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Earlier this year I taught a running clinic at my workplace. I titled the clinic ‘Learn To Love Running’. I am passionate about running. I decided to post some of the materials I put together for the clinic here on my blog. This was from one of the sessions.

Nutrition for runners needs to be broken down into several categories, the first is fuel (food) and the second is hydration (drink). You can also probably break those two categories down into pre-exercise, exercise and post-exercise. But first, lets talk about what food and drink do for runners.

Food and drink provide the fuel for our muscles to work and the water our body needs to maintain proper hydration. The food you consume is turned into a number of compounds that your body needs to grow and repair itself, it also becomes fuel (glycogen) for the muscle tissue that moves you. If you are healthy and eating regularly you probably have about a one hour store of glycogen in your body. In other words, you can expend a significant effort for about an hour before your body’s gas tank is empty. If you don’t fuel before the tank is empty you will suffer what some athletes call the dreaded “bonk”.

Some foods are better for providing this fuel than others. Generally, carbohydrates are readily turned into glycogen where as other types of food are more readily turned into the other nutrients your body needs to survive. Because carbohydrates or “carbs” are so good as fuel you will often hear runners talk of “carbo loading” before an event. For instance, marathon runners may have a big pasta dinner the night before a marathon to ensure that their gas tank is full for the race.

In order to keep your energy levels up, it’s important to eat regular meals, preferably of healthy foods. As you begin to run more, and consume more calories, your nutritional needs will also increase. Often, you will find yourself quite peckish after a run. It’s been my experience that eating smaller portions more often works better at keeping your body fueled than eating just a couple of large meals. I try to include healthy snacks between my meals while eating modest amounts of food during meals.

I also try to eat a stomach friendly snack or small meal 30 to 45 minutes prior to a run, especially if I am going to be running a longer run. By stomach friendly, I mean something light and easily digestible. Greasy foods or those likely to upset your stomach should be avoided prior to a run. Energy bars such as PowerBars, Cliff Bars, etc. work really well for pre-run fuel. One of my favorite meals prior to a long run is a small bowl of grits and a couple of slices of turkey bacon. The grits have the carbs, and the turkey bacon has protein that seems to stick with you better than just carbs alone. It’s also very easy on my stomach.

Remember where I said that your body has about an hour’s store of fuel? If your runs are going to stretch out beyond an hour you also need to think about refueling during your run. This is where energy bars, gels and blocks come in. They are easy to carry and consume on a run and they are stomach friendly. Since it takes a bit for foods consumed to hit your bloodstream, you need to start eating them about 45 minutes into your run to help stave off the dreaded bonk. You may need to experiment with different brands to see which ones are the most stomach friendly and won’t upset your stomach.

Once you get back from a run having a healthy snack will help you to recover and not feel so tired or weak post-run. Something easily digestible like fruit slices work for some folks, or even something a little more hearty like eggs and hash browns may hit the spot for others.

Hydration is also important for runners. Fluids help to transport nutrients throughout your body while flushing out the byproducts of your body’s functioning. While the human body can go for several weeks without food, it can only last for a few days without water. In fact, your athletic abilities begin to diminish significantly as your body becomes dehydrated often just within a few hours.

For those living in warm or humid climates, hydration is significantly important as heat exhaustion or heat stroke can have deadly consequences and are exacerbated by inadequate hydration. It also takes a bit for the fluids you drink to be absorbed by your body. It’s better to consume fluids throughout the day rather than waiting until you begin to exercise. The easiest way to judge your body’s level of hydration is by paying attention to the color of your urine when you void. If you are properly hydrated, your urine should be nearly clear or just faintly yellow in color. If your urine is dark yellow, you are not taking in enough fluids.

Some fluids are better than others but for the most part, water is one of the best ways to stay hydrated. I keep a bottle of water on my desk so I can sip throughout the day. Sports drinks can also be good as they usually contain electrolytes that are lost through perspiration as well as glycogen replenishing carbohydrates. Some folks experience stomach upset if they consume them during vigorous exercise. If this is a problem you can water it down to reduce the likelihood of stomach problems. For me, I drink sports drinks prior to, and after a run but stick to plain water during my runs.

Of course the best part about being a runner and logging all those miles is that I can indulge in an occasionally decadent meal and not worry that it will all go straight to my waistline. I love to eat so it’s a good thing I also love to run.

Earlier this year I taught a running clinic at my workplace. I titled the clinic ‘Learn To Love Running’. I am passionate about running. I decided to post some of the materials I put together for the clinic here on my blog. This was what I put together for the first session.

I wasn’t always a runner. In fact, there was a time that I swore that I never would be. I was in boot camp and we had to pass a PT test in order to graduate. The run was a mile and a half long. I gutted out the run and passed but I can still remember my lungs burning and feeling like my legs were on fire as I made the final lap. I can also remember telling myself that I would never, ever do that again as long as I lived.

Then in 1991 I realized my dream of becoming a cop. We didn’t do any PT in the police academy and my training officers ran the gamut from fit to fat. One thing I did quickly realize was that my fitness could determine whether I lived or died on the street so I began running.

I started off running one mile. It was as tough as I remembered from boot camp. But I kept at it and slowly but surely, I began to get fit. Eventually, I got bit by the running bug and fitness became something I wanted to do, and didn’t just do because I had to.

So what are the reasons for running as a form of exercise? In law enforcement the reasons fall into three broad categories:

• Physical Health
• Mental Health
• Officer Safety

Physical health is likely the first reason that comes to mind when you think of running for fitness. Running is one of the best and most efficient ways to improve physical fitness and health. You don’t have to look around and see that the greatest health problems in the US are caused by a lack of physical fitness. Obesity, heart disease, diabetes and a number of other major causes of death have a direct correlation with a lack of physical fitness.

Runner’s World magazine recently did a piece on the reality TV show Biggest Loser. In the piece they had this bit:

“Running is important in the contestants’‚ weight-loss journey, because it’s the most efficient way to burn calories” says Robert Huizenga, M.D., the show’s medical expert, who helped craft its fitness-oriented methods. “That’s one reason we have the final four do a marathon. We want to encourage players to run as much as they can.” It works. A number of past contestants have competed in everything from 5-Ks to ultras, and in a marathon last fall, Mark Kruger, from Season 5, ran a 3:18 and was just three minutes shy of qualifying for Boston. “Running is the key to keeping my weight off,” says Kruger, 38, who was 285 pounds before appearing on the show in 2005. Now a chiseled 190, he adds, “I’m hooked. I’ll be a runner for life.”

Did you see that? “Running is the most efficient way to burn calories.” It is also one of the most efficient ways to improve aerobic fitness.

I’m going to tell you a personal story. Police work can be hazardous not only to you physically, but mentally as well. Law enforcement officers and other emergency services personnel deal with the effects of traumatic stress. In fact, many of them will develop stress related problems at some point in their career. It did so with me when in 1997 when I developed the full blown symptoms of PTSD after working a child abduction/homicide of a seven year old girl.

I had kept up with my running and added cycling and weights to my fitness regimen over the years and up into 1995 or so when I was assigned to work as a juvenile crimes / child abuse detective. Unfortunately, once I got into an office job it was all too easy to skip my workouts. Eventually, I nearly stopped completely. This left me ill prepared to deal with the traumatic stress that would wreak havoc with me only a few years later.

As I dealt with my PTSD one thing I learned both from my physician and the research I had done into PTSD is that exercise is an important part of treating PTSD and mitigating it’s effects. Looking back over my workout logs, my PTSD was the worst, when my exercise was the least.

I would eventually get back into my exercise routine and eventually I would get a handle on my PTSD. Today, I consider myself a PTSD survivor and a large part of that comes from getting back into a regular exercise program. Quite literally, running saved my life.

The last reason that you as a law enforcement officer should run, is the reason I originally became a runner, and that is; officer safety. If you are physically fit, you are more likely to prevail and survive a physical confrontation with a bad guy. In 2010, 13 law enforcement officers in the U.S. died after having a heart attack on duty. There were a total of 162 officers who died in the line of duty in 2010. This means that a full 8% of those officers died after having a heart attack on duty. How many of the other officers killed in the line of duty might have prevailed in their confrontation had they been in better physical shape? Do not wait until you are fighting for your life on the side of the road to decide that you need to workout more.