Today we put together some advice and ideas for your meals before and after training. But let’s not forget – food consumption times are a much less important factor for recreational runners. It’s much more important to reach a sufficient energy and nutrition input during the whole day.

Before training

Your last bigger meal should be 3-4 hours before training. Carbohydrates should prevail in these meals, because it’s a great way to fill your muscles with glycogen and therefore improve your speed and endurance. Your meal should have 1 – 4 g OH/kg BW. Choose items with a moderate to high glycaemic index before training – for example white bread and pasta, rice, potatoes, corn or oat flakes, polenta, pancakes, fruit, jam, honey, sugar etc. Your pre-training meal should have as little fat and fibre as possible, because these slow down the absorption of glucose and can cause digestive issues.

Pre-training meal examples:

• Pasta + lean meat/tuna in its own juice/sauce with little fat
• Risotto with chicken
• Ham and cheese sandwich
• Cornflakes + milk
• Pancakes + jam + Greek yogurt
• Flakes + fruit yogurt + honey + banana
• White bread + honey/jam + white coffee

You can also eat a quickly digestive snack in the last hour before training. Suitable choices for this can be a banana, gummy bears, cookies, a slice of bread with honey or jam, fruit juice, sports drink or a gel.

After training

It’s vital to eat enough carbs after training as well, in order to replenish your glycogen storage and have a more efficient recovery. The advised carbs intake after training is 1,2 – 1,5 g BW/hour. Make sure you also add a source of protein. It’s recommended to eat this meal in the time frame of 4 hours after training, because that makes glycogen storage replenishment the most efficient.

Meal examples after training:

• Chocolate milk (0,5-1 L)
• Pasta with Bolognese sauce
• Stew + sausage – white bread
• Polenta + milk
• Flakes + milk/yogurt + fruit
• Eggs + white bread
• Pancakes + jam + Greek yogurt

You can use this as a cheat sheet to calculate your quantities:

• 80g of dry rice = 63g carbs
• 100g of dry pasta = 72g carbs
• 100g white bread = 51g carbs
• 150g cooked potatoes = 19g carbs

Author: Varineja Drašler, SpoznajPrehrano