Pre and post training / racing nutrition

[Robert Lofthouse]

Ok, before you shout at me because this is a well discussed subject. I have looked, but nothing I've found here properly answers my specific question(s).

 

My activity levels have recently increased to a level that has made me take a good look at what I put into my body before and after my training sessions as well as races.

 

To be clear, although I'm not 100% sure it makes too much of a difference, my sport of choice at the moment is running (with a small amount of MTB thrown in, just to keep the feeling of sitting in a saddle real). My training runs are anything from 8, 10 or 12 km runs, my races these days consist only of half marathons. Recently though, I've found myself struggling on runs that I didn't struggle on before, and I'm starting to link these "struggle" sessions with instances where I haven't eaten before my run, or my previous day's run wasn't followed by a proper "recovery" meal.

 

My basic eating regime (specifically around training) consists of :

 

For 8, 10 or 12 km runs - run before breakfast, follow up with a full (100g) serving of FutureLife cereal with 30 mins of finishing.

 

For 15km or 21km runs (these are usually my races), eat a full serving of FutureLife about 90mins before start followed by a USN recovery shake upon completion. I go the recovery shake route purely because it's normally more than 30mins before I can get home and eat a proper meal to recover.

 

I'm not 100% sure I'm doing this right though. Should I be trying to make sure I eat first before running every time instead of running on an empty stomach and only refuelling? As far as recovery goes, would a shake made of 100g of FutureLife serve as a good recovery meal as well as the recovery shake I've been taking (the FutureLife sure as hell is a lot cheaper that the USN product)?

 

Does the nature of the carbs you take in post exercise (low GI vs hi GI) make any difference in recovery, or it the protein portion the more relevant part of the recovery meal.

 

On the FutureLife side, they've just released a high protein version of the product (30g protein vs 20g) which has slightly reduced carbs as well - would this be best used as a pre or post training/racing (or both)?

 

Any insight is welcome (even if specific answers to my questions aren't given)

 

Thanks in advance.

 

*edit*

Aaand just as I close this screen down, I saw a post that would appear to have some relevance :-P. Nevertheless, I'll leave this question up, just in case some new opinions appear. :-P

Edited November 1, 2012 by Robert Lofthouse