Marathon training and calorie goals

RoyalMoose11

Marathon training is really picking up with the long runs hovering above 13 miles and running 4 or 5 days a week. What do people do with their calorie goals in the 2 months before the event? I feel like I need to increase them if my weekly mileage is getting in the around ~30/week (this week is 3mi, 5mi, 8mi, 3mi, 13mi).

Also I tend to go whole wheat (100% whole wheat breads, whole wheat pasta, or brown rice) through the week and then on Friday/Saturday (before long-run Sunday) eat white carbs like regular bagels, regular pasta and white rice. DO folks do the same or do they eat the carb-dense white pastas/breads? My marathon is 2 months away and I'm looking to keep fueled strong.

cwolfman13

I can't comment specifically on marathon, but I do endurance rides and when I'm training for a century my calorie goals to maintain are usually around 4000 +....I lose easily eating around 3,500 calories when I'm training. I don't carb load everyday...just before long rides and the actual race itself...and yeah...pasta, white rice, bagels for breakfast on race day, etc. I generally start carb loading 2 days before an event.

If I were you, I'd plug my stats into a TDEE calculator and set yourself to the highest activity level and go from there.

ThickMcRunFast

I generally eat around 2700 cals per day when in marathon training (though that is the 50-60 mile per week range). I try not to eat at much of a deficit, I can really feel myself dragging when I do. As for carbs, white/wheat doesn't really matter, I just make sure I get 1g protein per pound lean mass (works out to 130g per day for me), and 70g fat, then I just fill the rest up with carbs. I will do more carb-heavy meals at night if I run in the morning, but I also don't want to be eating a ton of food the night before long runs. Race week I will usually up carbs for 2-3 days before the race, then eat 'normally' the day before, just to top off the glycogen stores.

hermann341

I pretty much stick to my daily calorie goals as I'm still working down to the weight I want to be. I've lost 50 lbs since January, ran a 4:28 marathon and a couple of sub 2:00 half marathons. I should be hitting my weight goal in October and plan to run a sub 4:00 marathon on 1 Nov. I usually split my extra calories from my long runs over 2 days, so I'm not trying to eat them all back at one go. As for the carb/fat/protein mix, I'm a fan of low-carb, so I lean heavy on the fat and protein for fuel. I feel that if my body is in fat burning mode before I start a run, I'm less likely to hit the wall (which I haven't yet).

RoyalMoose11

I don't really know what I rely on for fuel... I think I need to do a better job of trying to track that. Maybe going heavier on carbs one week and fat/protein the next.

Also nice comment on the TDEE. I have mine set as lightly active as my job has me without having to exert much. I compensated for that since I am on lightly active and then eating back atleast half of my calories from my tune up runs and then general trying to eat back all of the bigger runs. I'm also doing weight training three days a week. Days that are run/lift I have an insatiable appetite the next day. I hit my goal weight loss in January and have been trying to add muscle since then (gained 30 lbs with new fitness routine but all clothes still fit so I'm assuming that's all good weight).

Thanks for the feedback on wheat/whole wheat. I tend to eat the whole wheat for the nutritional benefits but the additional fiber before bigger runs isn't as appealing. Good to hear your thoughts on the variance.