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4 Replies Last post: May 16, 2008 6:10 PM by JPGarland  
Click to view evolvesevr's profile Rookie
evolvesevr
2 posts since
May 4, 2008
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May 4, 2008 6:26 PM

New to the Marathon Scene (Have some questions)


Hi, I am new to the marathon scene but not from running. I begin my training tomorrow to catch up to a team who has just completed running the full marathon in Nashville, TN. I am used to running six miles a day and one of the members of the team said I should come out and train with them for the Marine Corps Marathon, so I am!

Some of my initial questions as I do research for my training regime are:

I weigh 215 lbs and I am planning my calorie, carb, protein, fat intake. From most sources it says to do your weight times thirteen and that should be your daily average intake. With Carbs/Proteins/Fats I should go with the 50/25/25 ratio. With this is mind I will be needing to eat about 2800 calories a day and out of those calories am I doing this right with 1400 carbs/700 proteins/700 fats a day?

Even when I look at this and I am running on my long day, with eating 2800 calories a day I will be sitting on havign my system after I run the 8-10 miles 1200-1500 calories. Not sure if this is exactly healthy seeing how I thought I should be staying at the 2800 calorie mark.

Any suggestions or feedback would be great and I look forward to it.

Click to view SportiGrl's profile Legend
SportiGrl
476 posts since
Jul 22, 2004
1. May 9, 2008 8:52 PM in response to: evolvesevr
Re: New to the Marathon Scene (Have some questions)

I've used similar caloric formulas to estimate weight maintenance or weight loss (if I based the calculations on my desired weight rather than current weight) ... BUT ... such a formula isn't normally intended to be used for those with higher than average activity levels ... When is the Marine Corps Marathon? (early fall, right?)


It would be very difficult to have the proper energy to train well at the same time you are severely restricting calories. You need to find a BMR calculator and then add in your average daily activities and then perhaps subtract 500/cal/day or so from your daily requirements ... but if you're doing a harder week or a tune-up race soon you might want to forgo any calorie restriction and fuel up on quality foods to perform strong and well and boost your mental and physical performance to see where you are on your way to your marathon goals.


Normally you'd want to diet during base building phase not during training ... although most distance runners do lose some weight during peak training ... good luck with the marathon!

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Click to view milkbaby's profile Expert
milkbaby
36 posts since
Oct 23, 2007
2. May 13, 2008 12:25 PM in response to: evolvesevr
Re: New to the Marathon Scene (Have some questions)

First off, best wishes for your marathon training! It can be very fun and rewarding. But be careful, before you know it, you might get hooked and have to keep running the darn things like the rest of us crazies! :)

As far as caloric intake goes, be careful about trusting too much in those calculators. Use it for a starting point but tweak it from there as things progress. You may also find that you need a larger percentage of carbs as your body may start to crave sweets when you ramp up your mileage. Carbs will refill you glycogen stores faster than the proteins or fats. It is more important to be able to maintain the ability to run and train at a high level than to cut weight, though of course that is a worthy goal too. Good luck!

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Click to view evolvesevr's profile Rookie
evolvesevr
2 posts since
May 4, 2008
3. May 13, 2008 2:18 PM in response to: evolvesevr
Re: New to the Marathon Scene (Have some questions)

My workout schedule for the first three weeks have been:

Monday: 3 miles

Tuesday: Cross Training, usually 30minutes to 1hour swimming

Wednesday: 6 miles

Thursday: 3 miles

Friday: Rest

Saturday: 8 - 9 - 10 miles, increases one mile each week

Sunday: Rest


Since I am done with the first week, I can tell you that I normally stayed to eating 100 Carbs before and after my runs. I learned not to eat too much fiber! Haha...

Friday evenining I went a pasta restaurant and ate a good meal and when I ran on Saturday doing my 8 miles, I felt like I could run a half marathon that day. I plan on continuing this.

The only thing that suprised me was this last Monday, I ran my 3 miles but it felt like I was dragging but I actually ran it a lot faster. I guess it is because I set my pace for 1 minute per mile , I think I am going to assign Monday as my speed day.

Also, it is hard for me to eat 2800 calories a day, which is recommended. I am 6'6" and around 210 lbs, so eating has never really been an issue or my metabolism. It just seems from most of the things I am reading I might run into the risk of being malnurished. I feel fine though besides being sleepy sometimes in the afternoon but I don't think my summer classes are helping that at all. I normally get 7-9 hours of sleep a night, so I don't know if it is just my body getting into training shape again or what.

There are a couple of 8k events and half marathons coming up here soon, but what is the rule of thumb for entering these when you are training for a marathon?

The actual Marine Corps Marathon isn't until October 26th so I am still 6 months away. I am joining a team in July, which just got done running the Nashville Marathon here last month, but I am trying to find out some helpful advice to help further my training.

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Click to view JPGarland's profile Legend
JPGarland
775 posts since
Dec 7, 2007
4. May 16, 2008 6:10 PM in response to: evolvesevr
Re: New to the Marathon Scene (Have some questions)
I give little thought to how much I eat, so I can't make any suggestions on that front. I try to eat a mix of things, but I confess to eating tons of pasta. My weight's been pretty stable for the last 30+ years.

That said, I suggest you pick up some books. My two favorites are Daniels' Running Formula and Advanced Marathoning. There's a fair amount of duplication, but the key is understanding the basics. They're a great starting point. Then you can start getting into the debate about Arthur Lydiard and such.

Soon there'll be a Fall Marathon thread, which was pretty popular in CoolRunning, but can perhaps can be popular again. It'll be a good way to chart your progress. I, e.g., am doing NY on Nov. 2. As to racing, doing them is a good break from training, although you'd "train through them." The biggest problem with races is that they force you to miss a long-run opportunity. Doing a 1/2 marathon 4 weeks out wouldn't be a problem, but nothing after that (when you get to taper-time).

Now, I'd focus on building up the miles. Make it so that your easy, low-mileage runs are at least 6 miles each. Try to get to 6 days a week, and drop the cross-training. To run you have to run.

Good luck. Have fun.
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