As far as timing, the only difficult part is eating before your training runs. This has to be tailored to the individual -- try to eat a light meal or snack around 1 to 2 hours before your run. If you experience digestive discomfort on the run, push the eating back a little bit next time. If you find yourself getting hungry on the run, push the eating a little closer or add a little bit of quantity. This is especially important on long runs. For runs longer than 60 minutes, you may want to bring along some gels to eat along the way.

Drinking is vital. I've found that drinking small portions of water all day long is more helpful than guzzling now and again, especially before a run.

Your diet should look something like this: 60% carbs, 25% fat, 15% protein. That means fruits, veggies, pastas, breads, and rice should form the bulk of your diet. Depending on your metabolism, you may be able to get away with eating lots of meat and other proteins, but the key is to maintain lean muscle while still providing your muscle with enough energy.

There are many healthy diets, but it depends on you at the end of the day to see what works best for you so i suggest trying many different combinations to see which one is the most beneficial for you. But what i would recconmend is HIGH protein because if you dont get a good protein intake your body would feed of fat which is worse, also eating vegetables helps greatly as it will give you the vitamins you need for your body to be healthy and in best shape for when you train. Also drinking is vital because if your body is dehydrated that can lead to being over tired which is not good for training everyday.

The healthiest diet for a long distance runner will contain corn, "healthy versions" of wheat, lots of veggies and fruits, and meats. dairy in general isn't very good for you, but i know for me it gives me high doses of flem, and can even hinder my breathing on runs. small doses of it are ok, but try and keep it to a minimum. as for the corn, i use corn tortillas almost everyday. got that idea from the book "born to run" which talks about elite distance running tribes who run ultramarathon like races. they have corn tortillas with beans and rice, almost no meat too. but what i do is have basic smoothie's coupled with 2 corn tortillas filled with anything from beans and rice, to just ground beef, and i put a little shredded cheese on it to keep it all together. keeps me full throughout the day, and i've heard is very nutritious, and is very healthy, and everything is made by me(except for the tortillas) i would try to stay away from store bought foods as much as possible if your talking healthy, as you really don't know whats in it. as for the smoothie's, i have frozen fruit(strawberries and peaches usually), and orange juice, blend it up, and squeeze some agave nectar in their, and its good! usually will have the smoothies for a breakfast. this is coming from a person who has some food allergies, so i'm sure you can substitute things into your diet.

as far as when to eat, experiment for a bit. everyone is different. i know the corn tortilla's can last me a good 6 hours without eating, which is fantastic for me. one day try eating 1 hour before going for a run, the next try 3-4 hours before. never try drinking large quantities of a liquid less than 1 hour before a run though, as you'll become sloshy, and you won't last long. if you are running soon, and are very hungry, try drinking chocolate milk. i know im contradicting myself here, but if i have ever felt really hungry like right before a long tempo, or race, i drink a 4-6oz thing of chocolate milk and im good!

for beverages, water cannot be matched. i have cases of 24packs of bottled water in my house, and eventually it just becomes habit, and i go through a case in about 5 days. i just make a habit to always have a water lying around somewhere close to drink so that helps. i use to drink gatorade alot, but its just become too sugary for me. if im really bored with the taste of water, i might put some sugar in it, or through in a crystal-light packet to change things up!

as for foods to avoid, oily and greasy foods aren't good anyway, but if i have something like that, i feel lethargic for the entire day, and therefore have no motivation to run. its just something about it that my body doesn't adapt too! yogurt also is pretty bad, at least it has been for me.

P.S. one of the other user's has stated that having your body "feed of fat is worse." not so, actually long-distance runners want that. don't know the exact reason, but marathoner's such as meb have recently started using product that have your body use your fat supplies more.