One Year to 26.2: Nutrition (PART 2 – Lindsey Clark)

This is the second in a 4-part series on my journey to training and completing my first marathon. I’ll cover (1) my ‘why’ and training, (2) nutrition, (3) mental preparation, and (4) the stories from race day. For anyone thinking about training for their first marathon, I hope this can inspire you and provide some understanding of what you might experience in your own training journey. 

Fueling History

Prior to training for a marathon, I had a long history of running. Mostly just casually, but throughout a decade, I completed around 8 half marathons and several shorter events. Oddly, I never even considered fueling or nutrition. Given what I know now, I’m not sure how I made it through those races! When I started with LB Endurance and Coach Lana, I knew going in what generally to expect, and fueling was going to be part of it. 

Nutrition Outside of Running

During many fitness seasons of my life, one thing has been constant-I don’t think much about weight loss, and I also don’t think much about changing my diet at the start. This is likely very personal but works well for me. When I started training, I changed nothing except my workout schedule. Honestly, it’s difficult enough to get into a consistent routine (especially balancing a full-time job and other obligations), so for me, changing other variables at the same time feels overwhelming. Probably about 6 months in, I did begin switching up a lot about my diet-a greater focus on protein and less alcohol and sweets was mostly my game plan. As my runs become longer than 13.1 miles, I started carb loading more a couple days prior to long weekend runs. I added in more potatoes and rice. I almost had to do that-if there’s one thing you learn quickly, you must eat. There were times my intake was close to 3,000 calories in a day, and for someone 5’5’’, that’s a lot. But it was critical. I had to fuel to get through all my workouts and long runs. I recall that on one long run, which was supposed to be 18 miles, I only made it 16 miles. I hit a wall. I think you almost must get there to know what your limits are-it’s very empirical in a lot of ways. You must try different things to see what works. Despite feeling like I was eating a lot, there were times that I didn’t have enough energy to make it through a run. It’s a consistent practice of knowing how much to fuel, when to fuel, and what to fuel. I didn’t track macros consistently-I tracked some days here and there just to gauge where I was but didn’t record it on a daily basis. 

Fueling the Run

It was really when my long runs started getting over 10 miles that I started carrying nutrition and fueling them. This might be somewhat personal as well-I certainly know people who run 10 miles and don’t carry anything. For me, 10 miles is my general threshold-anything under that, I might not carry anything with me or perhaps will carry a gel or 2 in my pocket. 

I made the decision early on to fuel using gels. There’s a lot of different options out there, and some people even make their own nutrition, such as oatmeal balls and honey. For me, using gels is very easy and convenient. Further, I needed to carry all of it for 6 hours, and that can be a lot of extra weight in a vest or belt. Gels are also portioned nicely, and it was easy to measure. 

There’s some general guidelines out there to guide you at how much you need to fuel-most of the estimates I’ve seen are 30-60g/hour. Generally, a long run requires quick energy in the form of some type of sugar, so I think most people don’t fuel any other type of macronutrient during a run, although I’ve certainly seen exceptions to that. Making sure your stomach is feeling well during the run is also a consideration-I’ve talked to people who say that the gels generally don’t agree with them. I’ve never had much problem with this-there’s few chews on the market that don’t sit well with me, but overall, I personally have had a lot of luck in that area. Further, I know my mouth gets really dry during long runs, typically a lot of breathing or it can be affected by the weather. Because of this, eating something that is very dry, even a chew, is typically difficult for me. Thus, drinking nutrition or the ease of a gel is generally easier to get down. 

My general strategy was this: eat a meal (typically breakfast) one hour prior. Then, I started the run with a gel (I started doing this later in training). Then, I consumed one gel every 30 min which is ~40g carb/hr. Next, I carried one scoop of skratch in each of my vest bladders and sipped on that as needed for hydration. That delivered another 40 g of carb throughout the run, no matter what length. The breakfast is also important. For me, a PBJ did the trick. It was good to have some fat and protein on board before the run, then it was straight carb through the entire run. I’ve also tried oatmeal with peanut butter and banana. An English muffin with a nut butter and fruit is also a popular option. I think the key was that I needed more of a macronutrient mix to start the day, then it was all carb for the run. Honestly, you just have to try different options to see what works. I very often begin my day with a protein shake I make at home with creatine, milk, and fruit (I use the PEScience protein powder and Tennessee creatine and purchase it at Eddie’s Health Shoppe). However, on run days, I really needed a little more on my stomach, but not too much. It’s a balance.

As far as the gels, I only used Gu gels in the beginning but branched out after a while. I’ve tried Carbs Fuel, Gu, Huma, Performance Fuel, and Maurten. Pace House has all these available. The only one I don’t like at all is Maurten-the consistency is super thick and it’s entirely flavorless. I thought it was like eating hair gel! I didn’t purchase more of those. My personal favorite has been Carbs Fuel. Performance Fuel is a close second, and I like the way those are packaged-you can get 30 g packs instead of 20 g. Carbs Fuel also has larger portions if you decide you need a larger carb intake at once. Carbs Fuel is very thin consistency and sweet flavor. It is also a mixture of sugar types-I’d like to play around with that more. During the race, I ended up alternating Huma and Carbs Fuel. Realistically, it was mostly flavor and texture that led me to choose these for the event, but I certainly think there’s some strategy around the different carb types in each formulation. I didn’t get too far with that because about a month prior to the race, I needed to lock in what was working and stick to the plan. That’s one thing we’ll get to during the race day-no surprises and don’t do anything different. 

Post run I often went with a protein heavy snack-either a Premier Protein Drink or a Barbell protein bar. I just ordered some new to the market protein bars from Addra Labs and am excited to try that! It’s not uncommon for me to drink or eat a high protein snack after either running or a strength training cycle. I also typically consumed straight water after a long run too-at least 17 oz. 

Closing Thoughts

For a solid fueling plan, I think a good strategy is follow some general guidelines, then start tweaking a few things here and there to see what might work better for you. One piece of advice is don’t fuel when you feel you need. That’s a mistake I made-I was never ‘hungry’ during a run. Like clockwork, I consumed a gel every 30 min no matter how I felt. Also, I have found it very valuable to hydrate a lot, and I do mean a lot, a day or two prior to a long run. I also sipped on my skratch regularly no matter if I felt thirsty or not. The goal is to stay fueled and hydrated so you are focused on the run and staying present. If you are hitting walls a lot, likely a sign you need to eat more during the week and/or you should increase your hourly carb intake during the run. I’ll cover a little about my race day nutrition during the last part of the series, including how to leverage planned aid stations. 

Stay tuned for part 3!