Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Fueling for 26.2 miles....
Options
-
01-11-2016 6:05pm#1
Comments
-
-
-
I have my liquid mix ready (60ish carbs/hour drink) for the first 10k or so but I never felt like eating that so I ended up starting with gels (2-3 an hour, without caffeine). After 21k soonest or 30k latest I would start drinking Cola and switch to caffeine gels if I felt my stomach is fine (I don't think I took any gels after 33-35k). Obviously, would drink water whenever felt like it and add a bit of banana or orange here and there, more for the "feel" than the "need"...
I never actually did "dry" marathon so I'll keep on reading advices here
0 -
-
-
Advertisement
-
-
-
From the perspective of someone who is primarily an ultrarunner:
The last 2 marathons I ran I ate pretty much nothing, and would have drank about half a litre of liquids (think it happened to be lucozade sport or something like that). They were both off-road marathons, so would have taken longer to run than a road marathon, with a hillier course profile as well. I would have accelerated through aid stations to deliberatly disrupt competitors who needed to stop to pick up fuel, or simply to leave them behind if they did stop. The last time I checked my finishing times for those 2 races were still the course records.
Gels are awful gunk, and horrendously expensive to boot. John Tracey's Irish marathon record was set without a single gel being consumed (as they had yet to be invented/marketed as a neccessity). They do have their uses for recovering from catastrophic energy crashes, but then it would be better not to have a catastrophic energy crash in the first place.
Was wondering if you would show up for this one alright
I assume if recommending the no fuel approach you're basing that on adopting that approach across all training as well....0 -
-
-
Advertisement
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
All this marathon fueling chit chat has reminded me that when I did the New York City marathon 2 years ago, I met a gal on the ferry over to the start line who was going to fuel on 3 or 4 dates alone. ("Dates" being of the fruit variety and not the tall, dark and handsome kind!
) She was from Australia and had used this strategy before with success. I have no idea how she did on the day, but her approach made an impression on me! 0 -
-
All this marathon fueling chit chat has reminded me that when I did the New York City marathon 2 years ago, I met a gal on the ferry over to the start line who was going to fuel on 3 or 4 dates alone. ("Dates" being of the fruit variety and not the tall, dark and handsome kind!) She was from Australia and had used this strategy before with success. I have no idea how she did on the day, but her approach made an impression on me!
I fuelled my last few half ironman races (bike legs) using dates. Depending on the size of the variety of date, the usual equivalency is 2 to 3 dates to one energy gel - both provide approx 20g carbohydrate. They are unusual for a fruit in that most of their bulk and weight comes from sugar and not water. Completely useless from a hydration view so balancing water intake and digestion is key! They were recommended to me by a dietician and are a nice alternative to synthetic crap. Edit - having said that I reverted to synthetic crap in Kenmare and it worked out better for me 0 -
-
the fiber can be an issue racing
but for training very good stuff.I fuelled my last few half ironman races (bike legs) using dates. Depending on the size of the variety of date, the usual equivalency is 2 to 3 dates to one energy gel - both provide approx 20g carbohydrate. They are unusual for a fruit in that most of their bulk and weight comes from sugar and not water. Completely useless from a hydration view so balancing water intake and digestion is key! They were recommended to me by a dietician and are a nice alternative to synthetic crap. Edit - having said that I reverted to synthetic crap in Kenmare and it worked out better for me0 -
From a pure 26.2 perspective, over the years I've been reducing my dependence on fueling during a marathon. Not necessarily a conscious effort, but more a by-product of just coming to terms with the fact that I have less of a need for fuel during training and as a consequence, races. I didn't get to run a marathon this year (fell at the final hurdle), but if I had, strategy would have been:
Day before: Standard diet with a slight bias/increase in carbs
Morning of: Porridge and water/electrolytes (maybe sip on a diluted sports drink)
During race: Water + electrolytes
Break-glass Emergency: Caffeine-based ISO gel and two other ISO gels
I'm not sure that the gels really do anything for me (other than add to post-race nausea), but it's like a superstition - hard to shake off; and placebos do for the most part provide some form of benefit (gels = sugar pills?!), so while I won't most likely take them, it's convenient to know that they're there. So yeah, for the most part, my fueling is water and electrolytes (so approximately zero calories). But it's been a gradual transformation, measured in years, rather than in months, over repeated marathon cycles. Perhaps it's the result of a gradual improvement in running economy/efficiency as a consequence of clocking up thousands and thousands of miles.
When you can run the weekly bog-standard easy 20-22 mile run without water or fuel without significant hardship, it's a pretty good indicator. Similarly for those simulation training sessions of 15-20 miles with 12-15 miles @marathon pace), if you can get through those without the need for carbs/sugar (as well as half-marathons and longer distances races), it's a pretty good signal that you're unlikely to need to fuel-up during a marathon.
Not holding myself up as paragon of marathon running, just sharing my own experience as a runner who has progressed from 3:25 to 2:33 over the last few years and seen my in-race fuel requirements change significantly over the period. Obviously not relevant to multi-disciplinary events. Also, apologies for the non-metric nature of my contribution, but in fairness, Dory Dory is from the land where kilometers are as welcome as Mexicans. 0 -
-
-
Krusty_Clown wrote: »From a pure 26.2 perspective, over the years I've been reducing my dependence on fueling during a marathon. Not necessarily a conscious effort, but more a by-product of just coming to terms with the fact that I have less of a need for fuel during training and as a consequence, races. I didn't get to run a marathon this year (fell at the final hurdle), but if I had, strategy would have been:
Day before: Standard diet with a slight bias/increase in carbs
Morning of: Porridge and water/electrolytes (maybe sip on a diluted sports drink)
During race: Water + electrolytes
Break-glass Emergency: Caffeine-based ISO gel and two other ISO gels
I'm not sure that the gels really do anything for me (other than add to post-race nausea), but it's like a superstition - hard to shake off; and placebos do for the most part provide some form of benefit (gels = sugar pills?!), so while I won't most likely take them, it's convenient to know that they're there. So yeah, for the most part, my fueling is water and electrolytes (so approximately zero calories). But it's been a gradual transformation, measured in years, rather than in months, over repeated marathon cycles. Perhaps it's the result of a gradual improvement in running economy/efficiency as a consequence of clocking up thousands and thousands of miles.
When you can run the weekly bog-standard easy 20-22 mile run without water or fuel without significant hardship, it's a pretty good indicator. Similarly for those simulation training sessions of 15-20 miles with 12-15 miles @marathon pace), if you can get through those without the need for carbs/sugar (as well as half-marathons and longer distances races), it's a pretty good signal that you're unlikely to need to fuel-up during a marathon.
Not holding myself up as paragon of marathon running, just sharing my own experience as a runner who has progressed from 3:25 to 2:33 over the last few years and seen my in-race fuel requirements change significantly over the period. Obviously not relevant to multi-disciplinary events. Also, apologies for the non-metric nature of my contribution, but in fairness, Dory Dory is from the land where kilometers are as welcome as Mexicans.[/QUOTE
it still is quit relevant as in a way the main nutrition happens on the bike.
for most people the most difficult nutritional part in a ironman is the first 30 k on the bike if you miss nutriton there you set yourself up nicely for failure ,especialy if you are a slower swimmer and/or start the bike to fast and around 120 -160 on the bike if you do the right stuff there the run nutrition is not going to be a biggy.
even more so than in the marathon all the diggestive issues are likely not nutrional but pacing ( but its much easier to blame the nutrition)
i did not use a single gel or bar this year in barcelona on the run since i was going so slow, usually i take 1-3
electrolytes would not really do in an ironman but ( enrgy drink and coke are enough if you get the nutrition on the bike right and maybe one or 2 gels. more if the nutrion was not right on the bike or you overpaced the bike .
One of my favortite nutriotnal marathon storries, a shop owner once had one of his employees cycle the dublin marathon course whit him to give him a gel every 20 min. its great if you really believe in the products you sell ;-)0 -
Advertisement
-
Advertisement