Breakfast before or after a run, please don't answer if you have a job that starts before 9:30 am.

I run almost every day at about 6:00 or 6:30 am (with no job that starts before 930am).

I try to never eat after 7 pm the prior night. And then I never eat prior to the run, UNLESS its a planned run over about 14 miles. I will also eat in the morning prior to the run, if for some reason dinner was early (around 5 pm) the prior day, in which case I typically eat half a granola bar, or eat a piece of toast with soynut butter and honey drizzle. This 'plan' has worked well for me now for about the last 6 years.

10miles in morning

FAST all day

6miles night then eat

Water during the day

That's just me

Definitely nothing before or during except water, even for longer runs. You need to get your body used to 'running on empty' i.e. using fat reserves for fuel if you're serious about avoiding the wall during the marathon for example. Your body should have enough energy stored from your previous evening meal and the sleep that you've just woken from to easily manage up to 90 mins if you know what you're doing i.e. pacing yourself properly. If training for a marathon, you should use this philosophy to build up to running for around two and a half hours on nothing but water. If you can do that, your marathon will be so much more comfortable with the advantage of the fuelling stations provided. After those depleted long training runs, your body will not fail you during the last 5-10k of a marathon race with the additional fuel that you would have taken during the previous 30-35k. Important to remember that when you have completed any long run this way, make sure that you replenish with high GI carbs within 20 minutes or as soon after as possible and a high protein meal/shake within two hours. Chocolate milk is a good choice to start and it never tastes better when taken for this purpose!

IF rules wrote:

Luv2Run wrote:

Which "tank" are you talking about? Muscle glycogen levels should be okay assuming a reasonable carbohydrate intake, but liver glycogen stores will be lowered.

.

The whole fuel system. There is enough fuel to really do any sort of run in the morning. People think they need to carb up to shuffle for 20 minutes if they are doing short morning runs.

aka: “i have no clue what im talking about”

"You need to get your body used to 'running on empty'"

Finally someone knows what they are talking about. Take notes folkes!

no clue wrote:

IF rules wrote:

The whole fuel system. There is enough fuel to really do any sort of run in the morning. People think they need to carb up to shuffle for 20 minutes if they are doing short morning runs.

aka: “i have no clue what im talking about”

You probably don't but you could try and I'll decide.

sarahatl wrote:

I have to eat something before I run - or I do not have a good run. I have very little body fat - so I always have some carbs, protein and fat before a run. Usually sprouted bread and almond butter.

You do realize that even with low body fat you still have ample supply of fat for energy.

Let's say you weigh 70 kg (154 pounds) and have 5% body fat. That is 3.5kg of fat or 3500 grams of fat. At 9 kcals/g, that is 31,500 kcals. Let's use 100 kcals/mile (it varies) and you can go 315 miles. If you are doing a 5 miler in the morning and all the energy came from fat, you would use about 55 grams of fat.

The benefits to me for a little carbs before running is to increase blood glucose levels and help the brain out.

Hoppy Jogger wrote:

"You need to get your body used to 'running on empty'"

Finally someone knows what they are talking about. Take notes folkes!

Right (sarcasm)

Luv2Run wrote:

sarahatl wrote:

I have to eat something before I run - or I do not have a good run. I have very little body fat - so I always have some carbs, protein and fat before a run. Usually sprouted bread and almond butter.

You do realize that even with low body fat you still have ample supply of fat for energy.

Let's say you weigh 70 kg (154 pounds) and have 5% body fat. That is 3.5kg of fat or 3500 grams of fat. At 9 kcals/g, that is 31,500 kcals. Let's use 100 kcals/mile (it varies) and you can go 315 miles. If you are doing a 5 miler in the morning and all the energy came from fat, you would use about 55 grams of fat.

The benefits to me for a little carbs before running is to increase blood glucose levels and help the brain out.

Thanks for explaining this so I don't have to. No one needs almond butter before a morning run because they have very little body fat.. There are other advantages for having a snack before a run, but it's not because you have too little body fat.

I run before I eat and I'm at work by 8:30 at the latest. Sorry for answering!

I always run in the morning and never eat before. I can understand a small snack like a banana before if you can stomach it, which I can't. The reality is if you ate well the night before you should be fine in you're morning run eating after.

Now I don't know what your schedule is, if you're awake 4 hrs before you run that's a different scenario. I wake up and run first thing each day. And I start work between 7 and 7:30 most days.

Luv2Run wrote:

The benefits to me for a little carbs before running is to increase blood glucose levels and help the brain out.

Your glucose levels should be fine already and just starting running will optimise them.

I start quite late in the day, but I couldn't imagine eating more than a banana before a run. Puke. Now coffee, on the other hand, is a necessity.

For all you people who don't run in the morning, I totally get it for anything ranging from recovery runs all the way to medium long runs, even pushing long runs if you're body is used to it. What do you do though if you have a really big quality day, aking to a Daniels 2Q workout? Can you run something like 16 total miles with a 3x2 mile cruise interval workout in the middle of it with nothing in your system?

no clue wrote:

IF rules wrote:

The whole fuel system. There is enough fuel to really do any sort of run in the morning. People think they need to carb up to shuffle for 20 minutes if they are doing short morning runs.

aka: “i have no clue what im talking about”

+1

It may have taken some time to adapt to it but I do all of my morning workouts without eating ahead of time. I'll eat in the morning before races, but not on a normal day.

Vitals: 32yo / 2:28 PR / ~100-120 mpw this fall

Morning schedule:

up at 6:00-6:30

read the news, drink coffee, walk the dog

run somewhere in the range of 7:30-9:00

eat oatmeal w/ sugar, banana, glass of OJ, and make a to-go cup of coffee for work

I understand that maybe my workouts could be slightly better if I choked down some food in the AM even though I'm not hungry, but why? I've adapted to this well enough to run solid, hard 15 mile workouts on weekdays and hard 20-22 milers on the weekend. If I feel like I'm going to be short on energy I'll take a Gu with me.

LetsBeReal wrote:

no clue wrote:

aka: “i have no clue what im talking about”

+1

Blood sugar, muscle glycogen, liver glycogen, body fat and the remains of last nights dinner still in transit.

Your welcome, moran.

What about Quality Work wrote:

For all you people who don't run in the morning, I totally get it for anything ranging from recovery runs all the way to medium long runs, even pushing long runs if you're body is used to it. What do you do though if you have a really big quality day, aking to a Daniels 2Q workout? Can you run something like 16 total miles with a 3x2 mile cruise interval workout in the middle of it with nothing in your system?

I haven't done Daniels, but I have done 3x2 within 10 total miles or 14ish miles with 10 @ marathon pace on either an empty stomach or with one tag-along Gu. I would also note that at some point (can't remember how long it took) it went from being "hard" to "fine" to run without the food first. It may help a little, but it's not critical for the sort of workouts I do.

IF rules wrote:

LetsBeReal wrote:

+1

Blood sugar, muscle glycogen, liver glycogen, body fat and the remains of last nights dinner still in transit.

Your welcome, moran.

what did you just say? literally have no clue what that was supposed to mean

no clue wrote:

IF rules wrote:

Blood sugar, muscle glycogen, liver glycogen, body fat and the remains of last nights dinner still in transit.

Your welcome, moran.

what did you just say? literally have no clue what that was supposed to mean

That's why you are a moran.