Maggie’s Runners – Half Marathon preparation, Training and Nutrition Tips
As a fundraiser for Maggie’s, you want to enjoy training for and completing your event. Taking
training and nutrition seriously will help you accomplish both. Here are some easy tips to help you.
General Diet
Eating and training are linked and our food intake needs to shift and change in line with the sessions
we do and the demand we place on our bodies. The following tips should help you to do just that in
day to day life.
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When? The timing of your food is just as important as what and how much you eat. Try to
leave 2-3hrs between meals and runs, but eat as soon as you can after sessions to help
recovery.
How much? Graze. In our society we tend to eat over half our daily energy when we need it
least, i.e. in the evening. Instead, start with a decent breakfast, graze through then day and
don’t eat too much in the evening. Going to bed full is probably less than ideal, may disrupt
sleep and negatively impact recovery!
What? Eat a whole food diet. This just means foods that haven’t been messed about with
too much, rather than processed food that was made in a factory or foods that were put in a
packet for you, like shop bought sandwiches. Eat beans, nuts, greens and berries every day
and if you know you need to change your diet, eat more of the good stuff before removing
the bad stuff. It’s easier that way! This is also cheaper and no more time consuming than
eating processed meals all the time.
Structure: Most meals should be half salad or veg with ¼ whole grains and ¼ lean meat or
vegetarian protein alternative (like beans or pulses). All meals should also include some kind
of healthy oil like olive oils either poured over, or involved in the cooking process. Olive oils
are fine to cook with, despite widespread information suggesting otherwise.
Listen: Hunger is when we need to eat, Appetite is when we want to. Recognise which of
these you are feeling and try to limit the times you respond to appetite as this often leads to
overeating and bad food choices.
THE KEY RULE: 80:20. Get all of this right 80% of the time and the other 20% doesn’t matter
too much. For example, you might find that it’s much easier getting your diet right through
the week if you know that Saturday evening through to Monday morning are free for you to
have a little of what you want!
Half Marathon Hydration
This is a very complicated area. However, these tips should help you get it right in training:
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When? If the conditions are cool and you’re outside, you can run for an hour or so without
drinking too much. However, if you chose not to drink then you’ll have to make sure you
drink little and often for a couple of hours afterwards to rehydrate. If you are inside, or the
training is longer than an hour then you will need to drink throughout.
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How Much? This depends on things like the weather or what you are wearing and it’s
important to note that a hard session in the summer will cause double the sweat rate of an
easier session in cool conditions. There is no norm. However, the stomach can only absorb a
certain limit of fluid and this is about 200mls every 15mins (800mls/hr). This then is the most
you should drink per hour, so think what you are asking your body to physically do (what are
the demands of the session?) and adjust accordingly. I’d suggest sipping little and often
anywhere between 300-800mls per hour.
What? Water is rarely the best thing to drink during or after exercise as it absorbs much
better if there is a little sodium in it. Our stores of carbohydrate, which the body uses for
fuel during higher intensity exercise, are very small – only lasting around 1.5-2.0hrs. So for
Half Marathon training and events, drinks like Lucozade with sodium for hydration and carbs
for sustaining performance are useful. If we don’t drink during these sessions then around
the 60-70min mark we may start to suffer the effects of not drinking enough and not having
enough fuel.
Don’t overdo this though. Don’t drink 500ml drinks with more than 30g of carbohydrate and
only take on board extra carbs from 60mins into a session if it’s going to last much more
than 75mins.
Make Your Own. 416ml Water, 52ml Sugar Free Squash, 30g Sugar, 1-2 Pinches of Salt (so
long as the total fluid remains the same, the proportions can vary according to preferred
taste).
Racing
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For half marathon events you will need to drink unless you are planning to run around the
70min mark! The advice, however, stays much the same as during training, just be aware of
the weather. As I’ve said, there is a maximum amount you can drink, so if it’s very hot, or
you are a very heavy sweater, then make sure you are well hydrated throughout the couple
of days before the event (slightly increase salt intake too as this will mean you maintain fluid
balance better). Also drink 250-500mls 3hrs before the race and then rehydrate afterwards
by sipping little and often for the rest of the day. As with the days before, adding a pinch of
salt to your food will also help the fluid absorb.
Half Marathon Fuelling
Fuelling can make all the difference to you event here’s some tips for training:
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Starved: Occasionally, perform slower runs around an hour long in the morning without
breakfast. Exercising without food forces the body to get more efficient at burning fat as
fuel. Don’t do this too often though, as a rule, a carbohydrate based meal a few hours
before, or a small snack like dried fruit/Clif bar will help you train harder and more
comfortably.
Gels: Gels are small tubes containing a sweet goo high in carbohydrates. We can store about
90mins of energy in the form of carbohydrate, so if you are running for longer than this gels
are one option for fuelling on the run. You only need 0.5-1g of carbohydrate per min of
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running time after 60mins of running (so a 90min run = 15-30g of carbohydrate during). You
can get this from sports drinks, sweets gels or dried fruit, There’s nothing magical about gels
so test in training, plan how much you need and stick to the plan.
Protein: Don’t ignore protein. Endurance sports people avoid it because they think it might
give them big muscles, when in reality the body uses protein to adapt to the exercise you do.
Lean meat, oily fish like salmon or mackerel and beans, pulses nuts and seeds are all good
sources of protein. Sports supplements are also useful and using a ‘Whey Protein Isolate’
powder in water or soy milk after training is a good way to recover faster, adapt better and
stave off injury.
For racing just remember the following additional points.
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Carb-loading? This term describes the practice of eating lots of carbohydrate foods like
bananas or rice before a race to fill up the body’s fuel tanks. Research shows that this is
useless in events lasting less than 90mins so for Half Marathon runners there is a need to
think about whether this is right for you or not based on finish time. It’s also better to do this
and then leave 1-2 days of reduced/normal food intake (see next point).
Ease back: Taper food intake over the couple of days before the event and eat plain foods.
This will leave your stomach feeling comfortable and ready to race come the B-of-the-bang.
Recover: Immediately after the event try to take on board some protein and carbohydrate
(recovery drinks might be good for this). Then refuel fully in much the same way that you
would after training with a meal of carbs and protein every few hours after the event
Contact
Joel Enoch is an international standard Triathlete competing at world and European Age-Group Championships
on eight occasions. He runs his own sport nutrition consultancy company and is an endurance sport coach. Joel
is available to offer specific advice on training and nutrition in either a 1-2-1 setting or to small groups. Please
contact him using the following details if this is of interest.
Email: [email protected]. Twitter: @joel_enoch . Mobile: 07841641599