Do you guys that do your runs at night eat a full meal right afterwards? For various reasons I have to switch from running at 5:00 AM to running at 9:00 PM. My main problem is I'm used to eating the biggest meal of the day right after the AM run and not really anything after 6PM or so. I don't like going to bed on a full stomach but I'm worried I won't recover right if I don't get a bunch of calories in the refueling window. What works for everybody else?
Really, no one? One more try.
I often run at night due to it being hot and/or me being tired and hungry when I get home. If I do, I usually eat a lighter meal at 5-6pm and run at 8-9pm. When I get back, depending on how long/hard I ran I have 1-2 pints of Gatorade, a handful of raisins and/or nuts, maybe a sports bar and a piece of fruit or two. I generally aim to eat about 500 calories or so after a 10 miler.
When I was 20-25 I often used to eat seconds of whatever I made for dinner, but now that I'm in my 30s I tend not to eat as much. Definitely no full meal.
I do some night running sometimes, and yes, I try to eat a big meal right after. It puts me in a nice "food coma" as I drift off to sleep, surely bound for some funky tomato-sauce-induced dreams... But anyways, I think it's very important to at least replace 100% of the calories you have just burned on your run. Your body does most of the "repair work" when you sleep, so you need to make sure you have the fuel there to repair the damage. One thing that's a nice time saver is to make dinner before you run, then cover it/put it in the fridge, go run, and then microwave it and eat it while you stretch. It will probably be best to get most of your calories for the day (or at least a good portion) BEFORE you run, as you don't want to be slogging along until 9pm with only 800 or 1000 Calories.
[quote]777 wrote:
One thing that's a nice time saver is to make dinner before you run, then cover it/put it in the fridge, go run, and then microwave it and eat it while you stretch.[quote]
Ooooo! Static stretching? That's a no no.
thanks for the replies
I'm a night runner. I generally eat Dinner at 5:00-6:00 pm. Head out on the run 8-9pm. If I can't eat Dinner that night, I usually eat a larger lunch or a big snack around 3 and an apple after the run.