Disclosure: This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Potatoes USA for IZEA. All opinions are 100% mine.
If there’s one question that I get asked often as an RD in the running and triathlon space, it’s this: “Are there ‘real foods’ I can eat when running or riding? And are there any savory options?”
Yes! This blog post is comin’ at ya today with one of my very favorite “real food” options for fueling – potatoes. Make ‘em salty and savory and you’ve got yourself a naturally delicious carbohydrate snack to power you through your workouts. I’ve even got a delish training and race potatoes recipe for ya!
Why carbohydrates are healthy (yes, healthy) for athletes
Before anything else, let’s address the elephant in the room – carbs. Despite the carb-phobic rhetoric that we sometimes see in the media, carbohydrates – and especially potatoes – can actually be quite nutritious for runners and triathletes.
The simple explanation: Carbs are important because they’re one type of energy source for your muscles during exercise.
The longer explanation: When you’re exercising, your body is typically using a blend of both carbs and fat for fuel. The breakdown between those two depends on a lot of things, including your diet, training, and the intensity of your workout.
- Shorter, intense workouts use primarily carbs for fuel. (Examples: speed work; hill drills)
- Longer, slow workouts use a bigger portion of fat for fuel, along with some carbs. (Examples: everyday comfortably paced runs; long runs; long rides)
Here’s what’s really important when it comes to those long workouts – your body can’t just switch completely to fat for those longer workouts. It physiologically does not happen. In running and triathlon, you’ll always use a blend of these two options.
Some people advocate low-carb diets to shift the body to “run on fat” during those long workouts. While it is true that this increases the percent of calories you burn from fat, this has not been shown to improve performance at all. In some research, performance has even been compromised.
Years of sports nutrition research tell us that athletes generally perform best when they fuel themselves with carbs before exercise, take in additional carbs during exercise lasting over an hour, and recover with carbs afterwards.
While everyone’s dietary choices are their own – and I support whatever works for ya! – this is why I generally advocate for healthy carbs in the diets of athletes.
Why potatoes are an excellent carb choice
You guys – I seriously love potatoes. I always say that my top three foods I’d never want to give up are potatoes, cheese, and chocolate (not all together, of course 😉 ). But I digress…
Here’s why I think potatoes are ideal for all you active ladies and gents:
- Potatoes are nutrient-dense complex carbs to fuel athletes, with a medium skin-on potato providing 26 grams of carbohydrates.
- They have more potassium than a banana! That’s right, a medium skin-on potato has 620 milligrams of potassium. For all you long course athletes, that’s particularly important as potassium aids in muscle and nerve system function.
- They help to stock your muscles with energy for your training and racing, they serve as a source of fuel during an event, and they help replenish that muscle glycogen afterwards.
- And of course, when it comes to using them during training and racing – it’s such a plus that they’re a savory option! How many times have you been out on a long run or ride and some of the sweet fueling choices just start to get old? Potatoes are a great way to mix it up.
Training & Race Potatoes Recipe
Eating potatoes before or after training is pretty simple – you can toss some chopped ones in a hash or top ‘em with eggs for breakfast, or you can make a big ‘ol loaded potato for a recovery meal. (Be sure to check out the Potatoes USA site for plenty more recipe ideas!)
But when people consider using potatoes as fuel during exercise, the biggest thing that trips them up is logistics: “How do I go about eating potatoes while running and riding? Do I boil ‘em or bake ‘em? What do I put them in while I’m exercising?”
While you can pretty much make them any way you please, I want to share my favorite recipe to use them during a long run or ride. I wish I had a clever name for this recipe, but the best I could come up with was “training and race potatoes recipe”, haha.
Also, the term recipe makes it sound more complicated than it is, because it’s actually so simple:
- Boil potatoes with water and a bouillon cube.
- Mash everything up.
- Place in ziplock bags.
- Bring with you during training/racing.
- Tear off the end of the bag and eat (just like you would a gel!).
Super easy, right?!
For cycling, it’s easy to store these in a bento box or in the back of your jersey. For running, you can usually get a few bags either in a running belt, or you can safety pin ‘em onto your belt if you don’t have a good size pouch.
Training & Race Potatoes Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 medium sized potatoes
- 2 cups water
- 1 beef bouillon cube
Instructions
- Peel potatoes and chop into 1-inch pieces.
- Place in a small to medium size pot. Add 2 cups of water and heat over high until boiling.
- Add beef bouillon cube and reduce heat to medium-high. Cook for 10-15 minutes, or until potatoes are tender and most of the liquid is gone.
- Turn off heat and mash potatoes with a potato masher or the back of a fork. The additional broth that’s left will blend in as you’re doing this and help make creamy potatoes.
- Let cool for a few minutes, then separate the potatoes into two plastic baggies. Bring them along with you during your ride/run. When ready to eat, tear off the corner of the baggie and eat it like you would an energy gel. YUM!
Notes
- If you have a kitchen scale, weighing the potatoes is ideal when you first make these.
- Aim for about 10.5-11.5 ounces / 300-325 grams total for this recipe.
- If potatoes are tender at the end of cooking but there is still a lot of liquid left, just drain some off before mashing.
- I prefer peeled potatoes for during exercise – but for recovery afterwards, keep the skin on for added nutrients & fiber.
- The bouillon cubes I use have 900 mg of sodium per cube. Just keep in mind your nutrition facts may be different for sodium depending on the concentration in your cubes.
Nutrition
Share with me: Will you try this race potatoes recipe? Have you tried eating potatoes while running or cycling? What’s your favorite way to enjoy potatoes?
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I never thought to use potatoes for fuel during a long workout. What a great idea!
Hope you get a chance to try it!
Do instant potatoes work?
You can certainly use instant potatoes for the same type of idea! However, be sure to follow the liquid ratios for instant potatoes on the box, as they differ from what you would use for whole potatoes. 🙂
I use potatoes for fuel for long runs or cycling.
Here’s what i do though. Find some real small potatoes, like a salad potato or here in the UK my favourite is a Charlotte.
Boil them to cook whole.
Drain and leave in the pan after cooking and grate some parmesan cheese over the top so it melts a bit on the potato in the residual heat.
Once cool then wrap say 2 at a time in some foil so you have small amounts to just grab out of your pocket or rucksack.
These are so much nicer to me than some gels or sweet stuff. I usually just feel sick using them.
But these are good for the carbs, potassium and the salt from the Parmesan (or whatever you use).
Those sound just delish! Perfect for a savory snack for fueling.
How do you safely prevent botulism with cooked potatoes and storage?
Hi John! Botulism with potatoes is typically linked to baked potatoes both cooked and cooled within foil (the foil seals the potato limiting oxygen and this anaerobic environment is typically linked with survival of botulinum toxins). Mashed potatoes or roasted potatoes don’t generally carry the same risk. That said, proper food safety precautions would always indicate using food that’s out within 4 hours (or 2 hours in extreme heat). If you plan to be out longer than that on a training run/ride, you could always make it a goal to swing by the house again to grab more. In a longer race event where you have access to a training table (i.e. ultra) you can use a thermos or appliance that keeps food hot, which can prolong the amount of time you have to enjoy it (as keeping it above 140 degrees keeps it out of the temp danger zone). Hope this helps! 🙂
I’ve never considered potatoes for fuel but what a cheap great idea.
Thanks Jenny!
I love potatoes so the idea of using them to fuel my long runs sounds like a great idea!
Yay! Hope you get a chance to try it. 🙂
I love potatoes and agree that they are a great addition to any diet. Never thought of taking them on my bike ride!
It’s definitely a little easier to bring different things on the bike since you’ve got your jersey or bento, but these can def work for the run too.
I love potatoes! I’ve known cyclists who would take potatoes with them on long rides, but I never thought about using them for a run! Great idea!
So potatoes are pretty much my most favorite food. I don’t love sweet potatoes but baked Idaho potatoes? Yes, please.
As a matter of fact, I might make some for dinner tomorrow night with some shredded chicken and roasted broccoli!
YUM! I think I love pretty much any kind of potato, haha! Blue, red, idaho, yukon gold – they’re all SO good.
I love potatoes, but never thought of bringing them along as fuel. Genius!!!
I hope you get a chance to try it!
I think potatoes are so underrated! I just love them and we eat them all the time. I love them baked with just a little Kosher salt. Skins and all!
Soooo delish! They’re the best.
What an interesting option. We eat lots of potatoes in our house but I would have never thought to make a version of them to have while out running.
I didn’t think to do it until a few years ago, but I love it as a salty option now!
I imagine these would also squeeze nicely out of a tube. (I bought mine at REI, and I’ve seen them in the travel section of Office Depot.)
I’ve been reading a lot of backpacking food ideas, and one guy suggests making cooked starchy vegetables into “bark” – dehydrate them. He says you can rehydrate them if you wish, or just eat them as a snack. I’m considering doing this with rosemary potatoes.
And finally – potatoes & salt seem to be the biggest draw ultramarathon aid stations. Carbs! Salt! What more could you want?
They would definitely work in a tube too – I just got kind of lazy with the ziplock bags, haha. I have never tried any kind of dehydrated vegetable except okra, and it was not good that way – LOL. Keep me posted if you try it with rosemary potatoes!
Thanks to OP and extra thanks to you Kim–the idea of dehydrating has got me thinking of using the air fryer to speed dry them (there’s no frying) and testing this as another option for super long run nutrition. Wow, I’m so excited to try this!
Would it work to just slice up a raw potatoe and eat a slice or two at a time while running or do you need to cook them for the best benefits?
Great question! I would cook them for the best benefit – it makes the starch easier to digest and more likely that you won’t have GI issues on the run. 🙂
Hi Chrissy! So I’m 59, going to do a half marathon trail run in Nov with 1500 elev gain in the mud. I’ll be working! So along with my Nuun Endurance (full strength or diluted, not sure yet), how many gr of carbs or calories from potatoes do I need to fuel? It would seem a lot to carry.
Hi Nadine! Great question. You want to aim for around 30-60 grams of carbohydrates per hour. How long do you anticipate that the half will take? (1500 feet is no joke, lol!). This race potato recipe makes two servings of around 30 grams each, so that would cover two hours without any other fuel. But you can certainly mix in some other fuel types – like nuun endurance or gels or dried fruit — as well in order to either a) give you a longer supply of fuel, or b) give you more fuel per hour. The best thing to do is test out how you feel during training with the different amounts/types of fuel and go with what you feel works best. Does that help? 🙂
Thank you that does! So I have another question. I’ve read that trail running needs 200-300 calories per hour. I was thinking 200 calories for my weight of 134, but you are talking only carbs here. Should I not be worried about calories? Thank you so much!
Oh, and I’ll probably take 2.5 hours at the most to complete this half marathon trail run.
Good question! I generally focus on the carb count, as that’s where most calories during endurance racing should come from. For longer ultra-type stuff it’s a little different, but for a trail half I’d personally focus on making sure you hit the carbs. (Sometimes people focus on calories and then they end up eating too much fat/protein and don’t get the quick absorbing energy they need from the carbs.) For reference though, 30-60 g carbs = 120-240 cal from carbs – and then there’s usually a few extra calories from pro/fat depending on the fuel source used – so it’s relatively close to the range you mentioned.
A friend of mine does Ironman and Leadville Long Course training and racing. He swears by new potatoes with butter, salt and sugar in a freezer bag.
Yes! I can see why he’d like it; it’s nice to have the savory starch!
Heck yes! I bought reusable squeeze pouches. For my last long run, I used instant mashed potatoes (I was out of actual potatoes). Nutritional yeast is a nice way to season them. I also made pouches of sweet potatoes mixed w/ tahini and maple syrup, also good.
Yum! Love both of your ideas with nutritional yeast as well as the maple tahini sweet potatoes. Delish!
I was a former competitive cross country and track athlete. In the 1990’s and early 2000’s we got fed the idea that pasta was the only way for carbs, etc. I am 40 but in my mid 30’s I found out I was lactose and gluten intolerant, and have been my whole life. Lately, I’ve become a long-distance cyclist. My weekend ride is 30-40 miles on average. I’ve been a lifelong runner but I am not competitive these days. I’ve been eating mini potatoes and they are perfect for running and biking. While you can purchase GF pasta these days I just feel it reminds me too much of the past which GF caused digestion issues. I feel great! Its so awesome to feel amazing on runs and bike rides.
So glad you’ve found a fueling strategy that works for you! Potatoes are definitely one of my favorite fueling foods too. 🙂
I’ve followed this recipe for 2 ultra races so far and will continue to do so in the future. As the miles go by and gels start to become a chore, these savory bags of mashed potatoes really hit the spot both in taste and fuel for endurance running.
Awesome! So glad to hear it’s working for you 🙂
How much should be in each ziplock bag? How many tablespoons, cups, etc? And how often should you eat them on a long ride? Let’s say 56 miles… 3/3.5 hours.
Hi Catherine! Great question. Typically the recommendation for endurance athletes is 30-60 grams of carbs per hour, with events longer than 3-4 hours going up to 30-90 grams per hour. This recipe makes 2 servings that can be split equally into 2 baggies, each providing approx. 30 g carbs per baggie. So if I was doing a 3 to 3.5 hour ride and this was the only fuel source, I’d personally make a double batch and eat one every 45 min. If you’re also getting fuel in your sports drink or another product, you can play around with that 30-60 g/hour range between all the products. *Not individual advice, for general information only.
How long can smashed potatoes be okay to leave out in a drop bag for a 100-mile race? Lets say, I prepare the mashed potatoes on Wednesday night, Thursday i drop them off to my drop bag, and Friday to Saturday I pick them up to eat. Will they still be okay to eat?
Hi Parker! So they would definitely not be good to leave out at room temp that long. Eating them warm is more of a strategy to use morning-of for a closeby race, as you’re looking at a couple hours (not days) before you pass the threshold for food safety. However, if you could keep them cold in a mini cooler with lots of ice packs or dry ice and know that they stay <40 degrees F, that could keep them safe to consume overnight. You'd just have to be fine eating them cold or let them warm up against body heat during the race. I'd do a test run to make sure the cooler stays at a low enough temperature for the time you're thinking though. Hope that helps!!