Focusing on Whole Foods for Fuel? Here’s How to Bring Them on a Long Run.
Convenience and effectiveness are two reasons runners turn to gels and blocks for long-run fuel. However, if you’re like me, you might not like to eat or drink processed foods—anything from Maurten gels to strawberry Pop-Tarts. But while it is true that whole foods are key to better overall health, that doesn’t mean they work on a long run.
“It doesn’t matter which food you choose to fuel yourself on long runs, as long as you meet your fuel demand,” explains Carissa Galloway, RN, an Oakland, Florida-based race announcer, certified personal trainer, and author of Run. Walk. Eat. “Fuel is the master. When you’re exercising for long you need to look for carbs that are easily absorbed in ways that don’t upset your system.”
Before you pick your on-the-run snacks, you’ll need to figure out what nutrient mix you need per hour, says Jason Machowsky, RD, CSCS, a dietitian who runs JM Wellness and cofounded Master My Run. Consider three things: fluid, carbs, and electrolytes.
Roughly speaking when it comes to carbohydrates, “if you’re going on a run that lasts over an hour, you need at least 30 grams of carbs every half hour,” says Galloway. In fact, if you run fast and long, you may benefit from fueling with carbs in twice to four times that minimum amount, according to recent research.
Then, research which foods you can use to get that hourly intake. From a whole foods perspective, carbs are in foods such as a banana, rice, a small bagel, and an apple, but the amounts differ. “Now you’ll have to figure out how you’re going to consume that amount of food and when,” says Machowsky.
For example, do you want to put each hour’s snack into individual plastic bags? Will your stash stay dry if it rains? If you pick something that is prone to melting or squishing, should you chill or freeze it before you leave the house? Will you use a belt, vest, or your hands to hold liquids? “These are all questions to evaluate and plan for regardless of what you're eating,” adds Machowsky.
In fact, packaging is one of the main reasons runners love fuels such as gels, Pop-Tarts, pretzels, fig bars, and graham crackers.
I’m a total foodie, though, and can’t stand the taste of most packaged foods. Still, I can’t carry my favorite pre- and post-run snack—bananas—on a long run, especially in the heat. I’d have to carry a backpack with ice in it. I mean, forget it.
To help solve my problem, I headed out to the road and treadmill to figure out how to carry what soon became some of my favorite whole-food running snacks.
Ways to Carry Whole-Food Fuel
Belt
Galloway uses a SPIBelt for her fuel, which used to include energy balls she bought at Costco. Some SPIBelts have both a phone pocket and a pocket for fuels, so I put in two Strawberry Shortcake Rice Bites, a recipe I got from The No Meat Athlete Cookbook. I picked this snack because the strawberries provided a strong flavor, and the rice had about 30 grams of good carbs. Yummy, but they did get a little squished (although I am going to make them again!).
I then tried a firmer recipe, Almond and Chocolate Chip Energy Bites from The Vegan Athlete’s Cookbook. Success! Tasty and solid. I cut these into very small pieces (likely about 20 grams of carbs each), froze them so they softened on the run, and they worked well with the SPIBelt. I washed the belt after every use because there was no way to easily use plastic bags inside the belt.
Much as I love my SPIBelt, I found that a bigger belt was more helpful to carry what became one of my favorite whole-food snacks, Medjool dates. Each one has 18 grams of carbs, so I ate two before my run, and then had one every half hour. I put them in a baggy that fit into the Nathan Hydration Belt. Because dates don’t have sodium or magnesium (but they do have iron and potassium), I salted them (I like salt on sweet) and made sure to have an electrolyte drink on my run. “Make sure you’re eating unpitted dates!” says Galloway, which was good advice, as I hadn’t even thought to make sure I avoid choking on my run.
While you probably don’t want to get a degree in nutrition, you should be aware that your body handles fruits differently than it handles the sugars in gels. “Fructose is absorbed slower than glucose,” Galloway says, so you need to time your intake differently than you do gels and GUs, which are formulated to send sugar into your system very quickly. “If you want to use fruit as your fuel source, you need to time your fueling a little earlier than if you’re eating foods higher in sucrose.”
Some people like fruit or dried fruit, but others may be sensitive to the fiber or the higher carb load on the gut, says Machowsky. Also, dried fruit has less water than fresh fruit, so you may need extra water with dried fruit.
Finally, fruits typically lack adequate electrolytes, so you may want to use a prepackaged sports drink. While you can also make your own sports drinks, it’s difficult to get the right nutrient balance.
In the end, I also tried apricots (each one only has five grams of carbs, but they are easy to carry) and dried pineapple slices (about 15-20 grams of carbs), which I love, but I found raisins too difficult to eat on the road. If you have a favorite dried fruit, I suggest you try it, as they are easy to carry and delish, and I just use packaged electrolyte drinks (I’m a fan of Tailwind and Skratch).
Pockets
Is there anything better than running shorts and tights with enough pockets and in all the right places? Honestly, I could write an ode to Oiselle’s 6-inch Pokito Shorts, which have a zipped back pocket and two side pockets.
At first, I thought it would be impossible to carry whole foods in shorts because the pockets are compressed to the body, but I tried out an idea of Galloway’s: baby food pouches.
The only thing I didn’t like about these is that you have to unscrew the top, which takes a few seconds of focus. I run/walk so I just did this while I walked, but, of course, then you have to carry the top and the pouch until you can dispose of them properly.
My favorites were Happy Baby’s Apple, Guava, and Beets (17 carb grams) and Once Upon a Farm’s Fruit & Veggie Blend (15 carb grams).
You can also always choose straight applesauce, although I found that a little boring on the run. I would only carry one or two of these in my shorts pockets for runs that were two hours or shorter. Piling four or five pouches into shorts would be impractical.
Vest
When Galloway suggested I boil some red potatoes (26 grams of carb for each one!) and put them in a baggy to carry on a long run, I was ecstatic. She said they have been offered on course at Rock ’n’ Roll Las Vegas and they are an extremely popular on-course snack at endurance events such as 29029. “You do need to cook them soft, but not mushy, and salting them helps. I suggest buying smaller ones, too, so you don’t have to take too many bites,” she says.
To carry my little red potatoes, I tried and liked two hydration vests: Haimont Skylite 5L and On Ultra Vest Pro (two very different price points). They have lots of pockets for potatoes, although it’s not always easy to grab them if you stash them in the back. It was worth it, though, as I found the potatoes very satisfying and they did help my energy level. They also didn’t make me crave more sugar post-run.
In the end, on my longest runs, I carried one baby food pouch, a few apricots or dates, and one or two potatoes sprinkled with salt, always with an electrolyte drink. As Machowsky says, “the benefits of fueling with whole foods is the confidence knowing that you are putting natural, minimally processed foods in your body that likely have less additives.”
This experiment was a rousing success for me, as I had previously not fueled on long runs because I avoid most packaged foods. My little stash of potatoes and healthy dried fruit makes me happy because everything tastes so good and it also lifts my energy.
My performance suffered when I ran my first long-distance races (one 10-miler and one half) with no fuel at all. Now, I look forward to packing my running vest and belt with snacks.
Donna Raskin has had a long career as a health and fitness writer and editor of books and magazine articles. A certified run coach who has practiced yoga for many years, she also loves to lift weights, dance, and go for long walks with her hound dog, Dolly.