Jill Barker: Nutrition facts and myths for distance athletes – Montreal Gazette

Gyms are hotbeds of diet culture, with everyone from trainers to the guy working out beside you spouting the benefits of the latest fad diets. Be it keto, paleo, Whole 30 or intermittent fasting, gym rats are known for jumping on and off the diet bandwagon.

For most, testing out trendy diets isn’t likely to have much of an impact on their workout. But for distance athletes, runners, cyclists and triathletes, experimenting with fad diets is a risky business.

Keep in mind that food and performance are linked, with most distance athletes following a strict performance-based diet. Back in the day that meant adopting a high carbohydrate diet that filled muscles with a readily accessible source of energy (glycogen). Hence the prevalence of carbs, not just at every meal, but before, during and after workouts as well.

In the last few years, however, the diets of elite distance athletes have changed. Feasting on carbs is now limited to periods of high intensity and/or high volume training, and scaled back during periods when there is less demand on the working muscles.

What does that mean for the average marathoner, triathlete or long-distance cyclist?

The new mantra coined by sports nutritionists is “fuel for the work required,” which means cycling your nutritional needs based on your workout. Carbohydrate fuelling strategies should be centred around workouts over 60 minutes or during periods of high-volume training. Workouts or competitions under an hour don’t require specialized nutrition.

As for proponents of trendy paleo or keto diets, who claim that the body can be trained to rely on fat — not carbs — as fuel, the vast majority of studies state the contrary. High-fat diets fail to deliver during endurance events, despite the idea that they save on glycogen so that more is available at the end of the race when needed.

So if your training routine includes long run, bike or swim workouts, a paleo or keto diet isn’t going to enhance performance. Instead, fuelling up with good old-fashioned pasta, pancakes and peanut butter sandwiches will provide the fuel needed to sustain intensity to the end of the workout.

The same goes for race day. According to four of the biggest names in sports nutrition — Louise Burke (Australian Institute of Sport), Asker E. Jeukendrup (Loughborough University), Andrew M. Jones (University of Exeter) and Martin Mooses (University of Tartu) — who collaborated on an article published in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, endurance athletes should start fuelling up on high carbohydrate/low fibre foods a couple of days before race day in order to fill their muscles with energy. Keep up the practice on race day, consuming a carb laden pre-race meal a few hours before the gun goes off, followed by another small boost of carbs (sports drink) during the warm up.

If your event spans several hours, energy stores will need to be topped up while on the move. Sipping on a sports drink or gel every hour or so will allow for a steady flow of glycogen to the working muscles, a practice that reduces the risk of losing steam as you get closer to the finish line.

All of this may seem simple enough, but a high-carb diet can be tough on the gut. Be sure to test out the protocol well before race day, keeping track of what and how much you’ve eaten. The stomach can be trained to be more tolerant, so consider a slow introduction to race day nutrition strategies and adjust accordingly.

And whatever you do, don’t try anything new on race day. Familiar foods and familiar practices should rule your day, which means avoiding the temptation to try what other competitors are eating or drinking.

Also worth noting is that there is some degree of individualization in every nutritional strategy based on how well certain foods or certain protocols are tolerated. So while others may swear by what they eat and drink before, during and after a race or workout, you need to find your own protocol based on science and personal tolerance.

Keep in mind, too, that you’ll need to adjust the amount, timing and food choices based on the length of the event (half marathon versus marathon). During shorter events, swirling a small amount of a carb solution in the mouth and then spitting it out can offer similar performance-enhancing benefits of swallowing. Just the taste of carbs can stimulate receptors in the brain and modify its perception of effort. This is particularly important for anyone who struggles to drink while on the run.

Finally, it’s worth consulting a nutritionist if you have questions, concerns, allergies or food intolerances that may complicate your nutritional strategy. Getting advice from an expert hands down beats the advice freely circulated at the local gym.