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Marathon Training – Diet and Nutrition

Over the past few years, we have been working on improving our overall health. One step in that process was to cut out fast food. Not being one to have eaten fast food that often, it really wasn’t a very hard thing to do – especially if you’ve watched the movie “Super Size Me“. And with places like Subway available for reasonably healthier choices, it makes it a lot easier when you just want something quick. Junk food, like potato chips and Hostess Twinkies were not a problem either as, other than my addiction to M&M’s and Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Nuggets, I rarely indulge in that kind of food.

The biggest challenge came with finding foods without high fructose corn syrup or enriched flour or the hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated fats. We emptied out a lot of cabinets! I was amazed at the kind of foods that we thought were healthy, only to find they contained one or all three of the no-no’s within the first three ingredients.

But that’s not really the focus here. This is about diet and nutrition in relation to marathon training, and how to eat before, during and after long marathon training runs.

Since I had several long training runs before the actual marathon, it provided me with the perfect opportunity to experiment with my pre-race evening meal. One thing I discovered was that the meal I prepared at home settled better in my stomach and gave me better next-day results than going out to our favorite Italian restaurant.

Most of the meals I tried were pasta dishes, with either chicken or tuna. One evening I had a turkey sandwich, but found it was not enough fuel for the next day’s long run.

The pasta dish I ended up using as my pre-race evening meal was one that a friend suggested to me. When he first told me about it, I was not at all sure I even wanted to try it. It sounded horrible. He called it “Tuna Spaghetti”. Well I love tuna and really love spaghetti, but the thought of the two together did not sound appetizing at all. After Shawn told me how to make it, I was willing to give it a try. And now, this quick, easy and great tasting pasta dish is still one of my favorite meals.

This is how you make it: Cook some pasta, it can be spaghetti or any other kind of pasta. As the pasta is cooking, heat some olive oil in a skillet. As the oil gets hot, add some oregano to it – but just a dash or so. Cut up an onion and break the rings in half into the skillet. Saute the onions, and then add a can of tuna, juice and all (we like the albacore). Break up the tuna with a fork or spatula, then add a can of mushrooms (or fresh) and some garlic powder. I personally like to add just a couple of drops of Tabasco sauce. Then add a couple of tablespoons or so of the water from the pasta, but not too much. The starch from the pasta will help thicken up the sauce. Drain the pasta. Add some parmesan cheese to the sauce and mix well. Pour the tuna mixture over the pasta and stir it up and serve! It only takes as long as it does to cook the pasta to make this meal! The prep work and the sauce can be done as the water is getting ready to boil for the pasta. We love it. Not only is it fast and tasty, it is low in fat. And I get lots of carbs and protein without it upsetting my tummy.

Immediately preceding any run (usually it’s early in the a.m.) I will eat a banana or low fat yogurt. These foods are easy on my stomach, not too heavy, and provide me with the fuel I need to start a run.

Never having used energy drinks or power gels or goos before, I wasn’t sure which ones, if any, were good. So I bought one of each of the three most popular brands of power gels to try them out. I ended up liking the taste of PowerBar brand, and found that it did the best job for me. A lot of people don’t like the goo and gels, finding them to be too sweet, but I really liked them. But I also am one that could eat sugar straight from the bag or icing from the can! So I would eat one of the gels about 8 to 10 miles into my run, to give me a shot of immediately accessible fuel. Blue raspberry and caramel were my favorite flavors.

Energy drinks were a challenge: I couldn’t find any that didn’t have high fructose corn syrup in them, so I ended up just buying a case of the 12 oz Gatorade All-Stars at Costco. I would start drinking the energy drinks about ½ way through my long runs. Depending on the temperature, I would usually consume one or two of the 12 oz bottles and probably 24 to 36 oz of water. Fortunately I had my friend Vickie riding her bike alongside me on my long runs. So she was able to haul all my water and energy drinks and gels, leaving me free to just run.

After a long run of 14 miles or more, my appetite was gone. I didn’t feel like eating anything! Knowing this was going to happen, I brought along chocolate milk. This liquid meal after a run would get me the protein and carbs I needed. Even though I knew it was not enough, it did what I needed it to do, and that was quickly replenish my glycogen stores. Everything I had been reading told me that for better recovery, it was important to get refueled within 30 minutes after running. So after the chocolate milk, I would usually stop and get a turkey sandwich at Subway on the way home.

One day I had chocolate pudding at my mom’s after a long run. I was amazed at how well I recovered from that run, but when you think about it, it’s just like chocolate milk - only thicker.

No amount of gels, goos or energy drinks will get you through a long run if you haven’t prepared the night before with a good pre-run meal. And it’s just as important to eat something the morning of the run. Training for the marathon got me into a lot of very good habits when it comes to fueling my running. I used to skip eating before a run, and I definitely didn’t eat anything right after a run, at least not within the recommended 30 minutes. Now I find that my recovery time is much quicker, and I’m not nearly as fatigued during the day after a long run, because I’m fueling properly, and my body likes that much better.

 How ’bout it?

-Vision Runner

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