“WHAT GLUTEN FREE FOODS SHOULD I EAT BEFORE A LONG RUN?”
Apparently that’s one of the top searches I get to my site. Maybe it’s because I’ve chatted about gluten free training fuel, or gluten free pre race meal ideas. Ya, I’m a gluten free sherpa wife at your service. And it’s my pleasure!
With that in mind, I thought I’d go ahead and extend this “gluten free search” a wee bit more and talk about LONG RUN fuel, the gluten free food kind.
I don’t plan on doing in long runs anytime soon, but I’ve spent a good seven years making gluten free long run fuel for the kiwi. We’ve figured GF meals work well, and what doesn’t work well. It’s all about timing and of course, trial and error.
Here are my favorite gluten free foods to eat before a long run (at least an hour before).
Fuel Cakes and Rice Balls… Not together though. Haha. These two recipes are great for those who can’t stomach a lot before a run but need good calories and carbs for fuel.
I’ll give you the fuel cake recipe, just in case you missed it before.
Ingredients and Their Purpose Below:
- 7oz Unsulphured Mission Figs
- For Potassium and Natural sugars (carbohydrates)
- 1/2 cup Raw Cashews and 1/3 cup Unsweetened Shredded Coconut
- For good fat and natural energy (calories)
- Cinnamon
- an anti-inflammatory spice
- 1/2c Brown Rice Crispies cereal
- for GF good whole grains and carbs
- 1 tbsp. Gluten Free Brewers Yeast or Nutritional Yeast -for this recipe, the brewers yeast makes it more nutty.
- For B vitamins, Amino Acids, and Iron
Directions:
Blend everything in food processor, roll into a ball, then flatten with hand. Store in freezer for later use. Makes around 11-12 cookies.
The Coconut Rice Date Balls you can find here. I’d say 3-4 are great to eat along with a banana. Again, dense good calories. More rice cake recipes here!
The Grain Free Option – Plantain Bread. The original recipe is from Purely Twins. We just add in a scoop of protein powder or almond meal thicken it. Or we will add an egg to make it fluffier.
Want to make it more of a meal? Eat this about 2 hrs before. Rice with fried plantain, a little bit of bacon (not too much, just for salt and flavor), a drizzle of maple syrup, and sprouted Corn Tortillas. Yep, more Rice and Plantain Love. If you want this for post run, just add in some GF chicken or turkey sausage. You can also switch out the bacon for salsa.
Porridge (Two Ways) – The first porridge is made from steamed rice and a little coconut butter or coconut milk. You’ve heard me talk about it before. Then top with fig, cashew, and banana. It’s delicious! For us, white rice is easy to digest. Plus if you eat it cold, it’s a resistant starch, yea!
The Second porridge is made from gluten free oats and eggs. This is one that really works well as pre or post run fuel. The trick is to not cook the egg all the way and then add a little milk and honey on top. It’s amazing! Probably why I keep coming back to it!
And since it’s Fall, here’s my favorite PUMPKIN bake we use for pre-run fuel. It’s great with NUTTZO on top as well.
Can’t stand to chew food before a run? Here’s a bonus SMOOTHIE recipe.
* Almond Milk, frozen banana, maca powder, 1 tbsp honey, 1 tbsp. almond butter, and 1 scoop or less of a vanilla protein. And sometimes we add in a half cup of coffee or 1 tsp instant coffee.
What’s your go-to pre long run fuel?
And feel free to ask for more ideas in the comments, I have TONS!
Cheers,
LC
All of these are amazing ideas! I need to try those raw fig cakes!
My pre-long run is 95% of the time oatmeal with nut butter, a little yogurt + protein powder and fruit (I try to stick to bananas or strawberries, typically). Sometimes I’ll have toast with PB + banana if I don’t have oatmeal!
I love that bananas played such a prominent part in many of these. Ah nature’s phallic candy. Can’t get enough.
LOL! yep.. naturally. And they suite you well.
My favourite long-run or pre-race fuel is paleo pancakes made with a banana, an egg, a heaped tbsp of tahini and 1 tsp cinnamon. I have it with a bit of peanut butter and honey. This recipe makes two pancakes. I also make a 2 egg vegetable omelette and have half the omelette, along with one pancake and fruit, before my run (1.5-2 hrs before). I save the rest for afterwards as my recovery meal, and I put Greek yogurt and fruit on the pancake as well for added protein and carbs to recover 🙂
p.s. For the Raw Fig Fuel Cakes, could you use something else besides the brown rice krispies?
you can use banana chips (crushed) or coconut flour for sure!
Love this Lindsay! I’m coming back strong with training and getting bored with my fuel!
My goal this weekend is to try a fig 🙂
Those coconut rice date balls seem amazing.
Mmm…figs. I love fall foods. And these are great ideas!!
me too! and my brother has a fig tree… obsessed
Oh my goodness these recipes look amazing!!
I’m not sure if I’m a fan of figs, but I want to try those first ones. I still want/need to email you with some questions/guidance and will try to find time this week!!
you can use dates or prunes or apricots for sure! and email me whenever. xxoo
I LOVE porridge before my long runs. What a fantastic list of food. It’s easy to get stuck in a food rut and I can always count on you to pull me out of it!
agreed!! so nourishing
Oh dear, I have only made one of these recipes! Looks like I have a date in my kitchen!
let me know which ones you try!
Delicious ideas any time of the day!
agreed!
These recipes look great, whether used before running or not! yum!
yep! totally agree! more or less depending on your needs too! right?! hehe
While I can’t say that I’ve ever had a long run (unless you found 4 miles long), I’d be more than happy to eat any of these meals & snacks! I’m a huge, huge fan of oats around workout time, but otherwise I go for the classic banana (or dried fruit) with almond butter combo!
that’s long to me! but i still eat these anyway, my days are long. hehe
I am printing this out because I these look great enough to start eating GF! Thanks for the post.
Awesome! let me know if you need any help!
Great ideas! I love the looks of those fig cakes. Figs are a fav of mine. Oatmeal and smoothies are favs of mine 🙂
oh yes! you’d love those cakes Michelle!
Can you please be my GF sherpa wife? 😀 I’ll take those fig cakes and the smoothie please and thank you.
anytime! but you must make my shoulders sexy like yours. tee heee
I love how informative you are, Lindsay! I honestly barely eat before I work out or run…or at least, I HAVE TO EAT ABOUT 2-3 HOURS before I do anything because of my crazy digestion. But what I do eat hours before my workouts are for example, breakfast like french toast with pb, dollop of greek yogurt, and fruit on top. Or sometimes protein pancakes with coconut flour in the mix, OR raw oatmeal since it’s fast to fix. 😀
i’ve got loads of digestion remedies! let me know if i can help!
Love all of these ideas! I’m always looking for good pre-workout snacks!
These all look delicious! So much food!
I never expected to see all this food on your site. I was hungry before and now I’m starving and want to eat everything!
I am all about keeping it simple. Bananas and nut butter never let me down!
cant go wrong with that!
I am all about oatmeal (gluten-free!) before I run with some PB2 (sits better in my stomach than peanut butter but if I am hungrier or doing a race, I do add a bit for extra staying power) and either mashed banana or some berries. I can’t run on an empty stomach that’s for sure and I have tried Ezekiel toast/PB but it just isn’t enough to hold me the entire time.
How about before a long lift? These all look so good!!!
this came at a very appropriate time. i run in about a month!!!
I <3 oatmeal, as you know, but I want to try this steamed rice variety, it looks so good!! and I LOVE egg on my oats, thanks to you!
I don’t do long runs, but I’d eat all of this anyway!! The egg/glutenfree oats porridge I eat almost daily. My absolute favorite!! And I need plantains back in my life!!
When fueling the Kiwi, does he eat these ON the long runs and rides? or does he use Gu, etc.? If he does eat real food on the run, how do you wrap it? How does he carry it?
He will use the rice balls or cakes on the long rides. No real food on the runs. Sometimes he uses a gel, but mainly sticks to liquid calories on run. He will eat the breads or rice bowls before a run! Let me know if you need any more help friend
Thanks for sharing these ideas and the recipe. I also always appreciate when you share the “why” for ingredients!
Such great ideas and options! I can’t handle nuts/seeds before runs (sensitive tummy) so my go-to long run fuel is 1-2 hard boiled eggs, a banana/small sweet potato and depending on the distance I add 1/2 an avocado. Protein, some carbs and fat 🙂 PS. I have started doing shots of tumeric with coconut water – it reminds me of you… hello anti-inflammatory!
OK I just got home from my long run and it was a mistake to read your post first!! OMG so hungry now!! So many great ideas. Can’t wait to try them!
Awesome ideas! This has been on my mind a lot lately as I’m going to be training for my first marathon since going gluten free! The fig bars look amazing.
Can you be my personal chef & cook!!!! 🙂 All look amazing!!!!!!!
The fig bars sound amazing, full of good stuff, and EASY to make! As always, your recipes rock.
I have to try some plantain bread! That looks delicious!
Ok, I need to get my hands on some figs! I never buy them but they always look so good on top of oatmeal. Strangely, even though Simply Bars are very high in protein, I find them to be my best pre-race fuel because they’re light and really easy for me to digest. One of those and an apple is my go-to pre-race breakfast!
I could just move in and let you feed me all day.
I am sure this will be super helpful for your readers Lindsay! I think I have got my prerun fuel down now….oatmeal with almond milk, a little honey, and a banana. Once you get what works, its best to stick with it!
I love this list. There is something for everyone. It makes me want to do more long runs since I would know how to fuel better! Thanks for sharing
Can I just say Justin and I are so happy I found your blog!
Oh man, so many good new recipes to try. I must try those rice balls this week! I haven’t been doing many long runs lately, so let’s say my favorite pre-workout/shorter run fuel lately is a date stuffed with nut butter and/or a half a banana with nut butter.
let me know if you do!
I think so often people looking for gluten free options can over complicate things–thinking that because they can’t have your typical breads, that everything is off limits! There are simple alternatives, and then there are these really fun alternatives. Being GF isn’t the end of the world!
This post excites me! I want to try everything now and have it ready for every long run! Thanks for all these recipes – this could not be more relevant to my life than right now.
Also I’ve heard about the plantain bread from purely twins but haven’t tried it and now I think I finally will have to 🙂
What I eat before a run really varies, but it is definitely a delicate balance to get enough fuel for the run, but not too close to the run that it sits in my stomach. Not that I do long runs all that often. 😉
These look goooood! I think I’ll try one of these this weekend! The balls would be perfect to take with to NYC!
Your raw fig bar things look so tasty. I love figs and cashews. I’m sure these taste wonderful! Thanks for sharing!
-Nicole
http://www.lungesandlace.com
Can I still eat it all even if I don’t run…long or short?
totally! i do! my life is a long run. haha