Demystifying Sports Nutrition: Straightforward Tips & Expert Secrets
- By Mario Fraioli
- Published Sep. 6, 2011
- Updated Mar. 15, 2012 at 5:09 PM UTC
Body Awareness
Listening to your body is also critical to success, but how do you do it? Emily Brown, RD, 2009 U.S. cross-country champion and member of Team USA Minnesota, balances running professionally with private nutrition consulting and graduate school. “The best thing an athlete can do is get in tune with his or her eating,” Brown says.
Brown’s advice: Record what you eat and how you fared during workouts as specifically as possible in your training log—not to be obsessive, but to understand the effect that what, when and how much you consume has on the way you felt before, during and after training. This one-minute step provides a wealth of knowledge: Brown knows that she can tolerate cold pizza on race morning, but can’t have peanut butter or bananas within eight hours of running if she wants to avoid gastric distress.
FILED UNDER: Nutrition TAGS: Antioxidants / Carbo Loading / dietary supplements / dieting / perform / race fueling / Recovery Nutrition / sports nutrition
Mario Fraioli
Mario Fraioli is a senior editor at Competitor magazine. A cross-country All-American at Stonehill College in 2003, he now coaches the Prado Women's Racing Team in San Diego and was the men's marathon coach for Costa Rica's 2012 Olympic team. His first book, The Official Rock 'n' Roll Guide To Marathon & Half-Marathon Training (VeloPress, 2013) is available in bookstores, running shops and online.