“I’ve recently fought my way back from an extended period of injury (6 months) where I was not able to train at all, only minimal running.

Now that I’m back do a structured week of training how many potatoes do I need to eat? How much pasta or rice equates to an hour of sub-threshold running?

I’m currently doing an hour of running a day. This mostly consists of sub-threshold runs at about 70% – 80% max heartrate range. I’ll do one race or one VO2 Max session per week ( >90%) followed the next day by a recovery run at 60% – 70%. I average one non-running day per week. I also do one exersise (core strength) class per week.”

Thanks, Laurie, June 2015

The answer to your question depends upon what else you’re eating, because you’ll be getting energy (kcal) from all of your food.  Bear in mind, also, that your energy needs and your energy intake will normalise across a week (or any given period), such that you may be ‘catching up’ on your rest day or slightly deficient overall on race day.

In order to answer your question fully, we would have to do a food diary, but I can make a series of assumptions based on weight, height and activity levels.  Then, I would calculate the difference in energy requirements between none, little and your actual training schedule.

Mary, Russell-Price Sport & Wellness Nutrition