Getting your Nutrition Right

Sports nutrition is a vast and very complicated subject. In these pages we are only going to be able to scratch at the surface, but we will do so in ways that are practical for a runner.

As you will often hear on television the best approach to eating is a balanced healthy diet. You should try to eat at least five items of fruit and vegetables a day (probably this should be more and mainly vegetables) and also minimise really fatty or highly processed carbohydrate foods where possible. We all need a certain amount of fat to survive - just aim to go for the healthier option where possible.

Photo Heathly Vegetables

From a coaches point of view, don't get obsessed with diet as this can cause problems, just be sensible, eat healthily (we all know deep down what this means - even if we don't follow it!) and from the athletes point of view if you are being sensible you should burn off the odd cake or biscuit you eat without any trouble or feelings of guilt. It is also vitally important we eat enough to fuel our training throughout the day so that we are not starting a high intensity session on ‘empty’.

The information here is written by an athletics coaches who have read widely into the subject and not a sports nutritionist (although we've listened to what they say at great length), so is about gearing your food and drink to the practicalities of running.

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