Carb loading for the marathon

Working on fueling was a huge piece to my marathon training puzzle. I worked on fueling a ton during my runs as well as pre- and post- run to aid in recovery. As a gluten and dairy free pescatarian, I get asked a lot about what I eat. I generally eat a lot of carbs as a runner, but I specifically focused on a three-day carb loading time from Thursday-Saturday in preparation for my marathon Sunday. It was a bit hard to eat so many carbs, but it completely paid off! I never hit the wall and took 8 gels in while I raced and one 10 minutes before. As a running coach, I enjoy helping my athletes work on fueling, love reading research and listening to podcasts about fueling and endurance sports, but I am not a registered dietitian. This is all to give you a visual and maybe it will be helpful to you! Sometimes it is nice to actually see what people use to train or in this case eat, rather than just a vague infographic. I used Featherstone Nutrition’s carb calculate to roughly make sure I was hitting my target of 450g carbs per day. I tried to get 100g of carbs in for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and 50g of carbs for each snack. I learned as I went and can’t wait to try this again for my next marathon.

Day 1 (Thursday)-

Breakfast: Two gluten free waffles, two eggs, decaf coffee with 3 tbsp. non-dairy creamer, Nuun tablet. Total: 64g carbs (lower than planned, but still learning!)

Snack: Cashew mac n’ cheese with gluten free pasta. Total: 55g carbs

Lunch: Tofu with white rice and Thai peanut butter sauce, topped with avocado. Total: 103g carbs

Snack: Two Bobos apple pie stuff’d oat bites. Total: 50g carbs

Dinner: Three corn tortillas, 1 cup chik’n with salsa, 1 cup white rice, 1/2 avocado. Total: 100g carbs

Snack: Gluten free cereal with almond milk. Total: 62g carbs

Total for the day: 434g carbs

Day 2 (Friday)-

Breakfast: Two eggs on a gluten free bun with 1/2 avocado, Nuun tablet, and decaf coffee with 3 tbsps. dairy free creamer. Total: 105g carbs

Snack: Two Bobos apple pie stuff’d oat bites and dairy free chocolate milk. Total: 88g carbs

Lunch: Chik’n and white rice with peanut butter sauce. Total: 63g carbs

Snack: Pita with homemade hummus. Total: 50g carbs

Dinner: Gluten free spaghetti with meatless crumbles and sauce. Total: 234g carbs

Total for the day: 540g carbs

Day 3 (Saturday)-

Breakfast: 1 cup chocolate milk, potato and sweet potato scramble with two eggs. Total: 108g carbs

Snack: One Bobo apple pie stuff’d oat bite, veggie straws, gluten free cereal and almond milk. Total: 60g carbs

Lunch: Gluten free spaghetti with meatless crumbles and sauce. Total: 185g carbs

Snack: One Bobo apple pie stuff’d oat bite, gluten free, dairy free crackers. Total: 56g carbs

Snack: Gluten free cereal and almond milk. Total: 81g carbs

Dinner: White rice, meatless crumbles, 1/2 avocado. Total: 81g carbs

Total for the day: 571g carbs