Your nutrition plan has truly changed my life for the better

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Ilana,

Thanks for the nutrition that gave me the energy for 26.2 and for life! As of Oct 11, I finally have my first marathon under my belt and was able to finish strong energy wise (the physical hurting was a whole other story 🙂

I just wanted to express my sincere  gratitude to you – your nutrition plan has truly changed my life for the better. You were an integral part of making this experience in Chicago successful and memorable for all the right reasons 🙂

If I remember correctly, you have Marine Corps coming up. I wish you every success in that race and in all your endeavours!

Thanks again.

Cheers!
Deidre

Finally got to my pre-pregnancy weight

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Hi Ilana,

Well considering the week was full of work travel and other distractions, I lost two pounds! It’s great to be at my goal weight after 16 years (all I’ve wanted was to be at my pre-pregnancy weight but just could not get there). I’m sure that the weight loss, never mind sound nutrition, helped me achieve my PR last week.

Thanks again!

Vida

Marine Corps Marathon Race Report

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ILANA KATZ MS, RD, CSSD – and Finisher

This is somewhat overdue… but hey, one gets lost in time after a marathon, and it took me this long to revel in the glory of one of my favourite endurance endeavors now to date.

I arrive at this marathon after 4 hard months of training with the subtleness of competitive training buddies driving me, and a last minute sign up for Augusta Ironman 70.3, held a couple of weeks before Marine Corps. The additional swimming and biking was merely my cross training… this marathon was my chosen A event, Augusta was just because I would have done the work anyway, so why not embrace a mere B-race  inbetweener.

Countless hours added up, at least 3 twenty or more mile runs, 2 in rainstorms, 1 close encounter with a sports utility vehicle, 3 boxes (yes boxes) of gel packets of all flavours, from gross to mmm actually quite nice, 16 different variations of oatmeal and peanut butter, 65 cliff shot blocks and 3 ice packs rotating between the freezer and my body.  I was prepared for my 26.2 miles of pure painless joy to share with 3500 close, yes very close, friends.  I had done 5 of these marathon things previously, and continuously admit that each marathon is probably the most physical enduring experience of my life, even above the jumping out an airplane and the 3 ironman 70.3 distance races all put together. So what then was the inspiration for number 6. Heaven alone knows.

Well, I take that back – for one thing, I am inspired by all my fellow athletes who do this, especially the ones that continue to beat me. For another, my clients, they are the people that appreciate me more, just because I do this and therefore I understand. And yet another, the countless groups of athletes I present to.  I have come across so many inspiring stories along the way, and I just want to be that to someone else. After all, endurance sports is in my self made job description. I have always insisted on walking the walk, not just talking the talk, so to continue being a confident, professional sports dietitian, this is a no brainer, even for someone who is no natural born athlete.

The hour wait in the porto potty line prior to the start of the race was literally for nothing… it always is. Stage fright is an understatement, and it never fails, so why I insist in waiting in those long smelly lines for nothing while I make all my training buddies wait on me is one of life’s unanswered questions. But thanks guys for waiting, I was half expecting no one to be left at our chosen lamp post meeting spot, leaving me to walk the pre race mile or two by myself to the actual starting line.

Finally we are there. I choose my 4” by 4” square on the pavement to stand in within the 4 hour (or so) expected finish time coral. A little apprehensive with the pressure, but heck, that’s not even a PR for me, so what the hell, right? I was getting pumped up just reading all the t-shirts around me… “Embrace the Challenge” (yeah, how apt), how about “Pain is temporary, glory is forever” ? OK, so the pain is definite, it’s just being overly emphasized at quite an inopportune time. I kind of relished in “Slow is the new Fast”, and my favorite one was “if found on street, please drag across the finish line”… yeah, that got me boosted, and as I was enjoying a private giggle, the gun went off.

At first I felt like I was being carried by the crowd. It was packed in for sure. But the crowd is as strong as its weakest entity, so it did not take long for the clichĂ© “survival of the fittest” to show it’s true colours.  The first few miles were hilly and seeing my training tends to lack those devilish hill repeats, I was puffing and panting and wandering where this flat race was that everyone who had done it seemed to report was the main trait of Marine Corps. Those hill repeats have since become angelic to me.

My goal is to master them along with tempo runs, and  of course master my own Mt Everest demon (aka Ashford Dunwoody rd.)  If I line all these ducks in a row, then perhaps my next marathon I can choose even a more hilly one (next??? –  who said next?? did I say that ??).  Ahhh… so Marine Corps was not that hilly after all… actually after a minor bump in the altitude map, at mile 8, it really was flat the rest of the way, except for the famous one mile climb at the very end, but the reward is not far, so that one mile climb at least comes with an adrenaline booster and a big thanks to all the supporters out there reminding us that the finish line is in reach.

Running through such a scenic district, with so much history to take in a long the way, made this memorable. The mall area, not only packed with people supporting the marathoners, but the way the scenes from movies, postcards, books and photos comes alive in each of the monuments. The Capitol has such awe about it, I almost forgot that this is the time I am usually mad at myself for signing up for something so ridiculous. Before you realize you are in this for real, you are crossing the Potomac, heading back towards Arlington cemetery and the finish line.

It is actually the first marathon I have done that I ran the entire race. I did not resort to walking at all, except giving myself a few steps at each water station, and yes, I stopped at every one of them to drink and relish my sports beans or gels like a good sports nutritionist would. I was soon muttering my mantra “water station to water station” and reaching the next one was just another brick paved in my yellow brick road.  As I approached the mile climb, it was an ironic coincidence that my iPod was blasting out “Knocking on Heaven’s Door”.  Downloading that song the day before, I would never have imagined how apt it would be and where it would shuffle, facing that monolithic Iwa Jima Memorial in the cemetry made me smile. Us marathoners may feel like knocking on Heavens door at mile 25, but at mile 26 .2 my song choice is none other than anything by Survivor, and yes, Eye of the Tiger is on my iPod, 4 versions of it, for that very reason.

The medal was a personal victory. I could think of nothing else but that was the last water station I have to reach, and as I looked up there was my ultimate training partner, Jay. He waited for me, had faith in me that I would not be that far behind him that he should move on to refuel himself first.

So in summary, it was awesome. I don’t think I have used that adjective before to describe a race. With the finish line now just a distance memory, my mind wanders to my training partners who each have not only their own, but  a hand in my personal victory. To all my clients who reward me daily too. Those that take what I teach them and put it into action, so they too can feel this way.  Besides this being the most rewarding part of what I do, they are the ones fueling my fire to continue with endurance sports so that I really can understand not only the physical side of what I teach, but the mental capacity.

Thank you, see you at the next one.

Ilana

What should I eat the week before my marathon?

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Should you worry about carbohydrate loading before your marathon?  Is the pre-race pasta party the best answer?  Specifically what should I eat the morning of the race?  You can find all these answers here.

Marathon Diet – Carbohydrate Loading

Most marathoners, even first timers, have heard of carbohydrate loading -“carbo loading”. Though most have no idea what it really means, beyond a vague notion of eating a lot of pasta the week before their marathon.

The old thinking was that you would starve your body of carbohydrates for several days and then stuff yourself with carbohydrates. The goal of this approach was to get the muscle to store as much glycogen as possible.

The rationale behind this thinking is that the body tends to hold onto and store nutrients that it is deprived of for a period of time. (Another reason not to skip meals but that is a story for another day.)  So.. if you deprive the body of carbs for a few days, then when you feed the body carbs it will store them.

However the problem is that severely depleting carbs can lead to severe fatigue, irritability and even sickness.

Quite a few years ago I was determined to complete the 12-week Body for Life program. I decided I needed a kickstart to my training so I went on a popular bodybuilding diet called the “Tuna Fish Diet”. This is a hardcore fat loss diet used by bodybuilders to “lean up” prior to a contest. You consume nothing but tuna and water daily for 3 days. I lasted 1 1/2 days. I thought smelling a can of tuna first thing in the morning would be the hard part but the hard part was midway through the second day when I was stumbling around my office in a stupor. Granted this was an extreme case of carbohydrate depletion but I learned a valuable lesson about the importance of carbohydrates.

Severely depleting carbs could potentially lead to some crappy last week workouts which is not the mindset you need for the last week.

Carb loading new thinking

Now that you have been dissuaded from the old carbo-loading approach, what should you do?

Firstly you should reduce the amount you eat during the last week. You have reduced your training volume, therefore you have reduced your calorie requirements. You don’t want to gain weight the week before your race. Imagine trying to run carrying 3-4 lb dumbbells.

Don’t worry if you do gain a bit of weight. Most likely this is water weight and this extra water will be beneficial on race day. For every gram of glycogen your body stores, it stores 2.6 grams of water. As you are not training at the intensity you were, your body is storing the glycogen – along with the water.

If you have been following a solid marathon training diet, you won’t have to change much the week before the race beyond reducing intake. Maybe make a conscious effort to replace one protein or fat serving a day with a carbohydrate serving. Going through the mental gyrations to calculate Monday – 60% carbs, Tues – 50% carbs – Wed – 60%… is just too much for even your competitive age grouper. There are more important variables that will make a difference in your performance in the marathon.

Several years ago a friend of mine (who is now a very competitive Ironman) was trying to break 4 hours in the marathon. He followed strict diet rules for carbo depletion and loading during race week. And bombed. A few weeks later while visiting his parents, he signed up for a local marathon on a whim. And easily broke 4 hours. We both firmly believe the difference lay in eating his mother’s cooking without stress that week.

Don’t walk around with a spreadsheet, simply make good choices that week.

Traveling to a marathon often throws off even the most prepared marathoner. If you are flying to the race, you will want to prepare yourself for the potential dehydration of the aeroplane air. Carry sports drink powder such as Gatorade or Accelerade in baggies onto the plane with you. (Don’t worry, I have never been stopped by security with baggies of white powder.) After you go through security, fill up your empty water bottle at the fountain and pour in the powder. Sip your carbohydrates and electrolytes all the way to your race city.

Plan your marathon race travel to ensure you don’t get thrown off your schedule.

What should I eat the day before my marathon?

This is the day you can positively (or negatively) impact your race performance.

The pre-race expo is a land mine of gastro-intestinal upset. Don’t eat all the free stuff at the expo, save it for the day after the marathon. You want to sample all the new stuff being shown but you don’t want to sacrifice your race for it. Bring it all back to the hotel to enjoy later.

The day before your marathon you want to take in slightly more carbs than usual. Your best choices for the increased carbohydrates are fruits and vegetables, specifically:

  • bananas,
  • peaches
  • cantaloupe,
  • watermelon,
  • honeydew,
  • potatoes,
  • sweet potatoes, and
  • yams.

Snack on dried fruit.

Dried fruit is easy to carry around with you on the last day and also easy to carry on the plane.

To moderate the glycemic index of the fruit, eat protein and fat with the fruit. Peanut butter can be added to a banana, you could make a smoothie with fruit and protein powder.

Skip the pasta party. It’s just not your best bet. More than likely what you will be eating is white flour and sugar. Eating cold-water fish for dinner instead such as tuna, mackerel and salmon will supply good fats and oils.

Choose foods low in fiber for the day before the marathon. Your nerves might be high today and you don’t want to give your digestive system any extra work.

The next step in your pre-race planning is the pre-marathon breakfast.

Ideal foods to eat before your marathon

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Now the big day is here!  What are your best food choices for race morning?

Before you decide exactly which foods to eat, review our guidelines for what to eat before your training run.

If you are reading this the day before your race, you should probably stick to what has worked for you in the past. Don’t be tempted to change anything. If you have not yet settled on a pre-race menu, here are options that work.

Foods to eat before the race should be foods that can easily be found in a regular grocery store.  Try each of these during training to see how they work for you.  You don’t want to have settled on  Ensure High Protein drink and only that and then discover it is sold out when you get to the store (yes this can happen when a lot of runners converge on an area.)

How much you eat depends on how early you get up.  You want to take in 200 – 300 calories PER HOUR you have left before the start of the marathon.  So if you get up 2 hours before the race, eat 400 – 600 calories.  If your pre-race dinner was early, say 12 hours ago, then take in the higher amount of calories.

Here are specific recommendations:

Fruit with eggs

Boiled eggs travel well and scrambled eggs are easy to find in hotel restaurants.  Choose fruit that is low in fiber such as:

  • bananas,
  • peaches,
  • cantaloupe,
  • honeydew, and
  • watermelon.

Fruits to avoid due to their high fiber content are:

  • apples,
  • berries,
  • dates,
  • figs,
  • grapes,
  • pears,
  • mango,
  • papaya and
  • pineapple.

If you are travelling remember to pack utensils you will need.

Applesauce mixed with protein powder

Make sure you get unsweetened applesauce. Stir in 2-3 tbsp of powdered egg or whey protein.  You can carry the powder in a small baggie with you, no need to bring the whole container.

Baby Food is always a good choice
You can usually find it anywhere and it is easily digestible.   You can even eat the meats if you could tolerate the taste pre-race.

Liquid meals are my standby
Due to nerves I often find I can’t manage whole foods.  I just can’t chew them.  This is more true for an Ironman race than a marathon but I always have a liquid back-up just in case.

You can blend low-fiber fruit (listed above), fruit juice and 2-3 tbsp of protein powder.  Sometimes I carry a Magic Bullet blender with me.

Another stand-by is Ensure High Protein.  You can find it in the baby aisle of most grocery stores.  I use this almost exclusively before long bike rides now.  It can be expensive but if you keep your eyes open you can find coupons in the Sunday paper.

Sports bar with protein

This doesn’t work well for me as I have trouble chewing them when nervous.  But many of my fellow runners eat them exclusively before a run.  These must be taken with a good amount of water. They are quite dry and can draw your fluids into the gut to help with digestion.

Drink plenty of fluid, including water

There is no reason not to have your morning coffee or tea just be SURE you have practiced this beforehand.  Caffeine speeds up your metabolism which can lead to upset stomach and nervousness – which is not ideal before your big race.

During the last hour before the race ONLY drink water.  Drinking fluid with sugar, such as a sports drink,  may cause low blood sugar leading to light-headedness.  (Of course that could be your nerves!)   Often digesting carbohydrates lead to a spike in insulin which causes a drop in blood sugar.  This is especially true of the high-glycemic carbs found in sports drinks.

However, 10 minutes before the start is a good time to take in 100 – 200 calories from a sports drink or gel. By the time these carbs hit your blood stream you will be running and the exercise effort will blunt the insulin effect.  Be sure to take this with 6-8 oz of water.

To make sure you get to race morning in optimal shape, read our guide to what to eat during marathon week.

After the marathon you will want to be able to celebrate your achievement.  Follow our guidelines for recovery nutrition to ensure you have energy for the party that night.