Las Vegas Half Marathon

 The biggest change the week before the marathon or half marathon is the change in your training schedule, not your diet, according to Nancy Clark, MS, RD. Tapering down your training allows your body to recover. It gives your muscles the opportunity to become fully fueled.

You don’t need to eat hundreds more calories this week. You just need to exercise less. The calories that are normally expended during exercise, say 600 - 1,000 during a workout, will now be used to fuel your muscles. Maintain your diet of 60 - 65% carbohydrate, 15 - 20 % protein, 20 - 25% fat, according to Emily Edison, MS, RD. Don’t load up on foods your body isn’t used to, like white flour low fiber bagels etc. Your best bet is to skip higher fat dressings and butter and add another plain roll to your diet.

Many marathoner’s avoid protein rich foods the days before the marathon. This isn’t necessary, in fact runners burn a little bit of protein along with carbodydrates and fat during an event. You can add a bit of protein to your meals, just don’t have it be the main focus.

You may gain 3-4 pounds as you taper down. This is water weight. For every ounce of carbohydrate stored in your body, you store about 3 ounces of water. You’ll know that your muscles are fueled if the scale goes up a couple of pounds.

The day before your race, it’s important to include carbohydrates in breakfast and lunch. Don’t just rely on a huge pasta dinner. Some good choices are: cereals, bananas, whole grain bagels, multi-grain bread, rice and pasta.

Drink plenty of water and juices. Abstrain from too much alcohol. A beer or glass of wine is okay, especially with a carbohydrate rich dinner. However, too much alcohol will leave you dehdrated. This will impact your performance the next day. Better to be saturated with water than hung over from alcohol.

Nancy Clark’s Good Guide For Marathoner’s, by Nancy Clark MS,RD
Nutrition For Endurance, Emily Edison, MS, RD

There is so much information out there regarding nutrition, it can be very confusing. Should I eat carbohydrates? Are carbohydrates bad? What about protein? It’s hard to make sense of it all.

A registered dietician can help wade through the misinformation and help you achieve your goals, whether you want to lose a few pounds, complete your first half marathon or take your game to a new level.

Emily Edison is a recognized professional in the area of exercise and nutrition. She offers nutrition counseling at her Seattle-area office. Edison specializes in nutrition for exercise, wellness, and the management of eating disorders. Her practice includes teaching people how to eat for endurance, improve vitality, and listen to their individual internal cues for eating. Emily is also the Sports Dietitian for the University of Washington Husky Athletic Department.

Lisa: The most common question people ask me is what should I eat to support my training?

Emily: The biggest problem I find is that athletes aren’t getting enough calories to sustain their sport. I like to use the term energy rather than calories. It takes energy to do the activity. The question is how much energy?

When athletes don’t take in enough calories, they don’t have the energy to recover from workouts. Muscle and bone is broken down and that’s when more injuries occur.

Lisa: How do you know how many calories you need?

Emily: It depends on your resting metabolic rate. Resting metabolic rate, RMR is the amount of calories that your body needs to live at rest. That does not include activity. RMR is how many calories you need if you laid in bed all day.

To Estimate your Daily Caloric Requirement:

1. Determine your estimated RMR by taking your body weight and multiply by 10. Example: 130 x 10 = 1300 calories (RMR)

2. Determine how many calories you need for purposeful exercise. Example: jogging for 60 minutes at 6.0 burns 4.2 calories per pound of body weight. 130 x 4.2=546

3. Determine how many calories are needed for activity level APART from purposeful exercise.
Example: 1300(RMR) x 30% = 390 calories

If you are sedentary add 20-40% RMR
If you are moderately active add 40-60% RMR
If you are very active add 60-80% RMR

4. Add the answers to steps 1,2, and 3 to determine today’s daily caloric requirement. Example: 1300(RMR) + 546 purposeful exercise + 390 daily activity calories = 2236 calories.

Lisa: How much of each nutrient is required? Carbohydrates? Protein? Fat?

Emily: 60-65% of calories for endurance athletes should come from carbohydrates. So, if your caloric requirement is 2236, then 60% would be 1341 calories. There are 4 calories in a gram of carbohydrate, so 335 grams of carbohydrate would be appropriate.

The new protein recommendations from the American College of Sports Medicine suggest .5 - .9 grams of protein per pound of body weight. In our example 130 lb person would need 65 grams of protein.

Fat should not be less than 20-25 % of total calories. Fat is important for hormonal function, repairing and rebuilding the body. Fat also slows digestion, which contributes to satiety. For example: someone who requires 2236 would need 447 calories from fat. Since fat has 9 calories per gram, then 49 grams of fat would support their energy requirements.

Don’t forget water. A good rule is to drink half your body weight in ounces. A 130 lb person would require at least 65 ounces of water a day. Urine should be clear or light. Dark urine indicates dehydration.

Lisa: How should I fuel during my event?

Emily: During endurance exercise over an hour 30 – 60 grams of straight carbohydrate are recommended per hour.

Lisa: The power gels have about 110 calories and 27 grams of carbohydrates. So one or two of those would work?

Emily: Yes, but you can also replace carbohydrate with anything, like hard candies, gatorade, gummy bears. They work the same.

Lisa: What about hydration during my event?

Emily: Most athletes lose about 2-3 kg of fluid during endurance exercise. Weighing yourself before and after exercise will let you know how much fluid is lost. Replace each lost pound with 2 cups of fluid.

Lisa: What should I eat afterwards?

Emily: It depends of the exercise, but generally 3-4 grams of carbohydate for every gram of protein. Replace fluids and energy requirements by ingesting about 200 calories with in 30 minutes of exercise. This can be accomplished by drinking a sports drink or chocolate milk.

Emily has worked with numerous athletes. She works with individuals, and groups. As an educator, she is available for lectures and seminars.

Contact: Momentum Nutrition and Fitness:
Emily Edison, MS.RD.ACSM-HFI
Phone: 206-696-4386
Fax: 425-806-4640
http://momentum4health.com/contact.php