Fuel Like a Pro

Longer days. Warmer weather. Finally, a dry track. For the Brooks Beasts Track Club, all signs point to spring training. These professional runners are kicking their workouts into high gear for the upcoming season—and making sure their nutrition keeps up.

Wherever you are in your running life, you can learn something from the Brooks Beasts. The team includes Olympic medalists, national champions, and world record setters in distances from 800 meters to 5,000 meters. These 15 athletes from around the world train in Seattle under coach Danny Mackey and a full support staff, including two assistant coaches, a physiotherapist, and nutritionist Kyle Pfaffenbach, PhD.

Pfaffenbach, a health and human performance professor at Eastern Oregon University, tailors individualized nutrition programs to each athlete to build the strongest possible base for performance. “Nutrition is a key pillar to performance, along with training, sleep, and mental health, for our athletes. The complete athlete will have a strong, evidence-based approach in each of these areas. However, it is not a one-size-fits-all proposition. Individual needs vary based on factors like the person, the time of year, and the event they compete in. Nutrition is critical to this personalized approach, and we work together as a team to put our athletes in the best position to perform great and be healthy,” he says.

Here’s how the Brooks Beasts fuel up for a new season, from building a strong base to fine-tuning their nutritional intake to incorporating the best supplements into their daily routine.

Warming Up to Warmer Weather

“As the weather gets nicer, track sessions seem to get a bit more intense and long runs start getting longer,” Pfaffenbach says. “It’s important to make sure to be well-fueled for these sessions.” That means paying extra attention to carbohydrate intake to ensure athletes have the energy they need for harder workouts, but also maintaining enough protein and fat to provide longer-burning fuel and help with recovery.

Hydration needs also increase along with the temperature. “As the weather warms up and we get acclimatized to the heat, people tend to sweat more,” Pfaffenbach says. Waleed Suliman, a Brooks Beast 1,500-meter runner with four NCAA titles to his name, makes sure to add electrolytes to his water this time of year. “I need to replenish the lost minerals to stay hydrated and avoid fatigue,” he says. Suliman swears by NOW® Sports Effer-Hydrate Effervescent Tablets (favorite flavor: lemon lime), an easy source of electrolytes from the team’s official sports nutrition partner.

“We trust NOW® Sports products,” Pfaffenbach says. “They make straightforward supplements, often with only a single ingredient, and their testing procedure is extremely rigorous.” NOW® Sports uses clean, research-backed ingredients when formulating its products, and its in-house lab ensures that its supplements are free of all substances on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s banned list. Many of NOW’s products are also Informed Sport Certified for added purity assurance.

Building a Base of Good Health

Performance starts with an all-around healthy diet full of fresh fruits and veggies, lean proteins, and healthy fats. “Supplements need to be just that—supplemental to a good diet,” Pfaffenbach says. That said, he notes, runners often don’t get enough vitamin D, which is essential for bone health and promoting a healthy immune system. Athletes can also benefit from creatine supplements, an amino acid compound that improves muscle mass but is hard to get enough of through diet alone. Pfaffenbach also recommends that runners take collagen to keep tendons and ligaments healthy.

For all-day energy, NOW® Sports’ Sustained Energy Capsules and Energy Extreme Veg Capsules both promote consistent energy production with a suite of B vitamins and other key nutrients, plus caffeine for alertness.*

Fueling Up for Workouts

A successful workout starts well before the Beasts lace up their running shoes. “While maintaining protein and fat intake on a day-to-day basis, most people will experience a noticeable difference in energy if they intentionally eat more carbs in the two meals prior to their long run,” Pfaffenbach says. “Carbing up before a long run ensures that muscle glycogen is topped off and there is plenty of energy on board.”

Proper hydration also takes time: Start the day with 16 to 20 ounces of water with electrolytes for base hydration, then drink the same amount of fluid again before workout sessions.

What does a pre-workout meal look like in practice? Suliman goes for a simple breakfast of a plain bagel with two slices of turkey, a slice of cheese, and two eggs. He adds a bowl of yogurt topped with honey and drinks a cup of black coffee, plus a cup of collagen with electrolytes.

NOW® Sports offers several supplements for an extra pre-workout boost.* Pre-Workout Advanced Energy Powder combines ingredients like betaine, creatine, beta-alanine, and caffeine for endurance and optimized muscle output.* And BCAA Blast Powder features branched-chain amino acids, caffeine, and electrolytes for both energy and recovery.*

Recovering from Tough Sessions

What you consume after a workout is just as important as what you eat beforehand. Pfaffenbach has most of his runners down a drink made with NOW® Sports Whey Protein Isolate as soon as possible after a training session to help muscles recover and strengthen. Suliman also likes to get some post-workout protein from a turkey sandwich.

Athletes should also look into recovery supplements, like NOW® Sports’ BCAA Big 6, which comes in watermelon and grape flavors. This caffeine-free powder features branched-chain amino acids aimed at muscle recovery. (It’s also a useful endurance supplement before or during exercise.)* AAKG 2200 Veg Capsules help the body shed excess ammonia, aid in protein synthesis, and support a healthy immune system.*

Suliman considers proper nutrition to be right up there with consistent training and mental well-being when it comes to his athletic success. As he works toward his big goal for the season—earning a spot to run for the United States in the 1,500-meter—you can bet he’ll be dialed in on all three.

NOW® Sports products have been recognized among the best in the industry, backed by world-class research and development standards and quality-sourced ingredients, to support a range of sports nutritional needs for professional to amateur athletes.

*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.