Go With Your Gut

How to practise your fuelling strategy to train your stomach before race day.

- KARLA WALSH

YOU TRAIN FOR ENDURANCE, SPEED AND STRENGTH before toeing the starting line at a race, gradually building up your distance and pace to make sure you’re ready to take on the miles. But sports dietitians confirm that most runners overlook one vital focus area during training – that is, your gut.

“Your digestive tract isn’t used to running and taking in food at the same time. The constant up-and-down motion of running, coupled with the blood flowing away from the gut and towards the working muscles, usually results in a wonky stomach,” says marathoner Natalie Rizzo, a dietitian and the founder of Greenletes plant-based nutrition consultants. “But that doesn’t need to be the case. Just as you need to train your muscles to run, you need to train your gut to accept the fuel it needs.”

The more you practise, the better your gut will be able to handle the energy it needs, says Angie Asche, a dietitian and owner of Eleat Sports Nutrition. For any training run longer than an hour, consider giving your race-day nutrition strategy a trial run. That means eating the breakfast you would have on race day and consuming the fuelling products you’ll have mid-run at structured intervals throughout your kays. Practising your plan should then help you fine-tune your fuelling come race day.