Happy Halloween!

I'm sure I'm not the only one who's considered candy as running fuel, right? More on that below.

It's also race week for the New York City Marathon! If you are lining up for the iconic race, be sure that you check out my last-minute tips for your best race yet.

read more (7 minutes)

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ask me anything

Q:

Hello, I have a fueling during running question. This concept is quite new to me as a train for my first full marathon. I have no problems eating during runs, and thankfully don’t have any G.I. issues. From the research I have been doing, when you eat during a run, all of the carbohydrates are immediately used by the muscles. When I run, I munch on candy, fruit, or sometimes even just fun things like an Oreo. Would all of the sugar I eat while running immediately get used? So the more you eat almost the better unless you get G.I. issues? Or is there sort of a limit and then it’s not good to go over that limit when it comes to carbohydrates while running. just wondering if eating even more would lead to better success, or if I would just store the extra calories if I ate too much running. Hopefully that question makes sense.

A:

There is a big difference between eating your whole bag of Halloween candy at the kitchen table before bed versus eating it while on a long run.

Our body converts dietary sugar into glucose which is either used immediately on the run or stored in the muscles and the liver. This is a good thing so we have the energy source where we need it. If you ate more sugar than you could burn on the run, the first thing the body would do would be to store it as glucose, not convert it into body fat.

If you're sitting on the couch with completely full glucose stores, your body would then try to store the excess as fat.

So does that mean that everything you eat while on a run immediately gets burned?

Let's do some sweet math:

The recommended carbohydrate intake for the marathon is between 30g-90g of carbohydrate per hour, which is 120-360 calories.

A 150-pound person running at a 10-minute per mile pace for 60 minutes will burn 700 calories, while a 200-pound person running at the same time and pace will burn 933 calories. The average person will burn between 80 and 140 calories per mile.

So if you are an average person and you are taking in the recommended amounts, you are likely not eating more than you are burning.

Let's keep going:

Four Oreo cookies have 33g of carbohydrate, but also contain fat and a little protein, for 213 calories. Your body will certainly use the carbs while running, but might decide to hang on to the fat. (Whether you burn more carbs than fat has a lot to do with your pace and distance, but let's keep it simple here.)

You'd be better off with Skittles which are about 1 gram of carbohydrate a piece, and almost nothing else. To get 30g, eat 30 Skittles for 126 calories.

Fruit can be an option, but it's heavy to carry fresh and the fiber can cause GI issues for many.

Let's say you eat on the high end, 90 pieces of Skittles an hour, assuming that's logistically possible. If your stomach feels fine with this and you are burning more than 380 calories in an hour of running (very likely), then you are not going to gain body fat from doing this.

But if you are a 5 hour marathoner, that's 450 Skittles or 16.6 one-ounce packets (hope you've got big pockets!!).

Back to your question, is it possible to eat more than you are burning on the run without feeling sick first? I suppose it's possible, but that sure is a lot of Halloween candy.

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podcast

We are back on track with new episodes! So it's only fitting that we start with this...

If you are lucky enough to have access to a local track today, it can be the very best thing to get better and faster at running.

Let’s find out why on today's Planted Runner Podcast.​

You'll learn:

• the common and perhaps misguided perceptions of track running,
• how you can use the track to improve your running, and
• the important rules of the track, so you won’t look like newbie out there, even if you’ve never run on a track before.

And I’ll also go into why you just might learn to love it. Yep, it’s possible!

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inspo

"Running is the greatest metaphor for life because you get out of it what you put into it."

— Oprah Winfrey

Have a great run today, Coach Claire

Thank you for being a part of the Planted Runner community!

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My mission is to help runners just like you reach goals they never dreamed possible through science-backed training and plant-based nutrition.

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Since 2016, I've helped thousands of every day runners become fitter, faster, and stronger with truly customized training and coaching.

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I also love to share what I have learned from my own journey starting as a non-runner to a 2:58 marathoner at age 42, as well what I have learned coaching runners, completely FREE. I do that every week in this newsletter and on the Planted Runner Podcast.

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