Hopefully everyone is feeling great having got their insulin levels under control, are progressing really well and are still finding the training pretty easy.

Hold onto that thought as we approach the end of our base building phase and start looking toward our intensity or speed work.

Looking further into our diet, food quantities are also important. We need enough protein for repair, enough carbohydrate for energy and enough fat for inflammation control.

Consuming excessive amounts of even healthy carbohydrate (in our Blue, Green, Red Categories – Spinewise.com.au/performance) can have a negative effect on our insulin function. 

Calorie requirements change from person to person given our height, weight and metabolic rates. As a rough estimate though those on the Half Marathon program should be consuming approximately 1800-2200 calories per day whilst those on the Full Marathon program should be consuming 2000-2500 calories per day.

However, where those calories come from is also important.

On assessing the endurance athlete’s diet, we should see these calories being derived from 40-50% carbohydrate, 25-30% protein and 25-30% fat.

There are many ways to calculate these ratios, however, with the advent of smart phones, this has become very easy indeed.  If you download the myfitnesspal, livestrong or fitday app from your app store, it will enable you to enter everything you eat and drink providing you with this required breakdown.

Each app has its advantages and disadvantages so see what works for you.

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