Even if you can not (or choose not to) eat wheat, you can still carbo-load!

The following 3,200 calorie high-carbohydrate diet provides about:

--3.5 grams carb per pound for a 150-lb endurance athlete (8 g/kg) .

The menu includes adequate protein (1 gram/lb or 1.8 g/kg) to maintain muscles.

The only “special” gluten-free food would be gluten-free oatmeal.

(Standard oatmeal can be contaminated with gluten if processed in a factory that processes wheat.)

For help creating your own carbo-loading menu using your favorite foods,

go to https://www.supertracker.usda.gov

For more information on carbo-loading:

Food Guide for Marathoners: Tips for Everyday Champions

Nancy Clark's Sports Nutrition Guidebook

Eat well, run well, and have fun!

Best,

Nancy                                                                                                                                                                       

Nancy, I am training for a marathon. I know I should drink on my long runs but where I run, no water is available. Is there any way I can super-hydrate so I don't have to drink on the long runs?

No, you cannot super-hydrate. Your body is like a sponge and can absorb just so much fluid at one time. Then, it starts to seep. You can start your long runs fully hydrated by drinking plenty of fluids the day before. Drink enough so your urine is pale colored and you have to urinate at least every two to four hours.

On the day of the long run, drink plenty of fluids (water, juice, even coffee or tea are OK) up to 1.5 to 2 hours before the start of the run. Then stop drinking, so you’ll have plenty of time to eliminate the excess and hopefully avoid the need for an unwanted pit stop. Within 15 minutes before you start the long run, drink again to get water into your system.

To enhance fluid retention on the day of the long run, eat something salty with your pre-run breakfast. This will help keep water in your body.

     --Add some salt to your oatmeal.

     --Enjoy some chicken noodle soup.

     --Eat a bagel with peanut butter.

     --Have salted rice or potato.

These foods offer far more sodium than you will get from any sports drink. (Compare labels and you’ll discover 8 ounces of Gatorade has only 110 mg sodium, whereas a Thomas’s bagel has 400 to 500 milligrams sodium.)

I also suggest you hide bottles of sports drinks or water along the running route. Part of training is to train your intestinal tract. For you to go from drinking nothing during training to consuming fluid every 20 minutes during the marathon might be asking for transit trouble. Be wise and practice drinking during the long runs. You'll not only run better but will also recover better.

THe city of Boston is starting to buzz with Marathon excitement. If you are one of the nervous runners, here’s a nutrition tip to help you prepare for the 26.2-mile event:

Carb-load, don't fat-load!

Many runners confuse high fat and high carb foods. They fat load. Fat does not get stored in your muscles as glycogen (the fuel needed to prevent you from “hitting the wall”). Only carbs get stored in your muscles as glycogen.

Carbohydrate-rich foods include:

Hot and cold cereals

Fruits- bananas, grapes, raisins, and all fresh and dried fruits and juices

Breads, bagels, crackers – preferably whole grain, so you don’t get constipated

Rice, noodles, stuffing

Pasta with tomato sauce (not cheese sauces);

Baked or boiled (sweet) potatoes (without lots of butter)

Vegetables, particularly carrots, peas, beets, corn, and winter squash

Lower carbohydrate, high fat choices that may taste great, fill your stomach but leave your muscles unfueled include:

Donuts, Danish, croissants and other buttery pastries

Lasagna oozing with cheese and meat,

Pizza glistening with pepperoni grease

Cookies, cakes

Ice cream

I’ll be at the Mizuno Booth at the Runner’s Expo if you have any last minute questions.

Eat wisely and run well!

Nancy

For more information:

Nancy Clark’s Food Guide for Marathoners: Tips for Everyday Champions

This is an exciting week in Boston! Thousands of runners are making their final preparations for the Boston Marathon. If you are one of those anxious marathon runners, here are a few words of nutrition wisdom.

--Don’t make any drastic dietary changes that might upset your intestinal tract. The biggest change should be in your training—train less, so your muscles have time to refuel.

--No last-minute efforts to lose body fat. That will result in poorly fueled muscles. You may actually gain two to four pounds of water weight! For each one ounce of carbs you store in your muscles as glycogen, you store about three ounces of water. Thisis a sign you are well fueled.

--Eat wisely and well this week. Focus each meal on carbs (grains, fruits, veggies) with a little protein (meat, nuts, eggs, beans, milk, yogurt) as the accompaniment to each meal.

--Eat breakfast on marathon morning … this food will help maintain a normal blood sugar level so your brain is adequately fed. If your blood sugar drops, you’ll have trouble concentrating and enjoying the event.

During the marathon, your nutrition job is to:

-- prevent dehydration (by drinking 8 ounces of sports drink and/or water every 15-20 minutes during the marathon)

-- maintain a normal blood sugar level (by consuming 150 to 300 calories of carbohydrates every hour after the first 60 to 90 minutes of running).

Some popular energizers for during the marathon include sports drinks, gummi bears, raisins, hard candies, gels, Tootsi rolls, defizzed cola, diluted juice, bites of a sports bar--all of which you should have experimented with during your long training runs.  

Here are some high carbohydrate meal suggestions that will cummulate into a high carbohdyrate diet that will help fuel you to the finishline!

Breakfast ideas:

cold cereals--with banana and lowfat or skim milk

oatmeal and other hot cereals--with raisins and brown sugar

Bagels and english muffins--with jam or honey

Pancakes or french toast--with maple syrup

Fruits and juices

Lunch ideas:

Sandwiches--with the bread being the "meat" of the sandwich

Hearty broth-based or beany soups--minestrone, split pea, lentil, noodle

Thick-crust pizza

Dinner ideas:

Pasta--with tomato-based sauce

Potatoes and rice--double portions

Vegetables--double portions

Breads, rolls

Snack ideas:

flavored yogurt

pretzels, crackers,

fig bars, zweiback, lowfat cookies, animal crackers

frozen yogurt

dry cereal

leftover pasta

canned and fresh fruits and juices, applesauce

For more complete information about fueling before, during and after a marathon, refer to .

Nancy Clark’s Food Guide for Marathoners; Tips for Everyday Champions

Have fun!

Nancy Clark MS RD CSSD

“Hey Nancy, I’m running my first marathon tomorrow. What should I be eating?” asked the young man at the running store where I was giving a nutrition clinic.

Questions like that always stun me. This runner hadn’t thought much about nutrition, to say nothing about the importance of training his intestinal tract, as well as the heart, lungs and muscles. He was missing an essential part of a training program! If a marathoner cannot train his intestinal track to  tolerate fuel in some form before and during a marathon, he or she will be more likely to hit the wall..

As I discuss thoroughly in my Food Guide for Marathoners; Tips for Everyday Champions, runners need to fuel well the day before with a diet baed on carbs (pasta, rice, fruits, breads, vegetables). The day of the marathon, the runner wants to enjoy a tried-and-true breakfast (so as to avoid losing time in the porta-potty line), and then consume about 200 to 300 calories per hour after the  first 60 to 90 minutes. The strategy shold be to practice this during training, so the day before the marathon, you have no need to worry about what to eat to enjoy going the distance.