Distance runners have the same nutritional needs as everyone else, only more so. Daily training and frequent competitions use so much fuel that some runners joke that they compete so that they can eat whatever they choose. That's not really a good idea. A balanced, nutritious diet prevents injury, sustains endurance and contributes to faster times. Long-time runners, academic research, Olympic experience and traditional cultures all confirm that there is an optimum diet for distance runners.
Marathon Master's Diet Advice
Hal Higdon, longtime contributor to "Runners Magazine" and author of the bestseller "Marathon: The Ultimate Training Guide," says a good premarathon breakfast is toast or a bagel washed down with orange juice. But leading up to that moment should have been several days of extremely high-carbohydrate eating to build up extra glycogen in the muscles for fuel. The preferred distance runners' diet is carbs, carbs, carbs -- but there should be some fat and some protein in there for optimum nutrition. Otherwise, choose fruits, vegetables, bread, pasta and legumes because they release energy more slowly and evenly during long runs than simple carbohydrates like honey and sugars do. Higdon recommends an average daily calorie count of 2,500 for a runner training for long distances.
Eating for the Olympics
Colorado State Extension recommends that athletes eat a variety of foods to achieve peak performance. They offer a typical high-carbohydrate diet, similar to what the endurance athletes eat at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. For breakfast, eat a cup of oatmeal, a medium banana, a slice of whole wheat toast with jelly, and 8 oz. each of low-fat milk and orange juice. Lunch might be a slice of lean meat, an ounce of Swiss cheese, two slices of whole wheat bread, lettuce, tomato, two cookies and 8 oz. each of skim milk and apple juice. Dinner is three cups of spaghetti, a cup of mushroom-tomato sauce, Parmesan cheese, four slices of French bread, one slice of angel food cake with ¼ cup of sliced strawberries and whipped cream. And a snack might be 16 oz. of grape juice and six fig cookies.
Supplements for Sustenance
Brown University Health Center recommends that all students, but especially athletes, add a multivitamin and mineral supplement to a healthy diet. Brown says that male and female athletes should get about 65 percent of daily nutrition from carbohydrates and urges distance runners not to slight healthy fats, which are necessary for absorbing vitamins and preventing stress fractures. For adequate supplies of calcium, iron, vitamins and other minerals, fortified grains and juices and a general multivitamin belong in the distance runner's diet to supplement meals drawn from a variety of food groups.
The Indigenous Runners' Diet
The Tarahumara are legendary ultradistance runners from northern Mexico who first appeared in the 1928 Olympics. In their culture, running scores of miles up and down mountains is a typical day's travel. The traditional Tarahumara diet is 10 percent protein, 10 percent fat and 80 percent complex carbohydrates. Their principal food is corn, roasted and ground to powder for making tortillas and gruels. They eat a lot of squash, beans and chilies and, on rare occasions, may eat goat, mice or fish. The low-fat diet may explain the Tarahumara's low pulse rate and their ability to run in the thinner oxygen of their home, a mile-plus above sea level. Their high-carb intake supplies them with plenty of glycogen to burn as fuel over daily distance runs. They would seem to have adopted, out of necessity, an ideal diet that conforms to most sophisticated nutritional advice offered to athletes in developed countries.
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