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If you’re a runner who’s taking some time off from high-volume training and racing, or you’re planning to step up your efforts in a cross-season sport like skimo racing or cyclocross, winter is a great time to adjust your off-season nutrition.
Focusing on your performance nutrition in the off-season can give you the mental capacity to apply information to your specific areas of challenge and help create a solid framework to work from as your running intensity and volume increases. Off-season nutrition can also help you build a foundation for your intense training and racing season.
Work on Your Foundation
Like core training, building a strong nutritional foundation can be helpful when you enter race season, are pressed for time, or are exhausted from all the training. Basic nutrition skills like planning, shopping, adjusting macronutrients for training days, and micronutrient diversity can all contribute to a strong, fit runner.
Flex Your Planning Muscles
It’s hard to provide good fuel without a plan. Think ahead and create shopping lists and meals to ensure your nutritional choices align with your goals.
To get yourself into a better routine, block off certain times on your calendar or set weekly reminders on your phone. Keep planned meals and snacks simple and easy to prepare, especially for breakfast and lunch. This can make the process less scary. Snacks, in particular, can be planned to support different training goals, such as pre- and post-workout snacks that promote energy levels and recovery. For example, graham crackers can be a great pre-workout choice because they contain simple carbohydrates and chocolate milk provides a perfect balance of carbohydrates and protein post-workout.
Planning your shopping list and meals can save you money and time because you avoid impulse purchases and aimlessly wandering around the market.
Additionally, the offseason can be a good time to try new recipes that you may need more time to try during heavy training. If you don’t like cooking, try exploring meal delivery services. Purple Carrot, Factor 75, Daily Harvest, or Hello Fresh are great places to start. These can help you conveniently plan your meals to fit your budget and dietary needs.
Macronutrient Intake
Many runners focus strictly on energy intake when considering off-season fueling versus race season fueling. But the offseason can be a great time to focus on the macronutrients you consume (protein, carbohydrates, and fats). While it may be tempting to start restricting overall energy consumption, you should be careful and aware that any workout, even in the off-season, requires additional energy intake.
If you reduce your volume and intensity during the off-season, you may need fewer carbohydrates than during race season. However, unless you are cutting back in the off-season, it is important to remember that carbohydrate intake should be appropriate for volume and intensity. Recommendations of the International Society of Sports Nutrition Daily carbohydrate requirement for ultrarunners is 5-12 g/kg/body weight. (TTake your weight in kilograms, take your body weight in pounds and divide by 2.2. However, carbohydrate intake can be adjusted according to training volume and intensity. This might look like one cup of carbohydrates per meal on light training days lasting less than an hour, or two cups of carbohydrates per meal on heavy training days lasting more than two hours.
Eat and Train to Reduce Injury
The offseason can be a good time to work on muscle strength and endurance to help avoid the risk of injury when preparing for a big race. Your off-season protein needs will depend on strength goals and the volume and intensity of training. For example, if you’re doing more strength training in the off-season, you can keep your protein intake at the same level or even increase it slightly to help support muscle strength. Protein intake recommendations range from 1.6-2.5g/kg body weight per day and, like carbohydrates, can be adjusted to suit off-season goals.
While runners often neglect fat consumption, it’s important to remember that fats contain twice as much energy as carbohydrates and protein. During the off-season, if you don’t train much, your fat requirements may not be as high. However, they are still important dietary components in terms of consumption of fat-soluble vitamins, cell membrane functioning and hormone production.
Enter These Micros
Micronutrient intake, that is, your vitamins and minerals, is essential for the body’s physiological functioning. From bone health and strength to immune system function and neurotransmitter production, your micros keep the body running smoothly, reducing the risk of injury and disease.
An intense training period (about three months before the race) places greater stress and demand on the body’s systems, increasing the micronutrient requirements needed to function properly. Therefore, the offseason is a good time for runners to consider getting a basic athlete blood panel and make sure no deficiencies need to be corrected.
Runners need access to iron status (complete iron panel, including ferritin), vitamin D (important for bone health, muscle strength and immune function), red blood cell magnesium (affects iron storage status), B12 (energy producer), and a basic complete blood count. counts are good basic blood markers to examine. If you get an athlete blood panel, make sure professionals who understand laboratory reference ranges interpret the panels for you. Runners’ levels and nutritional needs are different than non-runners, and athletes should seek out a medical team that understands their history and goals.
Some athletes may need or benefit from supplements for certain deficiencies. But the offseason is also a great opportunity to see how athletes can correct this imbalance through food.
Focus on Dietary Diversity
Due to time constraints and training demands during race season, you may tend to eat the same foods for weeks or months. Additional time in the off-season may allow time to explore increased plant food diversity.
Increase the variety of plant-based foods in your diet to support your gut microbiome. This will help support the bacterial diversity in your gut. This is associated with better cell signaling, improved metabolism, modulation of inflammation and improved glucose metabolism..
Additionally, increasing the variety of antioxidant-rich foods such as herbs, spices, teas, and the colors of plant-rich foods may reduce the oxidative stress load from exercise.may impair muscle contraction and cause decreased performance) without hindering educational adaptations. Stop consuming green tea and dark chocolate!
Keys to Off-Season Nutrition
Off-season races can be a great time for runners to focus on rest and recovery and build a resilient foundation through nutrition. While it may be tempting to slip into restrictive refueling mode, it can be helpful for runners to view this time as an excellent opportunity to focus on digging deeper into blood biomarkers, overall macronutrient consumption, and what needs to be added to optimize performance and health. your future self.