When you’re training for a marathon, half marathon, or Ironman, it’s easy to think of nutrition as something that happens around your workouts You grab a gel for a long run and drink electrolytes, focusing on the nutrition that’s happening during your bike or run. But everyday nutrition for athletes is just as important as what you consume during a workout or race.
The meals and snacks you eat throughout the day provide the foundation for your training, recovery, health, and performance. Good nutrition doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, a good approach is built around simple, whole foods that provide the nutrients your body needs.
Start With the Quality of Your Food
A good place to start is with the foods you eat most often. A nutrition plan built around whole and minimally processed foods provides a wide range of nutrients while allowing you to make food choices that support both performance and overall health.
Consider foods such as:
- Fruits
- Vegetables
- Eggs
- Meat
- Fish
- Beans
- Nuts & Seeds
- Dairy products such as milk, yogurt, and kefir
- Healthy fats, such as olive oil, avocado, butter, and ghee
Choosing organic foods as much as possible is also a part of an overall approach to reducing exposure to chemicals and artificial ingredients.
Avoiding artificial ingredients, such as flavors and colors, is a step in the right direction to improve overall health and longevity. Besides looking for natural and organic food, read the ingredient list so that you know what your getting.
Working on improving the quality of your food doesn’t mean you need to eat perfectly. The goal is to make nutrient-dense, minimally-processed foods the foundation of your daily eating pattern so that highly processed foods and chemicals are kept to a minimum.
Match Your Nutrition to Your Training
Your body doesn’t have the same nutritional needs everyday. A day that includes a long run or a challenging bike workout places different demands on your body than a rest day or an easy recovery session.
Depending on how metabolically efficient you are will dictate how much your body relies on carbohydrates or fat as a fuel source. Rather than relying exclusively on one fuel sources, the goal is to help your body become efficient at using more fat as fuel and to provide carbs when the demands of training and racing require it.
On a harder or longer training session, you may need more carbohydrates to support the workout. On an easier day, your carbohydrate needs will be lower. The goal isn’t to fear or completely eliminate carbohydrates, but to use them strategically based on what your body and training require.
Consider Your Sports Nutrition Products
What you consume during workouts and races are also a part of your nutrition. They affect your body and health as much as anything else you eat and drink throughout the day. Especially if you do long workouts and races often.
These sports nutrition products are digested and processed in your body just like the food you eat daily. Think about some of the sports nutrition products you may have used in training and racing:
- Gels
- Gummies
- Electrolytes
- Bars
- Sports drinks
The more you use them in workouts and races, the bigger percentage they take in your overall nutrition and health. So the next time you look for a sports nutrition product, consider their ingredients and quality.
Build Your Meals Around Protein
Protein is an important part of an endurance athlete’s everyday nutrition. Include quality protein sources throughout the day.
Depending on your preferences, that might include:
- Eggs
- Beef
- Fish
- Poultry
- Greek Yogurt
- Cottage Cheese
- Milk
Pairing protein with vegetables, whole-food carbohydrates, and fats can create a balanced meal that keeps you satisfied and provides a broad range of nutrients.
Don’t Be Afraid of Fat
Fat sometimes get overlooked in sports nutrition because so much attention is given to carbohydrates. But fat has an important place in the human diet, especially for endurance athletes.
Fats provide energy and important nutrients and can be found in:
- Whole milk
- Avocados
- Nuts & Seeds
- Olive oil
- Eggs, in particular the yolk
- Fatty fish
- Butter
- Ghee
Fats improve satiety, which is helpful if you’re trying to manage body weight. The key is choosing quality sources. Cookies and cake, as yummy as they are, are not considered healthy fats.
Carbs Aren’t Evil
Carbohydrates are an important fuel sources for endurance athletes, particularly as training intensity and duration increase. But more isn’t automatically better.
The amount and timing of the carbs you need depend on what you’re doing. For example, a long run, speed work, and challenging hill work on the bike may require more carbs than an easy recovery day. Your nutrition should reflect those differences.
Whole-food carbohydrate sources, such as fruit, sweet potatoes, rise, and whole grains can provide valuable nutrients and the energy your body needs, especially when timing your workouts around your meals and snacks.
Look at Nutrition as a Whole
You don’t need to eat perfectly at every single meal and you don’t need to feel guilty about enjoying foods that aren’t part of your usual routine. What matters is your overall pattern.
When the majority of your nutrition comes from quality, minimally processed, and organic foods, you have a some wiggle room for the occasional restaurant meal or convenience food without feeling like you’ve ruined your health and nutrition plan. That balance is important because your daily nutrition is something you should be able to maintain.
Your training doesn’t happen in isolation from the rest of your life. The food you eat daily as well as during workouts and racing allow you to train, recover, and remain healthy.
Good daily nutrition doesn’t have to be complicated. It simply needs to be sustainable and intentional.
Want nutrition that fits your life & training?
See how we can help.
Share the love! - - >
