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Carbo loading
Hi I'm doing my first marathon in Manchester this year and want a good carbo loading meal plan has anyone got one they can send me please. And any other a dive you can give me Thank you
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If you really want to carb load, then you need nothing more than something like pasta or rice, and a bit of chicken, the night before. Keep it plain too (i.e. no creamy sauces or owt funny like prawns) so as to avoid getting a dicky tummy on the day of your run.
Cheers
You do not "need" to carbo-load at all to complete a marathon, you need to complete the training schedule. The rest is fine tuning.
I read this - altho there is a lot of stuff re carbo loading myths now - and more likely to gastro intestinal stress and lower performance than improve. Also danger of doing something or eating something new before a race. Also heard that a carbo lunch day before rather than a carbo evening meal is better.
"Mistake #1: Skipping carb depletion phase.
Mistake #2: Simple carbs.
We’ve heard it a million times “not all carbs are created equal” and yet somehow in the lead up to race week we toss aside our normally good habits for junk food carbs (eg no pizza but fruit good source of carbs)."
I alter my diet for about three days prior to a target marathon by cutting down on fruit and veg (I eat a lot usually) and switching to white bread and rice rather than wholegrain - hopes to minimise 'GI issues'. If I'm racing on the Sunday then Friday and Saturday become 'see it, want it, eat it' days but I'm talking oat cakes, toast and peanut butter, porridge etc rather than chocolate, crisps etc. I like a bigger portion than usual of pasta eaten earlier than usual on the Saturday evening with a basic tomato sauce and tuna or salmon with rice pudding if I have room for afters. Race morning I have some form of oats (muesli, porridge, oats and banana) which is my usual pre-long run breakfast followed by a bagel with peanut butter if I have room/time. The most important thing is to practice what you intend to eat, don't try anything new on race day.
for years my pre race meal has been fish and chips , bread and butter and a pint......going to experiment this year on something different..its all trial and error....
I wouldnt do too much different to how you do your long runs
Tried a few, tried without. My favourite was decrease carbs for a few days before then eat a normal (i.e. non-overload) meal (preferably breakfast). The decrease in carbs was more about calorie control at the end of the taper than about carb loading. The normal meal was to re-introduce readily available carbs.
Carb loading is what you make of it, but I tried to avoid carb-overloading where the intention is to deplete the glycogen in your muscle stores then overload with carbs with the intention of somehow 'overfilling' the glycogen stores. I think the issue with this is that such stores also need readily available water, which your body stores nearby. The extra water weight associated with replete glycogen stores can be a couple of kilograms. As much as anything else that's different on race day, a couple of extra kilograms could have a fairly negative impact on your performance.
Tim Noakes has famously ripped out the Carb Loading chapter from his Lore of Running book. He now advocates low carb high fat nutrition approaches (but that takes some adaptation, so don't try it for teh marathon!).
Drinking sugary drinks during your marathon for the 3 in 1 hit of sugar, electrolytes and hydration is enough to fuel a marathon. There is no need to eat piles of bread, rice, pasta in the final 2 or 3 days before a marathon. Normal diet, a good night's rest and an adequate breakfast pre-marathon.