Cooking up a running plan - how to eat for running

“What do runners eat?”

Maybe I was just peckish. Or maybe I was subconsciously preparing for my conversion to a “real” runner. Whatever the case, this thought occurred to me shortly after I registered for my first running race in the fall of 2017. The race wasn’t your typical 5k charity fun run, either. It was the East Coast Trail Ultra Marathon, a 50 km race on the sinuous East Coast Trail which skirts the rugged coastline of Newfoundland’s most eastern shoreline. And so in the length of time it takes for a confirmation email to travel to an inbox, I started to question my decision of becoming an ultra-runner. Suddenly weighing heavy on my mind was the fact that I had done exactly no running training whatsoever at that point in my running career. To stand a chance in the race I would clearly have to start running (a lot) and I would have to adapt quickly to life as a runner. Among other things, I realized, that would mean eating the right food.

Here I am apparently elated during the Cape to Cabot 20km road race in 2017. After signing up for the East Coast Trail Ultramarathon I decided I should try my hand at a few other races first. At this point I had discovered that I had an advantage as a cook when it came to training for running.

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