This is it. You joined Team for Life to help cancer patients and to support Lazarex Cancer Foundation by participating in an endurance event. And now the big day is approaching. Now that you have been preparing yourself to face the marathon, it is important that you stay healthy till the last minute. Here is an ideal meal plan for you to follow the week before your marathon.
Training for a marathon is truly a long term commitment. You would not get physically, mentally and emotionally ready for such an event overnight. It takes time to tune your body, mind and physical stamina to be able to endure what the big day throws at you. You would have to start eating right and maintaining a strict training schedule ahead of time. You would also have to practice other lifestyle changes like giving your body ample rest by getting enough sleep, staying stress free and much more.
In other words, it takes more than eating right the night before the marathon. Your body needs to function at its maximum potential on the day of the event, and therefore has to be at its best. You need to provide this fuel to your body over time and ensure that high levels of glycogen are present in your body just prior to the marathon.
The week before the actual marathon is extremely critical. This is certainly not the time to give in to temptations and forego your healthy eating habits. This is the time to ensure that you stay strictly with your dietary plans. Maintaining a diet plan, like this, the week before the marathon will .ensure that your body has the right acid-base balance, with the power to fight free radicals and is free of abdominal discomfort.
Day 1-4: Maintain a diet that contains a lot of vegetables, legumes, nuts and fatty fish to get your fill of Omega 3, vitamins and fiber for a healthy digestive system and a good balance of vitamins and minerals.
Day 5-7 (to the eve of the marathon): You should take great care in these days before your marathon as quantity and quality of the food you eat matters. In other words, it is not only important to watch what you eat, but how much of it you consume. Your consumption of fats and carbohydrates should not exceed these guidelines below.
- 4-5 g of carbohydrates per pound of body weight from cereals and low glycemic foods like rice, semolina pasta, buckwheat, quinoa and fruits
- 0.5-0.75 g of fats per pound of body weight
- Increase your water intake to balance the increase in carbohydrates; 2.7 g water for 1 g of carbohydrate
- Cut back on fiber
- It is best to avoid cheese, as it has a high acid content. Substitute yogurt if you have to have dairy. However, all dairy foods must be avoided during this time if you are lactose intolerant!
When you are preparing for a marathon, you need to do more than exercise to strengthen your body. You also need to fuel it the right way to ensure that it can stay with you through the entire marathon. By maintaining a healthy diet throughout your training session and adhering to a slightly stricter diet in the last week, you can be assured that you are ready to face the marathon and perform your best, with the most potential and the least likely chances of having bodily discomforts affect your performance.
