The following essay is just a start! I have more to say on this subject. And, since I am neither a qualified nutritionist nor physiologist, you might just want to consider this to be incoherent ramblings. When I get around to writing a book, you can be sure that I’ll consult with experts to provide scientific underpinnings to my beliefs.

“Don’t eat - Just Run!”

Most runners eat too much when training! No, I’m not talking about regular meals and snacks - I’m talking about nutrition just prior to and during a training run. I don’t eat anything at all before a run and I usually run before breakfast when dinner is a distant memory. And I never fuel during a training run, either. I’ve always done that.

At first, I avoided eating before and during a run because it was always uncomfortable to have food in my stomach. That’s still true, but what I have discovered is that I seem to have larger glycogen stores and better fat burning capabilities than runners who train with food in their bellies. Running on an empty stomach forces your body to adapt to running demands in ways other than via digestion, and those ways are to increase glycogen capacity and increase fat burning ability.

I know what a lot of you are thinking - “But, I get so tired during a workout because I’m running out of energy”. I can’t begin to tell you the number of posts I’ve seen on Facebook from folks who are begging for ideas on how to fuel better to avoid fatigue. I even saw a post from someone looking for advice on how to fuel to make it through a 5K! Fatigue is one thing, but unless they are actually “hitting the wall”, they’re just plain, old tired, and all the calories in the world aren’t going to improve matters. As long as you have glycogen reserves left, you’re good to continue.

Food in your body is actually counter-productive, because your body has to send blood to your stomach and intestines to digest it. That’s blood which could be used to transport more energy to your muscles. For any race shorter than a marathon, you want to have the necessary glycogen socked away by the time you arrive at the start line.