Nutrition and my ability to run

Some days I feel like I can run and run and run forever. Some days I feel like simply the first 2km at a reasonable pace are torture. During the summer months I have made a deal with myself that I am not going to push it too much and this has been especially true that one night where I felt faint and was 2km from my house. I was badly overheated and I started to feel as though my body was going to shut down. I walked home and learned a lesson that day and decided to not push myself beyond my limits when it is this hot outside.

But there is another factor that I discovered the other day and kind of already knew about.

Yesterday's evening run took place a few hours after the sun had set so I thought I would be in the clear as far as heat is concerned. Mostly I was right but there was another factor that I hadn't considered and that was my diet that day. I didn't eat poorly, but I just hadn't eaten the correct things.

I had a couple of sensible meals that weren't too heavy but none of them contained any sort of slow-burning carb I guess you could say. Normally and on most days, I will have some sort of concoction that consists of greek yogurt, fruit, and some oats. I did not have this to eat on this day. I did have carbs, but they might not have been the correct ones. I had zero oats.

What I found had happened was that I was "gassing out" pretty early and after 2km I decided to invoke my summer rule of never pushing myself beyond a comfortable limit. I thought that after a few minutes of walking that perhaps I would recover and be able to pick the run back up but as you can see from my pace and my up and then down again heart rate, that I was stopping and starting quite a lot on this run.

In the end I decided to circle near my house instead of heading off in another direction in case the fainting feeling came about again. It didn't but my goal of keeping moving ended up coming to an end after around 40 minutes.

I can't be 100% certain of this but what I do know is that this is one of the only days that I didn't make a conscious effort to ensure that I had my slow burning carbs in my system and I think that could be a real factor.

Since I didn't really work very hard during this run I am going to try again today but this time with the oats in my system and see what sort of difference it makes.

I know there are a lot of runners out there that insist that the fuel they put in their bodies are just as important as the muscular capabilities.

I didn't hurt, my muscles were fine, there was no joint fatigue, I just didn't have the necessary energy to keep going for some reason.

Live and learn I guess.

What is your go-to food for running fuel?