EAT OR DIE NOT TRYING.
An endurance training daily food plan.
Sam Village is my (Mills) Ultra running Coach — Below is an email he sent me after I completely fell apart due to me not fueling (eating in human talk) correctly. We thought this was an email better shared than kept in the cupboard.
[13:07, 3/19/2018] Mills: whats the intro of the email blog post? it’s basically a how to eat if you are training for anything hard right? or is is specific to something? need to sign post it
[13:09, 3/19/2018] Sam Village: Ummm its a basic endurance training daily food plan really….as in to make it more advanced we could add supplements and shakes etc to it….. But you’ve never pushed for supps and things because of having priority of eating all the right things rather than taking pills etc
Okey dokey,
1. You are burning 3000–3500 calories a day when training
2. You need to refill this amount as much as possible, however creating an energy deficit will help you lose weight anyway…
3. I don’t want you to focus too much on calories though, want you to be concentrating on refuelling correctly and putting right stuff back into body at the right time.
4. Example day, if you are training pre breakfast
Wake up:
water w/electrolytes, coffee (spoon of coconut oil in it).
If it is quite a solid session, have a banana with almond butter on it with your coffee
Training 1 hour
Breakfast:
REFUEL:
Options: Big bowl of porridge, with berry, seeds, nuts etc. Big smoothie with greens berries, protein, almond butter, bananas. Water.
***Major source of your carbs for the day so don’t be afraid to fill up****
Mid morning snack:
Small bag of almonds or nuts or tribe bar or fruit (2 bananas)
Lunch:
Good plate of mixed food,
Loads of greens (spinach, kale etc) — however as many colours as possible as well, tomatoes, corn, beetroot etc.
Good fist full portion of starchy carbohydrates (to fuel body for the afternoon) — brown rice, brown pasta, quinoa, Brown bread.
Solid protein source, chicken breast, tofu equivalent to size of chicken breast, fish fillet, tin of tuna..
Water with electrolytes.
Coffee.
****Its important that you don’t miss this meal if there isn’t healthy food available, you need to fuel your body with whatever is around otherwise it will just go catabolic (break down)****
***second big hit of carbs for the day***
Mid afternoon snack:
Maybe pre training session: fruit, bananas, tribe bar, nuts, protein bar…
Training:
If longer 75min plus or longer you need to eat and drink as you go. Half a tribe bar up to an hour, electrolyte drink as well.
REFUEL post training:
Protein shake or fresh smoothie juice same as breakfast
Dinner:
Light ish dinner depending on training the next day and if SV tells you to eat big!!!
Again you can eat normal you don’t have to cut things out majorly because of the training you are doing…..
However, please make sure you only have a small portion of starchy carbs (pasta, bread, rice, etc)
Meat fist sized portion, veg, salad you can have as much as you want.
Figuring out what foods are good for you in evening before race sim will be good as we don’t want you figuring out that you shouldn’t have had a child con carne the night before when you are mid race
Before Bed:
Options for recovery before bed, consider, magnesium drink (supports sleep and muscle recovery), protein shake before bed — support body & system through night
5. Ideally make sure you are refuelling within 30mins of the end of the each training session, this should be 20g at least of proteins (some of this will be in a tribe bar) and a solid hit of simple carbs (sugars) maybe/ideally from fruit, electrolytes or maybe a recovery drink like chocolate milk or something ;)
6. The recent drop in energy I believe has come from not putting enough into the system, if you don’t put enough fuel back into the system your body will go into starvation mode which means that it shuts down slightly and prevents you from working at the level your mind is telling you to. Also it holds onto some of the fat as it is conserving what it needs to live and run off, so theoretically, if you are fuelling correctly from now on you should shift a little more weight as your body will start trusting you again that you are going to give it what it needs…….does that make sense………
7. The above is true as well during sessions, anything 75mins + you need to eat, even if it is 75min run you need to take half a tribe bar at the very least, so your body knows that you are looking after it…
8. Remember, 250kcals during an hour of training for long sessions, that including food and drink, I want to try caffeine on you as well in the next race sim!
9. Psychologically I was saying have a desert on Sunday because i don’t want you wasting energy/will power on restricting yourself from things that are less important, e.g. 1 one desert every so often, if it helps you to reward yourself then no worries at all and it will not make you put on weight. However if it isn’t a problem and you are not craving anything then no worries, ignore me!
10. Do not let yourself go into starvation mode again please, fuel the body with what it needs, gain its trust again!!!! EAAAAATTTTTTTT!!!!!!
11. Keep resting that body up this week, I want it totally fresh and ready for Sunday with a load of pop in your legs!
See you soon
I am mills. If you want to know more about me I wrote this.
