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Category: Nutrition

Marathon Training Tips

From How to Train for a Marathon, by tailwindnutrition, June 3, 2019, Tips & Tricks

Meet Chris

I’m Chris, Chief Training Officer at Galloway Training, RRCA Certified Coach, Boston Marathon qualifier, Ironman distance triathlete, and ultra-runner with 14 finishes at the Hardrock 100. I’ve coached thousands of runners through local Galloway Training Programs and Galloway Customized Training Plans offered online at JeffGalloway.com. My body stays in Florida most of the year, but my heart is forever in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado.

There are few things more empowering than finishing a marathon. Whether it’s your first, fastest, or fiftieth, every marathon finish is a reminder that big things are possible when you work on them step by step!

Know Where You Are

The first step in marathon training is taking an honest look at where you are in your fitness. At Galloway Training, we use a tool developed by Olympian Jeff Galloway called the Magic Mile. The idea is to run a mile (after a warm-up) as fast as you can without making yourself sick. Once you have that time, multiply it by 1.3 to see your predicted marathon pace.

Embrace the Run/Walk Approach

Walk breaks make marathon training less intimidating for beginners and slower runners. Rather than thinking about the 26 miles you have to cover, you can focus on the next few minutes you have to run before the next walk break. “I don’t know if I can run 10 more miles, but I know I can run for 2 more minutes!” is a common phrase I hear. Faster runners also benefit from the run/walk method because walk breaks keep your heart rate from spiking early in the run and therefore prevent your body from going anaerobic.

Rather than hitting a wall, run/walk marathoners often run faster in the last few miles of the race. With each walk break, runners enjoy a few seconds of recovery, allowing you to stay strong throughout the race, including those last few miles where it’s common to feel like you’re running with a piano on your back.

Set a Schedule

After determining your pace and run/walk ratio, you can chart a path to the marathon itself. Do this by scheduling a long run each weekend starting with the longest run you’ve had in the last month. Add a mile to your long run distance each weekend until you hit 10 miles. Then you can stretch your long run to every other weekend but add 2 miles each time (10, 12, 14, 16).

While your long runs should be significantly slower than your race pace (about 2 minutes per mile slower), the in-between weekends are good times to practice your race pace for a few miles (up to 8-10 miles if you’re serious about a time goal). When your long run reaches 16 miles, you can put 2 short weekends between long runs, and when your long run reaches 20, you can put 3 short weekends between long runs and increase the distance by 3 miles each time.

A typical weekend progression for a runner who currently has a 7-mile long run would be 7, 8, 9, 10, 5, 12, 5, 14, 5, 16, 5, 5, 18, 5, 5, 20, 5, 5, 5, 23, 5, 5, 5, 26, 5, 5, 5, marathon. That’s 28 weekends, so you can see why summer is not too early to start your winter marathon training!

How to Train with Less Time

Don’t have 28 weeks to train? No problem! You can jump-start your training by walking the “extra” distance you need for a long run. If your schedule calls for 16 miles, for example, and you’ve only run 7, you can walk 9 miles then run/walk 7 for a total of 16 miles. That effectively gives you the endurance you would have gotten from a 16-mile run without risking injury by increasing your running mileage too quickly. Once you’ve used this technique to get your training on track, you can pick up your schedule and continue through the marathon.

Incorporate Weekday Runs

While the long run is undoubtedly the cornerstone of marathon training, no runner can afford to rely solely on one run a week. Weekday runs are great times for hill work, cadence drills, form drills, acceleration-gliders, and speed work. Which of these you do and how often will depend on your specific race goals, but every runner should put in at least 2 runs during the week of at least 30 minutes each. Longer is fine, but weekday runs should not be so long that they cause you to be tired going into the weekend. It’s also fine to run more than two weekday runs, but every runner needs at least one rest day per week. If you can’t stand to take a day off, go for a long walk. It will still allow your running muscles to rest, and it will let you work on your walking pace, something run/walkers often neglect to their detriment.

Go the Distance

In addition to run/walk, I recommend a long run of at least race distance when training for a marathon. Many runners report a feeling of “hitting the wall” around 20 miles into a marathon, and it’s no coincidence that 20 miles is exactly how far most of those runners have gone in training. Pushing your long run to 26 miles reduces the likelihood of hitting the wall by increasing your endurance to the full race distance. It’s important to remember to keep your long runs at least 2 minutes per mile slower than predicted race pace. There is proof to show that runners who include a long run of 26 or even 29 miles in training hold their pace far more consistently than those who stop at 20.

Fuel for Success

Once you know how fast to run, how far to run and when to run, it is vital to practice for your race at every opportunity. That includes practicing and dialing in your race nutrition on your training runs. Unfortunately, marathons often choose hydration that doesn’t work very well. Often it’s too sweet, causing upset stomachs late in the race, or it neglects electrolytes that are vital to balance what our bodies lose through sweat.

For short runs, a single bottle of Tailwind Nutrition Endurance Fuel (2 scoops or 1 stick pack) should suffice. If it’s really hot, you’re a heavy sweater, or you’re going on a long run, you can create a concentrate to reduce the number of bottles you need to carry. This plan works great for marathon day as well – create a concentrated bottle of Endurance Fuel and grab extra water from aid stations to stay hydrated and dump on your head to stay cool. Endurance Fuel stick packs are easy to carry if you want to change flavors or add some caffeine throughout your race. There’s nothing like a kick of caffeine late in a race!

Don’t Forget Recovery

One of the great benefits of the above strategy is that run/walk marathoners recover much faster! Nevertheless, your body is going to remind you of your accomplishment with aches and pains after you finish a marathon.

Aches and pains can be greatly reduced with the right recovery strategy after your marathon. Some runners swear by chocolate milk and others insist on a beer, but both of those have more tradition behind them than science. Tailwind Nutrition Rebuild recovery is a much better choice to replenish glycogen stores, restore electrolytes, and start the healing process so your body doesn’t feel quite so much like it’s been hit by a truck.

Once you have the recovery process in motion, get your body back in motion by going for a walk. A few hours after your race, after you’re rehydrated and cleaned up, put on that finisher’s medal and go out on the town to show off your accomplishment and give your legs a chance to work out any lactic acid buildup from your race.

Walking a couple of easy miles a few hours after the marathon and repeating this the next morning will make a huge difference in how soon you are able to return to running (not to mention going down stairs without wincing)!

You’ve Got This

I’m often asked how much of running is physical and how much is mental, and I can honestly say that running is 100% physical and 100% mental. You have to do the physical work to train and prepare for a marathon. Without proper training, you might be able to finish the race, but you definitely won’t enjoy the experience. Likewise, you have to put your mind to work, both in visualizing your success and in believing in yourself throughout the process, including during the race itself.

The good news is that these two 100% important aspects feed off of each other. As you train physically, your mind accepts that you will succeed in your goal. As you grow in your belief in yourself, you are motivated to stay true to your training schedule and put in the miles each week that lead to race day. During the marathon, your strong body gives you confidence to run the pace for which you trained, and your strong mind keeps you focused to hang on even as you feel your legs getting heavy with effort.

Mile by mile and moment by moment you are accomplishing something as a marathoner that only a small percentage of the population ever achieves – not just a marathon finish, but a transformational experience, a clear message from you to the universe and from your body to your soul that you are not afraid of hard work and not intimidated by lofty goals because you know that any distance can be covered by those willing to take it step by step.

Nutrition Hydration Sleep

Following are some common truths that apply to pre- and post-workout nutrition, hydration and sleep.  All of which are important while training and racing.

Nutrition: Don’t Skip the Carbs

Carbohydrates are fuel for your “engine” (i.e., your muscles).  And, the harder your engine is working, the more carbs you need to keep going.

As a general rule of thumb, it’s best not to eat immediately before a workout because while your muscles are trying to do their “thing,” your stomach is trying to simultaneously digest the food in your stomach.  These competing demands are a challenge for optimal performance.  And, even more of a factor, eating too close to a workout may cause you to experience some GI discomfort while you train.

Ideally, you should fuel your body about 1 to 3 hours pre-workout, depending on how your body tolerates food.  Experiment and see what time frame works best for your body.  This is something you need to explore during your training days and not during race day.

Suggestions for pre-workout fuel:

  • A peanut butter and banana, or peanut butter and jelly sandwich
  • Greek yogurt with berries
  • Oatmeal with low-fat milk and fruit
  • Apple and peanut or almond butter
  • Handful of nuts and raisins (two parts raisins, one part nuts)
  • Cereal with low fat milk

Notice that each of these suggestions include some protein as well as carbs.  Carbs are the fuel.  Protein is what rebuilds and repairs, but also “primes the pump” to make the right amino acids available for your muscles.  Getting protein and carbs into your system is even more vital post workout.

Nutrition: Mid-Run

In general, runners need to add in 30 to 60 grams of carbohydrate each hour they’re running longer than 75 minutes.  But you’ll need to start fueling earlier than 75 minutes into a run; by that time, your tank will be empty, and once you hit empty it’s very hard to recover.  Start taking in fuel within 30 minutes of hitting the pavement.  Start slow; you need to train your gut (and your palate) to handle fuel on the run.  If you’re new to fueling on the run, take in a little bit of fuel every 15 minutes.  Be sure to follow your fuel with water.  Your stomach can only tolerate a certain percentage of carbohydrate so you need to dilute your fuel in order for it to go into circulation (rather than sit like a stone in your gut).

Nutrition: Post-Workout

Your body uses stored energy (glycogen) in your muscles to power through your workout or race, but after that workout, you need to replenish the nutrients lost.

As soon as possible post-workout, get carbs and protein immediately into your body.  This gives your muscles the ability to replenish the glycogen they just lost through training and helps your tired muscles rebuild and repair with the available protein and amino acids.  Try to eat within 20 minutes of completing an intense workout.

Post-workout meals include:

  • Post-workout recovery smoothie (or post-workout smoothie made with low-fat milk and fruit)
  • Low-fat chocolate milk
  • Turkey on a whole-grain wrap with veggies
  • Yogurt with berries

The above offer mainly carbs, some protein, and are convenient — with the first two liquid options also helping to rehydrate the body.

Hydration

It’s important to make sure you get the right amount of water before, during, and after exercise.  Water regulates your body temperature and lubricates your joints.  It also helps transport nutrients to give you energy and keep you healthy.  If you’re not properly hydrated, your body can’t perform at its highest level.  You may experience fatigue, muscle cramps, dizziness, or more serious symptoms.

A simple way to make sure you’re staying properly hydrated is to check your urine.  If your urine is consistently colorless or light yellow, you’re most likely staying well hydrated.  Dark yellow or amber-colored urine is a sign of dehydration.

There are no exact rules for how much water to drink while exercising because everyone is different.  You need to consider factors including your sweat rate, the heat and humidity in your environment, and how long and hard you are exercising.

The American Council on Exercise suggests the following basic guidelines for drinking water before, during, and after exercise:

  • Drink 17-20 ounces of water two to three hours before you start exercising
  • Drink 8 ounces of water 20 to 30 minutes before you start exercising or during your warm-up
  • Drink 7-10 ounces of water every 10 to 20 minutes during exercise
  • Drink 8 ounces of water no more than 30 minutes after you exercise
Sleep

In terms of sleep, aim for at least eight hours of quality sleep a night. The majority of recovery happens when we sleep.  If you want to recover well, sleep well.  It’s that simple.

Recap
  1. Your body needs carbs to fuel your working muscles.
  2. Protein is there to help build and repair.
  3. Get a combination of protein and carbs in your body 1 to 3 hours pre-workout, and within approximately 20 minutes post-workout.
  4. You need to train your gut to handle fuel on the run.
  5. Stay hydrated all day, every day.
  6. Recovery happens when we sleep.

Eating for Endurance

Eating for Endurance:

What’s the best way to fuel for the Boston Marathon?

Should I eat a high fat diet to train my body to burn more fat and less glucose?

What percent of calories should come from carbohydrate? protein? fat?

When it comes to eating for endurance, today’s athletes are confronted with two opposing views:

    • Eat a traditional carbohydrate-based sports diet, or
    • Eat a fat-based diet that severely limits carbohydrate intake.

What should an eager marathoner, Ironman triathlete, or other endurance athlete eat to perform better? Here’s what you want to know about eating for endurance, based on the Joint Position Statement on Nutrition for Athletic Performance from the American College of Sports Medicine, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietietics, and Dietitians of Canada.

1. Eat enough calories.

Most athletes need ~21 calories per pound (45 cal/kg) of lean body mass (LBM). That means, if you weigh 150 pounds and have 10% body fat, your LBM is 135 pounds and you require about 2,800 calories a day. That said, energy needs vary from person to person, depending on how fidgety you are, how much you sit in front of a computer, how much muscle you have, etc. Hence, your body is actually your best calorie counter—more accurate than any formula or app!

If you eat intuitively—that is, you eat when you feel hunger and stop when feel content, you are likely eating enough. If you find yourself stopping eating just because you think you should, if you are feeling hungry all the time and are losing weight, you want to eat larger portions. Under-fueling is a needless way to hurt your performance.

If you can’t tell when enough food is enough, wait 10 to 20 minutes after eating and then, mindfully ask yourself “Does my body need more fuel?” Athletes who routinely stop eating just because they have finished their packet of oatmeal (or other pre-portioned allotment) can easily be under-fueled. Even dieting athletes want to surround their workouts with fuel. Their plan should be to eat enough during the day to fuel-up and refuel from workouts, and then eat just a little bit less at the end of the day, to lose weight when they are sleeping.

2. Eat enough carbohydrates.

According to the Position Statement on Nutrition for Athletic Performance, the optimal amount of carbohydrate on a day with one hour of training is 5 to 7 grams carb/kg. On high volume days, you need about 6 to 12 g carb/kg body weight. For a 150-pound (68 kg) athlete, this comes to about 350 to 800 grams carb a day—the equivalent of about one to two (1-lb) boxes of uncooked pasta (1,400 to 3,200 calories). That’s more than many of today’s (carb-phobic) athletes consume. You want to make grains the foundation of each meal: choose more oatmeal for breakfast; more sandwiches at lunch; and more rice at dinner to get three times more calories from carbs than from protein. Otherwise, you set the stage for needless fatigue.

3. Eat adequate­—but not excess—protein.

Protein needs for athletes range from 1.4 g/kg (for mature athletes) to 2.0 g protein/kg (for athletes building muscle or dieting to lose fat). For a 150-pound (68 kg) athlete, protein needs come to about 95 to 135 grams protein per day, or 25 to 35 grams protein four times a day. That means 3 eggs at breakfast (with the bowl of oatmeal), a hearty sandwich at lunch, portion of lean meat/fish/chicken at dinner, and cottage cheese (with fruit) for an afternoon or bedtime snack.

For vegetarians, generous servings of beans, hummus, nuts and tofu at every meal can do the job; a light sprinkling of beans on a lunchtime salad will not. By consuming protein every 3 to 5 hours, you will optimize muscle building and deter muscle breakdown.

4. Fill in the calorie-gap with fat.

Include in each meal and snack some health-promoting, anti-inflammatory fat: nuts, salmon, peanut butter, avocado, olive oil, etc. Fat adds flavor, offers satiety, and is a source of fuel for endurance exercise. Training your muscles to burn more fat for fuel happens when you do long, steady “fat burning” exercise. By burning more fat, you burn less of the limited carbohydrate (muscle glycogen, blood glucose) stores. You will have greater endurance and avoid or delay hitting the wall.

A (tougher) way to train your body to burn more fat is to severely limit your carbohydrate intake and push your fat intake to 70% of your calories. That could be 1,800 calories (185 g) of fat per day. This very high fat diet produces ketones and forces the body to burn ketones for fuel. Keto-athletes endure a tough, 3- to 4-week adaptation period as their bodies transition to burning fat, not glucose, for fuel. While some keto-athletes rave about how great they feel when in ketosis, the sports nutrition literature, to date, reports little or no performance benefits from a ketogenic sports diet. It might nix sugar binges, but it’s unlikely to make you a better athlete.

5. Drink enough fluids.

A simple way to determine if you are drinking enough fluid is to monitor your urine. You should be voiding dilute, light colored urine every 2 to 4 hours. (Exception: athletes who take vitamin supplements tend to have dark colored urine.) You want to learn your sweat rate, so you can strategize how to prevent dehydration. Weigh yourself nude before and after one hour of race-pace exercise, during which you drink nothing. A one-pound drop pre- to post-exercise equates to 16 ounces of sweat loss. Losing two pounds of sweat in an hour equates to 32 ounces (1 quart). To prevent that loss, you should target drinking 8 ounces of water or sports drink every 15 minutes. Athletes who pre-plan their fluid intake tend to hydrate better than those who “wing it.”

6. Consume enough calories during extended exercise.

If you will be exercising for longer than 60 to 90 minutes, you want to target 40 to 80 calories (10 to 20 g) of carbohydrate every 20 minutes (120 to 240 calories per hour), starting after the first hour (which gets fueled by your pre-exercise food). If you are an Ironman triathlete, long distance cyclist or ultra-athlete who exercises for more than three hours, you want to target up to 360 calories per hour. The key is to practice event-day fueling during the months that lead up to the event. By training your gut to tolerate the fuel, you’ll be able to enjoy the event without fretting about running out of energy.

The bottom line:

If you are going to train, you might as well get the most out of your workouts. Performance improves with a good fueling plan. Eat wisely and enjoy your high energy!

Nancy Clark, MS, RD, CSSD (Board Certified Specialist in Sports Dietetics) counsels both casual and competitive athletes at her office in Newton, MA (617-795-1875). Her best-selling Sports Nutrition Guidebook and food guides for marathoners, cyclists and soccer players offer additional information. They are available at www.NancyClarkRD.com. For her popular online workshop, see www.NutritionSportsExerciseCEUs.com.

Reference:
Thomas, T at el. Position of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Dietitians of Canada and the American College of Sports Medicine: Nutrition and Athletic Performance. J Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. 2016; 116 (3):501-28