You know the scene.  

You get back from your run.  You check your time, distance and do your stretches (or not).

Perhaps you reach for your protein powder (or chocolate milk), to start the muscle repair.

Awesome, the vitamins and minerals of your body think, "we'll be next"!   Actually they don't have time to think as they are pretty busy carrying out the roughly 1 BILLION chemical reactions occurring in your body.....every SECOND...in every CELL (and you think you're tired!). 

It's lucky they aren't waiting to 'be next', because 9 time out of 10 you, and thousands of other runners, completely, ignore them.  And this is what is causing runners to be not only running slower but potentially, be causing long term damage to their bodies. 

Runners' on the whole are GREAT at macro nutrient management; the protein, carb and fat intake.  The poor forgotten vitamins and minerals are the micro-nutrients.  Micro, because we need them in small, micro sized amounts, however, the impact they have on your body is anything but small.  Perhaps we assume it must be easy to get the correct amount from the vast array of food we are lucky enough to have in our diet.  It's definitely possible, but it's NOT easy.  

Look at the table below showing a few standard items on most people's plates.  Great on the carbohydrate front, but not a whole lot of micro-nutrition.  

	Micro-nutrients  > 5% DV
Bread	Calcium Iron Magnesium	26% 19% 6%
Pasta	Iron	6%
Potato	Vitamin C	32%
	Vitamin B-6	15%

And not to depress you further, but as well as the gaps in our diet, we also have to consider the other drains we place on our bodies such as processed food.  Processed food is hard to digest for the body.  It doesn't instantly recognise it as real food so takes a bit more 'brain power' - or 100,000 chemical reactions or so - to figure out how to deal with it.  Its FASCINATING, but not good for our bodies.  

If you are interested to know more about which food has what vitamins and minerals enter your email below and I'll email it to you.

And here's the kicker - being a runner, you are actually at even more risk.  It's not rocket science really, just like a car, the faster you go, the more fuel you use.  When you are out there on the trail or the pavement your micro-nutrients are frantically using themselves up to convert that banana you ate, into energy to keep your legs going.  If it's a high tempo day, you might feel amazing while you train, but the rest of your day your body will be trying to replenish - generally with little help from you. 

Of course some micro-nutrients are stored in the body, so you just have to keep the 'bank account topped up'.  But some are not.  Vitamin B's are not stored and being your main energy converters it's what many runners first notice the positive effects from when they get their levels right.  Renewed energy, even after long runs, an ability to run strong right through the run, not have to push through the last 2-3 miles.  Just see this comment from a recent customer:

It's not just about energy levels though.  Think of those 1 billion or so essential chemical reactions happening in our body, micro-nutrients are essential for a lot of them we don't want any dropping off the list because of shortages.  Rather than go through the whole list here, If you are interested in a run down of what micro-nutrients do for your body I am happy to email it to you for a future read.  Just enter your email below, if you already entered it for the other document you don't need to enter it again.

Of course we are not telling you all this without a solution to offer you (lucky you).  But, you have already digested a LOT of information so you might want a rest - or need to go for a run.