Should runners eat before running?

Sports Nutritionist Nancy Clark reviewed the recently published 2009 Joint Position Stand on Nutrition for Athletic Performance in the article What to Eat and When for Top Performance for Active.com

I learned that eating before hard exercise, as opposed to exercising with no food in your stomach, has been shown to improve performance. Clark also wrote that for optimal recovery, an athlete who weighs about 150 pounds should target 300 to 400 calories of carbs within a half-hour after finishing a hard workout.

Do you eat before or after your runs? Have you seen a positive difference when you run just an hour or two after eating a nutritious meal?

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