Health Related Nutrition & Fitness Tips

I will add pages and sections with a little more detail as I go along over the weeks.

Like training and racing, diet and nutrition are individual, no universal template.

In the main endurance runners tend to be ectomorphs, with the others mesomorphs or a combination of both. Nutritional quantities and requirements do vary accordingly, but there are basic needs for all.

Below are some quick tips to take in, but the list of topics above I will expand on.

And give practical details to aid planning of training and dietary needs.

Food to get you through the day  

Fuel First : Food is fuel to carry out your training and racing, so after running you need to refuel.

Runners who eat healthfully and consume enough calories to support their daily activities and the energy they need for training should remain healthy throughout their lives and be able to enjoy many decades of running.

Think about fueling up, fueling during, and refueling.

Trying to find the right balance of food that will help you stay alert and energised throughout a busy day isn't always easy but by eating the right foods a little and often you can achieve this. 

By consuming protein regularly you can remain more alert and it can be classed as ’brain food' and complex carbohydrates will maintain long-term energy and sustain muscle glycogen levels. 

By eating fruit you can provide yourself with a quick energy option as the fructose will avoid blood sugar level imbalances that might occur with simple sugar foods such as cakes and chocolate. 

There is some evidence that consuming a high fat meal prior to exercise may be of benefit for endurance performance, providing that you have full muscle and liver glycogen stores and also consume carbohydrates prior to exercise.

Athletes looking to increase their proportion of fat intake to around 30% should ensure that they do not significantly increase the proportion of saturated fats.

Good sources of healthy fats include oily fish (mackerel, herring etc), some nuts (almonds, walnuts), seeds (sunflower, sesame, pumpkin), vegetable oils (sunflower, olive oil), mayonnaise and olives.

If you eat a heavy meal you may often feel low energy levels afterwards, which may make you feel less inclined to be active; so eating small meals and often can help you maintain healthy body fat levels and lead to a more energetic life.

Protect your health and immune system

Eating naturally sourced foods is not solely for energy storage and release but also to maintain your immune systems and to protect the body's cells. 

Pistachio nuts, walnuts, pecans nuts and bananas are rich in potassium as well as vitamin E.

Pumpkin & sunflower seeds  and tomatoes contain high levels of zinc and magnesium which can greatly boost the immunity levels in your body and by trying to eat a variety of coloured vegetables and fruit daily you can enhance your immunity and your body's ability to protect itself from illness. 

Although trace elements, they are essential.

Foods that contain Vitamin C can improve collagen production and maintain healthy skin as well as reducing free radicals that damage cells within the body.

Vitamin C, which has to be consumed daily because it is not stored in the body; can be found in broccoli, citrus fruits, peppers, Brussels sprouts, berries and potatoes. 

Vitamin D is  mainly from sunlight

But other sources are; Salmon : Tuna fish : Sardines : Egg, 1 large (vitamin D is found in yolk)

Also fortified food such as Yogurt : Liver, beef, margarine : 

Ready-to-eat cereal,

And drinks such as Orange juice & Milk, 

The lack of iron in the diet of endurance runners often leads to anemia. 

Anemia can be a big problem among runners, poor performance is a possible sign of adequate iron intake.  Running more slowly may not be because you appear too unfit or heavy, but because you are anemic. 

Red meat eating is a common source, but eating chicken and dark meat fish, such as salmon, and perch. 

Plant foods that are good sources of iron include spinach, Swiss chard, black beans, navy beans, iron-fortified cereals, broccoli, and potatoes. 

Sodium is the primary electrolyte that's lost in sweat during endurance running, it doesn't have to be hot to lose significant amounts of sweat, just run hard enough or long enough and stores of salt are depleted.

Obviously the longer you take to run / race, then it becomes more of a concern.

So essential micronutrients of concern in athletes are calcium, zinc, magnesium, vitamin D, B vitamins, and the antioxidants vitamin C, vitamin E, beta-carotene, and selenium.2 

So you should evaluate your diet when endurance running for these micronutrients, as well as to identify whether dietary adjustments are needed.

N.B. Five a day is just a made up sound bite, when ten a day is based more in reality.

Correct body fat levels  or when Calories Are Inadequate

Insufficient intake of calories in the short term can lead to compromised performance and fatigue onset. 

Calorie intake that's inadequate to sustain endurance activity, over time, increases risks of menstrual dysfunction and amenorrhea, bone loss, muscle loss, injury, decreased endurance and strength, compromised immunity and illness, micronutrient deficiencies, and decreased BMR.2-4

If you're only eating 1,500 calories a day and you really need to eat 1,800 to 2,000, and you're getting sick, and you're not menstruating, those are three indications that something is amiss and we need to fix it. so need a list of healthful food choices in appropriate portions, or menu plans, to boost calorie intake if needed.

Carb Phobia In addition to calorie restriction, for weight conscious runners also means they may shun carbohydrates, and one of the biggest problems runners face is not eating enough carbohydrates to fuel performance. 

Many runners are afraid to eat carbohydrates because they have a fear of gaining weight and slowing down. 

This can be the farthest from the truth, as carbohydrates can help fuel the body and improve the speed and performance of runners.

In fact, as the primary fuel source needed for endurance exercise (fat being the secondary source), sufficient intake of dietary carbohydrates is critically important for the endurance runner to maintain adequate blood glucose levels, maximize muscle and liver glycogen stores, and replenish glycogen stores after exercise.

In races Glycogen lasts one to two hours, depending on the individual and then fat stores fuel you to the finish. Having your long Sunday run on an empty stomach (eat sufficient the evening before), then pushing on the pace in the second half, teaches and triggers the body to release fats as the fuel source, essential mitochondria are developed also.  

While in training, individual carbohydrate needs will vary depending on intensity and duration of daily running.

If you are in the unhealthy position of being overweight or underweight, then for the situation to change you will need to make a drastic commitment to improving this.

There is no easy way to reverse this, you have to combine the correct regular challenging training with some crucial dietary lifetime habits that will ensure you remain healthy.

However even though the nutritional quality of your food is important it is also prudent to control the size of your portions of certain foods, by eating higher portions of foods such as fresh salads and vegetables and lower portions of starchy and saturated fat based foods. But essentially enough to refuel properly.

You are less likely to overeat at meal times if you have a smaller plate, watching the amount and what you eat is essential for maintaining a healthy racing body weight.

Fitness Tips

Don't fail to plan

The old adage, "To fail to plan, is to plan to fail" and like most things in life you sometimes have to plan ahead and your fitness and health is no exception.

To make health advances in your lifestyle or training routines,  you should start planning your exercise and positive nutritional changes in advance.

An excellent way of maintaining these positive health changes is to record your daily progress in a training diary, so that over time you can see improvements and any weak areas of your training that may need more attention.

Positive health changes cannot occur overnight and your fitness and health status may take some weeks or months to improve significantly, however frequent small progressive steps and changes every day will eventually lead to greater improvements over a prolonged period of time.

Remember in your mind it is still an idea but on paper it becomes a plan.

Don't be told you are too old  

One thing in common with all high achieving veteran or masters runners, is that they are all prepared to work to the maximum of their individual limitations brought on by the onset of age. 

To remain healthy, fit and lean in your later years it is important to keep challenging your body's physical limits consistently over a long period of time.

The type of training you do should always include a variety of cardiovascular endurance training, aerobic endurance runs, speed endurance sessions, resistance and strength  training, mobility and conditioning.

It is essential that you try and maintain your muscle mass, you can't turn back the clock but you can achieve a good physical, mental and health status relative to your age or better.

Let’s not be limited by our age, be liberated by it.

Stretch those muscles

The ideal time to do those very necessary mobility exercises is when your muscles are warm either just following running or after a warm up or warm bath or shower. The muscles are considerably more able to respond positively to mobility and flexibility exercises and static stretching when warm. 

Static stretching exercise should be slow and gradual and through the full range of movement in the chosen joints. You should hold the exercise to its farthest point of comfort without bouncing and ease off if you experience any muscular sharp pain. Try and hold for a short period of time and not long, to strengthen and stretch the muscle to its realistic limit.

Improved flexibility and strength of the muscles can reduce the risk of injury and also increase the fluency of movement when running.

Keep your brain fit

Various health studies concluded that consistent aerobic based exercise such as running, swimming and cycling can stimulate memory cells in the brain. So regular physical action can improve and maintain your brain faculties which are improved by a greater and more efficient cardiac function.

The heart pumps approximately 750 ml of blood through the brain every minute so it is important for your brain health to also keep your heart fit to enable it to constantly supply the brain with rich oxygenated blood. 

Keeping well hydrated throughout the day enables the brain to work more efficiently and to help maintain concentration levels as the brain is made up of 75% fluids.

I find that running is one of the best de-stressors and problem solvers that you can do.

And usually produces chemicals to stimulate

Getting fit takes time  

If you are embarking on a new training programme having been inactive for a while then you need to be patient as reaching a good level of fitness takes time.

To make improvements in your fitness levels or physical performance you have to overtime systematically and gradually increase the physiological stress on your body through training.

This type of incremental exercise progress is known as ’gradual overload’ and it allows your body to adapt at each stage as you improve. So that this physical adaptation process can occur it is essential that you schedule in balanced recovery phases, either complete rest or active recovery.

The main factors to this structured progression are discipline, consistency and patience.

A long term training programme with evenly scheduled increments will ensure that you get fitter and by being patient you are less likely to get overuse injuries or illness and more likely to eventually reach your next  peak performance and ultimately achieve your full potential.