Marathon Diet Planning

Your marathon nutrition is as important to your marathon success as your long run

Will your diet keep you from qualifying for Boston?

I hear that you have been inspired to train for the marathon. Hydrating and fueling during training and on marathon day, along with good recovery nutrition, are going to be critical to reaching your training goals and finishing the marathon strong.

Are you aware how much of a big difference your marathon diet plan can make in your marathon / half marathon results?

Improving your marathon eating plan can significantly transform your performance in your next marathon.

You are able to improve your marathon race time by 6-20 percent by working on your body composition.

If you are only 10 pounds over your ideal race weight and you now run at a 9:00 minute pace you could improve your marathon time from 3:55:48 to 3:47:04.

Wow! Are you aware of how much that extra weight is costing you?

New York Marathon

Are you practicing your marathon nutrition?

I get a lot of questions from new marathon runners asking what they should eat before or during the marathon. Most marathoners, even first timers, have heard of carbohydrate loading -"carbo loading". Though most have no idea what it really means, beyond a vague notion of eating a lot of pasta the week before their marathon.

The old thinking was that you would starve your body of carbohydrates for several days and then stuff yourself with carbohydrates. This approach has fallen out of favour as we have learned more about how the body adapts to marathon training.

If your marathon training diet plan is already balanced, there isn't much you need to change the last week beyond not eating as much (as you are running less). The only change you might want to make is to replace one protein or fat serving a day with a carbohydrate serving. Even for a very competitive athlete going on a strict diet such as Monday - 60% carbs, Tues - 50% carbs - Wed - 60%... is more work and worry than benefit.

During your marathon training is the time to practice what you will do race week, race day and during the race. Make sure you have a plan for what to eat during marathon race week and you have practiced what to eat the morning of the marathon.

You need to practice which foods will agree with you the day before and the day of the race. For example, I wouldn't suggest fibrous foods like cauliflower or broccoli the night before. My husband can't eat spicy foods the night before but they don't bother me.

Practice how much you can eat before you run. You might find what you eat an hour before the race is not digested. You will only know this by getting up 2-3 hours before training runs and practicing exactly how much and what you are going to eat.

Practice your eating plans on runs that closely simulate the race. This means if you are training for a 10k, practice before a tempo run. The intensity of the run will make a difference in what you can eat. A common mistake of first time marathoners is to not be serious about getting up early on the Saturday morning training runs and having breakfast. You don't want to find out on race morning that the bagel you had at 6am is long gone by the start of the race.

Fit and Strong Marathon Runners

Your Marathon Training and Race Day Nutrition Plan

Here are some of the nutrition and training principles discussed in our library.

• Safe and Effective Carbohydrate Loading
• What should I eat before each marathon training run?
• What should I eat the week before my marathon?
• Race Day Nutrition
• Recovery Nutrition