Eating Before a Race

Question:

What is a good menu in the days leading up to a Marathon? Ratio of Carbohydrates v Protein etc and any foods better than others? Angela

Answer:   Hi Angela,   In the first half of the last week eat normally and make sure you are still drinking around 2 litres of water a day. When you get to the last 3 days before the event you should start to be a bit more scientific about your carbohydrate intake. The amount you consume is measured according to your weight in Kilograms, so before you do anything make sure that you know what that is in race week. Once you have that you should multiply that figure by the amount of carbohydrate that you require per kilogram, which for a marathon is 8 – 10 grams a day. If for example you weigh 64 – 70 kg you multiply that by 8 – 10 grams of carbohydrate per a then you will need 560 – 700g per day. To give you an idea of how to eat that much carbohydrate: a medium bread slice is 15g, a banana 20g and a large jacket potato is 100g. That is a lot of food and you must spread this over 5 -6 meals per day. It is likely that you will feel pretty bloated and not especially comfortable, but it won’t be for long and it will all be worth it on race day, especially in the last 10 miles or so. The focus should be on carbohydrates but make sure that you do also eat some proteins and unsaturated fats during race week.   I hope this is of help – should you need any further help/advice then please contact me on this email address.

Kind Regards

Peter Hier

Running4Women ltd

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