First of all, I want you to give yourself a pat on the back. You have made it through January and in my opinion one of the toughest months of training for a Spring marathon. It’s been dark, it’s been cold, we have had storms to contend with, its not been easy! BUT we are now getting closer to those lighter mornings, lighter evenings and maybe even some sunshine - although no promises there.

But what I can promise as we head into February, is that your marathon training is going to be taken up a notch. This month you will notice that your long runs are going to start getting longer, and for some of you this may mean you are covering distances you have never covered before.

Last week I shared my top tips on how to nail your long run, and this week we are going to dive deeper into one area in particular that has a real impact on not only your overall training, but especially those long runs - fuelling.

But for this, I need some help. So I have asked the nutrition experts at XMiles to share their wisdom and advice to ensure that not only are you fuelling your training the best you can, but ultimately be prepared for event day too.

Hitting The Wall

If you have run a marathon (or any long distance event) before, you may be familiar with the phrase hitting the wall, and you may have even experienced it yourself. This tends to happen in the latter stages of the marathon (think 3 hours plus) and it is essentially when you feel like your body has given up on you - your pace may slow down, you feel depleted and mentally it can be a real battle to get to the finish line.

What a lot of runners don’t realise, is that 99% of time, this is down to poor fuelling, and essentially you’re running on empty, which is what causes you to slow down or in some cases, even have to stop running.

The good news is, this can be avoided if you fuel correctly both before and during your run, you can keep your fuel tank topped up and not experience the dreaded ‘bonk’.

But I get it, it can be confusing to know what to do.. so lets break it down together.

The Sciencey bit… 🤓

First of all, I would highly recommend using the XMiles Nutrition Calculator to get advice and products that are tailored specifically to you, as like with most things in running, there isn’t a one size fits all approach to nutrition.

The calculator will ask for your event, your target time and also your weight to determine how many calories and carbohydrates you need to consume before, during and after the event, and you can then add your chosen products to your list to create the right nutrition plan for you. And whilst I would suggest just to use this as a guideline, it can be a really useful tool to get you started.

To give you an example, here is what they have suggested for a female, weighing 65kg aiming for 4 hours.

Now whilst this is a guide for race day, it can be a really useful tool when it comes to fuelling your training runs too, as ultimately you should be thinking of your long runs as a dress rehearsal for the main event.

Pre Run

During

For those longer runs (anything longer than 90 minutes) the key is to take fuel on from the start of your run, don't wait until it's too late.

Ideally you want to get used to taking on fuel approximately every 30 minutes from the start. Now if you fuelled correctly before your run, you won’t feel like you need to take anything on in those early stages, but the key here is keeping your energy stores topped up.

You want to be aiming for around 30g to 60g of carbs per hour, which helps to maintain blood glucose levels and sustain performance. One of the easiest ways to do this is to take on energy gels - there are lots of different gels available, and the best thing to do is try a variety to find what works best for you.

If you don’t like using gels, there are other alternatives out there too. For example energy chews, drinks powders you can add to your water, or you may find that taking on actual food is what works best for you - but just remember, whatever you do in training is what you will do on race day, so it is about finding something that is also practical too. And if you are really not sure what products to choose, XMiles also offer a monthly nutrition box, where you can try a range of different products to find what works best for you.

Again, the sooner you can start practicing this, the better, and now that your long runs will be starting to increase, it really is the perfect time to try different methods out.

Post Run

Final Top Tips

Science provides guidelines; however, your body can be the deciding factor. We recommend training with the fuel you are going to use on race day to make sure there is no unnecessary stomach discomfort.

Trial 20-30g of carbs per hour, and then work up to 50-60g carbs per hour in order to train your stomach.
Set your GPS Watch to bleep every 20 to 30 minutes to remind you to fuel during your long runs.
Start fuelling early into race day so your gut can absorb carbs easier.
The final and most important rule is: NEVER TRY ANYTHING NEW ON RACE DAY.

Coopah How To: Fuel Your Marathon Training