ABSTRACT
Runners competing in the 40-59 years age categories of the major marathons and half-marathons in Italy represent the largest proportion (50%) of the participants. Although these athletes regularly train and compete with the precise goal to improve their personal best in running events, they do not have comparable technical and scientific support as elite athletes and often adopt “word-of-mouth” training and nutritional programmes to optimize their performance. Unfortunately, incorrect or generalized training programmes often lead to overtraining (Meeusen et al., 2004) while nutritional “word of mouth” programmes could cause incorrect practices and insufficient quantities and qualities of food intake (Rosenbloom and Dunaway, 2007).
