Nutrition

Perhaps one thing I have not emphasized enough is nutrition. Nutrition gives your bodies the fuel they require to do the hard, hard training required in this sport. Proper nutrition provides the building blocks that your bodies need to recover from that hard hard training and be ready to race when the time come. I'd like share a quote from nutrition expert, Michael Pollan, which pretty much sums up my views on the nutritional practices needed to excel in running.

Pollan says everything he's learned about food and health can be summed up in seven words: "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants."

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You can see all 7 of Michael Pollan's Rules for Healthy Eating by clicking on the Web-MD link I've provided.

For a more detailed guide to eating for athletes, please refer to the Power Back Diet.  The power back diet was created by Olympic Coach, John Underwood.  You'll notice a lot of similarities between it and Mr. Pollan's rules for healthy eating.

I'd like to give you a few more rules of my own pertaining to what we are trying to accomplish with the training we do and the food we eat.

Our Girls JV team prior to the Lowell Invite

1. Being light is an advantage, but that does not mean that if you are skinny, you have good nutritional habits.  Being skinny only means that you are consuming few calories than you are expending. 
2. You can be skinny and still eat junk.  If your diet consists of Hot Cheetos and Dr. Pepper, but you are consuming less calories than you expend, you will be skinny and unhealthy
3. I don't think anyone would argue that an anorexic looks healthy. You should not try to be skinny for skinny's sake.  You should be lean and strong and your leanness should come from a proper diet and hard training.

So, the question is, how do we get the lean muscular body type, get enough food, and enjoy what you are eating?..... Well, it takes practice.  Developing good eating habits is kind of like training for running.  You might not really have enjoyed running when you first started cross country, but I would bet that you like it now.  You may not currently enjoy eating vegetables and whole grains, but keep trying.  Once you start getting used to healthier eating habits, you will find that you don't really want to go back to eating junk, just like you don't really want to go back to being a non-runners.

It is my intention to provide, on this page, links and information about the eating habits that will allow you to reach your racing goals (and which will allow you to live long, healthy lives as well). 

First, let's look at the caloric needs of some average cross country running body types, according to the Mayo Clinic:

Yanez Charges a Hill at Golden Gate Park

High School Boy, 18 Years Old, 5'10", 145 lbs: 2900 calories per day

High School Girl, 18 Years Old, 5'5" 115 lbs:  2300 calories per day

Next, lets consider some meals.  Since many of us eat out on a regular basis, and since most chain restaurants now have online nutrition calculators, let's assume you eat your meals out. Play around with some of these calculators and see if you can put together quality meals that will meet your nutritional needs.  

Remember, we are looking for a 3:1 ratio of carbohydrate to protein with less than 30% of calories coming from fat and very few calories coming from sugar.  (Sugars are carbohydrates, so they can count toward your total, but they are considered Bad Carbs, so I wouldn't really like to see them in that 3:1 ratio)

Here are some restaurants at which to make up some meals.

Subway (remember, the nutrition info there is for a 6" sub.  Jared didn't lose weight eating 2 footlongs)

McDonalds (See if you can make something somewhat healthy there.  Rememeber, percentages like 60% carbs, 20% Protein, 20% fat are in the ball park of what we're looking for)
Taco Bell

Ok, so here is the point.  At each and every one of these establishments, you can build a fairly healthy meal, but you can also build one that is filled with junk. "Junk Food" places like McDonald's actually have some healthy options and "healthy" places like subway have some food that is anything but healthy.

Feel free to look up your own favorite eatery, or if you adventurous, try to build a meal at home.

Good running (and eating) everyone!

Coach B