Do you eat before a morning jog/run

Nope. I eat well after. 12pm is usually my first meal and I'm up at 6:30 every morning. I'll usually run at 9:00am once my DD is in school, then I hit the gym.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
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Been in fitness industry for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Depends on the session, but generally my intervals or tempo sessions are in the evening anyway, so morning sessions are generally my long run. Given that I'm out for 2-3 hours then I generally eat a bowl of porridge about an hour before I head out.

Same for long rides.

For the tempo and interval sessions they're generally about 1800-1900 starts so I'll have had something about 1230 for lunch and that's about it.

I like about 100 calories before I run in the morning. Usually it is a small granola bar, tortilla or piece of bread. If its a hard workout or longer than an hour, I will get too hungry and fade if I don't eat anything.

I have a banana for energy AND I used to suffer with swollen ankles and feet until miraculously I started eating a banana a day and as if by magic (maybe potassium!), no more swollen ankles. I also have a mug of green tea and mackerel in tomato sauce when I get back. I may find that this doesn't work so well for me later on but for now I'm a happy bunny - not snacking on carbs between breakfast and lunch because I feel full.

For long runs (10 plus miles) I'll have a banana with honey on. Seems to work well.

depending on how long .. if its a short run 20 mins just a tall glass of water and some sugar free gum to knaw on...
if its a long run one hardboiled egg and half a banana chase it down w/ tall glass of water.

Just Coffee. If I have a really big cardio session planned, maybe a banana.

It depends on the distance I'm running. If it's less than 6 miles, just my coffee and a glass of water. If 'm running farther than that I will have a piece of toast with peanut butter about an hour before I run (and coffee & water).

I don't. I drink water during or right after and I typically don't eat until a couple hours later when I'm all cleaned up and at work.

Like most folks here, I drink a few big glasses of water and some coffee and head out. I've found this is fine for anything up to 2 hrs.

As I'm adding more miles to long runs though, I've started bringing those running snacks (chews for me) to make sure I don't run out of energy.

On race days, I have an early breakfast of eggs, toast and almonds due to the long time between wake up and start time of the run.

My only morning run is my long runs on Sundays - and they are all over 13 miles.

I usually have a bowl of cereal and a bagel or toasted English muffin about 1.5 hours before I start my run. Oh, and water.

When I'm not in full on marathon training - and my runs average around the 10 mile mark, I'll just have a banana and some water.

I heard that 250 calories before a workout fuels the body.
Also have 10 g of protein within a half hour after working out is suppose to be good.
To each their own.

Basically anything one consumes is fuel. Eating fat before a workout doesn't yield the same energy availability as carbs do.
Protein after a workout is "optimal", but really isn't any different than taking it later for the average person. Elite athletes, possibly.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness industry for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Weekdays are first thing in the morning runs before I have to get ready for work. I am in a time crunch. So the runs are usually shorter (all under an hour). And the only thing I have is a cup of coffee with a little flavored creamer.

Weekends I have more time to play with. So my Saturday Long Run will vary but most likely be over an hour maybe 2. On those I will have a little oatmeal with a banana & milk and offcourse coffee.

Now I have been doing some reading this week on what LDR's will do for you. Any running over an hour will start to stimulate your glycogen stores. You start depleting some of your stores (not necessarily completely but enough to stimulate it) to the point where your body begins to build up a resistance and you actually begin increasing your glycogen stores. Basically, if you practice running for long periods of time, your body will begin to adapt by allowing your body the capacity to store even more energy for those future longer runs. So maybe running a little empty in the morning on your training runs will do you good in the long run. Tho you may feel a little sluggish until your body adapts.

Plus reading the RW Big Book on M and HM Training, it talks about the body's capability to absorb food quick enough before your run. So unless you eat like an hour or 2 before your run, whatever you eat won't necessarily get processed and absorbed fast enough to fuel your actual run. So your body is depending on your glycogen stores and fat conversion to fuel your morning run (which would be a good thing in training). Eat too much just before or during your run will cause stomach problems. While you are running, your body will only have the capacity to absorb like 100 calories worth of quick carbs. That is why all your sports goos and gels if you read the nutritional label is exactly 100 calories. If you use a gel or goo while running, drink only water (no sports drinks) or that can mess up your run. Those 100 calories are good for 45 minutes during the run, then you can use another gell or goo.

While resting, your body can use all the blood for digestion and absorption. But when you are running, all the blood is too busy delivering oxygen from your lungs and other nutrients/harmones from your liver to your legs to conduct aerobic conversion to help fuel your run. Since it is too busy doing that, not enough blood can be used for digestion and absorption so the capability to process calories drops until you reach resting state again.


Just some tidbits I thought I share.