Even well-conditioned runners can experience DOMS, especially after a race that includes downhill running or lots of rough terrain. The symptoms of DOMS typically occur hours post-race, and include aching pain, soreness, tenderness, stiffness of muscles and joints, and reduced motion.

Anti-inflammatory foods such as ginger, turmeric, oily fish, fish — oil supplements, pomegranate, and blueberries may all play a role in reducing this post-run soreness, and should be consumed in the hours and days following a race. There is also gathering evidence for the effectiveness of tart cherry juice in aiding post-exercise muscle soreness, by reducing inflammation and aiding recovery of muscle function.

For every 2 pounds of body weight you lose during running, it is recommended that you drink 1. Aim for around ml in the first 30 minutes after your run, and then keep drinking every minutes until you have reached your target.

Both water and sodium need to be replaced to restore normal fluid balance after long runs, which can be achieved by consuming a sports drink that contains some sodium. RELATED: Ask The Coach — How Should I Approach Salt Consumption During An Ultra? It is thought that this decrease in immunity may increase susceptibility to upper respiratory illnesses URI , which is commonly observed among endurance runners.

Long bouts of exercise can also increase levels of the stress hormone cortisol, free-radical damage, and inflammation throughout the body.

Whether it's to fit around work or the school run, or to simply to start the day on the right foot, many runners choose to run first thing in the morning.

However, it can be challenging knowing what, and when, to eat before morning runs so you feel adequately fuelled but not uncomfortable when on the move. For morning runs lasting under an hour, aim to eat around Good pre-run food options for the morning include toast, hot cross buns, Scotch pancakes and a banana with a fruit yoghurt.

Sip on some of your sports drink before setting off, carry it with you and then continue to drink it while running. As a general rule, if you're eating a snack or small meal, wait at least one to two hours before running so you can benefit from this pre-run fuel with experiencing any gastrointestinal upsets.

If you're eating a larger meal, wait a bit longer — ideally three to four hours — before heading out for a run. Once you're back from a run — whether that's a long run, a session, or an outing of a few easy miles — it's important that you move your focus to recovery and what you should eat to support this.

Within 30 minutes of finishing a run, take in what you need to help your body start to repair and adapt from the training.

Again, you should aim to consume around The following snacks all provide a good intake of carbohydrate and protein:. Follow your snack with a more substantial, balanced meal within two hours to continue the recovery process. It might go something like this: flop through the front door, check your splits on Strava, stretch or foam roll a little, sweat a lot, before eventually sticking your weary body into the shower.

While we often focus on carb-loading pre-run and energy intake mid-run, what we eat post-run can feel like a bit of an afterthought. After the exertion of running, you'll be left with low glycogen levels, micro-tears in your muscles and depleted electrolytes and minerals.

To repair your muscles and replace lost nutrients, it's essential that you eat the right post-run food to consolidate those workout gains.

With the post-run nutrition guide in the next sections, hopefully, you will have an idea of the important nutrients you need to eat after a run, when to eat them and how much to indulge. But first, which are the best foods to deliver this nutritional bang with every bite?

The Veloforte Forza and Mocha bars have everything you need in just the right ratio. Another strong choice if you struggle to eat after a run, protein shakes offer a convenient source of, well, protein, and can easily be consumed on the go. Mix your favourite protein powder with dairy milk for a boost of lactose and glucose for carbs, or blend it with a banana too if you're a bit more hungry.

Enter: Veloforte's recovery shakes. All-natural blends packed full of real fruit, complete protein and the purest adaptogens and electrolytes to help you naturally re-energise and recover. If you struggle to stomach solid food immediately after a run, try having some fresh fruit in a smoothie to up your carb intake and get some additional vitamins.

Blend a banana potassium-rich to replenish your electrolytes with a couple of other fruits try orange or strawberries for Vitamin C to help your body heal and yoghurt or protein powder for your protein hit. It may sound too good to be true, but chocolate milk is a brilliant energy source after a run.

Yoghurt is a fantastic source of protein to refuel your muscles so they're able to repair. Try adding fruit, honey or granola for an extra boost of carbs and fibre, or if you prefer a savoury option then blend some cucumber, garlic and lemon juice into your yoghurt to make a quick tzatziki and eat it with pitta bread for carbs.

Whether you go for classic peanut butter or something a little more fancy, nut butter is a fantastic source of healthy fats and protein. Peanut butter is a hefty source of B vitamins like biotin and niacin, which your body uses to release energy from food, while almond butter is packed with Vitamin E to maintain your immune function.

To get that carbs to protein ratio, try one of the following snacks:. If you're ready for a substantial post-run meal, tuna, salmon or chicken are all protein-rich options to help your muscles repair.

Salmon and fresh tuna as opposed to tinned are both sources of omega-3 fatty acids, which can reduce inflammation, while chicken is a lean complete protein source — and both pack in essential amino acids.

Try out one of the following for your meal:. If you're a salty sweater or have finished up a long run, it's important to return your body's salt levels to normal.

Eating salty foods such as salted nuts — in moderation — as part of your post-run snacking and normal meals can help to restore this balance. Sadly, we don't mean with your post-race celebratory pub trip. For shorter efforts, rehydrate by drinking plain water.

As far as nutrition for runners goes, your first goal after a long run is to refuel and replenish any depleted glycogen stores so that you are able to perform on your next training run whether a short or long run.

The foods that will most rapidly restore your glycogen or stored carbohydrate reserves are those that are higher on the glycemic index and these are what you will want to focus on after a long run.

There are 3 ways that you can go about your goal of replenishing all of your carbohydrates after a long run. Studies have shown that the effects of spreading your carbohydrate consumption out or consuming it all at once makes no difference in glycogen storage re-synthesis as long as you are taking in all of the carbohydrates that you need and you are eating almost immediately within 15 minutes upon finishing your long run.

No matter which option you choose it will take almost a full 24 hours before you are completely nutritionally recovered if you follow the guidelines and are eating or drinking enough carbohydrates.

Here is also a list of the best recovery drinks for runners post run and especially long run! Within 15 minutes after you finish your long run you will want to eat about grams of moderate to high glycemic index carbohydrates. You can continue to eat grams of carbohydrates every 2 hours until you have consumed about - grams of carbohydrates.

Eat 2. To figure out how many carbohydrates this is for you:. If you do not know what your body weight in kilograms is then here is the simple conversion from pounds to kilograms:. Now put this number into the first equation to find out how many carbohydrates you need to ingest 5 times throughout the 24 hour period following your long run.

Simply feast after your long run and take in all of the carbohydrates that you need in one big meal. After a long run is where protein begins to take the limelight in a runners nutrition plan. Protein has almost no part in fueling our runs but it helps facilitate our muscle recovery after our runs are finished.

Studies show that when we combine protein with carbohydrates after a long run we are able to replenish more glycogen with less discomfort from our GI system than when we simply intake a carbohydrate only drink.

The reason is that immediately following our long runs we have a higher level of amino acids in our blood stream making us more receptive to its benefits.

However, fighting against inflammation which is always a prevalent issue after a long run is a secondary but still highly important goal. Therefore, I always encourage runners to eat anti-inflammatory or inflammatory fighting foods after a run and especially after a long run.

Here is a list of anti-inflammatory foods that runners can include in their diet to help the recovery process. The role of protein is escalated after a run. In order for your body to utilize protein to restore and recover damaged muscle cells to it's highest potential it is best to eat a snack high in protein no later than minutes after a run, particularly a long run.

This is due to your protein transporters which are at their highest level after a run until about minutes later. All of these foods have a slow absorption rate making them less than ideal for runners to consume following a long run. Having a plan of action as to what foods to eat following your long run will help you avoid not eating the right foods and not getting the nutrients that you need to get in order to maintain your performance as a runner.

Will you stick with the grams of carbohydrates post 24 hours or will you consume 2. Also, knowing what foods you are going to eat can help give you motivation to carry you through that long run. Get out your energy bar, prep your pasta, wash your fruit, or prepare your protein drink the day before!

You will not be in the mood to get food ready after your long run especially since you will want to take full advantage of the ideal 15 minute time frame immediately following a run to start your nutritional recovery!

The key to successful recovery is to have a system and thought out plan of how you will go about restoring your body to continue on with your running routine! We recommend switching to Edge, Chrome, Safari, or Firefox. Spend £40 more for FREE shipping. FREE shipping will be applied at checkout.

It might go something like this: flop through the front door, check your splits on Strava, stretch or foam roll a little, sweat a lot, before eventually sticking your weary body into the shower.

While we often focus on carb-loading pre-run and energy intake mid-run, what we eat post-run can feel like a bit of an afterthought. After the exertion of running, you'll be left with low glycogen levels, micro-tears in your muscles and depleted electrolytes and minerals.

To repair your muscles and replace lost nutrients, it's essential that you eat the right post-run food to consolidate those workout gains. With the post-run nutrition guide in the next sections, hopefully, you will have an idea of the important nutrients you need to eat after a run, when to eat them and how much to indulge.

But first, which are the best foods to deliver this nutritional bang with every bite? The Veloforte Forza and Mocha bars have everything you need in just the right ratio. Another strong choice if you struggle to eat after a run, protein shakes offer a convenient source of, well, protein, and can easily be consumed on the go.

Mix your favourite protein powder with dairy milk for a boost of lactose and glucose for carbs, or blend it with a banana too if you're a bit more hungry.

Enter: Veloforte's recovery shakes. All-natural blends packed full of real fruit, complete protein and the purest adaptogens and electrolytes to help you naturally re-energise and recover.

If you struggle to stomach solid food immediately after a run, try having some fresh fruit in a smoothie to up your carb intake and get some additional vitamins. Blend a banana potassium-rich to replenish your electrolytes with a couple of other fruits try orange or strawberries for Vitamin C to help your body heal and yoghurt or protein powder for your protein hit.

It may sound too good to be true, but chocolate milk is a brilliant energy source after a run. Yoghurt is a fantastic source of protein to refuel your muscles so they're able to repair. Try adding fruit, honey or granola for an extra boost of carbs and fibre, or if you prefer a savoury option then blend some cucumber, garlic and lemon juice into your yoghurt to make a quick tzatziki and eat it with pitta bread for carbs.

Whether you go for classic peanut butter or something a little more fancy, nut butter is a fantastic source of healthy fats and protein. Peanut butter is a hefty source of B vitamins like biotin and niacin, which your body uses to release energy from food, while almond butter is packed with Vitamin E to maintain your immune function.

To get that carbs to protein ratio, try one of the following snacks:. If you're ready for a substantial post-run meal, tuna, salmon or chicken are all protein-rich options to help your muscles repair.

Salmon and fresh tuna as opposed to tinned are both sources of omega-3 fatty acids, which can reduce inflammation, while chicken is a lean complete protein source — and both pack in essential amino acids.

Try out one of the following for your meal:. If you're a salty sweater or have finished up a long run, it's important to return your body's salt levels to normal.

Eating salty foods such as salted nuts — in moderation — as part of your post-run snacking and normal meals can help to restore this balance. Sadly, we don't mean with your post-race celebratory pub trip.

For shorter efforts, rehydrate by drinking plain water. The recommended amount of carbohydrates is 1. Electrolytes, like sodium, chloride and potassium, help to replace losses from sweat but also help to draw more fluid back into the body," says McGregor. While the amount you need to eat depends on the duration and intensity of your run, and your current physical fitness, you should shoot for the classic ratio of carbs to protein in your post-run refuelling.

This is the optimal ratio to maximise recovery. The longer and harder you run, the more your body will need to recover. And fuelling after shorter runs? If your next meal won't be for a couple of hours and you've done a long or challenging run, have a snack, such as a Veloforte Forza bar or Mocha bar , within 30 minutes of finishing your session to kickstart your recovery.

Equally, if you've had an easy session but you'll be doing a hard run within 12 hours — for example you run around 8pm and then again at 7am — then the minute rule applies too!

If you did an easy run and don't have any other training lined up for over 12 hours, your next meal will do the job in terms of refuelling. Get a good combination of complex carbs, healthy fats and protein to set your body on the way to recovery.

When you're deep in training, it can be easy to slip into a permanent state of insatiable running-induced hunger, or runger.