Coopah How To: Plan Your Fuelling Strategy for a Marathon
In this series of ‘HOW TO’ blogs, we are going to share our tips for the most common questions we get asked by our community of runners, and this blog is all about How To Plan Your Fuelling Strategy for a Marathon
If you are currently reading this in the thick of marathon training, you have probably come to realise that there is a lot more to training for a marathon than just running! And one area we know a lot of runners struggle with is how to fuel during their training, and the marathon itself. So we have put together our Top Tips on how to do this in the hope it is one less thing to worry about!
Practice Makes Perfect
If you are training for a marathon, you are probably heading out at least once a week for a long run (lets say anything over 90 minutes) and if you are now at this point, you should really be taking on calories during your run, otherwise you risk the dreaded ‘hitting the wall’.
The first step in planning your fuelling strategy is to determine how many calories you will need during the race. This can vary depending on your weight, age, and running pace, but a general rule of thumb is to aim for 30-60 grams of carbohydrates per hour.
For any runs over the 90 minute mark, we would advise to start taking fuel on between 45- 60 minutes, and then repeating this for the duration of you run. Now, you may feel like you don’t need anything that early on, but that is the mistake a lot of runners make! Think of your body like a car - if your petrol light came on, you would fill up as soon as you could and not continue driving around until you were running on fumes. It is the same for your body, if you wait until you start to feel tired and low on energy, your energy stores are already too depleted and it is going to be quite hard to get them back up! Which could result in you having to cut your run short, or feeling unwell afterwards.
But this is what your training runs are for, to find what works for you - from the gel/chew/sweets to the timings of when you take them. Remember, everyone is different and will have a different strategy so just focus on what you’re doing and do not worry about anyone else.
Hydrate
Now when we talk about fuelling, we don’t just mean taking on calories - drinking enough water during your runs can have a huge impact on performance, and it is definitely something you need to pay attention too.
We would advise for any runs over 60+ minutes, that you take water out with you on a run. Either by carrying a bottle, a hydration pack or even stashing water bottles on your run route. By taking small sips regularly throughout your run it massively reduces the risk of becoming dehydrated, which again could result in you having to cut your run short or feeling poorly in the hours after.
Again even if you don’t feel thirsty, it is really important you take water on regularly to stop yourself getting depleted (think of the empty petrol tank!) and also remember to factor in the weather too! If it is a warm day you may become dehydrated more easily so its really important you have access to water on all of your runs.
Find what works for you!
When runners talk about taking on fuel, one of the most common ways to do this is by using energy gels. The reason being is that they are small enough to carry, they are easy to take on the move and they get carbohydrates into you quickly and efficiently. But, gels are not a one size fits all, and a lot of runners find they don’t work for them.
As we mentioned in the first point, its really important to find what works for you, and your training runs are a great way to trial out different sources of fuel.
Here are some suggestions that you can try;
Energy Gels
Energy Chews
Flapjacks
Jelly Babies/Sweets
Salty Nuts/Crisps
Jam Sandwich
Day to Day Fuelling
As well as remembering to fuel during your training, it is also really important you pay attention to your day to day fuelling too. Even if we aren’t exercising, our bodies need lots of calories to simply just survive, so if you throw marathon training into the mix too it becomes even more important that you are giving your body enough to sustain the training, to repair and to be able to perform day to day activities too.
It’s important you try to follow a healthy, balanced diet and ensure your body gets a variety of nutrients, vitamins and food groups. We know that it may seem a bit complicated, so for now we are just going to focus on the three main food groups - Carbohydrates, Protein & Fats, all of which are essential for a healthy diet.
Here are some staple foods that every runner should have in their kitchen;
Carbohydrates - great for energy
Pasta, Rice, Bread, Potatoes, Sweet Potato, Oats, Bananas, Green Vegetables, Fruit
Protein - great for muscle repair & recovery
Fish, Chicken, Tofu, Eggs, Yogurt, Milk, Cheese
Fats - great for energy & endurance
Fish, Nuts, Avocado, Full Fat Dairy, Seeds, Peanut Butter, Extra Virgin Olive Oil
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