Nutrition advice for endurance sport has a habit of becoming complicated and expensive very quickly. For the distances most people cover in a virtual challenge, the useful principles fit on a postcard.
Sessions under an hour
You almost certainly do not need to eat anything special. If you have had normal meals that day, your body has plenty of readily available fuel for 30 to 60 minutes of easy effort. Drink water when you are thirsty and get on with it.
If you prefer something small beforehand, a banana or a slice of toast about 45 minutes before is plenty. The aim is to avoid setting off either ravenous or uncomfortably full.
Sessions over about ninety minutes
This is where fuelling starts to matter. Two things help:
- A carbohydrate-based meal two to three hours before. Porridge, toast and jam, pasta, rice, a sandwich. Familiar food, not experiments.
- Something to top up during. Around 30 to 60 grams of carbohydrate per hour is the usual guidance. That can be a gel, but a couple of dates, a cereal bar, jelly babies or diluted squash do the same job for a lot less money.
Hydration without overthinking it
Drink to thirst. That is the honest summary of current thinking. Forcing down large volumes of plain water on a long effort is not harmless, and thirst is a reasonably good guide for the distances involved here. In hot weather, or if you are a notably salty sweater, an electrolyte tablet in your bottle is sensible.
Afterwards
Recovery is less dramatic than the supplement industry suggests. Eat a normal meal containing both carbohydrate and protein within a couple of hours and you have covered the important part. Beans on toast, eggs on toast, a chicken sandwich, yoghurt and fruit, or dinner if it happens to be dinner time.
The one genuinely useful habit is not skipping the meal. People finish a long walk, feel slightly off their food, eat nothing for four hours and then wonder why they feel flat the next day.
Things that are usually a waste of money
- Protein powders, if you already eat enough protein across the day.
- Branched-chain amino acid supplements for recreational distances.
- Expensive isotonic drinks for a 5K.
A word of caution
This is general guidance for healthy adults. If you have diabetes, a diagnosed eating disorder, a kidney condition, are pregnant, or take medication that affects blood sugar or fluid balance, please get advice tailored to you from your GP or a registered dietitian. Generic advice is not a substitute for that.
Put it into practice
The best way to learn what works for you is to test it on training days rather than on the day it matters. If you are building towards a longer distance, our half marathon and 50 mile challenges give you a reason to practise properly.