4 things your marathon training plan won’t tell you

Make that very hungry. As your training intensifies, you’ll be putting in a lot of miles, which means a lot of expended energy, which means you need to think carefully about what you eat.

Eat the right things to keep your energy levels up while you’re running. When you’ve done running, the right food will help your body recover well.

The basics are simple – eat carbs to fuel your runs and protein for recovery afterwards, all within a healthy, balanced diet, and you won’t go far wrong. There’s more detail here in this Runner’s World article.

It’s a good idea to plan ahead and make sure you always have fresh, healthy food in at home. You don’t want to come home ravenous and find there’s nothing to eat. And believe me, you will come home ravenous! Stock your cupboards well, make the most of your freezer and have dishes ready to warm up while you stretch and shower. You’ll be glad of it.

You’ll need to plan your social life

You can still go out, have fun and drink a few glasses of wine now and again. You’ll need to schedule your social life more carefully than usual though. Get your trusty running diary out and work out where the fun fits in.

Take a look at upcoming social events and plan your running around them. This is especially important at weekends when you need to fit in a long run. For example, if you’re going to a party on Saturday night, do your long run that morning to get it out of the way. If you don’t do this, you’ll find all kinds of excuses to have the fun but not do the run!

You’ll need to drink more fluids

Your hydration levels will make a massive difference to how much you will enjoy running. Make sure you drink plenty of fluids – the NHS recommendation is 6-8 glasses a day, more when it’s hot or you’re exercising.

Cut down on caffeine and instead sip water, squash, herbal teas, fruit juice and milk (including soya, rice milks etc.) Specialist sports drinks are fine if you like them – look for ones specifically for hydration – but they’re expensive. Don’t feel that you have to drink them when you’re training.

Over-hydration (hyponatremia) is rare but the risks increase when you’re running long distances – your brain can tell you to store water instead of sweating or peeing it out, which can become dangerous.

There have been some quite alarming articles about this but here’s a more measured overview from Livestrong. In short, stay hydrated but don’t drink excessive amounts of fluid before or during running; instead, drink fluids steadily every day to keep your hydration levels balanced.

You’ll get tired

This is 100% guaranteed. Running on tired legs will become normal – you don’t get a marathon medal round your neck for sitting on the sofa – but you need adequate rest too. Your body needs to recover so make sure it has the opportunity.

Make the most of the rest days in your training plan, they’re there for a reason. You’ll probably need to sleep more too so go to bed earlier if you need to.

Please don’t be fazed by these things. They’re only temporary and it will all be worth it in the end. Promise!

• To find out more go to www.veggierunners.com

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