LOLZLetter 258 | Fuel to Run: Secrets of Effective Nutrition During Your Long Runs
With dietician Alissa Palladino
Welcome,
Hopefully, you have a long weekend as we commemorate the life and work of Dr. King. I decided to rip the band-aid off racing and run my first race since my hip injury, minus a low-key turkey trot. The 8.2-mile race in San Simeon was one of the most beautiful I've ever run, and I was able to meet my goal of under a 7:30 pace. Did it feel great? No, but the first race back never really does. I have a lot of work to do before the Los Angeles Marathon in 2 months. Truthfully, this training cycle has not gone smoothly, and it's been one thing after another, but the cycle is still young, so there is more time to turn it around.
Anyway,this week I'm starting a new newsletter series about fueling during long runs and marathons. Truthfully, this topic has always interested me. Like running shoes, it's individualized for each person. This week, I'm talking to dietitian Alissa Palladino.
About Alissa:
Alissa Palladino is a registered dietitian and certified personal trainer with over nine years of experience, based in Atlanta, Georgia. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Yale University and a Master of Science in Nutrition & Dietetics from New York University. After completing a Dietetic Internship at Emory Healthcare, Palladino worked as a clinical dietitian and became a certified personal trainer through the American College of Sports Medicine in 2017.
Her career spans various settings, including corporate, medical, and fitness environments. Specializing in sports performance nutrition, weight management, and chronic health conditions like diabetes and hypertension, Palladino is committed to providing personalized, evidence-based care. She advocates for sustainable health practices and enjoys running and healthy eating.
Committed to providing empathetic, evidence-based, and personalized care, she focuses on sustainable and enjoyable health practices, staying away from extreme diets and measures. Palladino believes in the importance of exercise and nutrition plans tailored to individual needs, preferences, and lifestyles. She is an avid runner and vegetable enthusiast, practicing the healthy lifestyle she advocates for.
Palladino's credentials include being a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) by the Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR), a Licensed Dietitian (LD) in Georgia, and CPR/AED certified by the American Red Cross. She is dedicated to empowering individuals through education and tailored nutrition and fitness plans.
What are some natural ways to fuel more during runs? (like "real foods")
As long as your fuel provides simple carbs, it can definitely come from real food sources rather than supplements like gels or chews… you just have to figure out a convenient way to actually carry these foods on your runs (which is one of the advantages of fueling with sports products). Some examples of real foods that can be used to fuel long runs include pretzels, graham crackers, saltine crackers, fig cookies, dried fruit, like raisins or apricots, fresh fruit like bananas or grapes, natural liquid sweeteners like honey and maple syrup, apple sauce or other pureed fruit pouches, fruit leathers, and honestly even candy like gummy bears, Swedish fish or Twizzlers.
How can you get your stomach to handle more fueling?
You have to practice! Start small and increase gradually. Experiment with different fuel sources and products. Basically, you can (and should!) train your gut to digest and absorb fuel while running just like you train your muscles to run faster and longer.
What is the ideal amount of fuel? How can you work up to that?
While you will sometimes see fueling guidelines expressed in terms of calories, the science really is based on grams of carbohydrates per hour. The typical recommendation is 30 to 60 grams of carbs per hour for runs lasting 75 minutes or longer, and I recommend starting to fuel at the 45 minute mark to allow time for absorption.
There’s some newer research that suggests up to 90 g of carbs per hour can be tolerated and beneficial, and there are products like Maurten that are designed to allow athletes to take in that higher amount. I personally have not experimented with taking in that much fuel, but certainly some amateur and professional athletes have with good results. Most runners will probably find the 30 to 60 gram/hour recommendation sufficient.
As long as you’re hitting that amount, you also might want to experiment with spreading out your intake. This is something I have learned through personal experience, and practice myself during long runs and races. For example, I like to spread out 1 gel (about 25 grams of carbs) over 2-3 miles instead of trying to take it down all at once. Or if the serving size for a product like Clif shot blocks is 3 chews, I’ll take 1 every mile instead of all 3 at once.
Getting your fuel from a combination of solid and liquid sources can also help you reach the target levels with less digestive discomfort. For example, if you’re filling your water bottle with a carb-base hydration formula and sipping on that during your run, you can take in a fewer gels and chews and still meet your carb per hour target.
And definitely experiment with different products and sources - what works well for one runner may cause stomach cramps or other digestive issues in another runner.
What is the science of fueling more? Why should I?
Now that is a great question! And one I realize is not intuitive, as much as I feel like it should be!
Fueling provides our body with the nutrients (primarily carbs) that our muscles are literally burning for energy while we’re running. Our body stores carbs from our overall diet in our muscles and liver in the form of glycogen, but there is a limit to how much we can store, and it gets depleted on longer runs. We need to replenish carbs on runs lasting longer than 75 minutes (or even on runs lasting longer than 1 hour for some) Otherwise we won’t have the energy we need to keep running! Fueling with carbs during long runs also helps maintain our blood sugar levels so that we don’t become foggy brained or hypoglycemic - the technical term for low blood sugar.
Fueling properly decreases fatigue and increases endurance, and when we’re talking about the marathon distance, prevents us from “hitting the wall” where we just run out of energy and there’s no more fuel to burn.
How do I know if I need more electrolytes or more calories?
That’s a really good question since sometimes the symptoms of being dehydrated and being underfueled and hypoglycemic are similar - headache, fatigue, confusion, weakness, etc.
Lack of electrolytes would probably be the issue when you are sweating excessively especially if you are a salty sweater and notice that white crystallized salt forming on your skin. Sometimes people may experience muscle cramps when electrolytes get depleted.
If lack of calories (and really we are talking about carbs here) are the issue, you’re more likely to experience it as “hitting the wall” and not having the energy to keep running or having to dramatically slow down your pace.
Honestly, the best way to gauge what the underlying issue is, is to evaluate what you’ve actually taken in … if you realize you haven’t been fueling according to guidelines, of roughly 30 to 60 grams of carbs per hour, then that’s probably the problem.
If you’ve not been sipping on adequate fluids, or you’re drinking just water without ample sodium and other electrolytes, that may likely be responsible for your symptoms.
What's a good example of fueling for a marathon?
Well, this is highly individualized. As mentioned earlier, the science bases recommendation is 30 to 60 grams of carbs per hour, and we typically recommend starting at the 45 minute mark to allow time for absorption.
For reference, 1 serving of most traditional products like gels and chews contains roughly 25 grams of carbs, so you will likely need 1 to 2 servings per hour. Another way to approach this would be to aim to take in 1 serving every 45 minutes. And remember, the fueling guidelines are based on time, not distance! What this means is somebody running a 4 or 5 hour marathon will have more fueling occasions than somebody running a 3 hour marathon.
But the exact fuel plan will vary depending on the sources you choose… You may choose to take your fuel through gels, chews, and/ or a carbohydrate-base hydration formula like Skratch, Tailwind, Gatorade, Powerade and/or foods like pretzels, raisins, honey, or a combination.
Experiment during your long runs to figure out which sources work best for you and the optimal timing. And remember that fuel always needs to be taken in with water unless you are getting it from a liquid source.
Alissa also created some slides for the Atlanta Track Club on fueling which she graciously shared. *Please forgive the skewing of the slides. Not sure what substack was doing*
Thank you Alissa for your time!! You can find her on Instagram or her website.
On a personal note, I've found the more gels I've consumed, the better I've felt. Right now, I am working to take at least 1000 calories during the marathon. During my 20 miler a couple weeks ago, I took 5 gels and a Maurten 320 during the run. Energy wise, I felt ok at the end. My legs were just very tired.
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It took me almost 10 years to figure out a long run fueling strategy that worked for me. Right now I'm eating a half pack of honey stinger gels every three miles with an salt stick electrolyte/caffeine capsule every hour when it's warmer.
I'm with you about more fuel being better. If we use the top of Alissa's range at 60g/hour, a runner takes quite a bit more than her slides suggest, so I guess those are minimums. I aimed for one every 20-30 min during my last marathon, and I felt that was about right.