It is often said that getting to the starting line of a marathon or half marathon is half the battle. This is true. There are lots of ways for both the training and nutrition components of marathon and half-marathon preparation to go off course between day one and race day.
I always breathe a sigh of relief when I start my prerace taper. If I make it that far without getting injured or burning out from overtraining, I know I will make it to the start line fit and healthy because all the hard work has been done. When I get through step four of the taper diet—carbo loading—I feel even more hopeful, because I know I’ve taken advantage of almost every nutritional opportunity to enhance my race performance and avoided almost all of the nutritional mistakes that could wreck my performance.
There are fifty-four different possible taper diets. Only one of these possibilities is the ideal taper diet for your next marathon or half marathon. Despite the wealth of options, finding the ideal taper diet for your next race is not difficult if you approach the selection process methodically. Here’s how to do it.
1. Reduce your calorie intake so that you don’t gain weight as a result of tapering your training. Reduce your calorie intake three weeks before race day if you’re doing a three-week taper, two weeks before race day if you’re doing a two-week taper, and one week before race day if you’re doing a one week taper.
2. Switch to a 65 percent fat diet two weeks before race day if (a) your initial three-day fat-loading test goes well, (b) you are confident that you can eat a high-fat diet for ten days without unbearable mental anguish, (c) your upcoming race will last more than two hours, and (d) you are tapering for at least two weeks. Alternatively, start a compressed, five-day fat-loading period six days before competition if conditions (a) and (c) are met but you’d rather not fat load for ten days or you’re only tapering for one week. Forgo fat loading altogether if your test does not go well, or your upcoming race is shorter than two hours, or you’re not comfortable with the idea of getting 65 percent of your calories from fat for even five days.
3. Remove all caffeine from your diet one week before race day if you normally consume caffeine daily in small to moderate amounts and you intend to ingest caffeine on race morning for the sake of performance enhancement. Consider a longer caffeine fast of up to two weeks if you normally consume caffeine daily in large amounts and you think you can bear going without caffeine that long. Skip the caffeine fast altogether if you do not normally consume caffeine or if you do not plan to ingest caffeine before your race.
4. Carbohydrate load. If you choose to fat load for ten days starting two weeks before your race, then switch to a diet that supplies carbs in the amount of 70 percent of total calories for the last three full days before the race. If you fat load for five days beginning one week before your race, then eat 10 g of carbohydrate for every kilogram you weigh on the day before your race. If you don’t fat load at all you may choose either the one-day or the three-day carbo load. You can skip carbo loading entirely before races lasting less than two hours.
Notice I said “almost.” Things can still go off course in the last twenty-four hours before a marathon or half marathon, and often do. Prerace nutrition is the next critical component of performance nutrition.