As a dedicated marathon runner always chasing down a new PB / PR, I’m all over ergogenic aids and using food strategically to enhance my performance. For example, using caffeine and beet juice have turned out to be quite advantageous to my race results. So when I began my latest round of fat-loading (also a strategy that’s benefited my performance in the past), where I …
What Runners Eat: Making it Quick ‘n’ Easy
Eat 2 Run Ambassador Brandon Figueroa gives us an inside look into how he fuels his high performance running: Welcome to my daily routine! Where I share with you my morning, afternoon and nightly routines – everything from eating, running, training and relaxing (all the important stuff!). I’m not much of an early riser as I’ll admit I like to stay up …
What to Eat on Race Morning
It’s race morning. What should you eat? Oatmeal? Toast? Bagel? Banana? Eggs and bacon? Nothing? A 2014 review of pre-exercise nutrition studies conducted over that past 50 years concluded that eating carb-rich foods prior to endurance exercise appears to enhance performance (more so than protein-rich or fat-rich foods). Eating a high carbohydrate meal in the hours before your race maximizes glycogen stores, both …
What Runners Eat: Train-Eat-Study-Repeat!
Eat 2 Run Ambassador Kinsey Gomez gives us an inside look into how she fuels her high performance running: A typical day for me involves three main components: training, nutrition, and school. I manage to intertwine these three parts of my life into a braid, weaving in and out of each throughout the day. I generally wake up at 7:30 …
Carb-Load Correctly in 3 Easy Steps
If you are participating in an endurance event lasting longer than 90 minutes you stand to benefit from carb-loading and thereby increase your performance by 2-3%¹. The longer the event you’re signed up for, the more important it becomes to ensure your glycogen stores are full (and therefore you are fully carb-loaded). If you’re getting ready to run a half marathon (depending …
Ambassador Snapshot: Brandon Figueroa
Born and raised on the beautiful west coast, I’ve always been a very athletic and “sporty” person. At a very young age I feel deeply In love with running and it’s been my main focus ever since. I joined the track and field team for my school and local track club, training under former Olympian Lynn Kanuka. Track was my life and …
Ambassador Snapshot: Kinsey Gomez
Hi all! My name is Kinsey Gomez, and I couldn’t be more excited to join the Eat 2 Run team!! Eat 2 Run is all about eating the most nutrient dense and real foods, and I try to adopt that lifestyle with every bite I take. To me, life revolves around running fast and eating great, quality foods. And boy, would …
Fat-Loading for Race Performance (part 2)
Last year I began to explore the topic of fat-loading, a method used to enhance ones running performance in endurance events lasting longer than 2 hours. The purpose of fat-loading is to teach the body to burn its own fatty acids as fuel (to a greater extent than it already does), thereby conserving glycogen stores. Conserving glycogen stores as much as possible will …
Fat-Loading for Race Performance (part 1)
I’ve put off writing about fat-loading for some time now because each time I’ve gone to blog on it, the topic felt too large. Instead of continuing to sidestep it, I’ve decided to write about it in 3 parts: first, why you’d want to fat-load; second, the science behind fat-loading; and finally, how to fat-load. I first learned of “fat-loading” …
Boosting Performance with Beets
I’m racing the Steveston 8km Ice Breaker Road Race this Sunday. And I’m going to try something new. Beetroot juice. Although I can’t believe I personally have not yet tried this particular ergogenic aid – it’s entirely true. I have not. However I’ve had a number of clients and workshop participants who have given beetroot juice a go, and tell me it really …