Your Must-Have Energy Tips for Marathons and Half Marathons
Getting through a marathon or half marathon can feel impossible when you find yourself running out of energy during your race, your legs start to slow down, you can’t seem to stop that negative emotion that is now dominating your once good run. If this has ever happened to you, that’s all about change as I show you, how I coach all my clients to manage their energy, fuelling and nutrition levels during their races.
With more and more people taking up longer distance running, it's surprising how many of us still struggle to optimize our energy levels. We've all been there - hitting the wall, feeling like we're running on empty, and wondering why we even decided to run this distance or enter this race, I mean of all the things we could be doing right.
Let me just say that when I first started running the longer races back in 2014, all of those things happened to me at one time or another, I mean, 11 years ago, there was not as much information around and now it feels like there is too much information and you are probably wondering who to believe right.
The information that I am about to take you through is something that I use for all of my clients that I coach from clients who are doing a walk/run strategy for their half marathon and a goal time of 4hrs, right through to athletes who are training to qualify a sub elite marathon level with times around 2:20hrs.
When it comes to marathon and half marathon running, energy is everything. Without a well-planned strategy, even the fittest runners can find themselves slowing down.
So, what are the essential energy tips you need to know that will take your next race to the next level?
It all starts with hydration and fuelling –
Drinking the right amount of water at the right time to ensure you're properly hydrated will make a huge difference.
Sports Medical Journals did a study on how much water a runner should take on during a marathon race and it was found that the amount of between 50mls – 200mls every 20 minutes to stay adequately hydrated, providing that you start the race already having been hydrated. Now this may increase in hotter whether but for now let’s just keep it less complicated.
This will mean that you want to look at the race you have entered, and then see where the water stations are on the course and try to work out how long it will take you to run between each water stop and ensure that you grab enough water from the cups to drink the amount you need to get to the next water station. Keep in mind that most cups of water at these stations hold around 150-200mls, so make sure you get it all in.
Nutrition is also crucial - knowing what to take on and when to take it on to maximize your energy stores and keep your body moving forward is a vital component of running a confident half and full marathon.
As all our bodies and digestive systems work differently under the stress of running a half and full marathon, it is critical that you use a lot of your longer training sessions to practice what your body can handle when it comes to consuming calorie dense fuel sources on the run.
As a general guide, if you are running a Half Marathon anywhere over the 90-minute time frame or a Marathon in a time over 3 hours, then you want to be looking to consume between 200 – 300 calories per hour with a Carbohydrate content of between 50 – 80 grams per hour.
Now you may be asking yourself why this is mainly for people running those sorts of times. A lot of this has to do with the amount of energy that you can store in your body before the race and how long that will last during the race at a certain running pace and a certain heart rate level.
Generally, runners that are running at a much harder intensity for a shorter period, can get away with consuming less calories per hour than those of us running at a slower pace for a longer period. If you’re thinking how that is possible, then type FUEL in the comments for the full explanation video on that.
Now day’s there are so many ways to get your fuel into your body, there are Gels (which I hate) Carbohydrate Drink Mixes, Electrolyte Drink mixes, Gummy Chews, Energy Bars, Soda Drinks, Natural or Real Food and the list just goes on and on.
There are so many different ways to consume this fuel but one of the tips I always coach people on is to consume your fuel every 15 – 20 minutes during your race and the best way to do this is to set a time alert on your watch so that it beeps at you every 15 or 20 minutes as a reminder to take on the fuel. Make sure you don’t skip on this as it is vital that you keep consuming the fuel all the way through the race.
A lot of people think that because they feel so good at the start of the race, they actually don’t need any fuel, after all, you just ate a big meal a few hours before the race, right? Wrong….
Because your body is going to be in a caloric deficit from the first hour of the race, it is essential that you are topping it up and fuelling it right from the start line.
You see each hour, for most of us, we will burn between 700 – 1000 calories every hour that we are running the race. And with you only consuming 200 – 300 calories per hour, hopefully you can see the problem with that line of thinking now.
Pacing is all about finding that sweet spot - not too fast, not too slow. It's easy to get caught up in the excitement of the start line, but remember, you've got 21 or 42 kilometres to go, so take it easy and conserve energy for when it matters most.
If you run faster than what you have been training for, you will run the risk of burning to much fuel to fast and after that, it is hard to resupply the body with what it needs and your race will take a turn for the not so fun.
So, check your pace every 500m for the first 2 – 3 kilometre’s to make sure that you are not running to fast, or do as I coach my clients to do and set a TO FAST alert on your watch so that it can beep at you when you are going over that pace.
While these tips are essential, they're not always easy to implement. For example, it can be tough to get your nutrition right when you're running long distances, and it's easy to get caught up in the excitement of the race and forget to pace yourself. But with practice and patience, these strategies can really transform your next race result.