How important is diet?

Sounds OK to me. Some salad and fruit once in a while, beers after the long run, double that Sunday long run gradually, you'll be fine.

Cheers!

No detectable difference.

A dirty diet with a lot of crap can still have all the nutrition you need.

I need a 20 mile long run for a half?!?!

Also I will not give up beer or wine. NO. But I am willing to eat a salad here and there

I'm 5'8 and 185lbs and would smoke you in a half marathon or any distance for that matter. The most important factor at this point in time for you is giving up. The sooner the better.

I'm 5'8 and 185lbs and would smoke you in a half marathon or any distance for that matter. The most important factor at this point in time for you is giving up. The sooner the better.

Really you should run more, a lot more to run a decent half. Diet is simple: focus on eating more fruits and vegetables, eating less processed food, and limiting sweets and alcohol.

Diet is totally irrelevant to running. Unless you eat right before you run. In that case I would stay away from pasta primavera. I once ate pasta primavera 10 minutes before doing a track session. I threw up all over the track on my second 400 of the day.

Diet is maybe 2% of the equation that you worry after you have dealt with the first 90% of the equation which is sleep, smart, well designed workouts and overall running volume. When you have those things covered, worry about diet, strength training, stretching, etc.

Your diet isn't horrible, just suboptimal.

Doesn't matter what you eat if you are working out to lose your consumed calories. But start try to eat something that are healthy like veggies, indian nuts https://www.nuez-dela-india.com/supplement/ , fruits, some time foods with fatty acid. Fatty acid containing foods are also important to our body like chicken, egg, avocado, etc it helps to heal cuts and wounds and also develop brain, new cell membrane.

Runtowin2018 wrote:

I am a female in my late 30s who is trying to race a fast (for me) half marathon this winter. I run 25-30 miles a week right now with my long run being 10 miles. Obviously this will increase before the half.

My question is how important is nutrition in terms of speed and performance? My diet is average at best. My weight is ok, I'm 5'8" and 125 lbs. If I switch to cleaner eating will it make a difference in my speed? Right now I eat an average American diet. Cereal for breakfast, sandwich for lunch, yogurt, and dinner is anything from burgers to chicken and rice to pizza. Not a lot of vegetables I'll be honest.

sdfasdfasdfdf wrote:

Diet is totally irrelevant to running.

Diet is what your body needs to function well. Heart health, weight, oxygen delivery, energy regulation all highly linked to diet.

Your post is ignorant.

Prescription Drug Addicts wrote:

sdfasdfasdfdf wrote:

Diet is totally irrelevant to running.

Diet is what your body needs to function well. Heart health, weight, oxygen delivery, energy regulation all highly linked to diet.

Your post is ignorant.

It also completely ignores the fact that your body serves other purposes besides running.

Be smart people, you only get one body, if you trash it now, you will pay for it later.

Prescription Drug Addicts wrote:

sdfasdfasdfdf wrote:

Diet is totally irrelevant to running.

Diet is what your body needs to function well. Heart health, weight, oxygen delivery, energy regulation all highly linked to diet.

Your post is ignorant.

The body still functions well on a diet as stated by the OP.

Rodgers and Jones wrote:

Prescription Drug Addicts wrote:

Diet is what your body needs to function well. Heart health, weight, oxygen delivery, energy regulation all highly linked to diet.

Your post is ignorant.

The body still functions well on a diet as stated by the OP.

Not really. It's missing many vital nutrients and likely too high in refined carbs and saturated fat.

Smoove wrote:

Diet is maybe 2% of the equation that you worry after you have dealt with the first 90% of the equation which is sleep, smart, well designed workouts and overall running volume. When you have those things covered, worry about diet, strength training, stretching, etc.

Except that diet, strength training, stretching etc. all affect how much volume and workouts you can handle without breaking down.

If you think otherwise, congratulations on winning the genetic lottery.

Runtowin2018 wrote:

I am a female in my late 30s who is trying to race a fast (for me) half marathon this winter. I run 25-30 miles a week right now with my long run being 10 miles. Obviously this will increase before the half.

My question is how important is nutrition in terms of speed and performance? My diet is average at best. My weight is ok, I'm 5'8" and 125 lbs. If I switch to cleaner eating will it make a difference in my speed? Right now I eat an average American diet. Cereal for breakfast, sandwich for lunch, yogurt, and dinner is anything from burgers to chicken and rice to pizza. Not a lot of vegetables I'll be honest.

For health, extremely important if you want to be old and healthy some day. If you don't care what happens after 50 and it doesn't matter if you get a heart attack/stroke at age 60-80, then not that important. BUT with modern drugs you can also do miracles to your disease risks and come very close to the life expectancy of those people who are eating a very healthy diet.

For speed and performance as a young person it doesn't matter much. For speed and performance as an old person it matters: you won't have good performance with clogged arteries. Here too, you can compensate with drugs(not PEDs) a lot and keep your arteries clean for example.

Rodgers and Jones wrote:

The body still functions well on a diet as stated by the OP.

For some time, yes. If you put bad gasoline in a car, the engine will brake down sooner though.

I would say diet is important in terms of keeping your weight down and also fueling your running.

Just don't eat too much junk. drink water, eat lots of fruit and veggies, whole grains, nuts, seeds,

Limit meat

I was assuming she had no problems with weight. :)

Runtowin2018 wrote:

I am a female in my late 30s who is trying to race a fast (for me) half marathon this winter. I run 25-30 miles a week right now with my long run being 10 miles. Obviously this will increase before the half.

My question is how important is nutrition in terms of speed and performance? My diet is average at best. My weight is ok, I'm 5'8" and 125 lbs. If I switch to cleaner eating will it make a difference in my speed? Right now I eat an average American diet. Cereal for breakfast, sandwich for lunch, yogurt, and dinner is anything from burgers to chicken and rice to pizza. Not a lot of vegetables I'll be honest.

For what you want to do at your age and weight, improving your diet will have negligible effects.