Protein is always an important component in your diet. It can easily be overlooked as an endurance athlete but you should be aiming for 1.2-1.6 g/kg body mass per day! Why? Protein has been found to improve recovery, increase adaptation to training and improve rehydration after exercise.
How Much Protein Do I Need?
It is commonly recommended that you should consume 1.2-1.6 g/kg body mass per day. But how much is that really? If you weigh 70kg you need between 84g and 112g of protein per day. This can sound like a lot but a typical chicken breast (174g) has 56g of protein, that’s around half of your protein intake for the day. That, mixed with some other high protein foods for example eggs, lentils, milk, almonds etc. would mean you could easily hit that protein target for the day.
Improves Recovery
When we complete training sessions one of the main things that occurs is muscle fibre breakdown. While fibre breakdown occurs more in strength training (which is super important to endurance performance) it also occurs in typical endurance training sessions. Consuming protein after exercise helps with muscle protein synthesis (rebuilding and repairing your muscle fibres). This can allow for better quality training the next day, which in the long term can help to improve performance.
Adaptation to Training
This sounds complicated, but when we train each session has a specific purpose and goal. Our body will then adapt to the specific stimulus you are training which could be speed, endurance or strength. Consuming enough protein helps your body respond better to your training and allow the adaptation you are trying to achieve to occur, which in the long term will lead to greater performance improvements.
Improves Rehydration
For endurance athletes some of the key training sessions to complete are the long sessions. These sessions will typically result in large amounts of fluid loss through sweat. After exercise it is important to rehydrate and consuming protein post session, while trying to rehydrate, has been found to result in more water being retained in the body, meaning you will become rehydrated quicker.
Quick Summary
Protein is an important component in your diet as an endurance athlete.
You should aim to consume between 1.2-1.6g/kg body mass per day.
Protein will help to improve recovery, increase adaptation to training and improve rehydration after exercise.