When Karissa Schweizer stepped onto the track for the 5,000-meter finals at the USATF Outdoor National Championships in Des Moines, Iowa, on July 28, she was certainly nervous—but she felt at home. The 22-year-old, who set a personal best time of 15:01.63 in the 5,000 meters this June, grew up just 15 minutes away from the Drake University stadium, and she had run dozens of races on that same blue oval.
“It felt so familiar to me, since I ran there so many times in high school,” Schweizer, who won six NCAA titles at the University of Missouri before joining the Bowerman Track Club (BTC) last summer, told Runner’s World. “It’s cool to see how far I’ve come since then. My goal going into the 5,000 was to place in the top three.”
Schweizer ended up finishing runner-up in the 5,000 behind her BTC teammate and fellow Iowan, Shelby Houlihan.
Watch: The Schweizer/Houlihan matchup was just one of the highlights of the 2019 USATF Outdoor Championships.
From now until September, Schweizer said she’s planning to train in Portland and at altitude to prepare for the world championships in Doha, Qatar. To help propel her through all of those miles, strength sessions, and races, Schweizer has to keep on top of her fueling and hydration. Here, she describes what she typically eats and drinks for meals and snacks during training.
Preworkout Elvis-Style Pancakes
I try to eat breakfast two hours before we start running. I almost always have oatmeal or pancakes topped with peanut butter, honey, and a sliced-up banana. On hard workout days, I especially like pancakes, because they sit with me longer and give me more energy throughout the morning. Usually, I just add water to the Kodiak Cakes mix, but sometimes I’ll also mash in a banana or add an egg to the batter for extra protein.
Along with breakfast, I always need a cup of coffee right away in the morning. I’ll either have it black, or with a little bit of almond milk. I make sure to always eat carbs—like oatmeal or pancakes—when I drink coffee, since it’s so acidic. The carbs settle my stomach.
Postrun Protein Balls
I always pack snacks before I head to practice, because we’re out for a couple of hours before coming home for lunch. My favorite thing to bring is my homemade protein balls, which I make with oats, Quest protein powder, flax seeds, peanut butter, chocolate chips, and honey. I roll them up into balls, then pop them into the fridge before practice time.
Along with the balls, I make sure to always bring Strawberry-Lemonade Pedialyte, which is my favorite electrolyte drink. I try to drink as much water and electrolytes as I can when we’re training hard, especially at altitude. Usually that means bringing Pedialyte, a water bottle, and another bottle of ice water to dump on my head at practice.
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Breakfast for Lunch
After we’re done our workout, I head straight home to cook lunch—which usually consists of breakfast food, even if it’s 2 p.m. It’s usually a hodgepodge of brunch things. Lately, I’ve been making everything bagels with cream cheese and pesto, eggs scrambled with vegetables and cheese, yogurt with fruit and granola, or a smoothie blended with peanut butter, frozen bananas, berries, spinach, and protein powder.
We usually wait at least six hours before doing our second run of the day, so my food has time to settle. If I’m feeling hungry again before my afternoon workout, which is usually around 4 or 5 p.m., I’ll have a piece of toast with peanut butter and jelly, which I digest really easily. I can eat it 30 minutes before running.
Carbs and Protein Are a Must
While I keep my breakfasts and lunches pretty much the same everyday, I cycle through different meals for dinner, depending on what I did that day. Before and after hard workouts and races, I make sure to eat a lot of carbs and protein to fill up my energy stores. I love pesto pasta with grilled chicken and veggies, brown rice with salmon and grilled veggies, or a salad with farro, which I love because it’s crunchy, and it soaks up dressing really well. I also make sure to eat red meat a few times a week.
Race Day Fuel
On a week that I’m racing, I always have a steak two days before the meet. Then the night before the race, I’ll eat a huge plate of spaghetti with meat sauce and meatballs, plus a lot of bread. I like to feel really full, so I know I’m brimming with energy going into the race the next day.
Fuel Up Like Karissa Schweizer
Kodiak Cakes Protein Pancake Mix
Quest Vanilla Protein Powder
Pedialyte Strawberry Lemonade Electrolyte Drink
Wild Friends Classic Creamy Peanut Butter
If it’s a night race, like the 5,000 at USAs, I try to eat a pretty big breakfast the next day, like a stack of pancakes, an omelet, and coffee. Then around noon, I’ll find a Jimmy John’s and order a sandwich with turkey, cheese, lettuce, and mustard on white bread. On race day, I don’t mess with wheat. About three hours before my race, I’ll have my last meal: toast or oatmeal with peanut butter and a banana.
When I’m traveling for a meet, I always pack my own jar of peanut butter, electrolytes, and other snacks like dried fruit and energy bars in my carry-on. I have this silly fear that I’m going to go hungry on the airplane. I can usually find food that I like wherever I go, but it’s better to just take the stress out of it and bring my own.
A Serious Sweet Tooth
If you asked any of my college roommates if I liked dessert, they’d tell you how much I love it. I have to have a little something sweet after dinner every night. In college, my cookies and cream bars—which have Oreos, white and dark chocolate chips, cream cheese, and cake mix—were a big hit. I still bake on occasion, but my dessert nowadays is usually a handful of chocolate chips after dinner, popcorn with M&Ms, or a chocolate mug cake from Shalane Flanagan’s cookbook, Run Fast. Cook Fast. Eat Slow.
I’ve tried to cut sweets out of my diet completely before, but that’s always backfired because I end up snacking on other things instead, like peanut butter. I’ve learned it’s better to just give my body what it wants.
Hailey first got hooked on running news as an intern with Running Times, and now she reports on elite runners and cyclists, feel-good stories, and training pieces for Runner's World and Bicycling magazines.
