Running in cold weather: what to eat?

The days are getting colder quickly and running in cold weather scares you? Well equipped and well fed, you should still be able to enjoy this season outdoors!

Whether your run is a few minutes or a few hours, the foods around it are very important to enjoy this workout.

For outings of less than an hour:

When running for less than an hour, energy intake before and after training is sufficient. You need to look for carbohydrates before and carbohydrates and protein for after. You can consume warmer snacks and drinks to counter the cold you will face! Ex: hot homemade muffin, hot chocolate or soy milk, soup with crackers, etc.

For outings of more than an hour:

Since carbohydrates are used to maintain your energy level during exercise, outings of more than an hour and of high intensity (summer and winter) should be accompanied by a drink or sugary foods. If you don’t like homemade or commercial energy drinks, choose water and high-carb snacks every hour.

The ideal intake is 30 to 60 grams of carbohydrate per hour to keep the intensity the same and to aid digestion.

Foods that provide around 30g of carbohydrate:

• 1 banana
• 1 cereal bar
• 2 fig cookies
• 4-5 small dates or 2 large
• 1 bar of dried fruit ex: Fruit Source
• 1 energy gel (between 25 and 30 grams of carbohydrates) or jujubes for athletes
• 500 ml of homemade or commercial sports drink

You can also cook your own bars and cut them into pieces for the course. Here’s a simple, no-bake recipe.

And to warm up during the race, you can heat your homemade energy drink and consume hot foods such as soup, broth, herbal tea, hot chocolate, after your workout!

Enjoy your run!