Nutrition: Putting it all Together

Putting it all Together- In this post, I am taking information from the previous nutrition posts made to complete this short series. If you missed them, check them out here:

Matching Nutrition to Training Needs

Pre Workout Fueling

Workout Fueling

Post Workout Re-Fueling

Let’s take a look at a couple of examples of how an athlete can take those big carb needs on hard days and make the numbers much more manageable with proper nutrition surrounding the workout. My goal is to show you that with a simple application of nutrition around your workouts, you can focus on balanced eating over the rest of the day. Mastering this allows you to get the carbs you need for the work you are doing, but maintain a balanced diet in your meals.

Example 1: A 115-pound person doing a 3-hour-long run in the morning.  

Based on our previous discussions, this gives this person a daily need of:

Pre Run: 25 grams of carbs from gel

During Run: 1 gel every 45 mins, for a total of 75 grams 

Post run: Banana/SiS Rapid Recovery- ~50 grams carbs/22 grams protein 

Total: 150 grams of carbs. 

366 grams for day – 150 grams = 216 grams of carbs left throughout the day. 

Easy Breakfast:

You can see- we get 64 grams of carbs and 21 grams of protein from a simple breakfast like this. 

Sample Lunch or Dinner:

From a lunch or dinner example, we get another 84 grams of carbs and 36 grams of protein. 

Sample Lunch or Dinner:

I didn’t even include tortilla chips. That’s another 25 grams of carbs. Looking at about 60 grams of carbs and 35 grams of protein.

So in this very basic meal plan for the rest of the day, you’d accumulate 208 grams of carbs and 117 grams of protein. We’d be high on protein, but fat would be a little less at 51 grams. So, no snacks, and we can hit our numbers pretty easily. 

Example 2: A 150-pound person doing a 3-hour-long run in the morning.  

Based on our previous discussions, this gives this person a daily need of:

Pre Run: 25 grams of carbs from gel

During Run: 1 gel every 30 mins, for a total of 125 grams 

Post run: Banana/SiS Rapid Recovery- ~50 grams carbs/22 grams protein 

Total: 200 grams of carbs. 

477 – 200  grams = 277 grams of carbs left throughout the day. 

Looking back at our examples, we gave above, you are already really close to reaching the numbers you need. This runner could add some carbs to their Pre-run or add a few more carbs to post-run fueling. However, just by having a couple of snacks during the day, they are doing quite well. 

My goal here is to show you that if you do well with the workout nutrition, you can eat a very balanced meal throughout the day and still reach your increased requirements. You shouldn’t have to feel like you are forcing yourself to eat more.