Half Marathon Nutrition

I would say, if you are running 20 miles a week now -- keep doing what you're doing....don't stress about the %'s of what you're eating, just eat a healthy, well balanced diet. as far as race day goes...you have 10 weeks to "practice" but above all else... do NOT TRY ***ANYTHING*** new on race day!! not even new socks!!! You'll wanna stick with what works for you -- myself, I don't eat anything before my long training runs, I tend to get an upset stomach.... LOTS of people eat a banana and peanut butter on whole wheat bread/toast.... you gotta figure out what works for you!!!! Hope that helps a bit!!

(btw -- I have 4 half's under my belt + over 30 5K's, and my diet and training is constantly getting tweaked!!!)

I'm coming up on my first half here in a few weeks and would love to read the feedback

I have no advice, but I'm also in my 20s, 5'7 126lbs and training for my first 1/2 marathon. Friend me if you like :bigsmile:

I'm a bigggg foodie and consider myself somewhat "learned" when it comes to nutrition, albeit far from an expert. I'd love to share any tips or advice from experience!

-Meag

Hi!
I did my first 1/2 Marathon last year (in Cleveland) and followed a 14 week training program starting from no running. It was quite an adventure. I wasn't on MFP yet at that point, but through the course of the training I definitely upped my carbs from what I was eating before (making sure they were whole grains, brown rice, etc and not just sugars). I ate what I wanted and often when I wanted but I tried to eat 5-6 smaller meals a day stretched out. You sound like you were in way better shape than I was when I started last year (like I said I was a non runner), but even eating often and more than usual, I did not gain any weight (I did not lose any either!).

I have found that even this year with my training my calorie burn (exercise calories) at this point aren't that much different than my other work out 4-5 days a week schedule from pre-training. I am sure that will change as I longer more and for longer distances on the weekends, but I figure I'll adjust then. I considered changing my calorie count (by adjusting my daily activity) but I am going to stick with what MFP suggests for now. I would like to stay on my weight loss track if I can but I am also going to put training first. This week I have been vacillating between being starving and eating all of my calories and not even making min. calories by choice, so I think it is going to be a day by day thing for me too.

The day before the race I had a good breakfast, a light lunch and a larger dinner (pasta is the best). That morning I got up early and ate a homemade egg and bagel sandwich about 2.5 hours before the race. I learned early on with my weekend long runs that eating before really gave me cramps, so I would just have a small cup of coffee (the caffeine did make a difference). You just have to sort out what works for you---and that goes for all aspects of the race: your eating habits before long runs, your clothing, your shoes and socks, how you tie up your hair, what headphones you like if you are going to listen to music, anything you think that might be a factor--try different things!

A great book for women is the Non-Marathoner's Running Guide for Women by Dawn Dias. She is hilarious and really goes along with all the different things I was experiencing last year. I actually am probably going to pick it back up now.

Ok. So that was a lot--but I hope it helped! Let me know if you need any more advice!

Thank you everyone, I am loving the advice so far! I also HAVE to fuel before long runs or else I feel nauseous. I have oatmeal for breakfast every morning so will probably stick with that. My main concern with nutrition was with the carbs. I feel like a lot of people stress eating a lot of carbs while training for distance races so I wasn't sure whether I should up my carb intake or not.

I am eating 50/25/25 trying to cut fat and gain muscle, and so far I haven't had any problems (I just finished W7 of HH Intermediate 1/2 Training)... But yes, there is a lot of information out there that supports a higher carb diet, so I wouldn't be afraid to aim between 50 and 65 if that's what feels right to you!

I used the HH 10K training plan and really thrived on it... I initially planned to use the novice plan, but felt that it wasn't enough running for me and I wanted more of a challenge. Then I wanted to do a hybrid of the novice and intermediate, because of the speed training (I really wanted to work on improving my times) and the long-run distances, but found that it didn't really make that much difference from the full Int. so I've just been following that. I have an extra month and a half to play around with before my 1/2 Marathon so I am going to re-run a few weeks, take 2 "break" weeks - including this one because I have injured my foot - and will be trying to run one or two Sundays farther than the 1/2 distance to prepare mentally and physically for race day... So basically, I'm just doing my own thing! hahaha But I love the schedule and find that it gives me a great base to work from and adjust for my own training needs. No complaints!

Great questions! I am training for my first 1/2 marathon in May and have been trying to find these answers online and haven't had any luck. I am most scared of not fueling myself properly (or fueling myself too much before the race which can cause more problems!). Hopefully once I start getting to the long runs of 10 miles or so for practice I can start trying out food patterns. For now, I am really only doing between 5-7 miles on long days so I don't really prep much (other than eating yogurt beforehand.)

I am terrified that eating a big pasta dish the night before the race will upset my stomach the next day since I don't regularly eat pasta.

I'm also running my first half marathon this year in April! I am running the NYC Marathon in November. Looking for some training friends here on MFP.. please add me:flowerforyou:

Also figuring out nutrition stuff. I'd like to lose 15 more pounds but I realize that is tough with training. I can say that I have definitely lost inches though! Lost a few pounds already.. but mostly the inches!

bump *

I've lost weight while training and find that it's nearly impossible *not* to lose. I am trying to maintain now, but eating back all my cals in healthy, wholesome food is really hard if you are burning 1000+ calories on a long run day!

As for eating back all my exercise cals, I try to do so most days when I am doing my strength and shorter training runs, but on long run days I usually only manage to eat back about 50-70% of them. It's just way too much food otherwise. Then again, I am already eating 1500+ cals a day as my base, so an added 1000+ is a LOT of food!

Good luck :bigsmile: