Carbo Loading

Afternoon all

Just a quick question that's stumped me of late regards Carbo-Loading for the marathon. I've run two marathon's previously and am gearing up for Paris in April this year.

Not surprisingly, I've loved those three days pre-event when the carbo-loading starts but am looking to get it spot-on this time round. The first time (Edinburgh 2011), I made the beginners mistake of believing it was simply an excuse to stuff my face with bread, pasta, etc for 72 hours.

I was a little more clued up last time (Barcelona last year), and had the 'same-portion-sizes-but-greater-ratio-of-carbs' pretty much sorted. However, I was eating brown rice/bread/pasta as it's drilled into us that brown is the way forward with everything, and a bit of chicken for protein too.

Now, having done a bit of reading up on the subject, the general rules for the stuff you're sticking in your gob appear to be;

* High carb

* Low fat

* Low protein

* Low fibre

So high carb is easy enough, and low/zero fat too. But how, without trawling round Tesco for hours reading the nutritional values of every brand/variety of everything you're after, do you go about finding stuff that's both high carb, low fat, low protein AND low-fibre?!

It's the fibre part that makes it difficult, how often do you see a product described as 'Low Fibre - it WON'T FILL YOU UP'?!?

For example, what would you have in a sandwich?! Don't get me wrong, I love a jam/marmalade white-bread sarnie, but what else can you touch? Meat= protein, cheese= fat, salad= fibre. See what I'm getting at?

Apologies for the long winded nature of the above, and I highly suspect I'm just looking WAY too much into it all and sounding a little over-analytical, but any help would be much appreciated?

Or perhaps a list of any carbo-loading products that tick every box you've discovered?!

Ta

 

Comments

  • Fuck me mate have you got OCD ??

    To be honest mate i've never taken any notice of all this...

    Just be good but don't overdo it, your looking far to much into it

    You need to load up a few days before, but not to the extreme your on about..

    I didn't carbo load at all just ate normal and ran just over 3 hrs ..

  • If you want to carbo load try this, cooked pasta spread with honey and banana left overnight between 2 slices of bread, now thats real carbo loading

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • I always have fish and chips with bread and butter and a pint the night before a long race image

  • MillsyMillsy ✭✭✭
    I had chicken and chips, ice cream for dessert and 2 pints of lager before my last PB.

    Eat enough but not too much. I also cut down on fibre in the last 4 days to stop a case of the runners trots en route.
  • And tins of cold Ambrosia creamed rice image
  • Bedders wrote (see)

    It's the fibre part that makes it difficult, how often do you see a product described as 'Low Fibre - it WON'T FILL YOU UP'?!?

    Well you don't really need 'Low Fibre' in the description. If you really want to know if something is low in fibre then look at the Fibre content under nutritional values per 100g. If it's low per 100g compared to that of 'High in Fibre' foods, then it's low in fibre...

    ...but I don't think it's necessary to go to such lengths. For me I just try and avoid/minimise wholewheat foods and raw/crunchy/leafy/leguminous veg in the couple of days leading up to a race. Good hydration the day before and warm drink in the morning usually sees me with a nicely emptied bowel in good time for race day image  I generally avoid bread during that time as I find it bloats me and takes me a long time to digest vs pasta/rice/potato/couscous.

    If you really want to micro-manage it then you could use a calorie counting app, then after a few weeks of discovering your maintenance level, you have a baseline for judging how much extra to consume to fuel up appropriately in the days before a race. If you're targetting specific ratios of fat/carb/protein/fibre etc then I know myfitnesspal allows you to track this, but common sense together with some general nutirional knowledge should suffice.

  • PC -PC - ✭✭✭
    Hi Bedders,



    Hope your training is going well. I've been looking for Carb advice, on the target26,2 threads the nutritionist suggests 10g per kg body weight. Also there are examples. She breaks it down over the day, breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, supper so you don't have to suffer plates full of pasta. Other suggestions I found, banana sandwich, white rice is very high in carbs - rice pudding with a tin of fruit salad. I'm Carb loading for my HM on Sunday just had my porridge. I wouldn't worry about the details, I'm not going to be short of the recommended amount.



    Any worries ask the guys and girls on the Paris forum, they are the friendliest encyclopedia ever. A bientot.
  • WiBWiB ✭✭✭

    Bearing in mind the limited amount you can store, that it is stored locally in muscles and best absorbed after training to replenish what has been used. Add to that that you have most likely not done it or needed to do it in training. What is the benefit of stuffing yourself full of carbs for 3 days?...

  • Yep no need for a 3 day carb fest. I just eat well day before, cereal, pasta for lunch and dinner. Snack between, usually bananas and Jaffa cakes. Good hydration and normally stop eating 6-8 pm. Doesn't have to be low fat as you will be burning fat as fuel as well. Largely it's about finding what works for you, I didn't get it right until my 4th.
  • do any of you practice this carb loading prior to race day? i.e. for any of your long runs? to be most effective it should be combined with a reduction in training volume/intensity during the loading phase, which might not be ideal during a busy training schedule.

  • You have to be a bt careful not to over feed also in the preceeding week or so as you may start to put on weight. Bear in mind that over the preceeding months you will have, or should have, had quite a high calorific intake anyway to support your training, This should reduce a bit during your taper as you're not training as much and then increase over the few days before the race. You just want to make sure that you're fully fueled - I've read that your' body can only store about 2000kCals anyway so you need to be thinking about race fueling also depending on how long/fast your planed time is going to be.

    AgentGinger - I wouldn't be thinking as purely a carbo loading thing before a long run, but as I've said above you need to ensure that you have the correct calories to support your training.

    That said, here's what I ate the afternoon before VLM 2010. image

    /members/images/165425/gallery/carbload.jpg

     

  • image

     

    I never carb load before a marathon - I just up the percentage a little and cut down on the greens - certainly don't start swarfing down sweets.

  • @Fingers

    I bet you're still picking bits of that sieve out of your teeth though!

  • WiBWiB ✭✭✭
    AgentGinger wrote (see)

    do any of you practice this carb loading prior to race day? i.e. for any of your long runs? to be most effective it should be combined with a reduction in training volume/intensity during the loading phase, which might not be ideal during a busy training schedule.

    I never do it as it is not necessary for training or racing.

  • seren nos wrote (see)

    I always have fish and chips with bread and butter and a pint the night before a long race image

    Heaven and now added to my pre race routine!!

  • seren nos wrote (see)

    I always have fish and chips with bread and butter and a pint the night before a long race image

    You are Alf Tupper & I claim my £5 image

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