So, you’ve made the great (and admittedly daunting) decision to take up running to get in shape – but hitting the road and doing some tough kilometres is only half the battle. As the expression goes: “what you put in is what you get out”, so the nutrition before and after a run can be as important as the run itself. We’ve tracked down some of the most important foods to consider when it comes to keeping you in Comrades shape!
Oats
Starting with the most important meal of the day: breakfast. Oats are the best way to kick things off. They provide a healthy mix of carbohydrates as well as fibre, and due to the low glycemic index oats don’t cause a blood-sugar spike, instead they provide a steady supply of energy over a longer period.
Whole Grains
The average adult diet should attribute around 50% of its total calories to carbohydrates, but which ones are important. South Africans generally don’t have a very healthy diet, and a big culprit is our affinity for unhealthy starches. White rice, white bread, non-whole grain pasta, potatoes, and a lot of other starches can provide energy – but they provide little else. Instead, try and opt for whole grains at least half the time when it comes to starches, because they tend to contain additional vitamins and fibre that are more balanced overall.
Bananas
The entire point of a run is to break a sweat – but it’s important to make sure you replenish what that run takes out of your body. The most important things you lose through sweat are minerals like potassium, magnesium, and sodium – and a banana contains a large amount of potassium that can help compensate, and as a bonus, it contains a good amount of healthier carbohydrates to keep you energised, too.
Peanut Butter
This is the ideal topping for that whole grain toast you’ll be trying to get into in the mornings. Preferably the peanut butter should have as little in terms of extra additives as possible, like sugar and oil. Peanut butter sometimes gets a bad rep for containing a lot of fat, which is true, but it’s the less hazardous monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats which can actually lower your cholesterol levels. Peanuts also contain a dose of Vitamin E, which is one of the better anti-oxidants among the vitamins.
Dark Chocolate
And, finally – no set of meal ingredients would be complete without at least a nod to dessert. Ideally you’ll want to get dark chocolate that consists of at least 65%+ cacao, and that isn’t stuffed full of sugar or artificial sweeteners if possible. Dark chocolate is good for blood pressure, and just like peanut butter can help lower cholesterol levels, too. The flavanols are also implicated in decreasing inflammation, which can be good for keeping joints and muscles happy from the high impact nature of runs.
So, will you be incorporating any of these foods into your training regime for the 2 Oceans Marathon? Let us know in the comments section below!
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