Running and Nutrition Question

I am new to this forum. I began training for a 5 K about 7 weeks ago. It's going fine (other than occasional knee pain) except for managing my diet. I am struggling to get in enough food to keep my energy up and not "crashing" a couple of hours later. I've added some carbs with protein but it still doesn't seem like enough. I really enjoy running and want to keep it up. If you all have any suggestions, I would greatly appreciate it.

Julie R,

Welcome to the worlds greatest bunch of amateur athletes in the world. There is a great group of experienced folks at varying stages of post-op life.

Your questions sound to me like the foundation, first and foremost, is to get more protein. 

My surgeon guideline said 40-60 gm of protein.  It wasn't until training as a support facilitator that I realized that is the recommended MINIMUM.  Add to that we have about a 60% (mal)absorption capability, so consuming 100 gms is netting us 60 gms.  With that new founded understanding, I did some research and the atheltic standard  for protein intake is 1 gm for each pound of your goal body weight. 

I inceased my protein intake from 60 to 100, then 160, then 200 gms a day and I felt  great. 
Now I also learned I needed more iron so I was directed to use a prenatal multivitamin that has 28 mg instead of the standard 18 mg, and I take 2 a day.  Later , with recommendation from this message board, I increased my B12 from 500 mg to 2000 mg (another noticeable improvement). 

As my weekly mileage increased, I started having issues with feeling weak-kneed and a little whoozy,....lack of potassium.  Initally I ate bananas to recover but transitioned to pill form (less fat and I couldn't eat more than one banana at the time).  I now take two 99 mg potassium tablets with my vitamins every morning ( with my multivitamin, B12, B-Complex, Biotin, E, C, D, A). 

My last bit of exercise fatique fighting wisdom was from Runner's World -garlic for stamina.  1 in the morning makes a noticeable difference for me.  2 makes me ill.

Good luck and congrads on your effort and success.  Hope any or all of this helps. 

Joe

Thanks for all the good info, Joe.  I've been lurking here for several weeks, and like Julie, I'm training for a 5K.  It's quite an endeavor for me as I've never been a runner (though I've always admired them).  In fact, it's rather comical since I was always the kid who came in last in any foot races.  I find I'm enjoying it, though I've also suffered from fatigue; sometimes it takes a few days for me to feel "normal".  I will try upping my protein.

I am in awe of all you athletes here -- you're a very inspirational bunch!

 Great info Joe!!
Julie, congrats and welcome to the forums.  I never thought I'd like running and I'm missing it so much right now.  Hopefully less than 2 weeks before I'm back at it!
--Sax

Joe, could you detail what it is that you eat to get in all that protein.
I was trying to figure out 188 grams of protein for myself and damn it's pretty difficult without powering down a few protein drinks.

Unfortunatley for me the protein drinks do nothing to satisfy my hunger, and I think they may even increase my appetite.  The sweetness of them is very similar to eating carbs for me, I drink one and I almost instantly want more.  The same is true of the protein bars,  Those things remind me too much of a candy bar, and I get almost no satisfaction from eating them.  They just increase my desire for another one.

Thank you for sharing the info on this, I find it very helpful to see what others have done, or are doing.  It often helps to break up the boredome of eating the same rut foods all the time.

This is what I have planned for tomorrow:
I still have room for something as an evening snack about 200
calories max and I would like to get another 20 grams of protein
so one of my protein bars would meet that, but it would also add an additional 17 grams of carbs, and like I said to me it's like eating candy, they just make me want more.
It is kind of fun playing around with the food to get optimal results though. 

Time	food	protein	calories
Pre workout
5:00	protein bar	20	180
5:30-7:00	Workout
Breakfast
7:30	3 egg beaters	18	90
7:30	2% cottage Cheese	14	100
Morning Snack
10:00	Protein Drink or Greek Yogurt	14-20	90-100
Lunch
12:00-12:30	6 oz. shrimp	34	140
	2 60cal cheese sticks	10	120
Afternoon Snack
3:00-3:30	Cottage Cheese or Yogurt or protein drink	14-20	90-100
Dinner
5:30-6:30	4 oz chicken breast	27	130
	1 cup broccoli	3	31
	Totals	154-166	971-990

Again, thanks for sharing the information on protein needs etc.
If you can find it could you forward a link to the article about protein needs for athletes

Scott

Seht man,

Note, I have cut back becuase I am currently not able to workout with my hip problem,.but to answer your question, when I was at the height of my training this is what I was doing with pleasing success for me:


Morning: vitamins - B12 2500mg, B1, B-Complex liquid, Biotin, A, D, E, 2 potassiums (99 mg), 2 multivitamins (with 28 mg iron), 1 garlic (1000mg (not the 99 mg I cited in the previous post/my mistake); then make breakfast, shower, and get ready for work

Breakfast:
- oatmeal with a chopped in banana and 1 scoop whey isolate protein powder (23 gms)
or a banana & strawberry smoothie with 1 scoop protein powder
mid morning snack:
- 2 Pure Protein Chocolate Deluxe protein bar (to be eaten with 8 oz of water according to manufacturer label directions), 1.76 oz bar, 20gms protein from whey isolate each (total of 40gms protein and 16 oz water ~ 1 bottle water)
- a 2nd 16.9 - 20 oz bottle water

Lunch: (jog for 60+or- mins)
post run recovery - banana, protein bar (20 gms), and bottle water,...sometimes some B12 and or a G2 or Lean Sobe if it was a long run one, tough interval run, or HIITs

mid afternoon snack:
- 2 Pure Protein bars with a water (40 gms)
- a 2nd water

Dinner:
Shrimp or imitation seafood (crab legs) with ****tail sauce (18+ or- gms)
or scambled egg whites with cheddar cheese

evening snack;
2 protein bar w/1 water or smoothie w/ protein powder (23 gms) + 1 bar

Evening vitamins: Diovan (BP Med), 1 childrens 18mg aspirin, 2 Calcium Citrate, 3 flaxseed, 1 magnesium (leg pain)

so Brkfst 23gms + 40 snk +20 lunch+ 40 snk +18 dinner + 40 snk = 180gms

So yes, I was eating 6 bars or a box of Pure Protein bars a day. I take small bites and chew then about a 1 oz swallow of water (remember the little cups we drank out of after surgery? good training). I could get about 6 bites per bar.  If you aren't careful you could bite it off in about 3 bits thenyou lose the chewing satisfaction and if your go slower, thy actual make me fil full; maybe the bloatting/gas from the sugar alcohol content.

Good luck.  Not everyone likes this kind of diet and I found when I was getting into the 8-10+ mile runs, prepping for my first half, I needed some carbs.  Thats when I adopted Lance PB crackers ans cookies (bad MoJo!) and Nature Valley Honey and Oats granola bars (good MoJo).  But be warned,...when I stopped running with my hip but didn't slow down eating, even though it was small meals, much like grazing almost, the weight started piling back on.  So I had to adjust accordingly to stop it and am now working my way back down from 30 quick pounds.  The running was building strength and stamina and a little weight but it was really burning up the calories and keeping me slim and trim too.

Hope that is what you were looking for. 

Joe

Great, thanks for the Info!!!!

Scott

My surgeon is big on protein. So I started at 70-90 g and now I'm at 100 g. a day minimum.

And, unlike you RnYers, I don't malabsorb any of it. So that's a LOT of protein.

I've been able to do my workouts just fine and I'm convinced all the protein is why. I do eat some carbs and I try to eat them "around" my workouts as I've heard that helps too.

Hey, I start week 9 of Couch-to-5K this week -- I'm very excited about it.

Week 9, huh?  I just finished week 3 and I'm a little scared.  Five minutes seems like a LONG time to run!  Three freaked me out, too, so we'll see what happens.  It's quite liberating to discover that my body *can* perform in ways I never expected, even if it's something as basic as a three minute jog. ;-)

Some of the early jumps are scary.

Just wait until they say "on day 3 of this week, you'll run for 20 min". FREAK OUT TIME. But, amazingly enough, I did it.