26.2 Quest: What am I eating? The days before The Marathon

One of the things I told myself after finishing my first marathon is that I would do a better job eating and fueling for the next one. Last year in my first marathon I hit the wall at 21 miles and in retrospect I am confident much of the reason for that was a lack of fuel both during and before the race. I was feeling great up to that 21 mile mark and out of no where my body said "I'm done"

One thing I never really thought much about before this attempt was the way I ate the week leading up to the marathon. In all my races, and even in last years marathon I really only thought about the one meal that everyone talks about - the carb loading you do the night before a race, especially a marathon.

I normally don't eat bad, but I still do eat some fried foods here and there, but I have cut those out completely for this last week. Some other things I am limiting and trying to completely eliminate is greasy foods. Up until today I have not really added any noticeable increase in carbs, but rather just been careful in what I eat. Today however starts my switch in what I will be eating.

This morning I started off with a cheese omelet and some whole wheat toast. For lunch I had a salad with very little substance for fueling, but rather just keeping it clean. This evening my wife cooked a Grilled Chicken, Broccoli, Mushroom Alfredo pizza. Tonights meal will be my swing meal and will mark my move to more carbs and proteins for the remainder of the taper/fueling period.

Over the next few days I will focus on complex carbs as well as just taking in as many carbs as I can without overeating. I want to maintain a similar intake as I normally do which may mean a little bit of a gain since I won't be running. I am ok with a pound or two as long as I am eating what I need and not a lot of fat and greasy foods.

I am not sure what exactly my meals will be but I have decided on a couple things. I always meet a friend for breakfast on Wednesday mornings. Tomorrow I will get the pancakes instead of the eggs, potatoes, and sausage that I normally get. I have also put in my order for spaghetti on Thursday night and plan on making that my bigger carb loading meal. The rest I am not so sure of yet, but will all probably look somewhat like lean proteins and carbs.

The last couple meals are the ones that everyone always talks about, the evening before the race and the morning of. I will probably do something along the lines of grilled chicken and pasta on Friday night but a lot of that will depend of where we find to eat when we get to Columbus. I am sure all the pasta places in town will be busy so I may just have to take a sandwich or something similar just incase. I am not putting a lot of my fueling plan on this one meal so it shouldn't really matter if it is not full of carbs. The morning of the race will probably be just whole wheat bagels or something very similar as that is what I usually eat on mornings before long runs.

What do you eat leading up to a marathon? Do you worry about your diet leading up to the marathon or only the last day? What about suggestions for me to avoid problems or just make it better?

Somebody please hide the Snickers till Saturday!