What I Eat During Marathon Training!
Happy Wednesday friends! I hope you are having a lovely week. I am adjusting to a new job schedule but I’m still getting my workouts in so it’s been a good week so far! Today I wanted to talk about everyone’s favorite subject: food! More specifically what I eat during marathon training. Now, I am not a doctor and what works for me may not necessarily work for you. I don’t restrict myself to certain foods and nothing is off limits. I eat according to hunger cues and try to add plenty of nutritious food throughout the day.
If you’ve been following along with this training cycle, you know that I worked with a dietitian earlier this year. She really helped me understand how to use food as fuel and what foods I needed to add to my diet. It took a lot of work but I did see improvement in my performance once I started eating much better. Understanding portion sizes was the main part of it but I also introduced plenty of fresh food into my daily routine. I have a couple of cookbooks that I love to use when I meal plan but my favorite was is definitely “Run Fast, Eat Slow”. There’s so many delicious recipes and all are jammed packed with fresh fruit and veggies.
Here’s a sample day of eating
Breakfast: 1/4 cup of dry oatmeal, two egg whites, flax seeds, chia seeds, 1/2 cup of almond milk, and 1/4 cup of berries
Lunch: Chicken burrito bowl (spinach/Spanish rice/pinto beans/guac/shredded chicken,salsa)
Afternoon Snack: 1/2 Perfect Bar
Dinner: 1/2 cup of chicken, small sweet potato, roasted broccoli, asparagus, and tomatos
Obviously as my workout intensities are different throughout the week, sometimes I’ll have a Superhero muffin (from Run Fast, Eat Slow) as a mid-morning snack or opt to eat a bowl of Greek yogurt for breakfast. Lately I’ve been having cottage cheese and a piece of fruit between breakfast and lunch. I try very hard to listen to my hunger cues so I make sure that if I am truly still hungry, I eat more food. I don’t cut out any food groups and I will eat all types of food. Obviously, I work very hard to get veggies into my meals but sometimes it just doesn’t happen. I also do not allow myself to eat everything under the sun on long run days. There’s really no need for that if I eat a great breakfast after my run.
Some weeks I go with the flow and others I like to plan out eat meal. I make sure that eat meal has a fat, a starch, and a protein source. Keeping these things in mind has really helped me stay on track and feel better. It is truly amazing how much of a change I’ve seen in my body and my performance once I’ve changed the way I thought about food!
Does your eating change during marathon training?
