Sports dietitian Stevie Lyn Smith has spent eight years helping endurance athletes understand that recovery boots won't fix a broken foundation. After completing ten Ironmans without ever owning recovery boots and training for the Buffalo Marathon with pickle pizza Fridays, she knows sustainable excellence starts with consistently doing the boring fundamentals well.

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The Foundation Everyone Skips

The sports nutrition marketplace has exploded with options, but Stevie sees athletes neglecting the foundation while chasing optimization hacks. Your recovery boots won't save you if you aren't consistently sleeping seven to nine hours, structuring rest into your training plan, and figuring out what to eat before, during, and after runs.

At 37, she guards her one rest day per week because her body needs it. For her, it's three weeks of building followed by a deload week no matter what. If you can't consistently feed yourself well throughout the day, supplements aren't going to fix the problem. This is why her philosophy centers on sports nutrition that fits your life rather than forcing you to bend over backwards.

Why Most Athletes Should Eat Before Runs

Stevie is firmly on team we eat before our runs. If you can find time to run, you can find something that works pre-run. From her practice, most endurance athletes who aren't professionals fall on the line of under fueling. This makes eating before runs low-hanging fruit to help meet elevated needs.

When we have carbohydrates available, our body doesn't have to dip as deep into glycogen stores. That means it doesn't have to work as hard to replenish them, muscles recover better, and we can keep training. She frames it as setting yourself up for better recovery. If eating carbs before or during workouts means you recover faster, you can keep doing the training you want to do.

The Within-Day Energy Deficit Problem

That 3 PM energy crash isn't just about needing coffee. Within-day energy deficits create real problems even if you hit your total calorie needs in 24 hours. This is the person eating only a thousand calories until 3 PM and then consuming the rest later. Your body doesn't operate on a 24-hour ticker.

For female athletes, this can impact reproductive function and estrogen. Research on males shows mixed results on testosterone but cortisol can be affected for everyone. Stevie's guidance is eating every two to four hours depending on how you feel. If you're crashing every afternoon, look at what's happening earlier in the day. Maybe you're not eating enough every three hours or not getting enough carbohydrate or protein.

Slower Runners Need Fuel Too

Do slower runners need as much fuel as faster runners? The answer comes down to intensity and duration. A six-hour marathoner running at their race pace is working at their marathon intensity. The recommendations are highly individual. Stevie works with clients to find their sweet spot by practicing in training to see what they can execute consistently.

If you feel great at 70 grams per hour and recover well, that's your sweet spot. She handles this the same for a six-hour marathoner as for a three-hour marathoner. Where's your sweet spot? What feedback are you getting post-run? Body size matters less than these practical considerations when dialing in fueling plans.

Hydration and the Sodium Question

Individual variation matters enormously with hydration and electrolytes. Stevie recently worked with a client losing 7,000 milligrams of sodium in 70 ounces per hour. That's extreme, but it illustrates why blanket recommendations don't work. If you're a salty sweater experiencing cramping, dizziness, or headaches, consider getting sweat sodium concentration testing done.

But sodium is having a moment, and more is not better. She's had people taking 2,000 milligrams per hour who can't stop going to the bathroom. As with everything, find the balance that works for you through trial in training.

The Mission Behind Power Up

Stevie co-wrote Power Up: A Young Woman's Guide to Winning with Sports Nutrition to address a massive gap in nutrition knowledge for high school to college age female athletes. The book covers basics in accessible language, includes example days in the life of different athletes, first apartment essentials, easy recipes, and grocery shopping fundamentals.

It's designed for athletes, coaches, and parents who want to have these conversations without creating unhealthy relationships with food and exercise. The hope is that more girls stay in sport and avoid the injuries and burnout that created the horror stories older athletes tell. As she writes in the acknowledgments: "We aren't here to make ourselves smaller, but to take up space and show the world what we're really capable of."

What's Worth Your Money

When asked what people waste money on, Stevie's answer came immediately: greens powders and greens gummies. Supplements have their place, but throwing everything into a greens powder thinking it covers all your bases doesn't work.

Blood testing, however, is valuable. Even without symptoms, knowing where you're at helps. It can catch suboptimal ferritin before it becomes a stress fracture or identify if thyroid dysfunction stems from under fueling. But the testing itself isn't enough. Having qualified human expertise to interpret results for athletes specifically matters. Someone who understands how endurance training impacts body systems and can help implement changes in practical ways that fit into a busy life.

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Jon is a runner, cyclist, and podcast host from Boston, MA, who now lives in Boulder, CO. For The Long Run is aimed at exploring the why behind what keeps runners running long, strong, and motivated.

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