Do you struggle with nutrition on long runs?

Do you struggle with nutrition on long runs?

Welcome to another episode of Ask Coach Parry and today we answer Steve’s question. Steve says his biggest struggle on long runs – longer than a half marathon – is fuelling his body correctly.

He wants to know is there a hard and fast rule regarding the amount of calories or carbs one should be replacing on a long run and in say a marathon. For example, how many calories per 8km’s?

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Brad Brown: Welcome to another episode of Ask Coach Parry and today we answer Steve’s question. Steve says his biggest struggle on long runs – longer than a half marathon – is fuelling his body correctly.

He wants to know is there a hard and fast rule regarding the amount of calories or carbs one should be replacing on a long run and in say a marathon. For example, how many calories per 8km’s?

Lindsey Parry: There are never hard and fast rules for running, but there certainly are some reasonable guidelines that you can stick to.

When you are doing long distance running – I guess anything over a half marathon we would consider a really long distance – you want to look to be fueling your body with roughly 60 grams of carbohydrates per hour.

It is not really over however many km’s – you would have to work that out for yourself based on your race strategy. Obviously the easiest way to get that energy in is going to be from energy drinks.

How much for how long?

So if we move beyond the marathon into an ultra, and finally into a Comrades Marathon type race, or 100-miler distances – the longer the race goes on the more difficult it becomes to keep fueling your body with very high sugar things like carbohydrate drinks and gels.

You do, when you are doing ultra marathons, also need to practice taking in small amounts of solids. I often suggest to people that they have a Bovril sandwich, for example. It’s a little bit salty, it gives you a bit of carbs from a more complex source.

But the problem I think, is that people imagine an entire sandwich. Where I am talking about cutting a sandwich into quarters perhaps and having one quarter every 2 hours, or every hour. Depending on your stomach can handle it and how often your people can get to you.

But yes, if you work out your race strategy at roughly 60 grams of carbs per hour, then you should not run low on energy. In extreme heat you may look at taking more. And in very cold conditions you would probably also need to look at slightly more. But that is a good rule of thumb for you to follow.

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