If I’m anaemic, the oxygen-carrying capacity of my blood will limit the ability of my muscle cells to work, to contract and ultimately it will limit my ability to run.
Anaemia – a runner’s perspective
Leave a reply
Category Archives: Running
Low Carb High Fat diet
Runners can store about 2,500kcal in the form of glycogen (i.e. carb) and that will fuel them for about 2 hours of exercise. Even the leanest athlete carries a reserve of about 50,000kcal as fat, however, so perhaps fat adaptation could be a very useful strategy for endurance events.
Back to basics
A balanced diet is not just about calories; the source of those calories will influence the overall quality of your diet and the true nutritional value.
Ideally we should be aiming for 50% of our calories being provided by carbohydrates, 35% by fats and 15% by protein. That really isn’t very helpful, when we can’t visualise those calories to start with but there’s a useful Public Health England graphic known as the eatwell plate …
Q&A – how many carbs do I need?
“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
Energy for runners
What’s the best source of energy for runners – carbs or fat?
As with so many apparently simple questions, the answer is: well, it depends…
Caffeine
Caffeine has been used as a performance aid for a long time. Prior to 2004, it was on the International Olympic Committee list of banned substances. Caffeine was not banned entirely however there was a tolerance limit in place.
Caffeine has been used as a stimulant since Paleolithic times. It is a naturally occurring substance, found in coffee beans, tea leaves, cocoa beans and cola nuts and it is now the most widely consumed drug in Europe and America.
Train low, compete high
Not to be confused with ‘train high, compete low’ (which refers to altitude), training with low carbohydrate levels and competing with high levels has been referred to recently as a new strategy. The landmark studies that initiated this strategy are relatively recent and the first of these investigations is known as the ‘one legged cycling’ study….
Recovery Drinks
Recovery after exercise such as running, walking or cycling involves a number of different physiological processes. In the short term (3 to 4 hours) rehydration is the number one priority, so we need water and some electrolytes. The second priority, the replacement of glycogen fuel stores, requires carbohydrate. But what about protein?
Burning the Calories
At the end of a club run I’ve often been asked, ‘How many calories did I burn?’ The answer varies considerably but the heavier you are, and the faster you run, the more calories you’ll use per hour.
Marathons and fat burning
If regular marathoners don’t lose weight or get thinner, does it mean that those marathoners can’t be burning fat, else they would get thinner?
Read on, and follow through the physiological arguments on this conundrum