Right before the marathon (during the taper week), I was having trouble adjusting to the “carb-load”. I was waking up feeling like I had eaten cement and knew that if I felt like that on race day I wasn’t going to do well.

I did some investigating and went to a website I have used for nutrition information and recipes.

Finish Line Fueling

Nutrition Success is a blog run by Jackie Dikos who is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist with board certification as a Certified Specialist in Sports Dietetics.

She is also a marathon runner, who eats for performance and health.

She has recently written the book Finish Line Fueling, which goes over how your body uses the food you eat for fuel. There are also a ton of recipes, which are also broken down into categories such as Vegetarian, Gluten-Free, Pre-Run, On-the-Run, Iron, Calcium and so on. This helps you to pick out the recipes that meet your particular requirements.

Use this book in conjunction with the Cronometer App, and you will have a fantastic kick-start to fueling your body in a healthy way! She talks about this app in the book

If you have been following the blog, you know that I use her homemade
Cherry Lemon sports drink recipe on all my long runs.

Five Fundamental Fueling Components

In the book, she talks about the “five fundamental fueling components”. Nutritional sources of food that should be on your plate at every meal. These are Water, Lean Protein, Quality Carbohydrates, Antioxidants and Healthy Fats.

Using the five components, she then goes into detail about why your body needs those things and how much of it you should eat. It gets specific about what kinds of foods you should eat to reach daily goals and even when you should eat those foods!

Other Topics Covered

She also talks about the immune system and signs of stress in your body and what you can do to ease those symptoms.

I also like the grocery list she provides, with the foods in categories based on what nutrients they provide. If you were to have a bunch of the items in the fridge and pantry you would be able to put together healthy meals.

Race strategy is also included, with instruction on pre-run, post-run and during the run.

Here is a shot of the “Contents” page. There is also another two pages of contents devoted to the recipes at the back of the book!

Recommendation

I really enjoyed learning about the nutritional side of running, and I’ve incorporated some of the suggestions already. The included recipes are really handy to have and come at a great time since my husband and I are trying to get some more iron in our diet.

The book is unique among running books since it’s main focus is food…but I have always felt that diet is a major component of fitness. If I’m going to train hard for races or just running in general, why wouldn’t I want to maximize everything I can? I’m a 5’ 1” (and shrinking) 50-year-old. My body is definitely not what you would consider a “runner’s body”, so I have to do all I can!