Colin's Nutrition Plan: NYC Marathon

Nutrition guidelines for distance running have changed a lot since I last ran a marathon back in 2013. Back then, the standard advice was a gel every forty five minutes or so, something like twenty to thirty grams of carbs an hour. The guidelines have moved up quite the last few years, and I've been working to increase my own carb intake on long runs to get closer to sixty grams an hour, ideally up to eighty, but I don't think I'm ready for that yet.

I've been experimenting with a handful of high carb options to get there, Skratch and Tailwind's High Carb mix, along with gels on top. Some runs it's two bottles and a gel, other times it's a bottle of water, a bottle of the high carb mix, and a couple of gels stacked in. It's been trial and error (with quite a bit more on the error side at this point based on how I’ve felt for these long runs), but I think I’ve got it after the long run from last weekend. 

So on my Garmin, I have set it up to beep at me every 40 minutes, which will look like:

30 minutes prior - Skratch chews

0-40 - Getting through the brunt of a bottle filled with Skratch High Carb (~40g carbs)

40-80 - Maurten 100 caffeinated, finish the rest of the bottle (22 from Maurten, 10 from the remaining bottle)

80-120 - SiS Beta Fuel - 50g

120-160 - SiS Beta Fuel - 50g

~172 grams of carbs over 2:59:59. 

I tried Tailwind’s High Carb mix in the bottle, but that was a little sweet when combined with the gels as the long runs went on. Skratch’s High Carb mix I found to be more tart, which I thought was easier to get down. For caffeine, 100mg comes from Maurten. There has been a fair bit of research illustrating that caffeine can be very beneficial for endurance athletes, so if your body can handle it, let it rip! 

For gels, these are so individual in regards to what you enjoy, from a texture and a flavor perspective. We have a lot of runners come through who enjoy the really sweet gel flavors (birthday cake, salted caramel, chocolate, etc) and others who want a more neutral flavor. Personally, I’m a citrus guy and I like a thinner, more watery consistency, which leads me to SiS. 

Going through this experimentation myself made it clear how much trial and error is actually involved, so we put together a nutrition sampler in the stores, 20% off, with samples from a handful of the brands I've been testing. It's meant to make that same experimentation easier for anyone else figuring out their own long run fueling.