Fueling On Long Run Days

Audio Transcript

Michael: Hey Runners Connect fans. Coach Michael here to answer a question from Wrong, about fueling on your easy days.

Wrong: “I notice that in long run days, my appetite is not there. I know I need to refuel well, but I just don’t feel hungry and I don’t crave any food. I still eat normally just like any other day, but wonder if that is normal and what should I do about it?”

“Sometimes the next day or two days after the long run day, my hunger comes suddenly. Should I try to eat more on the long run day or just listen to my body and eat when I’m hungry?”

That’s a good question. First of all, you definitely need to fuel.

A long run depletes your body significantly more than easy runs, and significantly more than workouts too.

If you think about it, let’s say you have a three times two mile workout. That’s a pretty long workout: tempo, threshold pace with a two mile warmup, two mile cool down.

That’s going to deplete your body, but not near as much as an 18, 20 mile long run. That’s going to deplete your body significantly.

We have a calorie calculator on Runners Connect. Let’s use the example of a 130 pound, five foot six female, running at 60 minutes at 9 minute pace.

For the entire day, you’re going to burn 2,848 calories. That’s 60 minutes at 9 minute pace throughout the day.

Now, you take that for a long run, two and a half hours at 9 minute pace, you’re going to burn 3,683 calories for the day.

That’s a difference of over 800 calories, which must be replaced. Now, as you mentioned, you may not have a huge appetite pump and sometimes it can be a little bit delayed.

Your body suddenly realizes that it needs more fuel; you want to beat that.

You don’t want that to come. It’s kind of like how they say with hydration, that you don’t really want to wait till you’re thirsty to drink. You want to beat that; you want to be ahead of the curve.

Same thing here, you want to be ahead of the curve on that hunger. You don’t want to wait till your body is absolutely starving because at that point, it’s too late.

Your body’s in a catabolic state and it’s too late to get the proper benefit. You want to make sure you’re getting those calories in, first off.

Now, a long run can make your stomach a little bit upset and that can make it tough to eat; that’s definitely something that will happen.

You’ll finish a long run and your stomach just doesn’t feel very good. It got jumbled up a little bit and you’re not feeling like eating.

You’ll wait several hours before you even eat or maybe even the rest of the day. I’ve had times where I do a long run and the rest of the day my stomach just does not feel right.

Some tips for that; drink plenty of water. You want to make sure that you’re well hydrated throughout the day, throughout the long run, before the long run, the night before, and the day before.

You want to make sure that you’re well hydrated and that’s extremely important, because that’ll help your digestion overall.

It will get your stomach feeling a little bit better.

Make sure that your last two meals are good quality before the long run.

That means if you’re doing your long run in the morning, that typically is going to mean a pre-run meal, something before your long run, probably a slight breakfast, and then also some dinner the night before.

Those are your last two meals. You want those to be of pretty good quality. If one of those two meals is not good, that’s going to have a huge effect.

Obviously, every meal is important, but at the same time, those last two are the ones that seem to have an effect on how your stomach is going to feel on the long run.

If you eat a poor quality meal the night before the long run, then it could leave your stomach a little bit inflamed, a little bit upset, and make it to where you’re not going to eat properly after the run.

Make sure those last two meals are high quality and don’t upset your stomach. Don’t eat anything foreign those last couple of meals.

Another obvious tip is making sure you clear the pipes in the morning. Coffee can definitely help with this, but if you don’t clear the pipes, then you’re going to have some trouble.

If you’re not hungry after the long run, even if your stomach feels great, you did everything right, you drunk enough water, and you’re just not hungry after the long run, that’s okay.

Something to try is liquid foods. We’re talking about carb protein shakes, Endurox type drinks, chocolate milk, anything like that that you can get in really quickly.

Even if it’s something that has carbs, that’s still better than nothing.

Ideally, it has that four to one carb to protein ratio, something like Endurox has, but anything you can get in is going to help, regardless of what it is.

Even a piece of fruit will come in handy but if you struggle with solid foods, then utilize liquid foods.

Now, one thing you could do is, you could pretty much make this a cheat day.

It’s tough to always eat the proper foods and it’s hard to always be on your game in terms of eating really well.

It’s tough getting the proper macro nutrient ratios and getting enough vegetables and eating good lean meats; all of that is very difficult to do.

A lot of people will do what they call cheat days or cheat meals, and this could be a great opportunity to do that, because you need the calories.

As we mentioned earlier, you’re talking about burning 800 plus calories that you weren’t on other days.

Even other days where you’re running for an hour, you’re still not burning even close to that amount of calories.

Could be a good day to have some cheat meals to get the calories and to help your body recover, because it’s better to get the necessary calories in lower quality food than to not get them in at all.

Regardless of what’s going on, if your body is burning 3,700 calories in a day, and you’re eating 2,700, your body will struggle.

You’re not going to recover and you’re not going to absorb the long run, nor recover from it. You’re not going to improve from it, and you’re going to be depleted going into the next week of training.

Regardless of what you do, make sure you hit that calorie number or at least very close to it, even if it takes some cheat meals, some lower quality food.

Make sure you’re fueling properly on your long run days; it’s extremely important for your recovery.

Runners Connect fans, that’s it for today.

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