Folks, we’ve entered the long-workout season. Starting in the spring, and running through the end of summer, long aerobic workouts become necessary to push the aerobic system and to develop the specific conditioning necessary for hunting.

As a hunter, you’re a strength-endurance athlete. That means you need to eat and fuel more like an endurance athlete than a regular person who likes to go to the gym and workout. You’re training, not working out. Training requires a sound nutritional strategy.

The problem is, most hunters under-fuel their training—especially their long workouts. This creates a host of negative downstream effects. But if you dial in your pre-, intra-, and post-training carb intake, you’ll get more out of your training and have more energy for the rest of your day-to-day life.

Why Under-Fueling Long Aerobic Workouts is a Problem

Long workouts burn a lot of carbohydrates, even when you stay in the aerobic heart rate zones. While you predominantly utilize fat during aerobic training, you still burn carbs. And you burn a lot of them during long sessions—those lasting 90+ minutes. Yes, even if you’re “fat adapted.” You need carbs during long workouts, otherwise some things happen that you’re not going to like.

Under-fueled long workouts deplete glycogen stores, which are your body’s carb stores. You have them in your muscles and your liver. There is about 100g of stored glycogen in your liver, and an average of 400g - 500g stored in your muscles. (Trained athletes can have up to 700g or so stored in muscles.) If you don’t eat enough carbs during your long workouts, you will burn through most of your glycogen stores. Add a ruck and terrain into this equation and the increased demand from your muscles depletes glycogen even faster. This causes a few problems.

It diminishes the quality of the workout. You’ll have to slow down because you won’t have the fuel to maintain a moderate pace. That means you won’t get as good of a training effect. You could even “bonk.” Which means a severe decrease in pace, potentially causing you to completely stop.

Recovery also suffers. When you don’t have enough carbs, your body can use a process called gluconeogenesis to start breaking down muscle protein for fuel. (Gluconeogenesis applies anytime the body uses non-carbohydrate sources to create glycogen.) More muscle breakdown during training means more difficult and longer recovery times. It limits your ability to adapt to training, and the increased recovery time means your upcoming workouts will suffer. 

Under-fueling your workouts also impairs your hydration status. Eating carbs during workouts helps your intestines to absorb fluids. Carb intake during training also aids in retaining fluids, which maintains your blood volume. This is super important for just about every function in your body. During training it’s especially important for keeping your heart rate down and ensuring that your muscles maintain electrolyte balance while also getting the fuel and oxygen they need.

Chronically under-fueling long workouts causes all sorts of problems. It impairs hormonal balance, impairs immune function, and can lead to cognitive decline brought on by mental fatigue. 

You need to eat adequate carbs to fuel your long workouts. We’ll break down consumption via pre-, intra-, and post-workout.

Pre-Workout Carb Fueling

About 3 to 4 hours before training, have a low-fat, low-fiber meal that includes about 3g/kg of body weight in carbohydrates and 20g to 40g of protein. Good carb sources for this meal include oatmeal, fruit, white rice, and pasta. 

Eat about 1g/kg of body weight in carbs about an hour before your workout. Toast with light peanut butter and honey, yogurt with honey, oatmeal, and low-fiber fruits, such as apple sauce, ripe bananas, watermelon, cantaloupe, canned peaches, and plums are all good options. 

Top yourself off about 30 minutes before training with another 30g to 60g of simple carbohydrates. All of the fruits above apply, as do gummy candies, gels, dried fruit, and sports drinks.

Intra-Workout Carb Fueling

Before we jump in, it’s important to note that carb tolerance during training varies from person to person. Some folks can house carbs. Others get GI distress if they have too much. You have to experiment to find the right intake for you.

You want to take in between 30g and 90g of carbs per hour during long workouts, leaning towards the higher end of the spectrum when workouts go for 120+ minutes. Personally, I’ve gotten the best results (better workouts and recovery) when keeping my carb intake about 60g per hour during long runs, rucks, and hikes. You’ll break your intake into small servings, eating them every 15 to 20 minutes or so. 

Carb sources with simple sugars are the best. We’re talking about gummy candies, gels, dried fruit, and sports drinks. You need to use the carbs fast, so it’s important to eat sources that quickly digest. 

Start your experimentation at the lower end of the spectrum and progressively increase your intake during workouts to find the right balance of performance, recovery, and minimal GI impact.

Post-Workout Carb Replenishment

It’s best to eat a full meal within a couple hours of long workouts to promote recovery. The meal should have a 3:1 carb to protein ratio, composed of about 1g/kg of body weight of carbs and about 20g to 40g of protein. This could be a supershake that includes protein powder, fruit, oatmeal, and a fat source. Or it could be solid foods. It’s fine to have higher-fiber carb sources at this meal because you don’t need rapid digestion and you don’t have to worry about GI distress during training. 

However, skip out on fruits and other carb sources with high antioxidant content during this meal. This might sound counterintuitive, but eating a bunch of antioxidants post-training can’t blunt training adaptations. You need some moderate inflammation to drive adaptation.

Monitor Workout Performance and Recovery

If you maintain a solid pace while keeping your heart rate down and have good energy levels during your long aerobic workouts, your fueling is likely in a good spot. That’s not to say you shouldn’t try to increase carb intake to boost your performance. You might be able to get even more out of your long training sessions.

It’s also important to check in with yourself the next day. If you are dragging ass and your legs feel like hell, you probably under-fueled your workout. However, if you have good energy and your legs feel pretty good the next day, you’re in a good spot with your long workout carb intake.

Fuel for Performance and Recovery

It’s trendy to go low carb, but that’s a mistake for hunters. We are strength-endurance athletes, and we have to fuel like it. Experiment to find the right fueling strategy for you, and monitor your performance and your recovery. You will get much better results.