I've done 4 marathons in the last 12 months but can't get my nutrition sorted. In the first couple I took one gel every 5 or 6 miles, but hit the wall pretty badly at about 18 to 20 miles. I then took a break of about 10 months before my third, where I tried "little and often", taking either a sip of gel, a jelly baby or a marzipan ball every mile.
I felt much better and didn't really hit the wall, but when I tried to repeat it last week, it didn't really work and I felt sick by about mile 20 and faded at mile 21, missing my target time by 5 minutes. Funnily enough though my times for my third and fourth marathons were within seconds of each other.
Has anyone got any advice? I think that too many gels make me feel sick and although I quite like the jelly babies and marzipan balls I've not been brave enough to leave the gels at home yet.
I have my next marathon coming up in 5 weeks and would like to have tried something by then.
Comments
Have you tried rice, popcorn or cereal bars? Something like a peanut Tracker has sugar plus a bit of salt and gives your stomach something a bit more substantial and less "sloshy".
I tend to have them at miles 8 and 17 with jelly beans the rest of the way round.
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I'm usually on with gels but if I go off too fast or it's too hot I do struggle.
Millsy, I've wondered about the long run thing, but I've done 6 long runs (inc. two marathons) of 20 miles or more this year and have been careful about tapering and loading.I don't think the pace I'm going for of 3hrs 45min is out of reach as my HM PB is around 1hr 43mins and I've been very careful about not going out too fast.
Michael & Scream - I'll try alternative gels and the peanut Tracker (sounds nice), seems a good idea. I've been using High 5 gels almost exclusively.
I usually make up marzipan balls with nuts, raisins and cacoa nibs, which are delicious on the run. Maybe I should eat them in preference to the gels.
Thanks for your help.
I never take anything on my long runs, except maybe some water if it's warm, and have never been confident that I'd last a marathon. I might try and stick to more solid food like the jelly babies and marzipan and see how I get on.
Thanks Millsy, maybe I shouldn't have used the word 'never', I do test various nutritional strategies on the last long run or two before a marathon, but would only take a couple of gels or whatever, just to check they don't make me sick. I certainly wouldn't take them every 6 miles or so. I think that I may go the whole hog in preparation for my next marathon in 5 weeks time.
On my other long runs, I never take anything.
Thanks again Millsy. I read 'Nutrition for Marathon running' over the weekend and it's pointed out that I don't seem to be eating enough either on a daily basis or when it comes to carb loading.
I'm taking it to mean that I can eat more cake than I currently do. Result !
I also didn't realise the science involved in carb loading and when it refers to eating so many grams of carbohydrate per day leading into a marathon, it's not referring to the weight of the pasta (for example), but the weight of the constituent carbohydrates, which may be only 50 to 75% of the pasta.