Training plans for long-distance runs

Speaker 1: Marcella McEvoy, Senior Health Content Editor, Bupa UK

Hello and welcome to Bupa’s Healthy Me podcast on marathon training tips. My name is Marcella McEvoy. I'm Bupa’s health content editor and your host for this podcast.

I'm going to be joined by seasoned and first-time marathon runners. We'll be covering topics from the importance of training plans and different types of training runs to avoid an injury, staying motivated and preparing for the day itself. We'll also be discussing how fuel your body best during marathon training.

Let's start by introducing my first two guests today. I'm joined by Robert Tansley, who's founder and CEO of the Buddy Boost well-being activity app. Robert’s an experienced marathon runner with an impressive 15 marathons under his belt and a personal best record of two hours and 44 minutes.

Hi, Robert.

Speaker 2: Robert Tansley

Hi Marcella

Marcella McEvoy:

I’m also joined by Jane Fletcher, who completed her first marathon a few years ago.

Speaker 3: Jane Fletcher

Hi Marcella.

Marcella McEvoy:

Hi, Jane. Thank you both for joining me today. So would you like to tell me a little bit about yourselves and what inspired you to become marathon runners? So, Robert, over to you.

Robert Tansley:

Sure. Thank you for the glowing intro. Yeah, I did a lot of team sports when I was younger and, you know, really enjoyed being active and playing sport all that. That goes with it to sort of physical health and enjoyment and camaraderie. But when I started work and work got very serious, I just didn't have the time to do team sports that I previously had. So I needed something to keep me active.

A few of my friends had done marathons, and because I'm a bit competitive, I thought, you know what, that sounds like a good thing to have a go at so that it was really started from. You know finishing team sports needing to be active but actually wanting a big old challenge.

Marcella McEvoy:

And what about you, Jane? Where did your inspiration come from?

Jane Fletcher:

Well, I don't have a background in running in particular. I've done bits and bobs over the years. Had also worked to keep myself relatively fit, but it was quite sudden the decision to do a marathon. It may have been on a long term bucket list, but I haven't made any plans and I was at work at the company.

I was working one January and an e-mail came out saying we've got a charity place in the marathon, the London Marathon this year, e-mail if you're interested and I like a personal challenge, so I sent the e-mail through and have to say nobody was more surprised than me when I got an e-mail back a couple of days later saying Jane you have won a place in the marathon.

So it was, yeah probably a long term goal to run a marathon in the way that people have it on their bucket list, but then it suddenly became a reality one cold January day.

Marcella McEvoy:

And how did it feel when you saw the e-mail? Was it like no turning back or?

Jane Fletcher:

I mean I’ll be honest, I panicked when I saw that e-mail. But the panic quite quickly turned into excitement. And as I began to look into the world of marathon running and preparation, and I spoke to a few friends that done it. And then I got going.

Robert Tansley:

So Jane, when you said you got the e-mail saying you won the place, 2nd place was winning two places in the marathon.

Marcella McEvoy:

Please clarify Jane.

Jane Fletcher:

Second place was having nothing to do for the next four months as opposed to manically trying to train.

Marcella McEvoy:

So Robert, as somebody who has run his first share of marathons, how do you approach training if you're gearing up for a marathon and consider yourself to be more developed runner? And how important do you think it is to have a training plan?

Robert Tansley:

It's a really good question. It is important to have a training plan. Obviously if you're not doing your first marathon. You've probably got a base level of knowledge and fitness already, so the situation isn't the same as Jane, where you're pretty much starting from scratch. You know you'll be able to go out and run for a good set of miles already. So really what the plan is there to do is to kind of just give yourself, hold yourself to account.

The way I do my plans is actually not to be incredibly forensic and detailed, so I will have in mind, OK, so for let's say to London marathon and it's in April. I'll write pretty much what I need to do in January, what I need to do in February, what I need to do in March, but I won't plan out March's runs at the beginning of January.

All I'll have done is planned out January's runs and then you get the end of January and then you then start planning February. So break it down, I always find helpful rather than being faced with the kind of 16 week plan, here’s every run you've gotta do for the next 16 weeks, which I think can be a bit intimidating.

Marcella McEvoy:

So what you're saying there is that you probably need to sort of vary it depending on the kind of runner that you are as well and sort of your levels of discipline as well, I guess with regards to how you like to train?

Robert Tansley:

Correct. And also what you think you need to improve, so if it's your endurance that you need to improve then the way you construct your training plan will be much more to do with getting the longer miles the longer runs in. If however, it's your speed that you think you need to improve, then you're going to be looking at right, making sure you've got the right level of higher intensity sessions in your plan.

Marcella McEvoy:

To which kind of leads nicely on to my next question, which is like how do marathon training plans typically work and what they involve?

Robert Tansley:

Yeah so well the first thing for everyone to remember. This is whether you're a beginner or an experienced marathon runner, and I've made this mistake a couple of times as well, so some bitter personal experiences. You cannot cheat the miles. You cannot run a marathon and without actually just having put the hard yards in.

Jane Fletcher:

So yeah, I would totally agree with that, even as a beginner or really as a beginner yeah, you have to do the training.

Robert Tansley,

What you'll find is, as you sort of start to run more, is that actually relatively easy to run 20 miles. That's a relatively in inverted commas. It's not very easy to run 26 and it, and it equally, is really not very easy to run 26 miles fast, because those 6 miles where at the end where your body starts to change physiologically. But the training to make sure that you are you're maintaining your speed and insurance through that critical last period is really key.

So the way I think about a marathon training plan is right so have you got the miles in. So a rough rule of thumb is that you increase, you do run one run a week and you increase the amount of miles in that run every week by a mile or two.

But what you really need to do is to make sure that your 5 longest runs add up to more or less 100 miles. Now, whether that's five runs of 20 miles or one of 16, 18, 20, 22 and 24, we sort of is in the margins, but make sure you've got that really good solid block of mileage in. So that's advice number one, can't cheat the miles

Advice number two is that bit about intensity. How do you make sure got what the technical runner will call speed endurance that you not just run for a long time, but actually you can keep your pace up, because that's what tends to happen at the back end of the marathon. You get past 20 miles, you haven't done your speed endurance and your pace drops off dramatically, and you can, let's say you set yourself a target of three hours or whatever it is you can lose in that last 6 miles a good 6 minutes and blow yourself up completely with regards to what you're trying to achieve.

So you need to have sessions in your training where you’re not necessarily running very far. But you are pushing yourself as being much faster than marathon pace, but on tired legs and that is the thing that will help you when you get to the back end of the marathon and enable you to keep running at your target pace.

Marcella McEvoy:

Jane, did you apply that advice to your training when you were training for your first marathon, or did you approach your training in a different way.

Jane Fletcher:

There were definitely some of what Robert said is relevant to the beginner but not all of it. So what I did after I picked myself back up off the floor after I'd got that e-mail was as I think I've already said I spoke to friends who'd run marathons. I looked online, I actually had a book as well about running.

There's a plethora of material around training plans. And my advice and my objective right from the beginning was to complete the marathon. I had no interest in time. It was about completion. So I knew I was clear about what I wanted to do and that dictated my training plan

I was thinking exactly as Robert said each week on a Saturday morning, so I had a friend who very kindly had run a marathon before and trained with me up to half marathon, and we ran a half marathon together and that was brilliant.

Robert will know from his work with Buddy Boost that having somebody to train with you is brilliant and in a position that I was in where I was quite anxious about completing it, having somebody who was holding me to account, who I ran with, did my long run with every Saturday morning was brilliant and each week we would run further and further.

Differing to what Robert said, I actually took quite a lot of comfort from knowing in January what I would be doing in March. But again, I think that was around managing my expectations and anxiety around completion. So I really liked having a very clear plan to my week.

I've mixed things up so, I'd do the long run on a Saturday morning. In the week I might run home from work. I might go into work early and do something in the gym, so I mixed up my training, but I had a really clear plan from early January through to the marathon that I could see, and I knew week in and week out what I was doing. And personally, I found that incredibly reassuring in terms of knowing if I do this, I am going to be able to complete the marathon.

Marcella McEvoy:

So Robert, you mentioned earlier that obviously there are sort of different types of training runs that you should do when training for a marathon. Do you want to elaborate on that a bit?

Robert Tansley:

Yes, so there are basically three types of run that you need to be thinking about. And before you go out on each run you need to know which specific kind of run it is just so you've got a goal for that day's training. So it's either a longer run or run to build mileage and your endurance. Or a more intense one, which is designed to increase the your speed endurance. So can you keep running faster for longer in a marathon.

And the third is recovery runner and it sounds a bit weird to say I'm going to go out for a run to recover. And actually really just what that means is going out slower than normal. It's getting your body used to running and recuperate whilst running and it's very easy to think every time I go out I've got to run as hard as I can for a particular distance and that actually becomes quite dangerous over time in terms of your long term goal, because when you've found out your body just gets tired, progressively more tired and after six to eight weeks your chances of becoming injured increase.

So do incorporate, I would do one run a week which was I don't know, somewhere between 45 minutes of an hour, of consciously slower than normal, and typically that might be the day after your long run or a day after a particularly intense sort of speed endurance session.

Marcella McEvoy:

And what about regular runners who are already used to running sort of 10K. How easy is it to bridge the gap from running 10K to a full marathon?

Robert Tansley:

So on the one hand, it's relatively easy because your body is used to running. You know you've done 10K a few times, but I would just repeat the mantra from before is you can't cheat the miles. So it's very easy to get carried away and think yeah I can run 10K, it’s only only four times 10K and a little bit more.

But actually, the demands on your body are significantly greater, so you have be aware that it is a big step up and you can't cheat it. You've got to put the miles in, otherwise you'll have a pretty horrible experience on marathon day.

Marcella McEvoy:

We want to avoid that don't we. Robert you mentioned that sort of 20 years after running the marathon in under three hours, you achieved your personal best of two hours and 44 minutes. How were you able to improve your performance so much?

Robert Tansey:

The biggest factor that actually I wasn't working full time during my period of training, so I actually had more time to dedicate to it. I could go running out in the middle of the day rather than very early in the morning or late in the evening. So I was able to recuperate and manage the training plan much better. The one and only time I did actually have someone who used to be a sort of semi professional set a training plan for me, which was very specific.

And I followed it to the letter. So you know my kind of compliance in terms of completing the sessions was really, really high. So that's why I just absolutely dedicated more time to it and followed a more professional plan if you like.

Robert Tansey:

So, Jane, how did you approach training to help prevent against injuries?

Jane Fletcher:

So I was very gradual in my increase week on week in terms of the amount of miles I was doing. And I think for somebody like me who was relatively new to it, if I'd started off in Week 1 trying to do 15 miles, I think that would have been a little problem. So even though some weeks I was feeling really good on that big Saturday morning run I’d think

God, I've definitely got a few more miles in the tank. I stopped myself, so it comes back to what was saying about that compliance with the training plan actually. I felt very gradual in what I was doing. I listened to my body so. If I felt pain, I didn't run through it.

I did get a physio about halfway through my training. I began to have some problems with my knee. I got a physio, he was incredibly helpful on a number of different levels. Not just physically, also mentally as well. He really helped me prepare for the actual marathon day. Lots and lots of stretching, so I became, where previously, when I'd been exercising, I'd probably been a bit casual about stretching and warming down, I think it's the technical term.

I became a lot more serious and handed time over to that. And the other thing I would say is that I was really careful around sleep, so I made sure I'd had a really good night's sleep before doing that big run. I was really fresh on the Saturday morning.

And again, an obvious one, but hydration. So thinking about what I was drinking, and particularly in those longer runs, how hydrated I was, what I was eating. I definitely was in tune with how my body felt over that time, and I think that did help me to prevent injury.

Robert Tansley:

Yeah, which is excellent answer by Jane, she covered all the main parts. The only thing I would add if you are, yeah, you're really seriously trying to go for a time and the training plan is pretty intense is actually to sort of book in some massages in advance.

So every two weeks slightly, you know, get yourself a physio who's good at massage and book in every two to three weeks through that time, just as a way of helping your muscles relax, loosen up rather than waiting until you feel like you've got an injury. Just get in there, get your get your muscles loosened off.

And again, echoing what Jane said about is the stretching, doing stretching post run, a foam roller, or stretching after you've run.

Jane Fletcher:

Ah the foam roller.

Robert Tansley:

The agony of the foam roller, but much better to do that afterwards. In a sense, it'll waste too much time stretching before. Just use the first few miles of your run as a warm up, but afterwards to make sure that you are on the foam roller stretching, and that that really helps.

But also, as Jane said, again, recognising your own body. It's going to hurt at times, so don't use a little bit of my legs feel a bit tired or as an excuse to stop. Clearly don't run if you've got a proper injury, but just get to know what is general soreness from running and you just kind of got a crack on versus something a bit more serious.

Jane Fletcher:

I really echo the point actually about the sports massage. So after I began doing the physio I did factor in or put into my schedule the regular sports massage and as well as being really good to me. It's like a bit of a treat as well. They're not quite as treaty as a sort of spa massage. But actually, I still really like sports massages now, and it just felt like something to look forward to in the training plan as well being good to your body.

Marcella McEvoy:

So let's move on to motivation. Robert did you mentally prepare for long training runs in the dark, cold and rain.

Robert Tansley:

So I think two things. One for me is actually just having the plan and having that down on paper in black and white for any given week or given month. So it's you know it's there that for me is actually almost motivation in itself. I need to kind of tick it off the bulk.

The other thing is if you are running for a particular time then you've always got that at in mind, so you've always got that slight fear of how much I don't do that particular run in this particular way then I'm jeopardising my target, which is a little bit different from something that's just actually going out to complete and kind of just do a marathon, so having that end target in mind when you're thinking when your motivation starts to waver, I think can be really important.

And then the third thing is we talked about this a little bit on training plans and the different kinds of run. Make sure every single run you're doing has a particular purpose. So yes, I'm doing this run to increase my endurance or this kind of run to increase my speed, that in itself will also give you a little bit of added motivation to go out and do that particular session.

Marcella McEvoy:

So what about you, Jane? What helps you to mentally prepare for those long training runs?

Jane Fletcher:

So I think I've already mentioned I had a friend that ran with me to train with me to half marathon level and then ran half marathon with me and that was brilliant. Just having somebody to help build my confidence week in, week out and be that person. That I knew would be there on Saturday morning to train with.

For the second-half of my training, when I was building up and doing the longer runs, I did that on my own and I found that a bit more difficult because you're really getting, in my case, I was beginning to run for a long time each week. So I mixed things up a bit so I might go and stay down with my parents and do a run near them, which was just a slightly different area.

Or I can have the going over to Richmond Park with my brother for a bit of a change. So again, as I've done in the other parts of the training, just changing things up a bit, not running the same route and adding an extra 2 miles on each week.

And the other thing that I did, which actually wasn't about the training but was more about the sort of overall I guess mental preparation and having people involved. I had a charity place, so I had to raise a certain amount of money, which meant that I got lots of other people involved, so I had a fundraising party. I invited people to come and watch me.

So I got my friends and family involved in what I was doing and that helped with the general sense of camaraderie, and also I guess, my sense of responsibility to the charity and to my friends who were sponsoring me, increased even more my level of commitment to getting out there on a day when everyone will feel someday I don't want to do this.

That that age-old mantra that the most difficult thing is getting out the door is absolutely true. And having my friends and family involved helped to spare me on in those times in those final few weeks.

Robert Tansley:

The first thing I would say, and you know this goes for experience runners, but particularly for beginner runners is make sure you do another sort of race whether that’s a half marathon or 10K race before you actually do your marathon.

And that's not so much about testing your fitness, it's actually just getting used to running with other people in a race scenario. All the logistics and that goes with seeing on the day turning up somewhere unfamiliar, dropping your bag off, making sure you've been to the loo, all that sort of stuff. You do not want to be doing that for the first time on Marathon Day. So it is about preparing for the day itself, but it obviously happens a good while beforehand

And then the final thing is, and this is really, this is sort of harder, especially if you've set yourself a kind of time target is try not to get too worked up about it in the last few days. You know, if you've done your training plan, you will know that you're basically in the right shape or not. And if you know that you're in the right shape or not, it's about to sort of executing it on the day. And it's very easy to spend that whole last week in what's known as maranoia. The am I getting a cold, should I have a glass of wine?

Shouldn’t I have a glass of wine, this that and the other. Then you end up having a you know you get yourself too worked up and then on the day you expended way too much nervous energy and it kind of doesn't help.

And then the final thing, actually this was something I heard from I think it was one of the British Olympians or something was like, if you get to the last day, you've done all your training. If you have a really bad night's sleep the nights or it actually doesn't matter because you know you just you're just going to be a little bit mentally tired. But you’ve done all the training, you’ve had all the rest beforehand.

You've maybe missed out on a couple of hours of sleep. Don't again, don't panic about that. Don't overthink it, which for me I thought was really because I have had a couple of nights before marathons where that's happened and I've been a bit worried. Do you know what? Everything's been fine. So yeah, try not to overthink things would be my bigger picture advice towards the end.

Marcella McEvoy:

Great tips there, Robert. Jane, and what helped you to stay focused and get across that finishing line when the big day finally arrived for you?

Jane Fletcher:

They're tapering was really important to me and it was quite a new concept. And I think if you're new to marathon training, the idea you start to you've been going doing more and more and more and then you start to do less and less and less.

Kind of took a little bit of a while to get my head around, but actually I found it very powerful, both mentally and physically. So to Robert's point, if you've done the training, you've done the training. If you've done the miles.

If you haven't doing them in the last two weeks is not going to make any difference whatsoever, so much, much more important actually, to start to slow down the amount that you're doing so that physically you can be in really great condition for marathon day.

Actually someone gave a really great piece of advice, it might been my physio actually that I was seeing. He said that so normally, the London Marathon’s on a Sunday. He said stay in on the Saturday, even if it's a nice day, do as little as possible and the reason for that is not just about conserving energy, but also it means that by the

Sunday morning you will be desperate to get out and get running. By this point, your body is so used to running lots and lots of miles every week you tapered it down. You've stayed in. I was literally desperate to get going when I hit the start line now.

Again, so Robert's point, I had done a training half marathon and that was really important because I made lots of mistakes doing that half marathon, I went off too quickly. I expended way too much nervous and sort of overexcited energy. So when I say on that marathon day you're desperate to get out if you've done some other training, proper runs like the half marathon that I've done. I knew not to I knew how to manage that good energy that I had on the morning of the actual race and it really, really helped me.

Actually, one of the things that I would share and this may just need be my experience, but as I've said a couple of times, I was really anxious about completing the marathon and thinking how can I run further than I've ever run in my life before. And obviously in the training runs you don't get up to the amount you have to do on the day. Running on the day was so much easier than most training runs.

I absolutely loved it. It was lovely weather, the excitement of the crowd running through my home city in London. It was completely exhilarating and actually my main reflection afterwards was that all of the hard work had happened in the months running up to it.

Not everyone I know has that experience, but I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed marathon day actually much, much more than I was expecting.

Robert Tansley:

It's a wonderful experience when it all goes right as Jane’s. It's unbelievably life affirming and joyful. So, we definitely encourage anyone who's thinking about doing one for the first time to do it. The other bit of advice I would add to all that is it’s again it’s very easy to overcomplicate things. Am I running enough? What about my diet? What about my sleep? Should I stop drinking alcohol or not?

Of those things by far I saw the most important thing is the training miles. You can flip around the edges and eat a bit less of this and a bit more of that. At the end of the day, if you haven't done the miles and you haven't done the training, the rest is all garbage. So put 90% of your energy in terms of planning and how you're going to approach training into the actual running. And if you're particularly interested in any of the stuff, then yes, fine. But don't think that you can cheat the miles.

If you're listening to this and you're waving about whether or not you should do it. Give it a go. It's a brilliant thing to achieve. It is genuinely a real achievement. Running 26 miles is a big deal. It's not impossible as long as you put the training in and you might feel awful as you cross the line, but you're very, very quickly feel incredibly exhilarated and almost certainly think well I might do another one.

Jane Fletcher:

I felt so exhilarated when I completed it and thought I'm going to do the New York marathon this autumn and I have never run another marathon since. I'm not saying I won't ever run, run another run, but it's I agree with Robert. If you're wavering, do it. It's one of the best things I've ever done. And the feeling I felt invincible afterwards.

The feeling that I could achieve something like that and the fun and the feeling of elation on the day was really worth every moment of the training.

Marcella McEvoy:

Wow. Well, I think after listening to this inspirational conversation, you might inspire me to consider running my first marathon. But please, Jane, don't hold me to it. I think that's all we've got time for before I move on to my next guest, who is going to share some marathon training nutrition tips.

Thank you both for joining me today and for all the great tips. It's been really interesting talking to you both.

Robert Tansley:

Jane Fletcher:

Thank you.

Marcella McEvoy:

It's no secret that what you eat and drink is really important when training for a major sporting event.

I'm now joined by my third and final guest today, Michelle Harrison, who is here to give us some nutritional tips. Michelle is Bupa’s’ leading health content editor and has a bachelor’s degree in nutritional science. She's also a keen runner and completed the London Marathon a few years ago. Hi Michelle.

Speaker 4: Michelle Harrison, Health Editor

Hi Mars, thanks for having me.

Marcella McEvoy:

And thanks for joining me today. So, Michelle, why is it important to think about what you're eating and drinking when training for a marathon?

Michelle Harrison:

So I guess, when training for a marathon. I mean, you're always kind of focus on your training plan and the types of run that you're doing and making sure you're not getting injured and things. But a big part of making sure that you perform at your best and making sure that you recover well when running is to think about what you're eating and drinking as well.

So you know the food that you eat will provide energy for you to run. It'll reduce your risk of injury and support your body to recover afterwards. So it's also, you know, just as important to think about what you're putting into your body to get the best from your runs.

Marcella McEvoy:

So how should you fuel your body best during marathon training, Michelle?

Michelle Harrison:

Yes, I think to start with you know the main thing is to make sure that you're listening to your body and that you're tuning into what works for you. So as well as thinking about, you know, your physical training and trying out runs that work for you, do the same with your nutrition. Play around with it during the training and find what works for you in terms of what types of food suit you best and you know the timing as well because you know your body will be different to someone else’s.

So, in terms of the actual nutrition and you know what you should be fueling your body with, it's just important to think about having a really healthy and balanced diet to make sure that your body is getting everything that it needs in order to perform well and to recover well during running.

So that's making sure that you have a healthy mix of carbohydrates, protein, healthy fats, lots of fruit and vegetables and plenty of fluids as well. And that should help to give your body everything it needs and help you feel good.

Marcella McEvoy:

So, Michelle, when you were training for the marathon and what types of food did you sort of typically eat before heading out for a morning or evening run?

Michelle Harrison:

I will definitely say that you can use your training as an opportunity to test out what works for you and your body and what foods suit you, and at what times and how you feel, what makes you feel the best. So you know whether you're going out for a morning run or an evening run, or even, you know, during the daytime it might determine how much you eat and the type of food that you eat as well.

So give yourself an opportunity during training to play around with what food works for you. So for me if I was on the weekend and I was doing a morning run, I might have something like overnight oats or maybe a piece of whole meal toast with peanut butter and banana on it, or maybe some porridge, and then, you know, leave it two to three hours before going out for a long run.

And that's what personally worked for me was those carbohydrates two to three hours before I went for a morning run.

But then when I was training, maybe in the evening after work, I would maybe an hour before I ran have a snack that was high in carbohydrates so that could have been maybe a banana or an energy bar.

Marcella McEvoy:

And Michelle what sort of food did you sort of typically have during and after a run when you were training for the marathon?

Michelle Harrison:

Yeah so during the run, this is something that people who are new to marathon running and obviously and often have to get used to is that you may need to take some fuel on when you're doing very long run. So normally, you know, if you go out for a run for up to an hour, or if you do a gym session or you’re playing sport, you don't need to eat or eat anymore during that exercise. Your body's got plenty of energy to get through it, but if you're going out for a very long run and say it's more than 60 to 90 minutes, then you're only going to use through the energy stores that it has.

So that's when you're going to need to take on a bit more fuel with you. So, these are things like you will find energy gels which you know are have got glucose and things in them that will give your body those carbohydrates that it needs in order to keep going and keep running for longer.

So again, during the training runs take some things with you and trial what works for you? So for me personally, I found a type of energy gel that suited me and I would have one about sort of an hour and 15 minutes into my run so that that was the carbohydrates will be kicking in just around the time that I would need them. So, see what works for you. Other people might have things like you can get sweets that you chew.

You know, you'll see lots of runners take Jelly babies and stuff like that with them. So there's loads of different things on the market that are high sources of carbohydrates that you can try.

And I would say to again, just make sure that you practice your nutrition and what works for you while you're training. So don't do anything new on the day that you haven't done before. You know, don't try an energy gel that's a different brand to the one that you trained with because some might upset your stomach. So again, just check them and see what works for you. So after you've run as well, you need to think about refueling and replenishing your body and helping it to recover well. So the nutrition after you run is really important.

And what you need is to again think about a balanced diet, so you need to be putting some carbohydrates into your body so that your muscle glycogen stores can build back up again. You need to be eating some protein to make sure that your muscles can repair and grow and recover from your run, and lots of fluids to make sure that you rehydrating and you know fruit and vegetables to make sure that you’re giving your body the vitamins and minerals it needs to stay healthy.

So, I remember for me personally and again this is different for everyone, but I would struggle to eat quite soon after the run, and I needed a bit of time for I think my body, just to calm down my digestive system, to kind of kick back in. So I struggled to eat a meal as soon as I got kind of back from my run. So, but I knew that I needed to put fuel back into my body to help it recover. So for me, what worked was having a smoothie when I got in.

So I’d make a banana smoothie with some nut milk and maybe some protein powder because that's what worked for me and then a couple of hours later I would have a meal. But if you feel able to and you can have a meal and get home then something like maybe a spaghetti bolognaise because you have the protein from meat and you would have carbohydrates in pasta and then making what your source of know lots of fresh vegetables like peppers, onions, tomatoes as well for the vitamins and minerals.

That would be, you know, considered quite a balanced meal that would help you to recover, or you might be able to have something like a chili con carne with rice or, you know, a lean meat with some steamed vegetables and maybe some new potatoes. Something like that. That's a well-rounded and balanced meal to give your body everything that it needs to repair and recover after your run is important.

Mars McEvoy:

And I'm guessing as your training increased, so did your appetite. So, did that have an impact on the types of food you ate?

Michelle Harrison:

Yeah, definitely. It was something actually because it was my first time, it wasn't something I had really thought about or something that I was expecting. But you know, understandably, you're putting the really high demands on your body and you're increasing the mileage that you do every week. And yeah, I'm not.

I was getting a lot more hungry than I was used to, especially because I was also training in the cold months too, so I found that, you know, I’ll be at work and my normal meals just weren't filling me up and at all. And I was finding that I wanted to snack a lot more, too.

So, you know luckily I worked in the medical industry and have a nutrition background so kind of thought about what’s good for me and what should I be doing here to meet this kind of energy requirement from my body? So for me what worked was to increase my portion size as a little bit and have a bit bigger meals and to have lots of healthy snacks to hand. It says I could graze on them so I have lots of fruit around. Lots of, you know, unsalted nuts, some dried fruits, some high protein yoghurt things.

Things, things like that to help me stay full in between meals.

But yeah, definitely you will find and again that's about listening to your body and your own hunger signals and not ignoring that. And realizing that, you know, if your body’s hungry you know feed it and just give it lots of good stuff to help you get through that training. Marathon training is intense. It is a lot on your body. You're asking it for a lot so you know, take good care of it and put the nutrients back in that it needs.

Marcella McEvoy:

Thanks, Michelle. Lots of really sort of helpful and nutritional tips there. And so moving on to hydration. Obviously that's a really important aspect of training. How did you stay hydrated during training runs and ensure that your body was hydrated during runs. Any tips to share there?

Michelle Harrison:

So on the day of your marathon, there are likely to be food and water stops along the way, so there'll probably be water stations as you go. So you might decide that on the day you're happy with that and you don't want to take any kind of water or fluids or anything like that with you. But obviously during your training, once you need to take something with you and again use it as a way to experiment. See what works.

So I remember I trialed lots of different ways of carrying water so it wasn't uncomfortable. So I had tried a belt that wrapped around my waist that had two small water bottles on either side. I tried kind of a water pack. I tried a bottle that your hand fits through and just again to see what I felt most comfortable with. So you can try that as well, see what works for you.

You might also find that you need some electrolytes. So you know lots of people will take sports drinks with them when they go for a run, but sports drinks can often be very high in sugar, so you know you need to kind of be careful if you are drinking sports drinks, but you can, you know you will need to again replace the electrolytes that you're using through sweat. And so I found that I got some electrolytes to put in my water that I then carried with me and that just kind of kept that thirst at bay for me.

You can make your own sports drinks as well. You know, you don't have to buy the ones that are really high in sugar. You can try ones by just by having some water, some squash, so you know some cordial but not the low sugar one because you'll need to put some a little bit of sugar back into your body.

And just put some salt in it as well. So that that might work for some people. But yeah, again, thinking about putting back in those electrolytes that you're going to lose through sweat. So for me, just those small kind of effervescent tablets in my water bottle, when I went for a run and sipping on that helped me a lot.

Marcella McEvoy:

Any final thoughts or reflections for the day, Michelle?

Michelle Harrison:

So yeah, I think the main take away when you’re training for a marathon and thinking about your nutrition is to think about what works for you personally. So everybody is different and you know your energy needs, your nutrition needs are going to be completely different to somebody else’s. So really tune into your body and listen to your hunger signals and you know, do what works for you. If you are hungry, eat a bit more.

You know play around with the timing of your food and the types of food. So like I'm saying, you know, you might find that porridge might feel too heavy on your stomach before a run, and so therefore, you know, a banana might be better for you.

And you know, like me, you might find that you can't have a heavy meal to eat after you run. It doesn't suit you, or you might be really hungry as soon as you get home from your running. So you know, you might want to have a nice big meal up there waiting for you. So again, just see what works for. And play around with things.

And I would also say just make sure you're not trying anything new on the day so you know you'll know with your training that you know, make sure things like you know what you’re going to wear on the day that you've already run in that so that nothing changed or that you know you have your trainers are broken in and you wouldn't put a new pair of trainers on the race day.

And it's the same when it comes to your nutrition, you know, make sure that you know what works for you. You know what time you're going to take your energy gels at. You know which type of energy gels suit your body and just be prepared with your nutrition.

Marcella McEvoy:

That brings us to the end of this podcast. Lots of food for thought there. Thank you, Michelle, and to my other guests, Robert and Jane, for joining me today and for sharing all your tips. You can visit Bupa’s online running hub for lots more free information and advice on training for a marathon.

And don't forget to subscribe to the Healthy Me podcast to keep up to date on all our latest podcasts.