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If you’re a runner taking some downtime from higher volume training and racing – or if you plan to increase your efforts in a cross-season sport like skimo or cyclocross racing – winter is a great time to dialing in your offseason nutrition.
Focusing on your performance nutrition in the offseason can give you the mental capacity to apply information to your specific challenge areas and help build a strong framework that you can work off of as your running intensity increases and your size. Off-season nutrition can also help build a foundation for peak training and racing seasons.
Work on Your Foundation
As with base training, building a strong nutritional base can help you heading into race season, when you may be short on time or tired from all the training. Basic nutrition skills such as planning, shopping, macronutrient adjustment for training days, and micronutrient diversity can help create a strong, adaptable runner.
Flex Your Planing Muscles
It’s hard to fuel well without a plan. Think ahead and prepare grocery and meal lists to ensure your nutrition choices are in line with your goals.
To get yourself into a better routine, block out specific times on your calendar or set reminders on your phone each week. 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 in a way that supports different training goals, for example pre- and post-workout snacks meant to promote energy levels and recovery. For example, graham crackers may be a great pre-workout choice because they contain simple carbs and while chocolate milk provides the perfect balance of carbohydrates and protein post-workout.
Planning your grocery list and meals can save you money and time by avoiding impulse purchases and aimless wandering around the market.
In addition, the offseason can be an opportune time to try new recipes that you may need more time to try during heavy training. If you don’t like to cook, 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 meals to meet budget and nutritional needs.
Macronutrient Intake
Many runners focus heavily on energy intake when considering off-season versus race-season fueling. However, the offseason can be a great time to improve the macronutrients you eat – protein, carbohydrates and fats. Although it may be tempting to start restricting overall energy consumption, you must be careful and know that even in the offseason, any training requires additional energy intake.
If you reduce your volume and intensity in the offseason, you may need fewer carbohydrates than during race season. However, it is important to note that carbohydrate intake must match amount and intensity if you are not tapering during the season. The IS Recommended by the International Association of Sports Nutrition Carbohydrate needs 5-12 g/kg/body weight per day for ultrarunners. (To find your weight in kilograms, take your body weight in pounds and divide by 2.2). However, carb intake can be adjusted based on size and intensity of training. This could be like one cup of carbohydrate at each meal on light training days of less than an hour, or two cups at each meal on heavier training days of more than two hours.
Eat and Train to Reduce Injury
The offseason can be a good time to work on muscle strength and resilience to help avoid injury risk as you prepare for a big race. Your protein needs in the offseason will depend on strength goals and the volume and intensity of training. For example, if you are doing more strength training during the offseason, you may want to keep protein intake like or even increase it a little to help support muscle strength. Recommendations for protein intake are between 1.6-2.5g/kg bodyweight per day and, like carbs, can be adjusted to suit off-season goals.
Although runners often neglect fat consumption, it is important to remember that fats contain twice the energy compared to carbohydrates and protein. In the offseason, fat requirements may not be as high if you are not training as much. However, they are still important dietary components for fat-soluble vitamin consumption, cellular membrane function, and hormone production.
Get in those Micros
Micronutrient intake, such as vitamins and minerals, is essential for the physiological functioning of the body. From bone health and strength to immune system function and neurotransmitter production, your microbes keep the body running smoothly, reducing the risk of injury and illness.
A peak training period (about three months before a race) places higher stress and demands on the body’s systems, increasing the micronutrient requirements needed to function properly. So, the offseason is a good time for runners to consider getting a basic athlete’s blood panel to check under the hood and make sure no deficiencies need to be addressed.
Runners should pay attention to iron status (full iron panel including ferritin), Vitamin D (important for bone health, muscle strength, and immune function), red blood cell magnesium (which affects storage status iron), B12 (an energy producer), and a basic complete blood count are good basic blood markers to check. It is important to note that if you do an athlete blood panel, make sure you have professionals who understand laboratory reference ranges interpreting the panels for you. The nutritional levels and needs of the runner are different compared to non-runners, and athletes should seek out a medical team that understands their background and goals.
Certain deficiencies may require or benefit from supplements. But, the offseason is also a great opportunity to see how athletes can correct that imbalance through food.
Focus on Dietary Diversity
Due to time constraints and training demands during race season, you may end up eating the same foods for weeks or months. Additional time in the offseason may allow time to explore an increased variety of plant foods.
To support your gut microbiome, add a variety of plant-based foods to your diet. This will help support bacterial diversity in your gut, something that correlates with better cell signaling, improved metabolism, modulation of inflammation, and improved glucose metabolism.
Additionally, increased variety in antioxidant-rich foods such as herbs, spices, teas, and plant-rich food colors can reduce the oxidative stress burden from exercise (which may impair muscle contraction and lead to impaired performance) skipping training adaptations. Cue the consumption of green tea and dark chocolate!
Keys to Offseason Nutrition
The racing offseason can be a great time for runners to focus on rest and recovery, and building a resilient foundation through nutrition. While it may seem tempting to go into restrictive fueling mode, it may be beneficial for runners to view this time as a great opportunity to focus on digging deeper into blood biomarkers, overall macronutrient consumption, and what should be added to optimize performance and health. your own future.
