THE RUNNER'S WORLD FAST FUEL MANUAL

This comprehensive guide will help you to perform at your best, recover faster and more effectively, and keep all your bodily systems in good health and operating in harmony.

- RENEE MCGREGOR

When it comes to nutrition for performance, it seems everyone has an opinion. But often, this is based on what we can term n=1; that is, when an individual bases an outcome on their personal experience, or the science (when it's available) is simplified to take into account only fuelling and recovery. But human bodies are not machines. While we need fuel to move and to survive, it's not a simple equation of being able to cover a certain number of kays when we fill our tanks with a specific amount of fuel. In human biology, the body is a series of intricate processes that interact and work with each other. This is why fuelling is never as simple as just energy in and energy out; it's about the composition of your diet, the timing of your nutrients and the quantities it takes not just to meet the demands of your training load, but also to drive essential biological processes alongside your running.

When it comes to what makes you a better runner, the key scientific findings demonstrate that the most important factor is consistency in your training. So while following a new diet trend, taking a supplement or fixating on reducing your weight may feel like the fast track towards optimal performance, these strategies are often not sustainable, or based on any credible evidence, and may result in a break in your training. Making the right choices in your training, lifestyle and nutrition will help you to maintain your training effort day after day, encouraging adaptation, helping to maintain motivation, and ultimately, bringing the improvement you're looking for. It'll keep you healthy, too: studies have also shown that the timing of nutrition has an integral role to play in maintaining hormonal balance, boosting bone health, and supporting your immune system.