I’ve wanted to do a blog post on my nutrition products and
supplies and give a shout out to some of many favorites for many months now. So I finally decided to sit down and write
all about them and give some insight to everything I use to help me stay on top
of my running game. These products have
helped me to stay hydrated, to eat and fuel up better, and to stay on top of my
game during my longer runs. In my
younger years a lot of these things I would just ignore and just fight through
without fuel for a long run or something to recover after a run but I have been
more rigid about these things in my accelerated age and I think it has done
well to help me feel recovered and ready for my next run. I hope you gain some insight or at least get
some ideas from this post.
Water has always been something I have struggled to drink as
I just usually don’t enjoy the taste of plain water, so I would always drink
something with flavor like lemonade which is full of calories and no real value
as a runner. Water however is critical, half the time your hunger is just your body saying I am thirsty
but I just usually feed it more food.
I stumbled across Nuun a couple years ago and have loved it ever
since. I use Nuun as an everyday drink, and
it’s full of electrolytes to go with water to keep me refreshed all day and
tastes better than pure water for me.
This allows me to drink more water on a daily basis but not get filled
up on calories as nuun is low in calories.
It is however high in sodium and electrolytes so the Nuun Active I use
is better if you are in fact active otherwise you may be overdoing your sodium
intake for a daily basis. Nuun has other
capsules for different lifestyles of course but the active is by far my favorite.
It’s easy enough for me to bring to work and just drop into my water
bottle and keep drinking my water throughout the day. Also Nuun Active is the perfect hangover
cure, if drinking too much is something you might occasionally do!
Another product that I have just started using is Tailwind and it is my new favorite nutrition drink during a run. I’ve tried many things, Nuun Plus, Gatorade,
Skratch but on my long runs when I want to take in calories and also fluid and electrolytes
I just find tailwind to be perfect and light on my stomach. It allows me to customize my drink from 1-3
scoops, and still be very light. 3
scoops is a bit much for my taste, but 1-2 scoops feels fine and helps me get
in 100 - 200 calories which is critical for me to be able to drink my calories
on the run and not upset the stomach.
For me sometimes on runs it is easier to drink stuff especially later on
in a race/long run so having some calories to drink that my stomach can handle
has been very helpful in these longer races I have been doing lately.
I do use Skratch also and I do love it, it’s just I cannot
handle it during a run. I find it to be
perfect drink before or right after a run to get in some calories and it tastes
really good. The Orange and Lemon and
Limes are by far my favorite. I prefer
to not drink it all day as unlike Nuun it has a decent amount of calories and I
would rather during the day get most of my calories from real foods that add
other benefits. I do find it to be refreshing and also a great drink prerace
in the morning if I just can’t get my body to want to eat because it is too
early.
Post run I swear by the science that you must put something
back in your body. If you went out for
40+ minutes or just had a really hard effort you need to replenish what you
lost and you need protein to start healing all the muscle fibers you damaged on
your run. You really need to get that in
within the first 30 minutes to kick start the recovery process. I have been using Endurox R4 for the past 5
years and I swear by it. It tastes great
to me and it is something I look forward to after a run to get my body to begin
recovering and ready for the next run. I
will use the industry standard of chocolate milk from time to time but I find
it difficult to bring that and have it sit in my car when I run in the heat,
Endurox is perfect to sit in the car and still taste pretty good post run. Whatever you choose, get something that gives
you carbs and protein post run and your body will thank you when you can begin recovering
for the next run immediately. Especially
for us older runners recovery and injury prevention become too of the things I
spend most of my day doing, on top of strength training to keep my body from
withering away.
As far as the meals I eat on a daily basis I snack throughout
the day at work and always have some fuel in my running bag just in case, but
for meals I got introduced to the Runner’s World Cookbook about 2 years ago,
and Kelly and I immediately fell in love.
While her first thought was, this better not be some terrible tasting
healthy runner food cookbook, but then when we starting making the recipes we
loved the taste and I loved all the health benefits from all the different
meals. We have been rotating two
different Runner’s World Cookbooks with over 300 recipes for the past two years
and these recipes have become many of our favorites that we even introduce our
friends to at various events. If
drinking more water was 1 part of getting myself healthier and to lose some
weight, these cookbooks were the other part.
I love the information on each recipe and what it can be used for. There are recipes that are fuel for a long run,
or a post recovery run, you name it, and it’s in the book. We even started baking our own granola bars
that I use as a quick pick me up before evening runs when I need some fuel and
won’t have dinner until 830 in my second home Canton. We just got Shalane Flanagan’s Run Fast Eat
Slow Book and can’t wait to try out all the recipes in there. For us it has been great to get in the
kitchen and cook more recipes and try tons of new foods we would have never
thought would go together. Things like adding
Oat Bran to your Meatloaf to get in some extra nutrients or mixing beets and
avocado’s with orange slices for a delicious salad. I’m not sure we would have ever tried these
without these cookbooks. Additionally I
just love the benefits you can get from food as fuel for your run. Each type of food has nutrients that can be beneficial
for your next workout or long run. I
won’t go as far as to say without eating the exact right foods you can’t run
fast, but I will just say that getting in the right balance of food can only be
beneficial to your body and you’re exercising in the long run. And go talk to a nutritionist as I am not
one!
Some other fueling products that have become the staple of
my long runs include Cliff Shot Blocks, I find them easy to get down on a long
run and easy to carry in a small pouch.
I still continually using Power Bars and Power Bar GU’s on my long runs
or for some fueling up on the run. There
are so many of different types of these products available it’s finding the
right ones that will work for you while on the run to get in some calories. Additionally since I am also talking about the
supplies that keep me running it’s no surprise from my posts online I
absolutely love Under Amour running shoes.
I have been wearing the original bandits for 1.5 years now and I have
just begun rocking the Bandit 2’s and they are even better. For my training runs I am always usually
rocking some pair of UA shoes to keep me going strong on my runs.
And finally I can tell you all about these wonderful
products that keep me going but where do I get all my supplies? I get
everything I listed above from the best running store in Baltimore the FallsRoad Running Store. On top of the things
I listed in this post there are tons of other products you can try as fuel
before, during or after runs and the store has tons of options that you can
pick and choose to find out what works best for you. So that about sums up the many products I use
to stay hydrated, stay fueled and recover from runs and the shoes I wear while
doing the running. I hope some of this
information is useful for you in your runs or whatever exercise you choose.
So what have I been up to lately? Still training hard for JFK 50 miler in 12
weeks upping the mileage and getting in long runs on all surfaces. Ran a few races finishing 2nd for
the 2nd straight year at the Angel Park 5k, which is now becoming my
white whale in my hometown.
And I won the MD Heat 25k this past weekend at Patapsco State Park,
which was my first really technical trail race.
I absolutely loved this race and will devote a blog post to it and why I
keep falling in love with trail running and why every runner should get out and
run/race trails. Otherwise enjoy the picture below with my cool prize from the Angel Park 5k.
