish line, throw up in bushes half way round a race, I’ve seen runners double up in pain crippled with cramp that feels as though they’ve been shot. I’ve watched runners not be able to eat a thing either before a race or for hours afterwards. I’ve seen runners poo themselves during a run and miss start lines due to “runner’s trots” and then get so constipated that they can’t go to the toilet for a week.
Sports nutrition, fuelling and hydrating, is something that should be taken very seriously and should be worked on as much as putting the miles in is. It’s an area that as a runner you should understand what works for you based on your runs, your training, your intensity, the duration of the run and any environmental factors i.e., hot or cold weather. And the really good news is that fuelling and hydrating habits are trainable, it is just a matter of finding out what works for you and learning what doesn’t work for you.
Things to try and avoid (and yes, I know it’s hard!)
Low energy availability: taking in too few calories can lead to disaster on a training run or race; we need food to fuel. If you can’t stomach anything first thing in the morning, just try and keep trying. There are lots of different things you could eat, toast (everyone likes toast!) bagels, Weetabix, pancakes. Training your stomach to take on food before your run will enable you to perform better, start small, don’t have a full English Breakfast before a long run and wonder why you’re crouched behind a bush, try half a piece of toast with plain butter an hour before your run, see what happens.
Parkrun in a fasted state or no carbs; you will underperform and overtrain all at the same time.
Hard workouts at the end of a long run; Yep, I’ve been there done that, thinking I would gain some benefit of training on tired legs, I just got tired and stressed and it made no difference to my performance whatsoever, it just made me grumpy.
Long runs without fuel; again, I’ve done this, I trained myself to “burn fat” whilst marathon training 8 years ago, I would wear the badge of honour of running long distances without any fuel, crazy, there are no awards for the lowest amount of calories consumed in a race, this one cost me dearly! 90 secs dearly that I still haven’t got over!
I really believe we need to change the message to eating high quality foods, moving away from encouraging runners not to having them, we need to be more focused on calorie quality and adequate quantity, not restricting calorie intake. Yes you might run a bit faster if you lost some weight but at what cost? Injury, overtraining, brain fogginess, lack of concentration, lack of sleep?
Relative Energy Deficiency in sport is a real concern, it’s a low energy deficiency which can often go unrecognised or undiagnosed mainly due to the success of a runner achieving PB’s due to a weight loss. I’ve seen this time and time again, a runner dropping weight, getting faster, achieving PB’s, being rewarded for being fast and thin, the ultimate eh? But I’ve also seen these runners crash and burn with consistent injuries that just won’t go away, thousands of pounds being thrown away trying to solve the problem, when the problem has been poor nutrition. The long-term prospects of a runner with RED-s is limited, especially females, mainly because of losing bone mineral density.
As I said the area is huge; find what works for you, before a run make sure you have eaten as much high-quality nutrition as you can in the days leading up the run.
On the run try jelly babies, flapjack, malt loaf, a handful of nuts. Foods that don’t work are usually the ones that get stuck in your mouth, are too dry or difficult to swallow.
Start your run hydrated, especially in the cold weather, we tend to forget as we might not feel as thirsty in the cold, but you still need to hydrate, drink on schedule if you need to.
Train your tummy, GI upset is one of the leading causes of DNF in endurance running and just because it’s a 10k doesn’t mean you don’t have to be prepared. Training the gut can be done and by doing so you are optimising your performance. Yes you can wing it for a 10k, even a half marathon but it’s not a very pleasant experience.
