I'm no expert, but growing up with a marathoning Mom, I do know that she carb-loaded a lot before big runs, i.e. having spaghetti the night before (or it may have been two nights before?). I think essentially making sure you get enough calories before your run but eat things that aren't so weighty (i.e. a lot of protein) right before could help. I eat a lot of whole grains which seems to help provide me with the energy I need for long runs. Hope that helps!

You need to eat enough carbs or your body will crash and your runs will be torture. You also need to eat enough protein for muscle recovery and growth. You probably should set your macros at 50 carb, 30 fat, 20 protein. You could even increase the carbs and decrease the fat some if you want. Also, you should minimize the weight loss goal to 1/2 or 1 lb a week to ensure you get enough calories to train.

Personally, I have found that I need to eat more than 400 grams of carbs a day to maintain my training. I also found that setting my macros as descrribed above and eating the exercise calories that MFP calculates gives me this much or more to eat. That is with a 1/2 lb per week weight loss goal selected. So, I think that if you select a reasonable weight loss goal and macro allocation, MFP will tell you how much to eat to maintain your training load safely. You just have to be sure to eat it.

I second the "whole wheat bread with peanut butter" breakfast! I have eaten that before every long run or race for the last couple years. Recently, I have also started drinking Special K protein shakes after my long runs, to provide the protein to rebuild muscles (as someone else mentioned), without adding a ton of calories.

the day before the run i eat "more carbs" than usual like sqaush, sweet potatoes, whole wheat toast, whole wheat pasta, brown rice.

the morning of my run i have a sandwich thin or bagel with with either peanut butter or almond butter half a banana and some honey that will have be good for an hour into warm up and running then during the run i have energy gel when i feel the need for it.

after the run i don't find myself hungry just thirsty but from reading a lot on runnersworld.com and active.com i see you need to have something and the best to fuel is chocolate milk. so i have just started doing that. i tend to be hungry maybe an hour after i run then i have a meal.

hope this helps! best of luck to you!!! oh btw when i workout during the week i do at 5:30am and i do it on an empty stomach since i roll out of bed and go but after i have a protein shake for breakfast then oatmeal for a snack about 2hrs later