How to Fuel While Running
While you shouldn’t need to eat anything on runs up to 90 minutes, you’ll often want to start taking in some calories on runs longer than that.
Our standout article on the basics of fueling while running is Eat on the Run: Nutrition Basics for Trail Running, which is just as applicable for road runners. Another article on the basics of fueling on the run is Fuel Up: An Introduction to Fueling for the Trail, while Alex Nichols’s Eat on the Run: Adapting Running Nutrition to Your Needs adds some details to the conversation.
Corrine Malcolm provides two more in-depth articles on run fueling in Ultras or Eating Competitions: Eating for Ultramarathons and Fuel for the Long Run: The Science of Different Fuel Sources. as well as a discussion of protein needs during prolonged exercise in Protein for Endurance Athletes.
For some race day specific advice, take a look at Ian Torrence’s Unbonk!
Two more science articles you might find interesting are Caffeine and Performance: What’s the Buzz All About and Am I Going to Get (Type II) Diabetes from Ultrarunning?
Finally, if you’re looking for information on day-to-day nutrition, a/k/a, one’s diet, check out our running nutrition resource page.
