There is no question that individual runners and athletes will find the diet, routine, and training that works best for their own goals, pace, and body type. An interesting debate on Complete Running leads me to believe that there are two ends to the “what to eat and how to fuel” spectrum and the rest of us fall somewhere in the middle. Seven-time marathoner, Mark Iocchelli, argues the less is more angle to fueling up for running and depends solely on his body’s pre-stored glycogen and a few swigs of water to power through long runs and marathons.
Iocchelli’s standpoint is strongly argued by Steve “Runner” Walker, a 19-time marathoner who treats each marathon as an “experiment of one,” a mindset that I can relate to. Each race is slightly different and you learn from each one what works best for you from food to shoes to pace, etc. I found Steve’s spaceship analogy a little over the top, but his basic argument is that less is not enough when it comes to fueling up for long runs. Since we do not normally go out and just run 26.2 miles our bodies are not prepared to fuel us accordingly on a whim. It takes training but also, according to Steve, replenishment of fuel stored to avoid hitting the wall during a long run.
Thomas Bubendorfer rounds out the debate with more of a nutritional focus and I think helps set the tone that defining your marathon, training, or overall healthy diet will depend on many of your own personal goals and preferences. What camp do you fall in: fuel-free or fill ‘er up?
I look forward to learning from my own first marathon what routines work and don’t work, but I can safely tell you this–I know I will be downing at least one pack of Gu and plenty of water along the way.
Whether training for a marathon, a triathlon, a 5K, or nothing at all it’s always worthwhile to set healthy eating goals. I would like to tackle the much larger topic of healthy eating over a series of posts and here will be focusing on what the best practices are with regard to meals for the final week before a marathon.
There is officially one week until my first marathon. Last week had a bit of a monkey wrench tossed in because of pain I started to experience in my 
At the end of a long run, the legs are inevitably tired which is to be expected. I understand the important role that the knees play in running and that they certainly carry a lot of the body’s weight and movement. Doing core exercises and strengthening and stretching the pelvis, hips, and legs will help the knees and legs remain strong during a run. Without a strong core to keep the body in a nice straight line while running, your knees will bear the brunt of any sideways movement of the body and you’ll feel the pain later.
I have been a long-time subscriber to SELF Magazine and kept back issues for more years than I would like to admit. I’ve seen the magazine change and evolve and always found something in its pages that interested me throughout my teenage years where I just wanted to be inspired to my college dieting years to my adult years of focusing on healthy fitness. To no fault of SELF (sorry SELF), I have been letting my subscription run out in favor of reading Runner’s World, running websites, and blogs which appeal directly to my current goals.
Last summer a girlfriend and I realized we were both in a work-out slump. We wanted to be exercising regularly and we knew the exercises we wanted to do (mostly running, Pilates, Yoga, and a few weight routines) and we both categorized ourselves as morning exercisers. However, we were severely lacking the motivation to actually get up and work-out. Somewhere a light bulb went off and we decided to put our cell phones’ unlimited text plans to use and thus began our version of The Buddy System.
For the last few weeks I have been dabbling lightly with the best pre-run routine for long Sunday runs. I’m acutely aware of the need to fuel up before heading out but I’ve also become more in tune with the amount of time it takes for my body to wake up and go through its own routines.
I recently wrote about the 
I am a fairly patient and tolerable person; it takes a lot to get me riled up and I tend to like most things. There are only a couple things I truly hate: mosquitoes and being cold. I would take being hot over being cold any day. When I’m cold I feel like I can’t function, I usually scrunch my shoulders up to my ears which ends up hurting, and I’m liable to lose my usually positive spirit if I’m freezing. For these reasons, I avoided 
When I first decided I wanted to run a marathon in 2009 I set my sights on the ING NYC Marathon in November. I still have my heart set on doing that run, but I also thought it might be wise to run one sooner so that I would know what training was all about and to make sure I could do it. I knew the B&A Marathon was March 1st and because it’s local, that seemed like a good choice.