Is Creatine Good for Runners? Benefits for Endurance Athletes

Creatine has been widely used by athletes for decades. Usually, it’s associated with strength-based discipline, but it’s only half of the truth. Can you take creatine before running or should you avoid it? What are advantages and disadvantages of creatine for endurance athletes?

Understanding Creatine and Its Role in Endurance

Taking creatine for running can bring promising results if it’s used appropriately. Firstly let’s explain, what creatine is to put it into better use. Basically, creatine is a derivative of amino acids. Your body produces it from three amino acids – glycine, S-adenosyl methionine and arginine. Creatine is also present in certain animal-based food, like:

• herring,
• salmon,
• tuna,
• beef, pork,
• chicken.

There’s no creatine in plant-based products. Thus, vegans and vegetarians will notice the biggest gains from exogenous creatine, such as creatine monohydrate or creatine malate.

Creatine For Endurance – How Does It Work?

For intense physical effort, you need an ATP (adenosine triphosphate). It is a basic energy source crucial for a stable cell cycle. Natural sources of ATP are limited. After a maximum of several seconds, your muscles run out of it and ATP needs to be replenished. The more creatine is gathered in muscle cells, the faster regeneration of ATP occurs. It can be said that creatine for runners is important for energy production. It also supports muscle tissue recovery and growth.

Is Creatine Always Good for Running Endurance?

While running may seem the simplest activity ever done, it’s only a semblance. The energy utilisation profile for sprinter, marathoner and ultra runner is totally different. The same can be said about different formulas of cycling and triathlon. Creatine for running works the best, when the distance is short and intensity is high. The longer you run, the lower will be the intensity. Why is it vital?

Creatine is especially important for explosive activity. When you are sprinting, muscles are often strained to their limits and ATP is the most important energy source your body has. Longer distances make fat oxidation more important. In the case of marathon or ultra, glycogen is responsible for only a part of total performance. The rest of the energy is generated from adipose tissue.

So, can you say that creatine for endurance athletes on a longer distance is a waste of money? Well, it’s not that simple.

Every training season is divided into a couple of smaller parts (microcycles, mesocycles and macrocycles). Even if you’re an avid marathoner, some of your training units contain high intensity activity, like uphill running, rhythms and long progressive runs. These are all means of building strength, endurance and raw power. Creatine usage will be even more specific in triathletes training regimen, since all three disciplines (swimming, cycling and running) contain strength and power elements.

Nowadays, it is widely recommended to combine endurance training with weightlifting. Benefits of creatine for runners shows up at the gym, when you train with dumbbells, bars and kettlebells.

Is Creatine Good for Running? Advantages and Disadvantages

Potential advantages for runners entail faster muscle regeneration and better hydration, since creatine causes water retention. Faster ATP resynthesise means more effective sprints and other power-based training units. More power leads to greater speed during intervals. These short runs are critical for building-up anaerobic (explosive) capacity.

When combined with enough carbohydrates, creatine can help to build glycogen stores. Glycogen is kept within the liver and muscles and acts as a fuel tank during longer exercise. To build up glycogen, you need to eat enough carbohydrates. Depending on your typical distance and intensity, it can range from 8 to 12 grams of carbs per kilogram of body weight. The more kilometres you run and the faster your pace is, the more carbs you will need.

Muscles enhanced by creatine are stronger and more resilient. It is especially important for beginners, but also experienced runners with high mileage. If you run really a lot or at high speed, consider combining creatine with joint support supplementation. It helps to protect your knees from wearing down during an intensive part of the season.

Creatine and Long-Distance Running – Drawbacks

Creatine for marathon runners or sprinters can be a great addition to a training regimen and diet plan, but you should be aware of two main issues.

Water Retention and Creatine

The first problem is water retention. No matter which endurance discipline you train, lesser weight means greater results. When taking creatine you can gain a few kilograms in a short time depending on supplementation strategy, hydration and your personal susceptibility. While these additional kilograms are not adipose tissue, but water, your muscles, heart and joint have to strain with greater weight.

To counter it, consider choosing more advanced forms of creatine. Instead of monohydrate or Kre-Alkalyn, buy magnesium creatine chelate or creatine HCl. While there’s no evidence that supports stronger effectiveness of these forms, they are better soluble. From a practical standpoint, it means less water retention.

Digestive Issues

Some people can experience digestive problems after taking creatine. They are not frequent nor burdensome, but if they occur during training or a contest, it can impair your performance. Typical side effects are stomach upset, cramps, nausea, or diarrhoea. They appear more often, when taking creatine in larger doses, like 15 grams or more. If you notice any bloating or any other digestive tract problems after creatine ingestion, avoid taking the supplement immediately before a workout. It would be better to drink it after a training session. You can also divide one bigger portion into a couple smaller ones.

Creatine Dosage for Runners – The Best Strategy

You know creatine benefits for runners, but how to use it in a most efficient way? There is more than one strategy for taking creatine. The most basic and universal one is the maintenance phase. This one is very simple to implement, since creatine dosage is the same during a whole cycle (i.e. from 3 to 5 grams of monohydrate and equivalent to ‘stronger’ forms). What is more, the maintenance phase won’t make you gain weight fast, which is usually not a goal of an endurance athlete. If you run or bike, it could be more beneficial to steadily increase weight. Each additional kilogram on scale may lead to worse time on the finish line.

Is There a Best Creatine for Running?

If you want to implement creatine supplementation into your training regimen, consider using highly advanced forms or creatine stacks (a combination of a few different types of creatine). These will enhance strength and power without a significant body mass increase.

To further enhance your anaerobic capacity, you can mix creatine with beta-alanine. It’s a type of amino acid which acts as a precursor for carnosine. Carnosine's role is to buffer (neutralise) lactate in working muscle cells. As a result, you will feel less fatigue and you can train harder.

Creatine can be a great help during pre-contest training phase and also between races, as it helps to maintain the intensity of workouts and speeds up regeneration. Its great advantage is legality. In case of any anti-drug test before the contest, you’re clean and don’t have to be afraid of any negative consequences. It is also safe for both men and women, no matter the age.

Nevertheless, creatine alone won’t improve your shape. It is vital to exercise regularly, sleep long and well enough as well as to eat healthy food that nourishes your body.