Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Fueling for endurance exercise Part II: Snack ideas

Here are some snack ideas when you are working through a long workout. Remember the tips from last week and know that all of these snacks aren’t necessarily complete. You will likely have to play around with these ideas, and some of your own, to make sure that you are getting plenty of potassium, sodium, carbohydrate and fluid.

1. Trail mix containing dried fruit, pretzels, and a few M&Ms. This snack gives you important electrolytes and carbohydrates.

2. Sports drink. Again, these contain electrolytes and carbohydrate.

3. Banana. Contains potassium and carbohydrate, but no sodium. If you go with this, you’ll want your next snack to contain sodium, or have a little bit of a sports drink with this.

4. Sports gummy bears. These and many other products on the market, such as sport jellybeans, typically contain plenty of carbohydrate and electrolytes. The downside of these is that they are rather expensive.

5. Half of a peanut butter sandwich. This contains electrolytes, carbohydrate, and some protein and fat which may keep you satisfied longer!

6. Raisins and peanuts. This contains electrolytes, protein, fat, and carbohydrate.

7. Rice Krispy Treat. This is definitely lacking in electrolytes, but definitely an easily digested carbohydrate.

8. Cheerios or another dry cereal. This is a great carbohydrate, but lacking electrolytes.

4 comments:

  1. Great ideas. I'll have to give some a try as we're training for the next 1/2. I'll admit to chuckling at the thought of eating a PB sandwich while running, but alas you need fuel.

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  2. Busy-Dad-E: Thanks! Let me know what ends up working for you! Chuckle away...it is kind of funny! I always thought people must be laughing at me as I was running down the street with a bag of trail mix when training for a marathon. However, you won't be laughing when you feel so much better after fueling!

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  3. A banana before a bike ride, and a rice krispie treat during have worked well for me....and lots of water! We have also tried sports gummy treats. Thanks for all the tips.

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  4. I'm looking forward to using all of this information as I train for my first 1/2 marathon this October! Thanks for posting all of this information...it will be very helpful!

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