Training for your marathon means more than just running a lot. How you fuel your body before, during, and after a race is just as important as having a good training plan.
How do I fuel for a Marathon?
- Test a variety of food options in your training to determine which ones work best for you.
- Understand what will be provided in aid stations.
- Increase your carbohydrate intake moderately in the days before your race to fill up your glycogen stores.
- Eat a familiar breakfast 3-4 hours before your start. Avoid excessive fiber, fat or protein.
- Bring a gel or carbohydrate drink to sip in the hour before your start.
- Focus on hydration and carbohydrate intake during your race.
Many marathon runners continue to debate the importance of nutrition. New runners often ask about what to eat before, during, and after a race. Even experienced runners may have questions about nutrition and how it affects their performance. A quick guide to getting the right nutrition for your marathon is as follows:
Interestingly, training for the race starts many weeks before the event! After a race is over, it seems that one of the main topics of conversation is what went wrong, especially for runners who didn’t achieve their goals or had problems along the way.
The Early Preparation
Preparation starts many weeks before the event. In order to do well in the race, you need to be aware of some of the basics, such as what type of food will be available at the pit stops, the location of these stops, and what the weather is expected to be like. You can’t change the weather, but you can get ready for what it’s going to be like. It is important to find out what kind of food will be given out, so that you can make sure you will be able to eat it and get used to it. It is better to find out that you cannot tolerate something weeks in advance than on race day.
Train Your Race Plan
The first step is to figure out which nutritional plan works best for you. This includes not only products, but timing as well. To train for a marathon, start by doing long run training 10 weeks before the event. Pick a practice route and follow your plan, or build up to it. Use the products that will be available in the course first, as suggested above. If the products you are using do not agree with you, start experimenting with other products.
Carbo-loading
Before the race, it is important to ensure that your body has enough glycogen stores to sustain you throughout the race. In the past, people would follow strict regimens of alternating days with and without carbohydrates, a week of only depletion running, etc. This is no longer necessary. By increasing your intake of carbohydrates, you can increase the glycogen levels in your muscles.
You don’t have to overeat or eat as much as possible to consume more carbohydrates. It means consuming more carbohydrates so that more calories are burned, rather than consuming fat. The idea is to have a big meal earlier in the day, so you can have a light meal later on. You should also practice this in the weeks before or when you have a smaller race coming up. If you often have gastrointestinal problems, eat less fiber the day before the race.
You need to plan in advance if you want your trip to go smoothly. This way you can account for all the eventualities and be prepared for anything that might happen. Go to a place where you have made a reservation for food. Don’t wait until you’re starving to figure out where you’re going to eat – that’s how you end up eating fast food or waiting in line for hours. Use the muscles in your legs more the next day to make them stronger.
The Hour Before the Start
The hour before is usually spent anxiously waiting. Bring a water bottle to drink and a gel to eat 15 minutes before the race starts. Practice this several times in training. Anything you eat or drink right before the race will become available to you during the race, because it takes a little while to be absorbed. What this means is that if you consume any calories within two hours of racing, those calories will be counted as part of your carbohydrate intake.
During the Race
During the race, it will be important to have a good amount of carbohydrates and fluids. It is important to take enough of both, but not too much. Drinking or eating too much fluid or carbohydrate can cause an upset stomach. It’s not a good idea to drink a lot of fluids that make you gain weight, because it could lead to hyponatremia, which is a serious health problem.
Fluids
The only way to really understand how much water you should drink during a marathon is to weigh yourself before and after training in the weeks leading up to the marathon. This means that your sweat rate can be calculated by subtracting the weight after you finish working out from your weight before you start working out and adding the volume of fluids you consumed during your workout. There are various sweat calculators on the internet that will help you do these calculations.
If you run at the same pace and in the same conditions as the marathon, your sweat rate will be the same. THe average cup size during a marathon is about 150ml and you probalby only drink 3/4ths of that. You will need to drink enough fluids to equal your sweat rate to prevent dehydration. A runner’s stomach can generally handle expelling 6 to 7 ounces of fluid every 15 minutes, meaning about 24 to 28 ounces of fluid per hour. This can be improved with practice.
WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH WATER?
Hydration is another critical component of your fueling strategy. It is recommended that you carry water with you on a run, rather than waiting to drink at an aid station where people tend to congregate.
There is no specific amount of water that everyone needs to drink. Your fluid intake should be based on your sweat rate, which is how much fluid you lose through sweat while doing physical activity. The sweating rate differs depending on how big someone is, how active they are, and what the temperature is like. A person’s size and the conditions they are running in (i.e. weather) affect how much water they need to drink. For example, a larger person running 7-minute miles in 80-degree heat would need to drink 2 liters of water per hour, whereas a smaller person running 10-minute miles in milder conditions would only need to drink a half liter.
There is an easy method to calculate how much you sweat at home. Simply urinate, get naked, and weigh yourself in kilograms. Then go for a run for an hour without drinking any water or eating any food. Once you return, weigh yourself again. This will help you determine how many liters you sweat per hour. For example, if your weight decreased by 1 kg after your run, you sweated 1 liter per hour. You should drink this amount of water every 60 minutes. Although this strategy is effective, you are not required to use it. The trial-and-error method is just fine, too.
Calculating your sweat rate ensures that you are drinking enough water and protects you from drinking too much.
You should pay attention if you feel full and have a sloshy feeling in your stomach. One of the first warning signs of hyponatremia is weight gain from fluid retention.
A rare and dangerous medical condition, hyponatremia, occurs when the concentration of sodium in your blood is abnormally low. This can happen if you drink too much water. Although Hogan says that hyponatremia is not common, it is still important to be aware of the warning signs. It is important to feel satisfied but not full when consuming alcohol. If you are feeling bloated and dizzy, you should stop what you are doing and get medical attention. Casa agrees with this idea; if you want to finish the race in five hours and the weather is good, it is easy to drink too much water. Calculating your sweat rate will alleviate any concerns you have about dehydration during a race–which is a more common occurrence than you might think.
Carbohydrates
Carbohydrate requirements are more straightforward. The studies suggest that most people can consume around 60 grams of carbohydrates per hour without any issues. Athletes should target 30 to 60 grams per hour. An athlete who finishes in 4 to 5 hours will not be disappointed with their position. Athletes who want to finish a race in three hours would be better off if they were at the higher end of this range. Recent studies also suggest a dose response relationship. This means that eating more carbohydrates could improve your athletic performance. However, consuming too much could lead to digestive issues and have the opposite effect. It’s a balancing act where you have to use your “gut feeling” to figure out what’s going on.
Carbohydrate sources
- 1 Banana 24-30 g
- Gel 21-27 g
- Energy bar 20-40 g
- 4-5 Chews 16-25 g
- 10 Jelly beans 11 g
The gut is trainable to tolerate sports drinks, gels, and bars, meaning regular consumption is necessary for training purposes. You should use all the products you will use during the race in your training.
After the Marathon
Although there are guidelines to help you recover quickly after running a marathon, everyone is different and will recover at different rates. Some people may feel fine after a day or two, while others may take up to a week or more to feel fully recovered. Does it really matter that much? The average person does not run another marathon the next day or race again for a couple of weeks. So enjoy your achievement and indulge in moderation!
NOW THAT YOU KNOW THE WHY, WHAT, AND WHEN OF EATING ON THE RUN, HERE ARE SOME HANDY TIPS TO KEEP IN YOUR (RUNNING SHORTS) BACK POCKET.
1. PRACTICE YOUR FUELING AND HYDRATION STRATEGY UNTIL YOU PERFECT IT
Let’s be real. It is difficult for anyone other than yourself to know exactly what your body needs. It’s crucial that you get in some practice with your fueling techniques on long runs before your big race. Try different foods and drinks and see how your stomach reacts. Eat and drink what you enjoy, and pay attention to how your body feels afterwards. You can use your long runs as trial workouts before your marathon. This will help you determine what Pace feels most comfortable, and what you need to eat and drink to stay on track. When you are about to start a race, you don’t want to introduce anything new to your body, so you should get it used to the exact things you’ll consume.
2. FIND OUT WHAT WILL BE PROVIDED ON THE COURSE AND AFTER YOU FINISH.
Please refer to the race website or contact the race host to inquire about what food and drinks will be available on the course. Most races provide water, Gatorade, and energy gels at different aid stations, but it can vary depending on the race. If there is a course map available, you can use it to figure out what items you will need to bring with you versus what you can get at the aid table.
3. FIGURE OUT HOW TO CARRY YOUR FUEL.
When deciding how you will carry fuel with you, it is important to consider what factors you value most. I was embarrassed when I stuffed a few Gu gels in my sports bra for my first marathon. After the race, I had cuts on my breasts from the hard plastic poking into my skin. Nowadays, there is a variety of running apparel with pockets for small snacks, or you can choose to run with a hydration belt, handheld water bottle, or hydration pack. Reading Casa’s reminder made me realize that there are benefits to carrying water and sipping it throughout the day, and most packs are designed so that you don’t feel like you’re carrying extra weight.
4. GET COMFORTABLE WITH THE IDEA THAT YOU REALLY DO NEED MORE CARBS (USUALLY IN THE FORM OF SUGAR), TO KEEP RUNNING LONG AND HARD.
The most important thing to remember is that your body needs calories while you’re running long distances, especially if you’re a new marathoner. This means that you need to be careful while putting your body through a 26.2-mile race for the first time. Trying to run long without eating enough will make it tough (if not miserable) to finish the race without running out of energy. According to Hogan, not only will this be a more difficult race, but it will also be harder to recover from.
Hogan told me that carbohydrates and sugar are your friend for your first marathon. He said to drink moderate amounts of fluids and pay attention to your body’s reaction to it. It’s not complicated to keep yourself fueled while running, you just have to pay attention to your energy levels, listen to your stomach, and find out what kinds of food your body craves while running. The type of food you eat to refuel during a run is up to you and your gut.
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