Diet v Performance

The figure often quoted is that losing 10lbs speeds you up 5 seconds per mile, so drop 10lbs and take a minute off your 5k.

In my experience, diet has more of an impact on recovery than performance

With better recovery, you can handle a bigger workload, therefore run better times

This is where runners are wrong. Lazy crap food diet is not good for your health long term. Being an adult means you eat for health, which coincidently will not hurt your running!

The type of diet makes a huge difference for health and performance.

Diet has absolutely no importance. Steve Jones regularly ate meat pies and drank a lot of beer.

If you want to run faster, just run more miles.

Diet v Performance wrote:

How important is the diet of an amateur longer distance (5k, 10k +) runner when it comes to performance?

I'm not really carrying any extra weight as such and eat more or less as I please with the exception of during the day before speed sessions and the day before races (where I try to eat as healthy as possible). Will those regular donuts, beers and bacon rolls have any impact on race performance throughout the season if you do not carry the extra weight?

Around these treats a fairly normal diet is maintained.

It's not. If a certain diet makes you feel better, more motivated, more energetic, then go for it.

The Way We Were wrote:

Diet has absolutely no importance. Steve Jones regularly ate meat pies and drank a lot of beer.

If you want to run faster, just run more miles.

To say it has NO importance is ridiculous. Most studies would state the opposite and that it plays a large role in performance.

You can do a study of your own at home if you would like. For one week, eat nothing but cheese. The next week, eat a high carbohydrate, low fat diet, rich in fruit and vegetables, and drink over a gallon of water daily.

Please get back and let me know the results. Try to keep all other factors relatively the same both weeks, for example, sleep, stress, and training levels & intensity.

Diet is important but smart training is the more important.

Get this right or you'll be eclipsed by the guy who was a minute slower than you last year but isn't wasting their time measuring their food in test tubes.

Richmond Runner wrote:

The figure often quoted is that losing 10lbs speeds you up 5 seconds per mile, so drop 10lbs and take a minute off your 5k.

Wouldn't that be 15 seconds for 5k?

Just over a minute for the half.

Diet v Performance wrote:

How important is the diet of an amateur longer distance (5k, 10k +) runner when it comes to performance?

I'm not really carrying any extra weight as such and eat more or less as I please with the exception of during the day before speed sessions and the day before races (where I try to eat as healthy as possible). Will those regular donuts, beers and bacon rolls have any impact on race performance throughout the season if you do not carry the extra weight?

Around these treats a fairly normal diet is maintained.

I am now a convert to a healthier diet but I once heard Peter Snell being asked about the childhood obesity problem and he joked that at the same age he was probably also to busy eating (Nestle) Pixie Caramels.

Didn't Dave Bedford live on a crap diet?

John Walker had a beer and fish & chips before breaking the world mile record.

RobDyrdek wrote:

The Way We Were wrote:

Diet has absolutely no importance. Steve Jones regularly ate meat pies and drank a lot of beer.

If you want to run faster, just run more miles.

To say it has NO importance is ridiculous. Most studies would state the opposite and that it plays a large role in performance.

You can do a study of your own at home if you would like. For one week, eat nothing but cheese. The next week, eat a high carbohydrate, low fat diet, rich in fruit and vegetables, and drink over a gallon of water daily.

Please get back and let me know the results. Try to keep all other factors relatively the same both weeks, for example, sleep, stress, and training levels & intensity.

By definition, you cannot prove a null hypothesis. The burden of proof is in the camp that claims a causality. So why don't you try your experiment and report your results here?