Marathon Training- what to eat while running

[BoundToBeMe]

Hi everyone, my husband and I are about to embark on the Whole30 challenge in a little over a week. I'm interested in doing the whole30 because I'm tired of always feeling bloated and tired. But my concern is food intake while running. I'm finishing up week five of training and my race is Oct 6. This weeks long run is 12 miles and I have noticed I need to eat often while I run.

I've read all the posts about how my performance will go down in the beginning and what people eat before (hard boiled eggs) and post (chicken and sweet potato) long runs. I've read most drink coconut water while running but no ones mentioned what they eat while they run.

I guess I am looking for any advice on what I can eat while running that is whole30 acceptable. I want to make sure I have this all figured out before I start the plan.

Thanks in advance for any advice!!

[ladyshanny]

Typically once you become fat adapted (after the first 10-14 days of the program providing you follow both rules and recommendations), most people find that they do not need to eat constantly during exercise.  This is because your body will access its own fat stores rather than rely on you providing quick fuel in the form of carbs.

 

Some people that do endurance or long events like the refillable squeeze pouches filled up with sweet potato. Some people eat dates for a burst when they need it. 

 

There is definitely an adjustment period during which you'll want to reduce mileage if possible or expect slower runs that feel kind of awful.

[BoundToBeMe]

Wow, thank you for the suggestions! I'm really interested to see how the whole30 affects my running and the food I need to intake while doing it. It will be nice to eventually get to the point where I won't need to eat so much while running.

[ExAstrisScientia]

I am training for a marathon on October 9th and I just did a 12 mile run this morning (actually it ended up being almost 13 because of the route I took and a pit-stop at a bathroom).  I thought I'd chime in with what worked for me!

 

Yesterday I made sure to eat some starchy carbs with all three of my meals.  Plantain at breakfast, an apple at lunch, sweet potato at dinner.  I also had two medjool dates with my dinner, which I do not normally consume, but I'm also recovering from under-eating carbs for a while so I wanted to make sure my stores were good.  I ate the dates with my meal, not as a "dessert".

 

This morning, I woke up at 5 and had a small cup of coffee with coconut milk and a hefty spoonful of almond butter as my pre-WO food.  I was doing boiled eggs for a while but they didn't always sit well in my stomach so today was my first try with almond butter and it worked great!

 

For the actual run, I took a water bottle filled 2/3 with plain water and 1/3 with 100% coconut water and a pinch of salt, plus a packet of sweet potato-apple baby food.  I ate half of the baby food about an hour into my run, and then the remainder 45 minutes after that.  Only ended up drinking about 1/3 of the water bottle (it was cold and rainy the entire time I was out there).  My energy was even and steady during the entire run.  The whole time!  Which is remarkable to me because I'd been suffering for a while prior (again, I wasn't eating enough carbs with my meals, so that was probably a contributing factor).  The final 2 miles or so my muscles started to feel achy, but I think that's more a matter of increasing distance than actually running out of steam (this was my longest distance - up from 8.5 for my long run last week - since mid June when I ran a half marathon).

 

I ran slow and steady, and walked a couple of times when I ate the baby food or took a drink of water, like you would during a race.  

 

Once I got home I had my post-WO chicken breast and a few bites of a cold sweet potato, showered, and had my meal 1.  My legs feel a little tired but not achy or sore or on the verge of cramping up.  All in all I'm really happy with how today went, considering I was dreading it a couple days ago when I was still in my low-carb fog.  

 

Your mileage (ha) may vary with all of that, but I wanted to share my own approach that worked quite well for me.

 

Good luck with your Whole 30 and your training!

[BoundToBeMe]

ExAstrisScientia, I actually read a couple of your posts. Thanks for the input, I really appreciate it. I know tomorrow's run isn't going to be the best because my house and myself have been sick this week. But I want to try the food out ahead of time to see if I can make it work. I was going to buy the reusable squeeze pouches and cook up some sweet potatoes tonight but using baby food is a great idea.

I've read one post that someone said they would eat dates and almond butter on their run while another person said Lara bars.

I like your ratio of water to coconut water. I'm not sure I could stomach coconut water on its own but I might be surprised.

Thanks again for the advise and encouragement!

[ExAstrisScientia]

Ugh, I'm sorry about your sickness.  That'll sidetrack a run, Whole 30 or not (and in fact is how I started my own Whole 30, with a really bad sickness that took me down for a week).  Take it easy on yourself and don't be afraid of cutting the run short if you need to.

 

I think I am going to try salted dates on a run sometime in the future (I had an idea to stuff them with a macadamia nut, too), or perhaps making my own "gel" out of mashed sweet potato, coconut milk, and salt.  I've also heard of people taking along nut butter packs, such as Justin's plain almond butter.  The nice thing about the baby food is that they're really portable and no-mess, and you can get them in any store if you travel for races and don't want to haul nutrition along.  

 

Let us know how it goes for you!

[BoundToBeMe]

So the run wasn't great.. The group and I decided to try and beat the heat by running early but at 6am it was already 83. Take into account the humidity, my phone said it would feel closer to 87. I ended up walking part of the last two miles. I loved the baby food but struggled to really want to 'eat' anything during the run. I think it was just too hot! I'm a little nervous on what I am going to do without my Gatorade and electrolyte pills. But I did buy some coconut water.

I start whole30 tomorrow and I am interested to see how it affects me and my running. I'm excited and hope I see a change in my body.

I saw that you put coconut milk in your coffee. Do you use the canned or what do you use?

[ExAstrisScientia]

I used canned full-fat coconut milk, and add a heavy glug of it to my mug.  My favorite brand is Native Forest.

[LBoogie]

On 7/24/2016 at 8:03 PM, BoundToBeMe said:

So the run wasn't great.. The group and I decided to try and beat the heat by running early but at 6am it was already 83. Take into account the humidity, my phone said it would feel closer to 87. I ended up walking part of the last two miles. I loved the baby food but struggled to really want to 'eat' anything during the run. I think it was just too hot! I'm a little nervous on what I am going to do without my Gatorade and electrolyte pills. But I did buy some coconut water.

I start whole30 tomorrow and I am interested to see how it affects me and my running. I'm excited and hope I see a change in my body.

I saw that you put coconut milk in your coffee. Do you use the canned or what do you use?

So how did it go? I have a little less that a month before I start training for my first marathon and I want to do the Whole30 again. Since I am about 3 weeks out from starting, I figured my sluggish days will be behind me when I start but I will still be doing the Whole30. What did you learn, what was your experience and what advice do you have?

And how was the marathon??!!

Thanks