When you think of the type of person most likely to purchase a pre workout energy supplement, you likely envision a muscle bound guy pumping weights in the gym. But that illustration doesn’t mean endurance athletes can’t derive the same performance benefit.
In fact, runners may get more out of a pre workout than a typical consumer.
Much of the research in pre workout supplements shows improvements in aerobic and anaerobic running capacity, therefore runners would certainly benefit from using a pre workout.
The ironic thing about pre workout supplementation is that a great deal of research is done in endurance athletes, and supplement companies try to extrapolate that data and make it relevant to bodybuilders.
Runners could experience a multitude of beneficial effects from a pre workout, but since they are not the target of supplement marketing campaigns, they are unaware of this. If runners use any supplements at all, it is likely a carbohydrate powder or joint health product.
There are supplement companies geared towards runners, but very few have a pre workout in their product line. If a company that markets to endurance athletes would take the leap and put the resources into a quality pre workout, they would probably do very well.
The first step would be toward education. Runners want to improve energy and stamina. This applies to everyone from 5k runners to marathoners. A good pre workout supplement will provide both. In fact, some individual pre workout ingredients can crossover and provide both by themselves.
Pre Workout Effect on Stamina
Despite being marketed toward the average gym advocate, nearly every pre workout ingredient is beneficial to runners. Even though the workout styles are quite different, the mechanism by which the user derives a performance benefit is the same.
For example, citrulline is a popular ingredient in pre workouts. Citrulline improves blood flow to muscle, so lifters love the pumps they get when supplementing with it. But blood flow also helps improve endurance, so it’s beneficial to runners as well.
Citrulline has been shown to decrease time to exhaustion in a treadmill test and also improve performance in a cycling time trial. The doses ranged from 2.4 grams to 9 grams in the studies.
While some pre workout ingredients come in inefficacious doses, citrulline usually bucks that trend. A common dose of citrulline is 6-8 grams, which more than falls in line with what is considered a clinical dose.
Creatine hydrates and increases muscle cell volume, and also acts as an energy source. Creatine is used to fuel fast, dynamic movements. This would make it appropriate for sprinters or events that require strength like a Spartan Race. With the speed at which track events at contested at these days, you could argue that creatine is an important energy provider for events up to and including 800 meters.
Creatine still has application for distance runners, even though they would predominately use carbohydrates and fats for energy.
Creatine’s greatest benefits occur when muscles are fully saturated with creatine. This can be done quickly with a loading protocol of 20-25 grams per day for 5 days, followed by a 3-5 gram maintenance dose every day thereafter.
While the loading protocol is faster, it can sometimes cause gastrointestinal distress. As a runner, this is the last thing you want. Runners should avoid anything that would disrupt their training. The other option is to simply take 3-5 grams per day from the beginning. This will take longer to saturate muscles, but will likely mitigate any potential stomach distress.
Full creatine saturation would take about a month with the more moderate 3-5 gram protocol.
Beta Alanine has perhaps the most direct effect on running performance. It’s a staple in pre workout formulations, and is responsible for the tingling sensation you may experience from these products. Many people would purchase a pre workout with beta alanine for that feeling alone.
When you work out intensely for a long period of time, acid builds up in muscles. This acid causes fatigue. Beta alanine helps to buffer that acid, allowing you to run longer. Beta alanine supplementation led to an improvement in a 10 kilometer running time trial in physically active adults compared to placebo.
Similar to creatine, beta alanine works best after chronic supplementation. A standard dose is 3.2 grams, which is usually found in pre workout supplement formulations. If the tingling sensation is too much or uncomfortable, you can break it up into two separate doses.
Caffeine is a staple in nearly every pre workout supplement, so much so that there is now a separate category for pre workouts without caffeine called stim-free pre workouts.
Caffeine has physical and mental benefits, hence why people use it for both exercise and regular day-to-day work. The dosages used in clinical research are often very high, sometimes up to 6mg/kg of bodyweight, but each individual has a unique level of tolerance.
The tolerance will increase with habitual use, so you will have to either increase the dose after a certain point or take a few weeks off to reset your sensitivity. Resetting is advisable, but honestly speaking most people don’t do that in any meaningful way.
Caffeine was shown to improve 5k running time in trained and recreational runners. Studies have shown performance improvements both aerobically and anaerobically, therefore its benefit spans all types of running.
The supplement ingredients discussed can all be combined without any negative effects. If anything, many of the ingredients work synergistically, hence their inclusion in most comprehensive pre workout formulations.
Some have hypothesized that caffeine can negatively impact creatine, but this is usually related to weightlifting and even then the evidence is strongly lacking. In fact, the combination of creatine and caffeine was shown to be superior to creatine alone when measuring cardiovascular exercise performance.
When to Take Pre Workout Before a Run
Timing pre workout use is not difficult and should not be overly analyzed. A pre workout should be consumed approximately 30 minutes before a run.
Timing is really only important due to the caffeine content of pre workout supplements. As mentioned, ingredients like beta alanine and creatine work due to chronic use more so than acute supplementation.
Caffeine takes about 30 minutes to kick in, so to speak. Caffeine remains in the system much longer than that but the effects take about 30 minutes to work for most people. This applies for all forms of caffeine, whether it’s coffee, tea, or supplements.
Pre workouts can be taken with or without food, as per the user’s preference. A runner does not need to alter their nutrition before a workout due to pre workout supplementation.