Key nutrients for the athlete

For optimal performance, it is important to get adequate vitamins and minerals in the diet. And often your needs may be above and beyond the RDI. Calcium is of particular importance, and if you are not getting adequate calcium intake (1000 mg/day), you should increase your dairy consumption and/or take calcium supplements. An excellent calcium supplement with good absorption is NOW bone strength. It is important that you do not take your calcium supplements with oxalate containing foods (see whf: oxalates) as these decrease absorption. Also, take them several hours apart from any iron supplements, as calcium inhibits iron absorption from non meat sources.

Additionally, iron is very important, and you should get at least 15mg of iron per day (23mg for menstruating women). If you do not get enough dietary iron, consider supplementing. Ferrochel iron is a special type of iron that has high absorption and reduces the risk of gastro-intestinal upset. I recommend Country Life Easy Iron if you need to supplement. If you do not need the 25mg per day, you can take it every other day and it is fine.

To cover all your bases I recommend a comprehensive multivitamin that contains well absorbed vitamins and minerals. An excellent vitamin is NOW Special Two.

Other supplements

Endurance activity is hard on the joints. I recommend at minimum taking a glucosamine & condroitin formula such as NOW Glucosamine and Condriotin .

If you would like to greatly improve your endurance, I highly recommend taking a beta alanine supplement such as Athletic Edge Nutrition IntraXCell. Please note that for the full effects to be seen, you need to take it daily. After several months, you will see a large improvement in endurance.