The Importance of Fueling in a Marathon
Marathon season in the Midwest is well underway and the main event, The Birkie, is next week! Before the main event, I just wanted to share some tips and tricks that I have found while racing longer distance races that can help boost performance. The first few marathons I raced in college, I neglected having adequate fuel during the competition and would consistently find myself bonking in the second half of the races. Now I have made it a priority to focus on my fueling to have a more positive experience while racing the longer distances.
As sport becomes more and more scientific, we have started to learn the importance of fueling during exercise. Previously we thought that carboloading the night before was the most important factor to improve our performance. Now we have learned that that is an important part of the puzzle but also what you are fueling with before and during competition is just as, if not more, important.
In these longer marathon races (or even races an hour or longer), it is just as important to come up with a fueling plan as it is to come up with your race plan. We want to keep our bodies topped with fuel throughout our race so that we don’t start burning our excess storage of energy sources. This year I have been relying on our team's sponsor Gu for all of my fueling needs. They have a drink mix product that has 56g of carbs per serving as well as electrolytes, amino acids and some flavors even have caffeine. The mix also has 250 calories per serving which helps keep your body feeling more full while racing. There are many other companies that have drink mixes with varying amounts of carbs per serving but since we are mixing it ourselves, we can control how much fuel we put into our bottles. The recommended level for most athletes is to have 30-60 grams of carbs per hour during exercise. Many professional athletes have trained their bodies to intake up to 120 grams of carbs per hour. With an adequate amount of training your body, you could easily intake 60-90 grams per hour while marathon racing.
The best way to carry this fuel with you in a race is with a water belt/pack or by taping Gu or gels to your bib or legs. I have a Salomon hosed drink pack which is uninsulated but the community standard seems to be a Coxa water belt. The Coxa has an insulated hose as well as a clip that you can attach to your bib for easy access while racing. Also it has an outer mesh pocket to throw in any food products that you want to eat during your race for easy access.
The second key to fueling is the rate at which you are doing it. We can observe in other races on World Cup, Super Tour or NCAA racing that most athletes take a feed every lap or so. This normally equates to a feed every 3.3k or 5k, or 8-15 minutes depending on the course. In marathon racing, we usually have a little more control over where and when we are taking our feeds as we are the ones carrying them. In the recent marathons I have been doing, I have been targeting every 4-5k in warmer conditions or every 7-10 minutes in colder conditions. This is due to a few reasons, first is that our bodies need more energy in the cold but also my drink belt hose is more likely to freeze the colder conditions so keeping warm liquid flowing through it keeps it from freezing. Some people prefer less frequent bigger feeds while others prefer more frequent smaller feeds. The goal in both, however, is to reach our target carbs during the race and prevent a bonk from occurring later in the race.
Here is the basic rundown of what you need to increase your marathon performance.
Carry a pack with food and/or drink mix or have people stationed throughout the course with feeds
Feed every 10-20 minutes depending on preference
Try and intake 30-90 grams of carbs per hour depending on your tolerance
Practice fueling in your training to understand what works best for you
I have seen within myself a great increase in performance both long distance racing but also interval sessions by focusing on my fueling needs during exercise. Fueling can be used as a tool to help achieve your new PB and over time can dramatically increase your standard performances!
