| ||||||||||
|
Should You Eat Before Your Run? Personally I like to have a very light breakfast before heading out for my morning run. I find this especially helpful for long runs. If you are going to work out for more than an hour, you have to eat or your muscles will run out of sugar. Your liver releases sugar from its cells into your blood as you exercise, but the supply is limited. So, eating before your long run will definitely help to keep you going. If you do not eat before you exercise for more than two hours, your liver will probably run out of sugar. This causes your blood sugar level to drop, and you will start to feel fatigue and tiredness. This is actually what causes us to ‘hit the wall’ during the marathon. Having said that however, everyone’s physiology is different and some people simply have a hard time exercising if they have just ate. My advice is to try both ways and see which works the best for you.
How Much Should You Eat? My recommendations in terms of percentage of your calorie intake are as follows:
Of course this could vary a lot, depending on serving sizes. The amount you need depends on several factors including exercise level weight, and gender. Use our Online Calculator to get an idea of your marathon training nutrition requirement.
More Information... You can read our more detailed article on proper nutrition for marathon training on the Marathon Diet page.
| |||||||||