What should I eat during marathon training
Training for endurance sports places great demands on your body. Depending on your training schedule, your body may be in a constant state of recovery. Depending on how much you are eating now, you may need to increase your calories.
Adjust WHAT you are eating and WHEN and the how much will probably take care of itself.
Unless you are running 70 miles a week, you probably can’t eat ice cream every night without gaining weight.
Calculate calories in and out. Running a mile burns roughly 100 calories.You will put 80 calories back in with a banana.An 8oz bottle of Gatorade has 150 calories – 1 1/2 miles.
Have you figured out your optimal marathon diet?
There is no real magic; the best marathon diet is a “regular’ balanced diet. Here is a detailed description of the guidelines you need for a healthy marathon diet including a discussion of balanced ratios of carbohydrates, proteins, fat and fiber.
At Optimal Nutrition for Life, we are not big fans of counting calories.But we do realise that calories can be a valuable measuring yardstick for you and have included some calculations and tips for calorie counting .
Why is it hard to lose weight while training?
Most people tend to underestimate the amount they eat and overestimate the amount of calories they burn.You probably take in more calories than you think you do.If you track all the food you eat for 3 days, it might surprise you to discover how many calories you actually eat.Calculate the calories you ate. Don’t forget to count your soft drinks and sports drinks. Then multiply by 1.2 as many people make better food choices simply because they are writing down what they eat.
An extra 100 calories a day can add up to 10 pounds in a year.A small error in your calculations can easily add those 10 pounds.
If you are trying to lose weight while training here are some guidelines.
Don’t skip meals. This won’t help. In fact, it may cause you to burn fewer total calories because you get tired quicker and may not be able to train at your optimal intensity.
Another way that skipping meals trips you up is by making your body nervous that you are going to quit feeding it. When this happens your body stores the calories you do eat rather than using them for activities such as growing hair and nails. (OK I am over simplifying but the concept is valid.) Your metabolism actually slows.
To get the most out of each workout, start each run fully fueled. Every workout has a training purpose. You are either training your body to run long distances, or run fast or be efficient running up hills.If you get to the workout empty, you won’t get the training stimulus that you would if you were properly fueled. Here is a workout to test this theory. Tonight after dinner go for an 8 mile run.Don’t eat after the night time run. First thing in the morning go for a 6 mile run. Next week do the same workout but do the 8 mile run BEFORE dinner.(Or if an 8 mile run is your long run, then do this test on fewer miles) You will be convinced of the importance of eating before your run.
Flip the mindset that food is the enemy and see food as fuel. Now that you are training for a marathon, will those chips help fuel your tempo run?Eating food that fuels your run at the right time can be the difference in feeling great at the finish and dragging to the finish.A snack you bring from home can fuel your workout whereas the chips from the vending machine can sabotoge it.
Don’t think you can eat what you want because you are training. See my story above about gaining weight after my first marathon. Unless you are running over 70 miles a week, chances are you aren’t burning enough calories for that nightly ice cream.A strong marathon finish will stay with you much longer than the chocolate chip ice cream.
Using your marathon training to practice for the race
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.
Practice eating? What do I need to practice?
Note your food log on Friday – the day before your training run; is there a correlation between what you had for dinner and your Saturday morning run.For example, broccoli and cauliflower are too fibrous for many people to eat the night before the race. My husband can’t eat spicy foods the night before but they don’t bother me.
You want to discover out the optimal amount you can eat before running.You may need more than an hour to digest breakfast.The only way to find the optimal balance between enough calories to fuel you and few enough that everything digests is to test it.
Practice your eating plans on runs that closely simulate the race.So if you are training for a marathon that starts at 8am you need to wake up at the same time for your training run as you will for your marathon.The intensity of the workout will make a difference in the amount you can eat before the workout. Many marathoners don’t understand the importance of rising early during the training season to practice their marathon breakfast.The only way to be sure how many calories you can take in and what type of foods you can digest is to test both during your training cycle.