Fueling for tomorrow

Now that my long runs are officially Long (yes, caps), I’ve become a lot more focused on food. Partly because I am hungry a lot more and partly because I’m very focused on fueling properly the day before and day of (including recovery eating) Long Runs.

I go with the standard pasta dinner the night before. Ok actually? I let myself eat as much as I want the day before a long run. Partly because I know that my body is going to need a lot of energy the next day and partly because, well, at what other time in my life am I going to be able to rationalize Tostitos as “carbo loading”?

Anyway, my body goes into this pre-run hunger state, and I am often really hungry Thursday (day before), Friday (day of) and Saturday (day after). By Sunday and for the rest of the week my appetite goes back to its usual levels (marathon training levels, that is).

My kids are sick today. Well, my two year old is sick. And the past two days have been long and tiring and I kind of forgot that I had 32km looming. I didn’t eat as much as I usually do, and wonder how this will play out tomorrow during my run. I had one really bad experience training for my first marathon when I tried to do an epically long run and had only eaten two english muffins and some salad the day before (long story). It was…. a disaster to put it lightly.

That experience is forever burned into my memory as “Lesson Learned the Hard Way” and I am, admittedly, paranoid about the same thing happening again.

This is where you give me your advice, fellow runners. What do you eat the day before a long run? The day of? The day after? And do you use marathon training as an excuse to eat as many Tostitos as I do?