Drinks/nutrition to take for mid distance races?

Question

when i say drinks/nutrition i mean what should i buy at like the vitamin shoppe that would help me out a bit and take my game to the next level?

(i already know how to eat)

Answer 1

Consume carbs/protein shortly after any individual run for proper recovery. That's one of the best things you can do to aid your next run. If you want something from the store, as opposed to, say a tuna fish sandwich or chocolate milk, you can look at things like Myoplex Light and Muscle Milk Light. Their composition can be comparable to things like Endurox.

Otherwise, you'd probably find benefit from a multivitamin, a calcium supplement, and fish oil. You may also want to consider a B complex, magnesium, etc. if you've researched them and know what you're doing and why.

Some find a timely "boost" from limited caffeine consumption, like a cup of coffee, but that can also backfire a bit due to elevated heart rate, the body's need to process it, etc.

Some runners find benefit from an occasional protein powder to help rebuild muscle. They can vary a great deal in quality and additional ingredients though. I would tend to stick to "name" brands like EAS and CytoSport (Muscle Milk, EvoPro, etc.) if you can afford them.

Occasionally using a particular sports drink (Cytomax, Accelerade...) before or during your runs can be found to be of benefit beyond more traditional things like Gatorade.

The best thing you probably can do is indeed ensure your daily diet and nutrition are smartly handled, but it's the timely carb/protein consumption for recovery following workout that's likely to aid you most. You can look for something like a Muscle Milk variant to aid you if you want, but bread, tuna or peanut butter, and chocolate milk can work just fine, too.

Answer 2

Yeah dude. Having the appropriate amount of b vitamins will help you. That's what gives you energy.

If you've ever heard of those 5 hour energy drinks, those things have 8333% (not even kidding, exactly that) of your daily intake of b12. So taking some vitamins is definitely a good idea.

Also, take fish oil capsules. You said you know how to eat, so all those good nutrients that you're consuming, fish oil will send them all to your muscles and away from fatty tissue where they're just wasted.

Also, look into recovery drinks, such as Endurox. They allow you to rebuild muscle immediately and use less muscle to do whatever it is you're doing, so you won't get totally wiped out as fast.

Hope that helps :]

Oh, and get your stuff from netnutri.com. I buy my supplements and vitamins and everything from there and they're wayyyy cheaper than anywhere I know of.