This is a work in progress but.....
Pre-Run Fuel
It took me a while to figure out what my body liked to eat before I went for a run. There's a fine line between necessary fuel and unfortunate GI problems mid-run. I found this took testing. I would try different types of food and different ratios of carbs:protein:fat. As a pescatarian, I find that personally, my body craves fats rather than proteins. My coworkers can attest to this by the amount of peanut butter I put on my oatmeal for breakfast. But, peanut butter pre-run does not always sit well in thy tummy. But here are some things that I have found to work so far:
1. Clif Bar (they make minis for shorter runs!)
2. Banana
3. Yogurt with a little granola
4. Toast
Mid-Run Fuel
I usually only bring fuel on a run if I play on running over 8 miles. Generally at that 7 mile mark, I feel like my body needs that "spark!" that you get from some shoogahh :). I used to use the sport gels (vanilla flavored), but then I discovered the Clif Shot blocks. Wowza. These not only taste good, unlike the gels (in my own humble opinion), but you can eat one and keep it in your mouth for a while so that the sugar slowly enters your system at a more controlled rate. I'm curious to see what else I can discover while training for the marathon. Someone once suggested to eat a date during a run, and it made sense logically - same concept of sugar at a high concentration - but for some reason, my GI tract did not agree with that AT ALL. So no bueno. I like to save dates for my homemade LaraBars :).
Post-Run Fuel
A post-run meal could be my favorite. While I can necessarily eat a meal RIGHT after a long run, by the time I'm done stretching, cooling down, and showering, I'm ready to eat everything in sight. I've got quite the recipes for a solid post-run meal, however, I should say that this has also taken practice. When I first started run longer distances, I would feel great directly after the run, but then by 4/5 o'clock at night, I felt like I was going to pass out. I found that figuring out what my body needs (in addition to liquids - water, coconut water, gatorade etc) was crucial in helping me train for the half marathon.
1. Jbu's Favorite Smoothie
-1/2 frozen banana
- 3/4 cup vanilla almond milk
-1/4 cup water
- 1/4 small avocado
-1/2 mango
- handful of spinach
-tablespoon of hemp protein powder
BLEND AWAY
2. The Killer Egg Sandwhich
-2 pieces of bread of choice toasted with Earth Balance
-1 fried egg
- 1/4 avocado
- tomato
- cheddar cheese
- Siracha sauce
3. The Max Yogurt Parfait
- 1 cup of Greek yogurt (plain or vanilla)
- 1/2 banana
- 1/4 cereal of choice
- 1 tablespoon of almond butter, peanut butter, sunflower butter (whatevah nut buttah you like)
- honey drizzle
- optional add ins (walnuts, raisins, chia seeds)
4. Overnight Oats (Note: this recipe is not an original, but rather taken from Angela at www.ohsheglows.com - one of my favorite vegetarian food blogs)
Night Before
-1/3 cup of oats
- 3/4 cup of vanilla almond milk
- 1/2 banana mashed up
- tons of cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon of chia seeds
Right Before Consumption
- 1 tablespoon on almond butter, peanut butter, sunflower butter (again, personal choice)
- handful of granola
- other fresh fruit (raspberries and blueberries are the best!)
