Fueling Runs with Homemade Food

For many runner’s tackling longer events (such as 100k’s and multi-day events, but even shorter ultra-marathons sometimes!), performance is frequently limited by fueling and digestion issues (loss of appetite, vomitting, diahhrea, etc.). Some people do not tolerate (or enjoy!) prolonged intake of gels, chews, or high-carb drink mixes. For older runners, especially women around menopause, these issues can become even more pronounced. These symptoms lead many runners to experiment with more solid food during races – the sorts of foods that might more closely resemble what you eat in daily life. And even if you aren’t signed up for a 100-mile race or haven’t ever experienced the gut issues I mention above, you might be considering such fueling strategies for other reasons. You can save a lot of money by making your own nutrition.

I’ve been experimenting with making my own running nutrition for many years now, not only because I love to cook and try to avoid ultra-processed foods, but most of my big events are solo, unsupported, and very long (multi-day in some cases). In such events, my effort level has to remain relatively low out of necessity (e.g. heart rate zones 1 and 2 most often, and zone 3 only occasionally), which is an effort level that maintains some fat burning, and the digestive system is less strained. This is why homemade foods work well for me. Beacuse it becomes harder to digest “real food” when doing high intensity work, when I want peak performance at high output (short events), I stick to sports nutrition like gels and drink mixes. And I should note that you will never be able to consume as many calories or grams carb per hour with “real food” as you can with engineered sports nutrition, which has been designed to optimize caloric absorption (through specific glucose to fructose and/or sucrose ratios, specifically). Most runners (including myself) that have found success with homemade foods don’t do it “whole hog” – you will probably find a mix of the more traditional running nutrition products next to a homemade rice ball in their running vest.

Some of the homemade foods that I and/or other runners have found success with include:

• Banana nut butter burrito: Roll a peeled banana inside of a mild-flavored, plain tortilla, along with your favorite nut butter. Add salt or a spice like cinnamon or simliar, if desired. This one is not very durable, so consume early!
• Cinnamon roll tortilla: Spread a thin layer of butter on a tortilla, then sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon and roll it up.
• Sweet potato puree/chunks: Cook a sweet potato in the oven (drier) or slow cooker (moister option, great for puree). Add-ins to explore include chopped pecans, cranberries, cinnamon, salt, butter.
• Oats: After refrigerated, cooked steel cut oats can literally be eaten with your hands. Or, add liquids to your cooked steel cut oats or rolled oats to make them squeeze out of a food pouch. I love steel cut oats with fixings before and during runs.
• Sticky rice balls: You can take plain sushi rice, or try somethine with flavor, like mango coconut rice: cook sticky rice (sushi rice) with chopped mango and a sweetner (sugar, agave nectar, etc.), add coconut milk if desired. Form into balls and chill before the run. Check out the recipes in the Feed Zone Portables cookbook for more ideas.
• Pancake sandwiches: Your favorite nut butter, sandwiched between two pancakes, with honey or maple syrup. I love blueberry-banana pancakes with almond butter and maple syrup.
• Homemade cookies and muffins, such as Cowboy Cookies, Banana muffins, or even Superhero Muffins from the Run Fast Eat Slow cookbook.
• Homemade “gel” – use honey or maple syrup
• Homemade date balls
• Gels for calming an upset tummy, like Scrub Gel or Kombucha gel

Tips for success:

• Large volumes of food are more problematic.
• Fat, protein, and fiber are more difficult to digest, so you’ll want to limit these and/or consume in small amounts at a time.
• There are definitely foods which are more complimentary to running than others. For example, short-chain carbs such as rice are more readily digested than long-chain carbs like whole wheat flour. This is why gluten-free options could work better for you.
• If you want to experiment with your fueling, remember “Don’t do anything new on race day!” Your training runs are an opportunity to train your gut as well. The gut can be trained to eat meals right before a run, but also to digest things that it may not be used to during runs. So don’t be dismayed if something doesn’t feel great the first time you try it.

You might be thinking that this seems like a lot of work! There’s a reason food sold in packages is called “convenience food.” But with a little practice and advanced planning, it does become easier. Make extra rice on sushi night so you have some extra sticky rice for your run the next day. Throw some sweet potatoes in the slow cooker the day before a long run. Make a big batch of some hearty cookies or pancakes and throw them in the freezer for long-term storage.

If you are interested in the idea, but can’t fathom DIY nutrition, you might want to consider these store-bought foods that work well for running, but more closely resemble the food you might consume outside of a run:

• Pretzel variations (sticks, stuffed, seasoned, you name it!)
• Graham crackers
• Cookies
• Dried fruit, especially dates.

Also, depending on the food you want to experiment, you might need to get creative with packaging! Sweet potato puree in a ziploc bag has the potential to make a huge mess and eating it out of tupperware with a spoon during a run is not practical. There are lots of great reusable food pouches that you might want to invest in for purees and similar, like PandaEar Reusable Silicone Baby Food Pouches or ChooMee Reusable Baby Food Pouches.

Have a food that you love that I didn’t mention? Leave a comment below!