There were a handful of things I did differently before CIM (California International Marathon), and one of those things was a carb-load. CIM was my 12th marathon but the first time I did a true carb-load, and I really think it aided in my performance and helped me finally break 3 hours in the marathon. I will say this is one of the few marathons where I never hit the wall!
Back in 2016–going into Grandma’s Marathon, I did do a carb-deplete followed by a carb-load. (I blogged about my experience with that HERE.) While I think I did a decent job with my carb-load that time around, I’m still not sure I did it right. This time I had a much more specific approach to it all, and I felt much better equipped for the why and how. (Side note: I have also since learned that the carb-deplete portion is not necessary and if anything, it can leave you crabby and not feeling well. I learned about that on the Fuel for the Soul podcast during THIS episode.)
A week out from the marathon, I started doing my research on what I needed to do to in terms of when I was going to start the carb-load and what I was going to need to eat. Meghann of Featherstone Nutrition seems to be the guru of this topic in the running world, so I downloaded her free handout from the the home page of her website and listened to the aforementioned podcast. Both were incredible resources that were easy to understand and full of valuable information.
After reading up about the carb-load, I learned I would need to eat 400 grams of carbohydrates each day. (Not everyone will take in 400 grams of carbohydrates as your needs vary depending upon your weight.) Meghann then advised to start the carb-load 2.5-3 days out from the marathon. We were traveling all day on Thursday (3 days out from the marathon), so I opted to start the carb load that night rather than Thursday morning. I did not write down what I had to eat that night, but I know I had things like: a bagel, pretzels, and sweetened iced tea.
Meghann’s handout also talked about spacing out the carbs throughout the day and gives a sample menu of what you can eat throughout the day to hit the necessary grams of carbohydrates. I used her menu as a guideline, which helped keep the foods interesting so I wasn’t eating the same three things over and over again. (Although, this is entirely okay too because this is the time to just get the calories in and not be as concerned about how palatable the foods are.) The podcast also covers things such as the reasons white breads/rice are better than brown rice/wheat breads during this time and the importance of drinking enough water so your body can store all the glycogen. I’d highly recommend downloading the handout and listening to the podcast as well because both have a lot of good information in them.
Friday morning is when I started tracking what I ate during my carb-load, to ensure I was hit my 400 gram mark. Here’s what I ate:
Breakfast
50g – Shot Bloks
16g – applesauce pouch
28g – Better Oats oatmeal
26g – dried apricots
35g – Pop Tart (1)
155 grams
Snack
20g – pita chips + a little guacamole
55g – Bolthouse juice
75 grams
Lunch
50g – white bagel (w/hummus, cucumber, red pepper, spinach)
25g – pretzels
20g – Skratch drink mix
95 grams
Snack
10g – pineapple cup
15g – pita chips
59g – Bolthouse juice
84 grams
Dinner
Cornbread
Mac n Cheese
Chicken strip (1) + a few fries
Total: 409+ grams
After my afternoon snack, I had already hit 400 grams of carbohydrates for the day, but I was still hungry. One thing I hadn’t realized until I did this carb-load is that 400 grams of carbohydrates is only 1600 calories. (1 gram of carbohydrate equals 4 calories.) However, I will say that there were often a small amount of fats and/or protein in almost every item I ate, but I was surprised how hungry I still was. So when it came time for dinner, we ended up eating at a restaurant which meant I didn’t know exactly how many grams of carbohydrates I consumed, but I still aimed to make my foods 85-90% carbohydrates. I knew I couple splurge a little bit on the fats and proteins since I had hit my carbohydrate quota for the day, which is why I had a little bit of Cullen’s chicken strips and French fries that night.
Saturday was the last day of the carb-load, and it looked quite a bit similar:
Saturday
Breakfast
20g – Huma gel
10g – pineapple cup
30g – apple cinnamon oatmeal
35g – Pop Tart (1)
95 grams
Lunch
50g – white bagel (w/hummus, cucumber, red pepper, spinach)
25g – pretzels
25g – banana
20g – Skratch
120 grams
Snack
35g – Honey Nut Chex
35g – Nature Made Fig Bar
70 grams
Dinner
20g – Liquid IV
100g – bagels (2)
21g – Honey Stinger Waffle
141 grams
Total: 426 grams
And then on race morning, i continued with the carb-heavy foods:
4:00 a.m. (3 hours from the start)
– banana (100 calories)
5:00 a.m. (on the bus ride to the start)
– bagel (230 calories)
– Gu Waffle (160 calories)
– Maurten 160 (80 calories–as I probably only had about half)
6:30 a.m. (30 minutes until the start)
– Ucan energy mix (90 calories)
Total calories: 660 calories
So that’s what I did, and I felt great throughout the entire race! I mean, I did run a 6:10 split during mile 25 of my marathon, which I still have no idea how I did that! I never had any GI distress, and I never felt bloated during the carb-load, so I will 100% do this again during my next marathon.
I surprised myself by finding enough variety that I didn’t get too sick of eating carbohydrates for that long. (I will say I was done with dry bagels though by the end though.) I pretty much followed Meghann’s meal plan in her guide as well except we could not find any restaurants serving plain pasta Friday night! I guess people don’t eat that kind of food anymore–ha! Actually we did find a Old Sphaghetti Factory, but it was going to be an hour wait, and we didn’t want to try and kill an hour with two small children.
And that concludes my carb-load for CIM: what exactly I ate, when, and how much it helped me during the race! After this experience, I am a firm believer in carb-loading and plan to do it for any future marathons–and half marathons as well! I didn’t realize you could carb-load for a half marathon, so I will definitely try that next time as well!
