Running a marathon is a challenging yet rewarding experience, often becoming a central part of a runner's lifestyle. However, marathon training demands significant time, effort, and energy, impacting your schedule, mental state, and physical well-being. A well-structured marathon training diet is essential for providing the necessary nutrients for overall health and supporting the demands of training and racing. This article outlines a 16-week marathon diet plan to help you optimize your performance and reach the finish line.
The Importance of a Marathon Training Diet
Many runners don't focus enough on their diets, even though running a marathon puts a major strain on the body. Maintaining a healthy training diet can maximize your performance and make it much easier to eventually cross that finish line. A marathon training diet needs to do two things: provide all the nutrients you need for overall health and support your marathon training and racing.
General Dietary Guidelines for Marathon Training
In many ways, any good marathon training diet will look much like any other healthy diet. The number of calories you need depends on your metabolic rate, training volume, and weight goals. Because carbohydrates are the primary fuel burned during higher-intensity physical activity training sessions, marathoners’ carbohydrate intake needs are higher than those of non-athletes and low-mileage runners.
When it comes to diet, it seems the only universal generality that can be made is that there are no hard-and-fast best diets, practices, or meal plans. Some people feel best eating three square meals a day without snacks, while others feel more energized and even-keeled with three smaller meals and three snacks. Runners who do their long runs or hard workouts first thing in the morning should also consider a pre-run snack. After the morning run, you can have breakfast. Essentially, there are no rules.
Macronutrient Needs for Marathon Runners
Macronutrients (i.e., carbohydrates, proteins and fats) are all potential sources of energy for the body, but the body prefers to rely on carbohydrates and fats. As a result, highly active individuals and athletes typically have higher needs for carbohydrates and fats compared with less active people.
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Carbohydrates: The Primary Fuel Source
When designing your marathon training diet, the most important macronutrients to focus on are carbohydrates, which provide your body with the fuel it needs to reach the finish line. According to the ISSN, athletes following intense training schedules need to eat between 5-8 grams per kg of carbohydrates per day.
There are two types of carbohydrates: complex carbohydrates (which contain fiber and take a long time to break down) and simple carbohydrates, which break down quickly. In and around our runs, we want to focus on simple carbohydrates. Complex carbohydrates should be eaten throughout the day. It’s like gas for your car. You want to start a road trip on full. Endurance athletes should have 45-65% of their total calories coming from carbohydrates. This ensures you have the glycogen stores to get you through your training without hitting the wall. If you have a sensitivity, there are gluten free carbs you can add to your diet and still meet your allotted carbohydrate recommendations for your marathon training meal plan.
Simple carbohydrates are fast-digesting sugars (fructose, glucose, and lactose) that provide quick bursts of energy, perfect for before a run, during long efforts, or immediately after a hard workout when your muscles are craving fuel. These carbs are ideal when you need energy in a hurry without upsetting your stomach. Complex carbohydrates are made up of longer chains of sugar molecules called polysaccharides, which means they digest more slowly and provide steady, sustained energy, exactly what you need for endurance training and recovery. These carbs are nutrient-dense and often rich in fiber, helping to keep blood sugar stable and fueling your body over the long haul.
Protein: For Muscle Repair and Recovery
Protein is also an important macronutrient for marathon runners. The ISSN recommends an intake of 1.4-1.8 grams per kg per day. Protein, which will help with recovery, injury prevention and support lean muscle, should be consumed throughout the day and always after a run. Protein provides 4 kcal of energy per gram and helps rebuild and repair cells and tissues.
Protein is an essential macronutrient that is made up of amino acids. That means protein is responsible for building and maintaining your muscle mass. Protein for runners is a big deal. As you push yourself to run further and faster, you’re making small tears in your muscles. Protein is found in foods like eggs, meat, chicken, fish, dairy, soy, legumes, peanut butter, quinoa, and protein powder (like whey protein). Protein shakes are also another way to get enough protein. While collagen is a source of protein, it does not contain all of the amino acids so it’s best to use that adjacently to other protein sources.
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Timing-wise, you want to hold off on eating a lot of protein right before you run. Protein takes longer for your body to digest, and a high-protein meal may upset your runner’s gut. It’s much more important after the run to include in your recovery meal or runner recovery drinks.
Fats: Essential for Energy and Overall Health
Fat should also be part of a healthy marathon runner diet. The ISSN recommends keeping fat at around 30% of total calories, but this can be increased to meet calorie needs if necessary. Dietary fats contain nine kcals per gram. Fat is the body’s preferred fuel source for resting conditions and low-intensity training, such as zone 2 workouts and long runs.
Fat is an excellent source of energy for your body. It contains more calories per gram than the other macronutrients (9 calories/gram vs. Plus, your body needs healthy fats to build the protective membranes around the cells. So….long story short: don’t skip the fat. Like protein, you don’t want to have a high-fat meal before you hit the road.
Micronutrients for Marathon Training
Beyond the big three-carbohydrates, protein, and fat-marathoners need to pay attention to micronutrients to support their training, recovery, and overall health. These vitamins and minerals not only provide nutrients, they often help the body absorb other micro and macronutrients. There’s a reason nutrition buffs tell us to “eat the rainbow.” That’s because when you eat all the colors you’re getting a wide variety of micronutrients. For example, orange-colored produce like carrots is high in beta carotene, which converts into vitamin A. Dark green produce, like spinach and bok choy, gets its color from folate, a water-soluble B vitamin. “It’s a good idea to get blood work done at least once a year to make sure you have optimal levels of your nutrients,” Ehsani says. Specifically, she recommends testing ferritin and vitamin D levels and getting a complete blood count and comprehensive metabolic panel.
Hydration: Staying Properly Hydrated
Hydration is key for any runner. Without proper fluid balance, your running performance suffers. On average, a runner should consume 3 to 4 liters of fluid per day. Obviously, you are doing some heavy sweating, even more so if you’re running in hot weather. It’s not just water in your sweat. Electrolytes are minerals that help you maintain your fluid balance. Sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, phosphate, and bicarbonates are all essential for cell function. You don’t always have to drink store-bought sports drinks. But bone broth and other beverages are a quick way to replenish both fluids and electrolytes.
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Meal Timing for Optimal Performance
When you're preparing for a marathon, you don't want to just focus on creating a training plan for running; you also want a solid nutrition plan. Start by determining how much you will be running and then calculate your caloric needs. If you won't be running more than two hours a day, you won't need to increase your calories that much. The important thing is to listen to your body. If you're hungry, you should eat. If you feel sluggish during a run, try to figure out why. Maybe you're not eating enough, or you're choosing the wrong foods.
Next, create a meal plan around your training schedule. Meals should be balanced and include whole grains, protein, fat, fruits and vegetables. Meal timing matters as well. You should eat a full meal about three to four hours before your run. It's also wise to consume a small snack of carbohydrates and protein one to two hours before your workout. After your run, eat a meal high in protein and carbohydrates within 45 minutes to help muscles recover.
After a workout, runners should aim to replenish fluids, electrolytes, calories, carbohydrates, and proteins within 30 minutes of finishing.
Sample Marathon Training Diet Plan
Ready to start planning your next shopping trip? Here's a sample marathon training diet plan that can help you reach your goals:
- Breakfast: Eggs, whole wheat toast, half an avocado and a whole banana
- Morning snack: Apple with peanut butter
- Lunch: Quinoa bowl with black beans, chicken, assorted vegetables, salsa and cheese
- Pre-run snack: Greek yogurt with berries and low-fat granola
- Post-run dinner: Salmon, brown rice, broccoli with butter
- Bedtime snack: Milk, whole-grain cereal and berries
Here's what a day of eating for a sample marathon training meal plan might look like:
- Breakfast: Oatmeal is full of satiating dietary fiber, can be prepped ahead or made in minutes.
- Lunch: A classic PB&J is a nice go-to, but there are plenty of lunch ideas that aren’t sandwiches.
- Dinner: Salmon is a fatty fish that is rich in omega-3 fatty acids.
- Snacks: Homemade running snacks are nice to have on hand for between meals.
Optimizing Race-Day Nutrition
Figuring out proper nutrition on race day is the crucial final step in preparing your marathon training plan. Choosing the wrong foods or trying to mix up your routine can negatively impact your performance. To avoid this, make a race-day plan ahead of time. Try packing everything you need a few days before so you don't forget anything important. Lastly, focus on hydration, fast-acting carbs and getting enough calories to support running 26.2 miles all at once.
The Week Before the Marathon
It's the week of the marathon. You've been training for weeks. You're probably feeling excited, nervous, not sure what to expect or determined to beat some personal records. Either way, whether this is your first marathon or you're a seasoned runner, getting your nutrition right is key to maximising performance on the day.
Try our other marathon meal plans: Vegetarian marathon meal plan, Vegan marathon meal plan, Gluten-free marathon meal plan.
Carb-Loading
Don’t wait until the night before to start your carb loading. Start your in-take 72 hours from your race time. Your percentage of calories coming from carbs should start to increase to a point where carbs are 80% of your meals. You want to bring in the carbs to increase your glycogen stores which provide energy to your muscles. To help accomplish this, you should decrease the amount of training as you taper your workouts for the race.