10k Drink & Food Options That are Best Before Running

Have you seen sign-ups for a 10 km race? Are you trying to decide if you should run one? If so, you’re probably going to have many questions before you commit. You might be wondering, “how far is a 10k? What is a good 10k time?”

While these are all important questions you should know before running your race, you should also be asking questions about what to eat when training for a 10k. It’s equally important to know what to drink before running as well.

Why?

The best way to make sure that your body can perform as it should is through nutrition. All of the training in the world won’t mean a thing if you are too dehydrated or too tired to run. Fortunately, some basic nutrition tips can help you prepare for your race. This article will cover the basics of what to eat and drink before a 10k, so read on to learn more.

What to Eat Before a Race

If you’re going to be running a 10k, you’ll need to make sure you have plenty of energy stored up. Your body stores energy in the form of glycogen, which comes from carbs.

Keeping that in mind, you’ll need to plan your diet carefully. Specifically, you’ll want to pay attention to:

• What to Eat the Night Before Running
  • The night before 10k runs should be focused on stocking your body’s glycogen stores. While you won’t have to worry about major carb loading for 10k races, you still should make sure that you eat a balanced plate with easy-to-digest carbohydrates.
• What to Eat the Morning of the Race
  • The best breakfast before a race shouldn’t be too heavy on your stomach, but it should be carb-rich with a bit of protein. When you look at what to eat on the day of the race, you want to look for carbs that are slow to digest. When they are slower to break down, they’ll be able to provide you with a steady supply of energy for the duration of your 10k average time.
• What to Eat Before a Run
  • If you’re wondering, “should I eat before I run?” the answer is yes! This is your last chance to provide your muscles with a boost of energy. It would be best to keep it light with a snack packed full of those good carbs. A handful of raisins might be a good option for you. You could also consider drinking an energy drink for an added boost.
• What to Eat After a Run
  • Your post-race meal is a good time for 10k recovery. We recommend focusing on foods with a good balance of carbs and protein. The carbohydrates will help to restore your body’s depleted glycogen stores, and the protein will help to repair muscle fibers damaged from your workout.

What to Drink for 10k Prep

As much as it’s important to know what to eat before a race, you should also know what to drink. Fortunately, you have several options that can provide you with both energy and hydration to aid in fighting heat exhaustion and muscle cramps. We recommend that you consider the following drinks to see which is best for you and your nutrition needs.

Water

You can’t go wrong with plain old water. It is calorie-free and pure, so it should be the number one choice for runners concerned with hydration. With all the water that you’re going to sweat out on your race, you will need to make sure that you replenish your body’s supply. After all, water plays many vital roles in your muscle function and other systems.

It’s recommended that you drink about 5-12 ounces of water for every 15-20 minutes that you will be running. Since your 10k time can be between 50-70 minutes, you’ll want to make sure that you are hydrating throughout the race. If you are sweating excessively, you might also need to drink water with electrolytes.

10k Sports Drink

If you’re wondering what to drink before a run when you skip breakfast, you might want to consider a sports drink. Many sports drink brands are notorious for having a ton of sugar in them (like Endurance Fuel), which will provide you with the glycogen you need to power through your race. We want to caution about how much you drink, however. If you quickly chug a whole bottle before your run, you could end up feeling sick from all the sugar.

It's also good to know that many of the preferred sports drink vendor options that you find on the shelves have electrolytes. These electrically charged particles not only help you with hydration but also assist many of your body’s key functions, including muscle contractions. If you’re trying to avoid muscle cramps, you’ll want to add a sports drink to your routine.

Electrolyte Powders

As we mentioned, electrolytes are an essential ingredient in any 10k drink. Though sports drink brands usually have them, some runners want to steer clear of the extra sugar and artificial ingredients. These people turn to electrolyte powders.

These products are a great way to add the perfect balance of electrolytes to your water and often come ready to mix on the go. You can easily carry a pouch of your favorite powder in your running belt and add it to your favorite water bottle without missing a beat. Many of these products have natural formulas with less sugar than your standard sports drink.

The Best 10k Drink Thirst Quencher

You don’t have to search far to find an excellent electrolyte powder worth adding to your 10k training. Tailwind Nutrition has worked carefully to create a well-balanced 10k thirst quencher.

Our Endurance Fuel formula was taken into account specifically for athletes who competed through the most challenging workouts and races. You can expect your powder to optimize both energy and hydration through:

• Water
  • All of our powders are designed to be mixed in water. Therefore, you can make sure that you are getting the hydration you need while you run. In fact, the ingredients work together with your bottled water to make sure that you get the most out of every ounce you drink.
• Good Carbohydrates
  • We make our Endurance Fuel with a blend of dextrose and sucrose. These sugars match the exact type of sugar your body was made to digest. As a result, you can absorb the sugar quickly to see faster results. Not to mention, it will prevent any issues with your digestive system because the sugar won’t sit in your stomach through the whole race.
• Electrolytes
  • Finally, we make sure that all our powders have a solid dose of those valuable electrolytes we talked about earlier. Specifically, we use sodium, potassium, magnesium, and calcium in our products. That means you will be able to quickly replenish those ions that you lost through sweat.

Why Choose Tailwind Nutrition as Your Preferred Sports Drink Vendor?

As you can see, we’ve just scraped the surface of what to eat and drink before running your next 10k. If you continue to dive into the world of sports nutrition and professional sports teams, you’ll learn more about the different ways that you can prepare your body to do its best.

You might even soon be searching for what to eat before a marathon. Until then, you should be able to answer questions about:

• What to Eat the Night Before a Run?
• What to Eat the Day of a Race?
• What to Eat Before Running Begins?
• What to Drink Before Running?
• What is the Best 10k Sports Drink for Sale?

We encourage you to sample our brand-owned products to see how Tailwind Nutrition can provide you with hydration and energy to optimize your 10k time. We have individual servings of each formula, so you can easily try out our Endurance Fuel or Recovery Mix.

If you want to try both, we also have several bundles that let you sample our amazing products in different flavor options! We also offer free standard shipping for orders over $49 around the entire country. Don't wait any longer, order with us today!