Runners eating more

LoveLiveLift

Hey! Any runners on here that are training for a half or a full marathon? How do you keep up with your eating on your long run days?

I trained and completed a half marathon at the end of March. I'm thinking about doing another half sometime but I'm just remembering how hard it was to eat back all those calories. Also, I was wondering if it would be easier if I just bumped my calories up all week so I didn't have to eat sooo much on long run days.

Curious to see what others have done.

sonyachan

I just complete my first 10K, so I understand a little about the high calorie burns and eating all that back. I would suggest eating high protein, high fat on those days. Lots of nuts, maybe protein shakes. I'm sure you can pretty much eat whatever you want on high mileage days. Good luck!

LoveLiveLift

Thanks! I did make myself a pretty killer chocolate pb protein smoothie that ended up being about 650 cals. That did help get my cals up over BMR without making me feel uncomfortably stuffed.

sonyachan

Found this article that I thought you might like.

http://www.active.com/women/Articles/Top_10_Rules_of_Weight_Loss_for_Runners.htm?cmp=17-7-2375

ANewLucia

LIKE!

lillebanon

I just ran my first Half at the end of March too... back when I was netting 1200 cal a day! I am working on shorter runs now to improve my speed, but when I get back to the long runs again, I plan to spread the extra calories out over a few days before/after. Usually a couple days before I up my carb intake too to store glycogen in my muscles to prevent muscle fatigue during the long runs. But yeah, I burned about 1800 calories running the half marathon, which would've been IMPOSSIBLE to makeup all the same day, especially since my stomach doesn't like a bunch of food after a long run.

lillebanon

By the way 2:23 on your half-marathon is pretty awesome! I was stoked when I came in under 3 hours at 2:53!

LoveLiveLift

Found this article that I thought you might like.

http://www.active.com/women/Articles/Top_10_Rules_of_Weight_Loss_for_Runners.htm?cmp=17-7-2375

Thanks! That was a good article. I liked how it said that weight loss should be a slow process and to only cut 200-300 calories off your daily intake.

LoveLiveLift

I just ran my first Half at the end of March too... back when I was netting 1200 cal a day! I am working on shorter runs now to improve my speed, but when I get back to the long runs again, I plan to spread the extra calories out over a few days before/after. Usually a couple days before I up my carb intake too to store glycogen in my muscles to prevent muscle fatigue during the long runs. But yeah, I burned about 1800 calories running the half marathon, which would've been IMPOSSIBLE to makeup all the same day, especially since my stomach doesn't like a bunch of food after a long run.

Thanks for the tips! I think I may try to spread things out over a couple of days. My stomach also doesn't like eating so much right away. I'm not currently training for a half, but I would like to run another one sometime this year.

By the way 2:23 on your half-marathon is pretty awesome! I was stoked when I came in under 3 hours at 2:53!

Thanks! Isn't running so much fun? You get to beat your old PRs and set new ones. I love it!