Supplement advice for trail running.

The Noble Nudge

Just wondering can anyone point me in the right direction,
Always been wary about taking supplements but find as the age clock is ticking its harder to recover,
Talking to few people and everyone seems to be taking some type of supplements.
I am told amino acids with electrolyte is one for heavy duty runs,
Omega 3 capsules and Protein....
Any feedback would be great looking online and there's so many different variations.
Training for runtheline at present so would need to be introducing and testing very soon....
Thanks

sconhome

A good balanced diet should take care of most things.

Getting carbs and protein in within an hour of training is an imortant window. Often stated that the first 20mins after a session should be some form of quick carb & protein fuel to kick start the recovery process.

Generally for me after a hard or long session I will use a recovery (carb / protein) drink for the 20 min window and eat within an hour, poached eggs on toast or similar.

Volume, intensity, fuelling during training, lifestyle, family, work, stress can all have an effect on the recover process too.

Enduro

Post IMRA race tradition would be to head to the pub for a post-race chat and a drink of whatever you fancy yourself.

AKW has it pretty much nailed though. A proper diet will cover you off completely. If you're eating proper (real) food you should have no need for supplements. Manufacturers of supplements would probably tell you otherwise though, oddly enough! Mankind has been trail running for tens of thousands of years without needing them.

j0hn1

You should be able to get everything you need from a proper diet, however ... sometimes you might need a little boost to build you up or whatever

Used sparingly supplements can occasionally boost your levels of whatever allowing your healthy diet to take care of things after that. Prolonged use of supplements though can mean that you body decreases production of whatever goodness it is that you are trying to increase in the first place, creating an undesired dependency. Additionally the "goodness" in healthy food will generally be fresher and more fit for purpose than that found in a supplement.

In a nutshell, avoid supplements as much as you can and fix diet instead. If you need a boost make sure its short term only.

Enduro

j0hn1 wrote: »

however ... sometimes you might need a little boost to build you up or whatever

Used sparingly supplements can occasionally boost your levels of whatever allowing your healthy diet to take care of things after that.

Why?!! Can you outline an example of where supplements would be needed, and why the same benifits (whatever they are) could not be obtained from eating real food?

j0hn1

Enduro wrote: »

Why?!! Can you outline an example of where supplements would be needed, and why the same benifits (whatever they are) could not be obtained from eating real food?

Sometimes it's difficult to interpret tone from the written word. So before responding to a question that contains a consecutive sequence of 1 question mark and 2 exclamation points let me just iterate that we appear to be saying much the same thing: "Someone on a healthy diet does not need supplements" - that should hopefully reassure you that we are broadly in agreement.

Also perhaps I should have reconsidered the use of the word "need" and maybe said that someone might "benefit" from a short dose of supplements instead. In hindsight "need" could be interpreted as a very strong word.

An example of when someone might "benefit" from a short dose of supplements would be if they were getting their diet back on track. Say they were deficient in Omega 3 because of a poor diet they might benefit from immediately improving their diet whilst also starting a one month course of the relevant supplement. The supplements would provide a nice little kickstart to their system before allowing their new and improved healthy diet to take things over from there, supplement free. There are surely better examples but my intended meaning should hopefully be clear enough.

Or suppose the same person picked up a cold/flu type thing, a short dose of vitamin C would be just the thing to get their immune system firing again (along with echinacea perhaps) before allowing a healthy diet back at things after they were better again.

A month is a long time to be on any supplement though. Prolonged use of supplements is not good.

sconhome

There should be a distinction made here for the sake of clarity in what people mean by the definition 'supplement'.

To me vitamins, omegas, herbals that you buy in a bottle are supplements. You should get all these micro and macronutrients from your diet.

Taking a recovery drink is not a supplement (in my mind) it is a 'shortcut' in the process of recovery. Protein and carbs are part of a healthy diet, having a drink which contains them both is of benefit in increasing your recovery opportunities. Some people can't eat within an hour of training so a drink is handy.

Enduro

(replying to j0hn1...) I think we're on the same track alright (and the rest of your posted sounded spot-on which is what made me wonder about the "need" for supplements).

My personal opinion is that in general it would still be more benificial to get the likes of an omega 3 boost (to stick with the example) from a good natural source such as fish etc. as we're designed to digest real food. Something that reaches the stage of requiring an actual medical intervention would be different of course! But that would be very extreme, obviously.

The Noble Nudge

Thanks gents.....presuming you are all male....