Heavy sweat losses and exercising in warm weather, like we have in Southern California, can make sodium losses a problem that lightly salting food can easily correct. Sodium tablets should not be taken. Variety of food intake is always the key. However, when caloric intake from a good healthy variety of foods is limited, a general vitamin and mineral supplement may be necessary. While some vitamins are involved in the release of energy, remember that vitamins do not provide energy.
Calories provide energy.
With increasing miles run and time spent running, carbohydrates become more important than ever. Storage of carbohydrates in the body, called glycogen stores, is limited and becomes lower when exercising more than 90 to 120 minutes. When glycogen stores drop too low, fatigue and exhaustion set in and performance drops or stops all together. To offset this, the emphasis is placed on higher carbohydrate diet and routine rest days to allow muscles to replenish the glycogen stores. Increasing carbohydrates to 8 to 10 g carbohydrate per kilogram body weight is recommended with harder and longer training periods.