How to train, eat and relax in the week before my first marathon?
4 min read
Asked by: Cecilia Williams
Drink lots of water during the week before the race. This optimizes your hydration before you hit the start line. Eat a diet rich in complex carbohydrates, such as breads, rice, pasta and starchy vegetables. This helps maximize your glycogen (energy) stores.
What should I do the week before my first marathon?
During the week before your marathon or half marathon, continue to get in shorter fitness walks or runs of 30 to 60 minutes, each day or every other day. You want to stay limber, but you shouldn’t do hard training or difficult hills and stairs.
How should I eat the week before a marathon?
You should only be consuming light, digestible foods like energy bars, bread, and small sandwiches. Keep drinking water and electrolyte beverages and avoid salty and high fiber foods. Examples include: energy bars, bread, cereal, and small sandwiches.
What should I eat the week before a race?
Night before the race
Definitely skip roughage and high-fiber foods, such as beans, salads and certain crackers, cereals and bread. Stick with white bread, rice or pasta, because these are more easily digested.
What should I eat 3 days before a marathon?
3 to 4 Days Out: Up the Carbs
Boosting carbohydrate intake to 3.5 to 4 grams of carbohydrate for every pound of body weight will further increase your glycogen stores. That’s 455 to 520 grams of carbs for a 130-pound runner and 630 to 720 grams of carbs for a 180-pound runner.
What should I eat 2 days before marathon?
The two days before your half-marathon, your diet should be focused on complex carbohydrates mixed with protein. Foods that contain complex carbohydrates are cereals, rice, breads, legumes, pasta, potatoes and starchy vegetables.
Is it OK not to run the week before a marathon?
Mario’s advice is to “keep the rhythm of your workouts leading up to race day. Remember, there’s no appreciable fitness to gain in the 10-14 days before your event, so no need to do a huge session that’ll take you half a week to recover from.
What should you not eat before a marathon?
Are These Foods Making You Run Slower?
- High-fiber foods. Beans, broccoli, and berries: remember those three B’s as you don’t want to eat them just before a run or a workout. …
- Dairy. …
- Sugary drinks. …
- Fried foods. …
- Spicy food. …
- Protein bars.
Should you train the week before a race?
In the last week, it is important to get one more hard workout in four or five days before the race. This is designed to give your muscles one last training stimulus and to prepare your body for the demands of the upcoming race.
What should I eat 48 hours before a marathon?
To get there, be sure to consume high-carb foods and beverages at every meal (e.g. oatmeal and orange juice for breakfast, noodle soup for lunch and a rice dish for dinner) and supplement with high-carb beverages such as Ensure between meals.
What should I do the week of my marathon?
10 Things to do on Marathon Week
- Review your Training Log. Look back over all you have achieved in the last few months. …
- Plan your food for the week. …
- Create a checklist of everything you need on race day. …
- Visualise your race. …
- Organise your Supporters. …
- Watch Inspirational Marathon Videos. …
- Sleep and Rest. …
- Know your pace.
When should you eat before a marathon?
When should I eat Before a marathon? You want to ensure you eat at least two hours before the race, says Stephens. What is this? Ideally, you eat your breakfast 3-4 hours before the marathon, and then a snack an hour before.
How should I carb load before a marathon?
The morning of the race: 1.5-2.5 g of carbs for every 1 kg of body weight 3-4 hours before the race and a smaller carbohydrate snack -banana, bar, bread, 1 hour before the race. Also, have in 5-7 mL of water/electrolytes fluid per 1kg of body weight.
Are eggs good before running?
Protein takes longer for your body to digest—so you’ll have to eat a couple of hours before the race begins—but eggs are a popular pre-race breakfast choice, especially for those who like something “real” for breakfast. Eating a breakfast like this, long enough in advance, leaves you well-fueled for a long race.
What do I eat the night before a marathon?
Choose refined carbohydrates, like white rice, pasta and bread, and avoid high-fibre foods like whole grains, beans and legumes. Eat a high-carbohydrate bedtime snack, like a small bowl of oatmeal or granola.
