The 3- Step Fueling Framework To Master Your Running Nutrition

Feeling drained on your runs? Struggling with recovery or inconsistent performance? In this episode, Natalie Rizzo, MS, RD, breaks down her step-by-step plant-based fueling framework that helps runners and endurance athletes master their nutrition for every workout.

You’ll learn how to:

• Plan your pre-run fuel for energy without gut issues
• Take in the right carbs, protein, and electrolytes during exercise
• Recover effectively with post-run meals and snacks
• Build a repeatable, easy-to-follow system that makes fueling second nature

Want to work with Natalie? Try Fuel Better, and get the first month free! 

Start the free Plant-Based Performance Reset course now! 

Have questions or want to request a show topic? DM us @greenletes

Check out Natalie's book 📕: Planted Performance

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Hello and welcome back to the Green Leads Podcast. I'm your host, Natalie Rizzo. I'm the founder of Great Leads and the registered dietitian over here. And today I'm gonna walk you through the fueling framework I use with all of my plant-based athletes. Basically, what this system is, is it teaches you how to fuel on a weekly basis so that you can start to master your fueling and not have to worry about what you're going to eat before, during, and after your runs, your cycling, your hiking. This gives you some sort of system that you can use and then it's going to make fueling second nature to you. So this is something that I've taught before in my master class that I give every few months. This is also something that comes up a lot with our fuel better athletes. So if you're unfamiliar, fuel better is our coaching club. It's a monthly coaching club that we have where I meet with athletes one-on-one to discuss their fueling. And the why this episode is coming about is because I just talked to a Fuel Better athlete last weekend, and she is a woman who does a lot of hiking. And what she wanted essentially was some sort of system that she could use to fuel her hikes and something that would be repeatable. So when I told her this is kind of my framework that I use, she was super excited because she said, like, I just want to be able to master this and use it over and over again. Now, obviously, this kind of framework works based on a certain distance or duration that you do and that you kind of master that and then you move on to other things. So I'm gonna walk you through this and how I use this with athletes. And if you were interested in joining Fuel Better, you can join now and get coaching with me. The first month is completely free. And then after that, it's$29 a month. It's supposed to be affordable so that people can, you know, master their fueling, get coaching. We have group calls, we have templates like this, we have fueling framework, we have meal plans, we have all of this stuff available to you. So I will put the link for that in the notes below. And then if you're also you're not ready to sign up for something now, but you just want to get a little bit of the groundwork, you can also sign up for my free plant-based performance reset. It's a mini course that's sent to your email. So you get seven days of emails, and it kind of walks you through the basics of sports nutrition. So that's the up top, you know, the things that we use. But you're here, you're listening to the podcast. So I'm gonna give you kind of the free version here of how you can start this fueling framework and what I teach in my masterclass. So let's start with why this even exists. Most runners, athletes, they don't really need more tips. You get tips through the things that you find on social media, the articles that you read read, the friends that you talk to. What you need is a system that works that you can repeat. And I've talked to so many athletes that say like their training feels harder than it should, their energy is inconsistent, their recovery is slow, they're confused about what to eat and when to eat it. So that's where this fueling framework comes in. Essentially, what it does is you map out your training for the week, you map out your fueling, and then you kind of build a weekly plan. So I'm gonna walk you through it step by step. But before I do, I just want to talk about here like not all runs or exercise are created equal. Essentially, fueling should change based on your training load and also your real life. You know, easy runs should be fueled different than long runs. And actually, that's gonna be the topic of the podcast next week. We're gonna talk about something called nutrition periodization, essentially meaning if you are training for something, your training goes through ebbs and flows. Like you start at a base and then you go kind of up and up, and there's a peak, and then there's a taper, and then nutrition will change based on that. But first, if you master this fueling framework based on what you're doing now, you can kind of change the framework based on how you're changing your training. So essentially what I do is I start with my starting point with a lot of my runners. I would say that 95% of the runners that I work with are under fueling. Here's another prime example of that. I was recently talking to someone who their workouts were about two hours on the weekends, and I asked, you know, how what is your fueling routine now? And that's where I always start. What's your feeling routine now? How can we make small tweaks to it? And she had said there was no fueling routine. She didn't really know what to do, how to do it. She was looking into pre-workouts meals and trying different things. They weren't really sitting right with her. She was taking in two energy chews for the whole two hours. Two, not like two packs, two small energy chews, which is not enough. I told her that she should be taking one to two packs of those energy chews. And then afterwards having a protein shake, which she said that'll that's how I get my protein and my carbs. But then we kind of looked at the label and I told her protein shakes don't actually have carbs in them. So there was really no fueling routine. And this is where I start with a lot of people. I think a lot of people are underfueling. So here's kind of the risk checkers we go through when it comes to underfueling. This is the start of the framework. Are you running fasted often? That's a huge sign that comes up often. Do you have like heavy or dead legs on your run a lot? Do you experience a lot of GI issues? Do you feel really hungry at night? Does your pace always feel hard no matter what pace you're running? If those symptoms creep up a lot, there's a good likelihood that you are underfueling. So that's your starting point. You're underfueling and you know that you need to fuel more. Now, if that's not necessarily the case for you, maybe there's other things happening, like you're feeling like maybe you're taking in too much fuel or you're taking in too much sodium. Those things can happen as well. But I would say the majority of people who are kind of these everyday athletes tend to underfuel because they don't know exactly how much they should be taking in. So, with all of that, we start with keeping that in mind, and that's how we build our fueling framework, is knowing that we probably are underfueling, we need to build in more fuel, and the fuel will be before, during, and after the run. But what I always do, no matter what kind of athlete I'm working with, a runner, a cyclist, a hiker, a swimmer, is we're starting with what is your base level and what are the small things that we can change from the get-go. Essentially choosing one workout to start with. Because if you're completely new to fueling or you feel like you've been fueling, but you're not really doing it right, the way to create a framework is not to overhaul every single thing in your training plan for the week. It's to choose the one thing that you feel like is creating the most stress for you. So basically, which run is usually the hardest? Where do you feel like you need to hone in your fueling the most? I can tell you for myself, I'm actually great at fueling long runs because I do know exactly how much carbs I need per hour. I know how much sodium I need. I struggle with speed work. So speed work is so hard. The intensity is so hard for me. It's it's high intensity. Sometimes these workouts are only about 45 minutes, but I feel so dead afterwards. So for me, that would be the key run that I would start with. So maybe for you it is long runs. Maybe it's back-to-back days. Maybe you're in peak marathon training and you're feeling like you're not recovering well. Maybe it's speed workouts, maybe it's hill workouts, maybe it's something else. Maybe for you, strength training is the hardest part of your day. But what is the hardest part of your week that you feel like you're really not getting the fueling right? That's where we start with the fueling framework. So now that you picked out that one part of your week, now look at your week as a whole. Where does that, where does that one run or that workout fit in? Okay, great. So maybe that's on your Saturday. So now we're gonna plan ahead. How are we gonna fuel for that? What we're going to do is think about fueling before, fueling during if you need it, which the majority of the times, the runs that we struggle with, whether it's a long run or it's a speed workout, we do need some sort of fueling during, and we'll get into that. Or fueling after. This is the fueling framework that we are going to use to then build out to have more of a macro level of fueling for all of your life. So let's get into it. When it comes to fueling, if you're completely new here and you don't really know about what goes into what, carbs are the primary energy source for all of your runs. Your body takes carbs, it stores it in your muscle and your liver. It's called glycogen, and it stores it for about the first 60 minutes of exercise. After those 60 minutes, you start to break down your own protein, your own muscle, your own fat, which sounds like great, but it's not because it's not ideal. It's it's very taxing on the body. So if you're working out for longer than 60 minutes, you need to be taking in fuel. Now, there are some caveats with that. Like if you're doing something really intense for about 45 minutes, you may want some fuel. If you're working out in super heat, hot, and humid climate, you may want some electrolytes. But that's essentially what you're looking at there. Protein is for muscle repair and growth, and it also helps with appetite control. And then fat is for sustained hunger, like it keeps you full longer, and it also gives you sustained energy stores. One thing to keep in mind is you are burning around 100 calories per mile that you run. Now, this is hugely different based on how your size, your gender, how fast you're running, intensity, but that is a roundabout number. And the reason I bring that up is because I find that a lot of runners, this is part of the underfueling. They're say they're going out for a 10-mile run and they're burning a thousand calories, but then they come home, they have a smoothie, and then they go about their day. You're not replacing enough of the energy that you burned to recover properly. So that goes into this underfueling. So the fueling formula, again, we're talking, we're gonna think about what we're gonna eat before the run, during, and after. When it comes to before the run, I have something that I say all the time, which is what you eat depends on when you eat. Let's go back to this runner I was talking to who's um running for two hours. They were eating kind of a heavy breakfast about 90 minutes before the run. They were not completely plant-based, so they did incorporate some eggs in there and some toast and berries, and and they just felt like they were really dragged down. So ideally, if you were having something 60 minutes before, 90 minutes before, you want something that's really kind of just simple carbs, maybe with a little bit of protein. So it could be like a nut butter sandwich with a banana. It could be a smoothie with a granola bar. If you have longer, two to three hours, you know, you're waking up at six, you're not going out till nine, ten, you can have a full breakfast. Or maybe you run later in the day. You can have a full lunch. So it could be something that maybe even has a little bit of fiber in it, a veggie wrap with some hummus, a plate of pasta with some chickpeas, or for breakfast, a big bowl of oatmeal with fruit and nuts and seeds and all that. Because you have longer to digest all that, it won't sit in your stomach. Fat and protein take longer to digest. So you're gonna want to think about how far out you are taking in your pre-workout fuel for that workout. So that's the first thing, that's where you're starting. I'll give you the example of myself. I'm waking up at 6 a.m. I'm running a lot of times at 7 a.m. I am doing something small, like a waffle or a granola bar. And then because I'm not able to take in too much, I'm gonna fuel during that run. Um, on this past weekend, actually, I did a 10-mile run and I planned it out where I was able to eat about two hours before. So I had a bagel, but I didn't put a lot on it. I put just a little bit of peanut butter or a little bit of plant-based butter on it. And it felt like kind of a decent amount, maybe too much at first, but it really powered me through those 10 miles. So just thinking about like how far out from the run you are, that's how you plan this pre-workout fuel. Now, after that, you're gonna think about do I need fuel during this run? If you are running for more than 60 minutes, or if you were doing something that is intense, like sprints, you should take in some fuel during that run. The reason for that is because the glycogen gets used up quickly. And then after that, we always compare our body to a car. It's like when you run out of gas, you're just running on fumes. You're running on fumes. So basically, you need anywhere from 30 to 60 grams of carbs per hour after the first 60 minutes. Now, I'll give you the example of myself again. If I'm doing sprints in the morning, my generally my fuel for those like 45 minutes will be sports drinks. And it may only be something like 20 grams of carbs, but it's giving me the sodium that I need, the fluid that I need. If I'm doing more than 60 minutes, then I'm taking in uh chews, energy chews, or maybe like nerd gummy clusters that give me the 30 to 60 grams of carbs per hour. And I don't generally always wait for that 60 minutes to pass. Like this past weekend with the 10 mile run, I wanted to get in that. I think I took in 70 grams of carbs for the whole basically like an hour and 40 minutes. So I was sipping on sports drink 15 minutes in, you're getting a few grams of carbs, then about 45 minutes in, I took about 25 grams of carbs. Then uh 20 minutes later, I took the other 25 grams of carbs. So by mile seven of that 10-mile run, I had taken in all the carbs. And the reason that I did it that way is because I wanted to finish so that I felt strong in the end. So you're kind of timing this out. So it's basically every like 20, 30 minutes, you're taking in some carbs. Now, going back to that runner I told you about who was just taking in two gummies for a whole two hours. I wanted her to be taking in the whole pack of gummies. So it could be like eight gummies or even more than that. But instead of amping it up that quickly, what we did was we said, okay, take in two gummies for the first hour and two for the second hour. So you're gonna double what you're doing, it's still gonna be low, and then we're gonna work up to even more than that. So this is what we do in the fuel better is that we kind of like individualize things for people, but that's so for you, it may be something small like that. So 30 to 60 grams of carbs, what does that even look like? It could be something like I said, gel gels or gummies, one pack of them is about 20 to 30 grams of carbs. It could be maple syrup packet, which is about 15 grams, a banana has 30 grams of carbs, fruit snacks has 30 grams of carbs, candy like nerd gummy clusters, if you have the right portion size, has about 30 grams of carbs. So try experimenting with that during your long runs or during your intense runs. And then you also need to make sure that you are hydrating properly. I don't care what run it is, you should be drinking water every 15 to 20 minutes. If it's an intense run, it could be sports drinks. You need about 150 to 300 milligrams of sodium per eight ounces of water. So, you know, for my own speed work, I'm doing usually like one scoop of sports drink, which has about, I think, four or five hundred milligrams of sodium in about 12 to 16 ounces of water. Um, and this is really gonna help keep you hydrated, prevent those headaches, help it make it easier for you to recover. Going back to our fueling framework now, we've thought about timing our pre-workout carbs and how big of a meal that would be, what we're gonna do during the workout and how we're gonna hydrate. Then the last thing you really need to consider, and this is where I see a lot of runners go really wrong, is the post-workout recovery. What is what are you gonna do after the run? How are you gonna recover? Now, we talk a lot about having some sort of protein after an exercise, which does help with muscle repair. But for runners, you also need the carbs. The carbs are so important. And the reason for this is going back to that glycogen. The glycogen stores in your body are empty. You need to refill them to help you recover for the next run. It helps your body, the muscles recover quicker, and it helps your body store up for tomorrow's run and for just recovering properly. So you probably have heard things about like a three to one carb to protein ratio. That is scientifically proven to help your body recover quicker. So that could be things like a chocolate milk if you drink dairy. If you don't drink dairy, chocolate soy milk is a great option there. And what the three to one carb to protein ratio means is for every three grams of carbs, there's one gram of protein. So that's why chocolate milk becomes a super popular drink because you're getting about eight grams of protein for 24 grams of carbs. And the reason that people like to drink after a long or intense workout is because their stomach a lot of times feels really wonky. Going back to my two weekends ago, I ran nine miles and I was starving afterward. This weekend I ran 10 miles and I had no appetite the rest of the day. I basically had to force myself to recover and I did it with a smoothie. That's one of my recovery drinks of choice. A lot of times I'll just do soy milk and fruit and maybe throw some nut butter in there. And that gives me kind of that ratio that I need. I may also, if I have more of an appetite, do kind of like a bowl of cereal with some soy milk during the day. It could be something like if I'm quick, it could be a protein bar, or I really like things like edamame with some fruit. So making sure that you have that. And it doesn't have to be immediately after bread, it could be an hour afterward. But within that first hour after the run, you want some sort of food in your stomach. Now, I know you've probably heard things like you gotta get in 30 grams of protein. I'm telling you to try to just do as little as you can for now to get something in there. And then what you want to do is a few hours later, when that hunger starts to creep up, that's when you have your recovery meal. Now, if the hunger doesn't come, say you had that recovery snack, it's been two to three hours and you're still not hungry, you gotta eat something because if not, then later in the day you're gonna feel terrible and you're gonna be starving. So that could be like a full meal. It could be something small, like a piece of toast, but having something will help make the recovery continue to happen because recovery continues for up to 24 hours. So I'm I'm two days out after that long run and I'm still having a little bit of soreness, even though I've been feeling well, that's because your body's still in recovery mode. So if we're looking at this fueling framework around from a 360 view, we're going back to the beginning. We're thinking about when we eat in relation to how far out we're running and having a combination of just like carbs and protein, or maybe just carbs if it's close to the run, how we're gonna feel during the run, what is that we're gonna take in, how much of it are we gonna take in, how are we gonna hydrate? Then what's our post-workout recovery snack? What's something small that our stomach can tolerate? And then a few hours later, what's our post-recover post-workout recovery meal? That is the fueling framework that I want you to implement for one run this week. If you can do it for one run, you can then start to do it weekly, and then you can do it for more runs. This should be something that you do for every single run. This is how you master sports nutrition. Now, if you're doing easy runs, you don't need to think about during run fuel, but you still want to hydrate. You may also just have a small recovery snack and then wait till your next meal. So we scale things up and down based on what's in our fueling, but this is the framework that we start with. This is the framework that most of my fuel better athletes have used and they've found that it helps them really, you know, PR in their next race. So I'm hoping that this is something that you can try. And if you do try, I would love to hear from you. Whether you leave a rating for this podcast, which helps us get out to more people, you DM me on Instagram at GreenLeaks, you send us a message, you go to the website. I love hearing when this kind of stuff works because I think this is the missing piece in a lot of people's running or any sort of fitness that they do is the nutrition component. And when you start to master this nutrition component is when you start to see those gains move forward. And you don't even realize, like, like I said, you'll be at the end of a 10-mile run and you'll feel great. And you're like, I could run a few more miles. That's how you want to feel at the end of this based on your nutrition. A question that I had asked the runner that I worked with was, How are you measuring success? And she kind of said, like, I'm not even sure. That's a really good question. For me, success is obviously like I would love to run under a two-hour half marathon, or I want to feel good after a run. Or some people are like, I just want to, you know, be able to take in um a dinner that night without having any nausea. I want to run without GI distress. So think about that too. What is the thing that's going to make you feel like you are able to, you know, feel great? How are you measuring the success of this fueling for you? I hope you follow the this fueling framework. Let me know if you do. And we will see you next time. Remember to eat your carbs, fuel early and often, and we'll check in next week. Thanks for listening.