Marathon Diet - Improve Nutrition to do Better at the Marathon

by John
(Alabama)

I have got a question about my marathon diet. I have been an athlete all my life; mostly a runner, but cycle long distances sometimes. I am training for a marathon and have been running 15-20 miles weekly long runs; less on other days.

The problem is that my wife tells me repeatedly that I eat crap (and lots of it) for food. She is right; I have done so all my life. I am ready (needing) to make major changes in my diet, now that I am training for this marathon. I still comfortably run 10 - 12 miles and recover quickly. I am finding that I am more tired and wiped out after the very long runs.

What are the most important marathon nutrition musts for my situation? I get physicals yearly and have no known health problems. Cholesterol, blood pressure are great. I am skinny, but not underweight.

Thanks for the guidance.

Answer by Dominique:
Hi there,
Thanks for your question about your marathon diet.

Interesting question.

My wife always says that I never believe her. She'll say these things, e.g. "trees have green leaves" and I'll sort of ignore it. Then I hear somebody else saying "trees have green leaves" and the next thing I do is tell my wife "hey, did you know, trees have green leaves." Drives her crazy.

Maybe you should listen to your wife a bit more, I know that mine thinks I should.... :)

I'll preface this with saying that I am not a nutritionist. For detailed dietary advice you need to see somebody else. But as a running coach you do learn about healthy nutrition for athletes, so I can provide you some high-level tips and pointers. Here it goes:

1. You probably know....
2. Sustainable changes and small steps
3. Focus on the macros
4. Eat sufficiently

You Probably Know...

Deep down, you probably know what types of food are healthy and which aren't.

In the end, it is not rocket science: as any human being, you should try to stay away from products containing too much sugar, fast food and non-fresh food.

A simple rule: when the food contains more than 10% sugar, then don't eat it. This means, no sugary cereals, no fruit juice, no candy, no cookies, no sodas / soft drinks etc. Spending a couple of weeks studying the labels on the food you eat can be enlightening. There are a lot of foods being sold as low fat and supposedly healthy that have quite a high sugar content.

Another simple rule: You can't go wrong with more vegetables.

Sustainable Changes and Small Steps

One mistake I think you can make is to overhaul your whole diet in one sweep. Diets generally don't last because they are unsustainable. Either because they simply make people eat not enough or they are a complete 180 from what people are used to. After a few initial days or weeks of excitement, the reality of the situation kicks in. At that point, many people make one slip, feel like they have failed, then quickly give up altogether.

What I think is a better approach is to handle it one change at a time. And focus on changes you can make for a life time, not just a couple of weeks or months. Make small steps forward to gradually clean up your act. Anecdotally, I have seen that approach be more successful than massive, drastic, immediate changes.

I used to have a muffin at 10'o clock in the morning, pretty much every morning. For years. Would go to the coffee shop at the bottom of our office building and get a coffee and a muffin. But in the last decade I have replaced the muffin with a handful of almonds. Way more healthy and it fills me up just the same. Less fun. But better....

Focus on the Macros

Once you are a bit more educated on your diet and you have started reading food labels, a good next step is to spend a little bit of time learning about the macros: carbs, protein and fat. Fat used to get a bad name. Carbs now have taken over as being the evil food. In reality, a healthy diet contains all three macronutrients.

You want to have these in balance, roughly a 40/30/30 split between carbs/protein/fat. And the fats you want to take in are healthy fats (e.g. avocado, olive oil, nut butters). For most of us, once we start looking at this and we log our food for a while we realise we are eating a lot more carbs and way less protein than we should. Again, try to sustainably fix that. Less pasta and rice, a bit more tuna or chicken!

Eat sufficiently

When you are training for a marathon you use a whole lot of energy. You need to replenish that. Have more snacks. Eat something after most of your training runs.

But... make sure you plan out your snacks and have healthy alternatives available you can rely on. Many of us can be really structured about our main meals, but then completely screw up our diet when we get hungry and can't contain ourselves.

Simple, easy, good-tasting and healthy alternatives are:

A smoothie with some yoghurt/milk, oats and berries

A rice cake with some nut butter

A handful of rice crackers with a spoonful of hommus and some cheese

Etc.

The great thing about long-distance running is that you can virtually eat all you want, without gaining weight. However, eat the right, nutritious foods and you'll recover better and will also end up having more energy, making you faster in the end.

One reason why you are probably eating this much and are always hungry is that your body is craving nutrition. Because you don't feed it the right foods, it keeps on asking for more.

When you add healthy, nutritious foods to your marathon diet, you will find that you are full more quickly and don't need to keep on eating.

I am convinced that you'll be able to make some quick and easy changes to your marathon diet. In turn, this will most definitely make you feel better, recover quicker, sleep better, etc. There is a lot to be gained.

Now, it sounds like you have been active for a long period in your life. The great thing about that is that you do not have to live like a monk. Focus on sustainable, healthier options and a somewhat more conscious approach to your food intake and you are 90% there.

For more detail, also check out the marathon training nutrition page.

Oh and last tip: listen to your wife a bit more!

Hope this helps.
Kind regards,
Dominique