In very simple terms, running requires energy and energy means food. So in order to run we need to eat. Sounds so easy, right?
Well, no, as it turns out. Eating enough is not as easy as it sounds, and the consequences of not doing so can be serious.
Lack of fuel first raised its head properly when I was training for Marathon Eryri. I was ready to do my first 20 mile run, and had a plan to run with a friend who was also doing the marathon, but after a catalogue of disasters at home that morning I set off at 11am with nothing like enough food inside me. I started to run out of energy as we got past 13 mile, and by mile 19 I just had to stop and walk a short cut home. Within five minutes of getting home I was in bed, very cold, blue lipped, and feeling very, very wrong. My very worried husband slowly coaxed tea and half a bacon sandwich into me. Eventually I had enough energy to sit up properly and eat, after which I picked up fairly quickly, but it took days to get back to normal, and unsurprisingly I got hit by a nasty cold a few days after this.
I was very lucky. There was enough time to recover from having broken myself and from the cold, and still do the marathon, which was brilliant. But there were some serious lessons to be learnt there about fuelling enough, both before and during a run. Lessons I took on board, taking plenty of water, shot bloks and other snacks with me on every long run after that. I even ran the marathon with a flapjack in my pocket!
This really should have been an end to it, I’d learnt my lesson and was looking after myself properly now. Occasionally Chris would comment that perhaps I should eat a little more after a long run, so I did, but generally I was doing ok. My long runs were getting steadily longer as lockdown progressed, getting back towards my marathon training levels, but easier and more relaxed. I was just enjoying it, and enjoying what my body seemed able to do. Then in September, nearly a year after the first time, I broke myself again. A niggle in my shin turned into a sudden sharp pain that stopped me in tracks. No quick improvement, so off to Pete the physio to sort me out. But it didn’t quite turn out like that.
We tried some rest and gentle exercises, but as it became apparent that this was something more serious Pete started talking to me about fuelling, and Relative Energy Deficiency in sport (REDs). I hadn’t even heard of it, but I started to read around and discovered that, as runners, we really need to know about this. Put simply, if our calorific intake is insufficient for our activity levels the body starts to get the energy it needs from elsewhere, potentially altering systems such as metabolism, menstrual function, bone health and immunity, among others. What makes it particularly insidious is that our running can get stronger as the body gets lighter and finds new energy reserves to use up, but none of this is sustainable. As those secondary reserves start to run low, the body becomes susceptible to stress fractures or infections and everything comes to an abrupt stop.
I’ll never know for certain whether I’ve actually had REDs, but I do know that I’ve hovered perilously close to it. The pain in my shin was never fully diagnosed, but after everything else was ruled out both my physio and GP concluded that it was a suspected stress fracture. Four months later I’m running again, but very slowly and carefully, sticking to flat, even routes that are far from the hilly trails and mountains that are my first love. And I’m so angry with myself for having landed myself in this position.
Looking back on my last few proper runs before it all went wrong, I cannot believe how badly I was looking after myself. Surely anyone can see that a 14 mile run requires more than just a normal breakfast before and standard lunch after? Surely sense says that the more we exercise, the more we eat? After all, when did you last meet a runner who didn’t look forward to cake after a long run?
Well, no, I couldn’t see it. And that is the biggest problem of all. Recreational runners are one of the highest at risk group for involuntary REDs (voluntary REDs, where athletes deliberately restrict their calorific intake is a whole other story). We don’t have coaches or dieticians to keep an eye on us, and inevitably life is hectic so we squeeze the run in, and then come home and get on with everything else that needs to be done. By the time the next meal comes along are we really thinking about how many extra calories we should be taking on board, or have we slipped back into the usual routine and forgotten that our body has worked harder than usual today? I did the latter, again and again and again, until I no longer had any thought that a long run needed special fuelling. After all, if I was chatting and enjoying it all the way round, it wasn’t really hard work, was it?
This is the lesson I am so desperate to pass on to other runners so that they can avoid this horrible, and entirely avoidable issue. As the miles slowly creep up through training, the food consumption needs to creep up too. It doesn’t need to be overly scientific, we don’t need to log every calorie, but we need to firmly embed the idea that energy output requires energy input. Running on fumes will only get us so far.
Stopping now to think about everything I’ve learnt over the last few months I realise that there is a remarkably positive spin to be put on this. Through the simple act of eating a little more as my recovery continues, and more again as the miles creep up, I have every expectation of not just completing my recovery but of being a stronger runner than I’ve every been. After all, if I’m no longer running on fumes, my running future suddenly feels exciting again. And best of all, it feels like the future might be long. That’s got to be worth a little extra thought about food.
I Run Free 