Timing Mealtime

Balancing when to eat and when to run can be tough. And that’s not just because if you work during normal business hours, then you’re probably running when most people are eating breakfast, lunch, or dinner. No, what I’m talking about here is learning how to schedule your runs so that your most recent meal doesn’t come back for a second tasting 15 minutes into your run.
This is one of those areas where you’re going to have to experiment to find what works best for you. I know some runners who can polish off a lumberjack’s breakfast seconds before heading out the door for a morning run and others who swear that they’ll have troubled stomachs their entire run if they eat the slightest morsel within several hours of training. There’s not much you can do about where you fall on the rockgut scale. When in doubt, err on the side of caution.
At a race in Japan once, I startled all the runners near me by popping a potato in my mouth just minutes before the start. I had a few stomach problems during that race, but knew that my opponents were completely psyched out. I won.
On the flip side, there’s also great variation among runners concerning how soon they eat after a run. Some runners step in the door and start munching; others don’t feel hungry for hours. This amount of time is going to be different even for individual runners from run to run—when it’s hot and you finish your run dehydrated and overheated, you’re probably not going to be as immediately hungry as on a 50-degree day. The harder you run, the more time you’ll probably want to allow before your next meal. Again, experiment to see what works for you. But here’s an important finding from the exercise science labs: If you consume some carbohydrate (it can be in solid or liquid form) within the first 30 minutes of the end of your run, your muscles will absorb those carbohydrates three times as fast as before your run. Although the rate at which they refuel slows some after those first 30 minutes, your muscles remain extra receptive for the first 90 minutes after a run.
What’s going on here? Think of your muscles as sponges. Following a run, they’re “drier” than at any other time. Just as a dry sponge greedily gobbles water more quickly than a moist sponge, so too do your muscles most want to be refilled when you’ve just depleted some of their stockpiles.
Why does this absorption matter? Because the gains that you make in your running that allow you to progress occur during the recovery phase following a run. By getting some carbs into your system soon after finishing your run, you therefore speed the recovery process. You’ll feel better on your next run, and you’ll be better able to nail each of your workouts and progress closer to your goal rate.
Carb refueling is especially important after longer-than-usual runs. Many times, when runners are dragging several hours or even the day after a long run, it’s because they waited too long to restock their muscles. As I said, some runners just don’t feel like eating any time near after finishing a run. That’s OK, but even they would feel better from run to run if they got in the habit of getting a minimal amount of carbs in. Keep in mind that I’m talking about only 100 to 200 calories in the first hour or so. That’s a bagel or a couple of pieces of fruit. If you have a super-sensitive system, liquid carbs are fine (and they’ll also help you to get in the important habit of drinking soon after your run). That can mean a sport drink or some diluted fruit juice. Diet sodas don’t count because they contain no calories, and therefore, no carbs.