Tall Stack

Race-Day Plan: Your marathon day eating plan has two phases. Pre-race eating and fueling during your race. Get up early on race morning and eat a light meal of low GI foods. Do not fast. You will need to “top off your tank” and replenish liver glycogen stores before your race. The addition of some fats along with some low GI foods will also help keep your blood glucose stable. An example would be two pieces of whole grain toast with butter and a banana. Avoid high GI foods on race morning because it can cause your blood glucose to fall and you will end up using a very high percentage of liver glucose for energy early in the race. If that happens you will pay the price at mile 20. During your race it is time to eat high GI foods. The high GI foods quickly release energy and give you a fast energy boost. Good high GI foods that are convenient foods on the run are energy bars, energy gels and sports drinks.

I finally found this bit of documentation from runningplanet.com to support my current testing theories on nutritional strategies for race-day fueling. The above quoted article comes as close as any I found to detail the pre-race meal. Most articles want to weasel word their way out by saying something like, "have some carbohydrates with water and coffee if that is your routine". Yuk. Like saying, run some every other day and be sure to wear the proper attire. Yuk squared. So here finally, is something we can sink our teeth into (!) Today's fuel for the Toe Jam Half Marathon, (with a casual noon start, I had the luxury of eating at 7am), consisted of:

A four egg vegetable & legume omelet with a big slice of cantelope, three cups of coffee, and water. I plan on having a bagel an hour prior to start with more water. HGI carbs will then take over on the hilly course in the form of Honey Stingers, one espresso GU and an electrolyte replacement beverage of a 'to be determined' flavor and dilution. The goal is to go sub whatever I did last year (1:50), unless it is just Stephanie and I and then I will pace her with a 2:00 target. Either way, a terrific training day in preparation for the next two big events, The Rhody Run (5.22) and North Olympic Discovery Marathon (6.5).

There is the nutritional strategy. It is now 9:45. Time to get started marking the course. I wonder what a tall stack of pancakes would do?

Times, details, photos, and recap later today.