Ask the Experts: Marathon Nutrition Q+A with Ruth McKean

Hi everyone

ASICS Super Six dietician and ASICS PRO Team member Ruth McKean will be online between 1pm and 2pm today to answer queries about marathon nutrition.

Ruth is a leading sports dietician and a member of the British Dietetic Association and Health Professional Council. She is also an advisor to the Scottish Institute of Sport, specialising in helping athletes of all levels prepare nutritionally for competition. She is also a former Scottish National 5,000m champion!

If you're wondering what to eat and when in training or racing, Ruth's got the answers. 

We're opening the discussion now so Ruth will be able to get stuck in straight away at 1pm (rather than having to deal with too many questions all at once). That's enough from me - time to get posting!

Thanks Alice,

    I have a question for Ruth... I have been on a rather big weight loss journey - having lost just over 10 stone in the last year and a half and am happy to say I am now at my target weight or just over nine and a half stone (I'm 5" 6).

I now run between 30 and 40 miles a week and cross train with weights and a resistance band on my running rest days.

What I would like to do now is reduce my body fat percentage and increase my muscle mass (preferably without changing my present weight). I'm a vegetarian and am unsure what I should be eating to achieve this.

Any advice would be greafully recieved.

Thanks!

Hi - I have a question about running and eating. I have completed 6 full marathons and really struggle to refuel on the run. I have tried and given up on gels and bars as they give me terrible stomach cramps. In fact, I have even given up on banana. I just don't seem to be able to take food on board. I run marathons and training on water alone and am pretty sure that my times would be better if I could learn to take on food.

How can I train my stomach to accept food?

Thanks - any advice you can give will be much appreciated.

Hi Ruth,

I'm training for London but I've got a few stag dos coming up that I really can't avoid. Rather than do the sensible/strong option and refrain from too much alcohol, do you have any tips for low-calorie boozing?

Hi Ruth

I have a question about hydration rather than nutrition if that's ok? The two marathons I have completed have both resulted in me producing extremely dark brown wee which is obviously a sign of pretty bad dehydration.

I have felt well after both marathons and within a few hours my urine colour gradually lightens to normal. I have only one functioning kidney. I drank quite a lot in the marathons and was very surprised that I was in such poor shape hydration wise.

Is it just a case of trying to drink MORE or am I better trying to increase the energy drinks? I can probably only stomach one bottle throughout the whole race before I feel sick?

And should I be concerned that I am dehydrating so much if the level improves on its own with no intervention?

Thanks.

I struggle to use gels during my long runs (just dont like the taste or texture), so have been trying out shotbloks for my last 2 marathons.

 During LSRs I have been taking one 'blok' per mile from mile 4 onwards which seems to work, but yet on race day this strategy doesnt seem to work well for me and I end up with uncomfortable bloated stomach and nausea. This in turn affects my running performance.

 Any suggestions what I can do differently to make race day a more pleasant experience?

 Thanks!

Hello Ruth,
this is slightly more general.  I'm thinking about cutting out types of food (probably starting with bread) to see if this makes me less gassy.  How long will I need to leave it before I might expect to see a change and what sort of things can I replace it with (being a bit of a sandwich and toast monster).

Thanks.

How important is it to eat within 20 minutes after a training run or race? And what should you have carbs? Protein?

Thanks.

Hi Alice

Congratulations on your weight loss, that is a brillant achievement.

Could you give me an idea of what your eat now? T

he fact you are doing resistance training  combined with 30-40miles of running means your exercise is spot on in my view. If you have very stretched skin it may not be as straight forward as just diet advice you need but if I was to have an idea of food intake I could certainly see if there are any dietary things you could do, if you can give me rough portions sizes that would also be good.  

Is your running all steady or do you do some intense running such as intervals as well?

SP13

Do you practise eating/drinking whilst running most weeks on your long runs? If it is only racing you have problems with it is likely due to the intensity and/or nerves which may affect your stomach emptying rate and blood flow to digestion tract.

Make sure you are not eating too much (or too soon or too little before a race), try main meal 3-4 hours before (but try different amounts to see if that works) then perhaps a light snack a couple of hours before start such as a very ripe banana, a liquid meal replacement (e.g slim fast type drink as liquid meal will empty form stomach quicker) 1/2 a sports bar but watch portions when only 2 hours or less until start. Then I wonder if you are waiting to eat & drink until too far into race, you should have something little and often, if you become dehydrated before you start drinking and eating this can cause more problems. Could you try one jelly chew (choose one with electrolytes in them) say one every 15minutes and then just sip on water about every 5 km, don't gulp the water hence why you should practise. Start race well hydrated but don't over do the drinking, say 500ml at leat meal 3-4 hours before then sip on a further 250-400ml up until start of race.

We all have different reactions with food/fluid during intense exercise but you should practise lots on long runs and rI do think  if you get the lead up to the race right PLUS little and often then you should do better.

Good luck

Hi Ruth,

I am an insulin-dependent diabetic with a place in this year's London Marathon.  Although I have run marathons previously, this will be my first as an insulin-dependent.  I currently rely on jelly babies to fuel all of my runs (you advised here last year to keep insulin doses at the usual levels in advance of even the longest runs, and that has worked really well for my HBA1c's), but I am finding that I am having to take the JBs at ever decreasing intervals as marathon training progresses (every 8-9 minutes now whereas it was every 12-13 minutes before I increased my training) - is this likely to be a function of higher metabolic rate (due to greater training volume), me having lost a few pounds, or both?  Will this effect level out, or should I be introducing a different or an additional fuelling strategy?

Everything else seems to be going really well but I am always conscious that for a diabetic to get the fuelling wrong would be a total medical disaster, so any helpful hints would be fantastic.

I am already a little nervous about how this is all going to pan out, so anything you could do to help me see my way through this would be much appreciated.

LIVERBIRD wrote (see)

There's a definite SIDE EFFECT of drinking it KR - red wee!

As long as it doesn't smell of Sugar Puffs too - that's okay!

Joking aside, is it any good from a nutrional point of view?

Thanks Ruth. I have tried on training runs too, so it's not just the nerves. But I do tend to wait until close to the end of a long run before trying to eat, and as you say I am probably a little dehydrated before I even start. I will certainly try to eat a little and often as you suggest.

Thanks for your help.

pljesq

Binge drinking is not healthy and I would say  if this is what you are going to do anyway then don't do your long runs after a very heavy night which will often be combined with poor sleep. Try and keep hangover runs to steady runs under 45 minutes tops. Also if you have had a long run before you start drinking rehydrate for a few hours and eat well first. Alcohol is absorded into your blood stream vis stomach so make sure you have a decent meal in your stomach. Alcohol may make any muscle damage from hard or long runs worst.

One of the problems with alcohol is that it weakens the resolve when it comes to reaching for high calorie snacks and when eating combined with alcohol this is a nightmere if watching weight. The typical advice is mix a alcoholic drink with water or diet drink but when you are on a stag do I can't see that happening! If you want to drink low calorie drinks then a wine spritzer (again on a stag do..can't see it!) or have spirits with diet drink with soda water but depends how many you have. and the alcohol percentage can be high. If you drink beer slower this may be best as you will take in less alcohol overall.  A pint of larger is about 200-250kcal, cider if very strong means a pint could amount to 600kcal  or if sweet cider about 300kcal. Alcolpops are  often full of sugar so also calorie laden. I guess the short answer is that unless you are able to drink sensible amounts this is not going to be good prep for London.

Hi Ruth, like many endurance women I've got low iron (ferritin measured at only 8 last April). Although I was taking in recommended levels of iron through a veg/ fish diet, it wasn't being absorbed.  I've since started eating red meat & taking supplement (Ferrograd C twice a week).  I wanted to ask: (a) what ferritin levels you think are minimum for marathon training, (b) how often I should have repeat blood tests to check, (c) how long to continue with supplement (may be connected to a & b!)

Also, how to balance recovery with not gaining weight - how do you balance sports drinks, gels and bars as well as meals without going overboard?