Diet?

Food generally!

Hello Mike.

My advice would be to eat little and often, small portions. Consistant energy, never hungry and don't overeat as a result of feeling hungry.

portobello and asparagus pasta

pasta

pasta

more pasta

lucozade sport

skotty, that will make his piss stink

I'd also add to that to eat your biggest meal in the morning and not eat after about 5pm. I think a lot of people snack most in the evenings.

Sussex runner - that's absolutely true. The benefits of sports drinks are very small. If anyone is interested I wrote a piece on the benefits of Orgnic food:

http://takeitinyourstride.co.uk/2012/09/is-organic-food-better-for-you/

I don't think there's any real benefit despite having read in countless places that runners should eat organic.

Lo-carb at weekends.. the long ri=un will burn that fat right off!

the more you run, the more carbs you need. I am running and eating more than I have ever done at the moment. I love it.

Average work day:

Breakfast : little muesli, two slices of toast - porridge in winter.

Lunch : sandwich

Mid afternoon snack : cereal bar thing or mixed nuts/raisins.

Evening: normal meal, usually quite large - plenty of pasta, noodles, rice or potatoes with whatever. Plenty of veg too.

Evening snack: yoghurt or something similar

Chuck in loads of fruit with all that...plenty of water + tea/coffee during the day, a few beers or wines some(most) evenings.

You did ask.

When I'm running up to 40 mile weeks I eat loads, when I've done 100 mile + weeks I seem to eat hardly anything.

Another aspect of eating to think about is the calorie density of foods, because since it takes about 20mins for the brain to realise your stomach is full this means you can fairly easily eat atleast 1500+calories before feeling full if it was chocalate, cakes, biscuits, chips, pizza ect.

 I'm not saying you eat rubbish food but by swapping for lower density foods like the obvious things like fruit and veg and so on, it means that you start feeling full before you've reached the "high energy" foods. this made the difference for me, because i no longer feel the need or even want junk food for "afters" or "desert" whatever people want to call it. so by doing this its easily dropping as many as 500 calories of the end of tea time.

hope that helps.

Just google 'runners diet', you can find lots of useful advice browsing on google.

Just make sure you eat plenty of carbs(70-75%), proteins (15-20%) and healthy fats (10-15%). Avoid eating foods high in fibre before running, stay hydrated throughout the day and the sooner you eat after a workout the better, best to have protein post-workout. 

I'm currently training for a fast half. I'm lactose intollerant hence some of the weirdness in this. I'm not trying to lose weight, but I eat fairly heathily most of the time.

On a evening training day e.g. Today so far:

Breakfast - crunchy nut cornflakes and crunchy bran mixed with hazelnut milk, fresh mint in hot water (to make a mint tea)

Midmorning - peppermint tea and a pastry (naughty)

Lunch - 3 mini pittas with salad and falafel, bar of chocolate

Snack - (another) peppermint tea (I'm trying to stay off caffeine as much as possible at the moment, hence the mint tea addiction) and a bowl of fruit (raspberries, strawberries, peach). 

I'll do my session about 6.30 and have a soya milk banana milkshake straight afterwards. Then I'll have dinner which will probably be leftovers from last night, which is baked potatos with tuna and sweetcorn mayo and salad. I don't tend to have pudding, if I'm hungry later I'll have a cup of cereals with soya milk or soya yoghurt or bread and jam.

On a before work training day e.g. this Tuesday:

coffee before, and energy gel during 1hr35 run

breakfast - porridge (made with water) with peach, raspberries, strawberries and maple syrup, with peppermint tea (this ideally would have had some protein)

midmorning - cup of alprosoya chocolate soya milk

lunch - same as lunch above with peppermint tea

dinner - morrocon tagine containing king prawns, corgette, mixed peppers, parsnip, carrot, white onion, broccolli with garlic bread. no pudding or snacking after.

I am currently experimenting with lowish carb - i.e no starchy carbs (only fruit and veg carbs) for majority of time except for after workouts when anything goes. Been doing it for a few months now with no obvious down sides other than occasional mental wibbles about whether or not I am carb depleted.

Working surprisingly well.  Did an okay half marathon at the weekend - expected to bonk after a long week of training - no taper - and only a very small addition of a bread roll and a piece of cake the day before and some granola the morning of the race.  But - no, ran faster than I thought.

Not suggesting this is the perfect runners diet - just saying that there are options out there other than pasta for brekkie,lunch and dinner.  I am also doing the opposite of the 'big meal in the morning' - i.e. lighter througout the day and larger at night post training - working well on the fat-loss front.

2 or 3 mugs of tea, no sugar. 10 mile run. 2 plain bagels, two boiled eggs, coffee.

During the day eat another 4 or 5 bagels, drink tea, odd banana.

Evening main meal of anything really, bowl of cornflakes. Odd fruitgum or boiled sweet.