PERFORMANCE
Registered Nutritionist, Lucy-Ann Prideaux
www.simply-nutrition.co.uk
NUTRITION Q&A Q
Q
Lucy-Ann Prideaux is a regular speaker at RF training breaks with The Running Inn. Every month she’s here to answer your nutrition questions
Q
I know I run faster when I’m skinny. I’m by no means fat, but is there a scientific way of telling
when you’ve reached your optimum running weight? If I lose a stone will I definitely run faster? How will I know if I’ve gone too thin?
To run well, and run healthily, it’s important to maintain a healthy body fat level. If you’re female, your menstrual cycle could also reveal a lot. Many female runners succumb to “athletic amenorrhoea”, where periods stop due to the physical stress of training and/or a low-calorie diet. Too low a body fat percentage/body weight can affect oestrogen production and be detrimental to health – particularly bone health. Running faster really requires you to reach the best strength-to-weight ratio possible, achieved by reducing body fat whilst maintaining muscle strength. To run your best while staying healthy, try to work out, reach and maintain a healthy body fat percentage. According to the American Council on Exercise (ACE) a female runner with a body fat percentage of between 14 to 24 percent would be considered healthy. The recommended healthy athlete range for men is six to 13 percent. I suggest you use this information as a springboard to look into this further.
30 n RUNNING FREE
I’m a lifelong lover of sugar, carbs, tea, coffee and social drinking. I’m now 47 and worried that
running alone isn’t going to shift my middle-aged spread. I’m not all bad, I love fresh fruit, salad, fish, and lean meat. I drink lots of water too. I think eating less sugar will help my body feel more balanced and may have an impact on my running – but is there an easy to way to get the vices out without feeling too deprived?
The word that first jumps out here is “balance”. Good nutrition and good health is about exactly that. Ask yourself if you’re as healthy and energetic as you would like to be. If you’re not, then it’s likely the diet and/or lifestyle is out of whack – your thoughts about reducing sugar intake suggest the “vice” part is possibly too high. Perhaps write down your food intake over the next few days, and try to assess this yourself. You’ll be able to see what aspects of your diet need most attention. Reducing your sugar intake will almost certainly lead to improved energy levels, and in turn this should improve your running. Less sugar will also reduce insulin (the main hormone involved in sugar metabolism), enhancing the body’s efficiency at using fat for energy. Focus on naturally sweet snack foods – baby plum tomatoes, sweet sugar snap peas, mango cubes, kiwi fruits – and ensure you opt for some protein-rich foods during the day too – whole almonds, seeds, a small pot of plain yogurt, or half an avocado. As a final note, rather than labelling foods as good or bad, assess them in terms of the impact they’ll have on your body, health and energy. Ask yourself some key questions, such as how you might feel once you’ve eaten certain food, and whether it’s taking you towards health and a lean body or away from it. You might like to plan a week in advance and allow yourself three occasions to indulge and enjoy whichever foods/drinks you want. The rest of the time, enjoy all the healthy foods you like and try to think about enjoying taking care of yourself and feeding your body with the best foods you can. Good luck!
I enjoy doing a Saturday morning parkrun at 9am. It’s only 5k so I don’t usually bother with
breakfast but my running buddy claims that this will affect my performance? Do you think he’s right?
Whether or not missing food before a morning run affects performance depends on some key factors: the length and intensity of the session; what was consumed the night before; and your efficiency at burning body fat versus carbs for energy. In theory, even after an overnight fast the body has enough stored energy to fuel up to 60 minutes of exercise. However, this is only the case if your diet contains enough calories, and as a runner, enough carbohydrate, too. The higher the intensity the more carbohydrate the body burns. The lower the intensity, the more the body can rely on body fat to provide the energy it needs. Often the more “trained” an athlete, the more efficient they become at burning fat at higher intensities, although carbs will always be the dominant energy provider during faster-paced sessions. If your carb stores are low, there’s a possibility that you’ll break down protein to make energy to fuel your exercise session, which in the long run could result in a loss of lean tissue, meaning you’ll burn less calories at rest. I would suggest you experiment with eating a small breakfast 60 minutes prior to your run, and see if you perform better. A meal with 30 to 60g of carbs would be plenty. This could be a standard size smoothie made with yogurt, apple juice and berries, or a couple of pieces of fruit, or one to two spoons of muesli with a spoon of yogurt. You may find you feel stronger, and are able to run more comfortably, and faster. If you do, I would continue with this pre-run meal, as in the long run you, your body and your metabolism will benefit.
Meet Lucy Ann at the Running Free Workshop, with The Running Inn, to be held at evolve in South Kensington on June 25th and September 17th 2011. Visit www.
therunninginn.com for more information.
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