Nutrition

How to properly fuel yourself for your next marathon.

You’ve done all the training, you’ve got all your kit, you’ve planned your travel, now all you need to do is make sure you’re effectively and fully fueled up for your marathon.

Marathon Golden Rule — Don’t try anything new on race day

You shouldn’t experiment with any new foods or any variation from your standard diet. It’s very easy in the last few days to get nervous and be persuaded by a friend to try something new or see something new at the race expo or stores. It’s important to stick to what you’re used to so you and your body are relaxed and comfortable.

5 days to go

With 5 days till the big race, you’ll want to start increasing your carbohydrate intake by adding in more starchy foods like pasta. Don’t get bought into the outdated notion of depleting your body of carbs for the week before and then overloading it just before the race to trick your body into storing more energy. This is an old and outdated idea that doesn’t work and can hinder performance.

One way to keep your carb levels up is to ensure that a higher percentage of your calorie intake are carbs.

Do bear in mind that in the last week, you won’t be running as much as you have been so eating too much will make you feel bloated and lethargic.

48 hours to go

Your last big meal should be two nights before the big race. This will give your body lots of time to deal with the food and make sure that you won’t feel bloated on the day of the run.

A common mistake is to load up on pasta and bread on the night before the race and end up feeling bloated.

24 hours to go

The day before the race, you’ll want to just have the kind of meal you would have on a normal training day. Make sure you keep your fluid intake up. Drinking lots of water is a necessity — you could always carry a bottle of water around with you during the day to remind yourself to keep hydrated.

Your meals should consist of simple carbs such as sweet potatoes, pastas or white rice. You shouldn’t be overly active the day before the race so you may feel full quite quickly. This is normal and you shouldn’t try to completely stuff yourself.

18 hours to go

In the last 18 hours, you’ll be wanting to keep yourself topped up with energy filled food like energy bars, bread and small sandwiches. Try and avoid red-meat, fried foods, dairy and fats as these will only fill you up with the wrong stuff.

Make sure you keep drinking lots of water and electrolyte drinks to keep your water and salt levels in the right place.

4 hours or less

Before the race, you’ll want to have a small breakfast nice and early, to give yourself more time to digest it before the starting gun goes off.

Keep yourself topped up with water, but be sure not to try and down as much as possible. The trick is drink little amounts often, instead of big gulps every now and then.

You may want to knock back an energy gel just before the race to give yourself that last bit of energy before embarking on this mammoth run.

Let's Do This

Tips and tricks for properly fuelling yourself before taking on your next triathlon event.

Plan your meals

One of the easiest ways to keep a track of your nutrition and to make sure that you have sufficient levels of energy is to plan your meals in advance. Although meal planning is a bit of a faff, it will ensure that you can get the right amount of energy and carbs in before a workout and the right amount of carbs and protein in for recovery after a workout.

Quality diet

After you’ve decided that a meal plan is a good idea, you’ll need to work out what meals to put into it. Make sure that your meals contain lots of carbs to keep your body fuelled for all the extra training that you’re now doing. A mixture of both simple and complex carbohydrates is always a good place to stay. Simple carbs are found in foods like fruit and milk and sugars, while complex carbs can be found in foods such as pastas, rice, beans and vegetables. You’ll want to try and focus more on your complex carbs as they are slower to break down and so your body will burn through them at a slower rate and therefore they have more of an effect.

On top of this, make sure you’re having a good amount of fruit and veg and other nutrients such as protein to aid in muscular recovery.

Poor digestion? Drink water. Bad skin? Drink water. Feeling fatigued or nauseous? You guessed it, drink water. As basically the solution to just about every problem, its important to keep yourself dosed up on water.

The amount of water that someone should drink per day varies from person to person. It can rely on a persons size, sweat rate, activity levels, and even the weather. The easiest way to see if you’re properly hydrated is to check the colour of your urine. If your pee is consistently straw coloured then you’re on the money. If it’s clear and you find yourself going to the toilet many many times per day, then you might want to slow down on your water intake.

Follow the 10% rule

There’s not harm in having a some cheat foods every now and then. The 10% rule is the idea that 10% of your daily calories can come from treats or deserts, crisps or biscuits. As long as you’re keeping a healthy balanced diet, you can be guilt-free about that evening glass of wine or that bar of chocolate after dinner.

Pre-race food

Your pre-race dinner is an important one. If you have too many carbs then you can end up feeling sluggish and lethargic and the last thing you want to do is go swimming while feeling stodgy. So make sure your last supper is a nice balanced meal with an standard balance of proteins and carbs and fats. You will want to avoid foods that are high in fats and fibre. This will keep your gut happy and consequentially, keep your whole body happy when it comes to race day.

Your pre-race breakfast wants to take place 2–3 hours before the race begins, giving yourself ample time to digest and deal with your food. Again, avoid fats and fibre on the morning of the race so you’ve got a happy gut when you’re on the starting line. Most runners will have a bowl of porridge and a banana to get them up and ready for the big race.

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