Rob's Race-Week Nutrition Strategy (sub-4:00)

Age: 45 Job activity level: Works in a shop so on his feet all day Marathon history: Six marathons over a 25-year period Goal: 4:00 Current PB: 4:14:27 Height: 1.75m Current Weight: 77kg. Rob's lost 4.5kg over the last three to four months since starting a new job without changing his food intake or training. His ideal weight would be around 74 - 75kg.

Rob's Profile | Rob's Training Schedule | Rob's Training Thread | Rob's Food Diary Analysis

Individual Areas For Emphasis

In Rob's initial food diary analysis, we suggested he focus on increasing his daily energy intake, controlled his saturated fat intake and made sure that he ate enough protein after exercise. Rob has worked hard to act on these recommendations but there are still areas that require focus in the final weeks leading up to the marathon.

Specifically, Rob needs to increase his fruit and vegetable intake.By his own admission, Rob often forgets to eat after training, Drinking a fruit smoothie immediately after training will not only boost his fruit intake, but also provide him with the right combination of protein and carbohydrate for recovery.

Rob’s low fluid intake during his long runs has resulted in large fluid deficits. After weighing himself pre- and post-training, he lost 1.8kg during a recent 19-mile run. This equates to a 2.4% reduction in body weight - Rob was exercising in a state of significant dehydration. During the run, Rob only consumed 300ml of fluid over the course of three hours. He also only took on 60g of carbohydrate. Current guidelines suggest that you should aim to take on between 30 - 60g per hour, so for a three-hour run Rob should have been consuming 90 - 150g carbohydrate.

Three Days Before The Marathon: Carb-Loading Period

Race-Day Plan

Breakfast (three to four hours before the race)

Current guidelines suggest you should eat 1 - 4g of carbohydrate per kg of body weight three to four hours before the race. Rob therefore needs to consume between 75 – 300 g of carbohydrate for breakfast.

Examples of breakfasts containing approximately 140g of carbohydrate are:

• 100g cereal with 300ml milk and a large banana
• Four thick slices of bread with golden syrup and 400ml orange juice
• Two bagels, a large banana and 500ml Lucozade Sport Body Fuel
• 125g cous cous with 130g sweetcorn and 175ml fruit juice

Rob must make sure he starts to hydrate as soon as he wakes up. Ideally he needs to drink 5 - 7ml of fluid per kg of body weight three to four hours before the race. This equates to around 400ml.

Two hours before the start of the race, he should take on an additional 250ml of fluid if no urine has been produced or his urine is dark and highly concentrated. If his urine is a pale straw colour then this indicates euhydration (his normal level of body water content).

The Race

Rob is planning to use a combination of gels and Lucozade Sport during the race and needs to take on board around 30 – 60g of carbohydrate per hour. With his target time of sub-4:00, this equates to around 220g of carbohydrate in total:

Each 330ml bottle of Lucozade Sport contains 20g of carbohydrate. Rob should look to drink this over a period of time rather than in one go, as drip-feeding your body is most efficient. This particular strategy for Rob shows that after the Lucozade Sport stations, he only needs to wait another 20 minutes before taking on more carbohydrate.

Each carb gel contains 30g of carbohydrate so our strategy suggests Rob leaves 30 minutes for the digestion and absorption of each gel. We have suggested half a gel at Miles 17 and 21 so that Rob's carbohydrate consumption does not surpass 60g within 60 minutes. One final gel at Mile 25 will provide Rob with a final surge of carbohydrate to fuel him across the finish line, and help with his recovery. While his heart rate is high, he will have an increased ability to deliver carbohydrate to his muscles.

Rob's sweat rate is approximately 110ml per mile so we would expect Rob to consume roughly 2860ml of fluid between the race start and finish. Assuming he drinks every drop of Lucozade Sport from the five stations (total 1650ml) that still leaves him needing to drink 1210ml additional fluid.

Recovery

Immediately after the race, Rob should eat 75 - 90g of carbohydrate and 10 - 20g of protein. This will stimulate protein synthesis and aid carbohydrate delivery to his muscles. He should also aim to eat 70 - 110g of protein throughout the rest of the day.

Of course, for a few days after the race, Rob will also need to keep consuming high levels of carbohydrate to help replenish his glycogen stores.