Taking in an amount of food before your workout catalyzes your body's metabolism, preparing it for the ensuing efforts. You'll be more primed to source muscle glycogen stores and train more efficiently. Then after your workout, make sure to replenish with 80-100% of the calories (mainly in carbohydrate form) burned during your workout. If you don't know exactly what you're burning (numbers which can be determined from V02 testing), estimate between 600-800 calories per hour for distance pace efforts, increasing incrementally as the intensity rises.
Here's a great breakfast recipe for after your morning workout. Because the grain elements come in the form of meals, you can keep the whole grains or nuts on hand then grind them in a coffee grinder when preparing the recipe.
Lemon Pancakes (adopted from www.sproutedkitchen.com)
1/3 cup almond meal
1/3 quinoa flour
1/3 cup oat flour (ground rolled oats)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
2 1/2 Tbsp. natural cane sugar
2 eggs, seperated
1 cup buttermilk, yogurt or milk (I used half yogurt and half milk)
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
3 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
zest of one meyer lemon
1 Tbsp. melted coconut oil, plus more for cooking
Combine all dry ingredients.
Beat the egg yolks with the buttermilk/yogurt/milk, vanilla, lemon juice, and zest; then add the oil. Add this to the dry ingredients to combine.
Beat the egg whites on high speed until soft peaks form. Fold this gently into the batter.
Heat the oil over medium heat in a skillet and fry each pancake, without overcrowding. Serve with fruit, yogurt, and drizzled in syrup.
