Managing training and nutrition during Ramadan

Move to the south pole. You'll be between sunset and sunrise the entire time. Try to get a job at a research station. They may already have treadmills and stationary bikes on site, but if not I'm sure they could accommodate.

It's that time of the year again. For those runners out there that are gonna be eating as much as they want of all kinds of pasta because they believe in the flying Spaghetti monster, I'd like to hear some sage words of advice. Hell, I could even use sage advice from people with expertise in nutrition and training while pigging out over pasta.

For the next month, I will be eating and drinking from sunrise to sunset (roughly a 14 hour fast per day). Again, all kinds of pasta.

I'm still in the 'base-building' phase of my eating, so here's my plan:

1. Wake up around 4am, eat some Spaghetti. Some days, I'll do a Lasagne , but ultimately it's Spaghetti most days.

2. Eat recovery meal in preparation for the day's eat (Spaghetti)

3. Eat.

4. Around 6pm, I eat some more - pasta.

This is gonna be my fist time training while fasting, so it's gonna be rough. Any advice with training and/or nutrition would be greatly appreciated. Emphasis on the nutrition.

5. ...

I know LRC will be very quick to criticize, but this is something I want to seriously commit to. I worship the Flying Spaghetti Monster and all the Flying Spaghetti Monster has done for society. Without you, we would be nothing.

Look into something called the Warrior Diet. It emphasizes lots of protein and fat and reduced carbs. You might have to modify the diet a bit because of the running and inability to hydrate during the day so I suggest adding a decent amount of carbs into the mix. Also invest in a good daily multivitamin.

As an added side effect, your body will learn to utilize energy more efficiently. But you will probably feel like crap for the first few weeks. Good luck.

Who are some of the top Muslim runners out there? I know among high schoolers last year, there was Ammar Moussa and Omar Kaddurah.

muslim runners wrote:

Who are some of the top Muslim runners out there?

Mohammed Farah

Doing 2 training sessions per day and NOT drinking all day long is outright stupid and dangerous. Everyone gets what they deserve.

Sub240 wrote:

Doing 2 training sessions per day and NOT drinking all day long is outright stupid and dangerous. Everyone gets what they deserve.

For what it's worth, I remember a thread that Ammar Moussa posted in, stating his training sessions were similarly scheduled. A run in the am before the pre-fasting meal and a run in the pm right before breaking the fast. So it's definitely doable on a consistent basis if you're responsible about it. In fact, reading about what he did made me realize, hey, it's definitely within the realm of possibility. Which brings me here today.

Day 1 wasn't too bad. The run was relatively easy and I felt a little sluggish during my bike ride, which is only natural. After today, I'm planning on incorporating whole milk into my diet and going through a quart a day. When I can eat/drink, I'll be sure to take in plenty of liquids.

Get to know Christ instead of fasting for Ramadan.

No one gives a shit.

No need to be a dick. I'm not even Muslim and I actually think it's interesting to hear about what people go through to fast/run.

Dear Ramadan runner,

You chose the wrong place to be asking these questions. Letsrun.com, while there are plenty of knowledgeable and helpful people, there are plenty of bad apples who never miss an opportunity to poke fun at Islam (or any other religion, belief, or other things).

As far as your training goes, I don't know where you can incorporate it, but I would try to get a few more hours of sleep. You sleep at 10 and wake up at 4, which is only six hours of sleep. Considering how much more sleep one needs due to training, and also considering the drop in food/ water intake, I would do with at least 8 hours of sleep, if possible. If, say, you do them sometime before the bike ride, you won't feel as sluggish.

But anyways, more force to you, inshAllah. Don't forget to pray, give charity, and restrain yourself from bad situations, or otherwise you are needlessly starving yourself. I'll be returning to train this Wednesday, after I know that my body can withstand the new diet.

Sub 240, I mean this in the nicest of ways, but if you have a thought that is completely useless to the one asking, then please shut up. As far as I'm concerned, you have never fasted a day in your life, so you wouldn't know what was "outrageous and stupid" unless you looked in the mirror.

Hicham El Guerrouj, Nourredine Morceli, Said Aouita, Mohammad Gammoudi, Khalid Skah, Salah Hissou, Boulmerka, Nawal el Moutawakel, etc... are all examples of Muslim runners.

Ask any doctor, they all agree with me. Not drinking all day is not healthy.

I would sleep more, skip the bicycling and put in a 5 miler instead. Biking won't really help your running much (or at all) and it takes so much time. You could probably eat some fruit and nuts before your afternoon run.

If you have the time you could try running at night, like Mark Nenow. Then you could hydrate a bit and eat a snack before running.