If you’ve been training hard for 26.2 and are feeling nervous as race day approaches, don’t fear! Pile your plate with these fab fitness foods to help fuel your marathon performance, says nutritionist Louise Pyne…
Marathon season is officially here, and if you’ve spent the past few months training for an awe-inspiring fitness challenge, you might be starting to feel the pressure as the main event draws closer. Even if you’ve put in all the prep required, it’s normal to feel nervous with race day looming – after all, you’ve worked so hard both physically and mentally to tackle every hurdle that’s come your way.
It’s reassuring to know that pre-race jitters are an obstacle that most runners have to endure. You might have a fear of failing and concerns that your nerves will get the better of you. You might even feel self-conscious about friends and family waiting for you to cross the finish line, or be worried about injuring yourself before you make it to the end of the marathon.
These concerns are not uncommon but, that being said, if anxiety is getting the better of you it can feel pretty debilitating and can impact self-confidence and performance. Thankfully, there are lots of strategies that you can implement to get you through unrelenting nerves so that you feel your best in the run-up to your event.
The first thing to think about is what you’re eating. Your diet can either help or hinder your race-day nerves. A diet that is packed with ultra processed ingredients will leave you sluggish and demotivated, whilst fuelling your body with more of the good stuff will help to prime you for the mammoth challenge ahead.
Tapping into your nervous system with calming foods can massively help when you’re feeling stressed or overwhelmed. As your sympathetic nervous system (fight of flight response) takes hold, your default action might usually extend to reaching for comfort foods to take the edge off stress, but ready meals, takeaways and too many sweet treats will only leave you feeling worse in the long run. Instead, here are the best food options to help soothe your senses so that you approach marathon day tension-free.
Eat anti-inflammatory boosters ahead of a marathon
Excess inflammation in the body can have a negative impact on physical and mental health so including lots of antioxidant foods, which help to dial down the effects of inflammation in your diet, may help to improve high anxiety and stress levels. Brightly coloured fruits and vegetables offer the best access to anti-inflammatory antioxidants. These health-givers also help to support recovery post-training, helping reduce DOMS (delayed onset muscle recovery).
Maximise magnesium
When your adrenal glands churn out excess levels of the stress hormone cortisol to help deal with a stressful situation, make calming magnesium your go-to mineral because, according to research, higher levels of magnesium correlate with lower levels of anxiety – especially in women. Magnesium has been shown to help soothe your nervous system and slow the production of cortisol, and good sources include dark chocolate, spinach and bananas.
Fill up on plenty of tryptophan-rich foods
Sleep quality often falls to the wayside when anxiety levels surge, so if you’re not getting the seven-to-eight hours that your body craves in order to optimise health before the big day, tryptophan-rich foods could help to relieve that frazzled feeling so that you sleep easy. Tryptophan is an amino acid that your body needs but cannot manufacture on its own, and it is found in eggs, cheese, salmon, turkey and nuts and seeds.
Support your gut for a marathon
Bloating, excess gas and abdominal pain are common side effects of anxiety and stress. Keeping your gut microbiome balanced will help to offset these effects, and a 10-week study by Stanford University researchers showed that including fermented foods helped to increase gut bacteria diversity. Adding in sauerkraut, kimchi, natto and kombucha to your diet will help to keep your good gut bugs happy so that tummy troubles don’t interfere with your race-day performance.
Prepare your marathon race-day breakfast in advance
Just as you might lay out your race day clothes the night before the big day, thinking about what you’re going to eat on the day of the race is paramount to fuel your body with enough energy. A solid breakfast such as porridge with banana and honey or a bagel with nut butter are good carbohydrate-rich options to help fuel you up whilst calming your nerves.
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3-day fitness food plan ahead of your marathon
These no-fuss meal ideas are packed with calming ingredients to melt tension and prime you with all the necessary nutrients needed for energy and vitality ahead of marathon race day. You can repeat the meals and snacks or switch them around if you prefer.
Day 1
Breakfast
Seeded sourdough with eggs & sauerkraut
1 slice of seeded sourdough topped with 2 tbsp sauerkraut and 1 boiled egg sliced in half
Snack
Fruity rice cakes with yoghurt
Crumble one wholegrain rice cake into 150ml Greek yoghurt. Add 1 tbsp frozen raspberries and stir through 1 tbsp peanut butter
Lunch
Rainbow bowl
50g brown rice with 80g sweetcorn, 3 cherry tomatoes, 1 beetroot, 100g prawns and 100g kale
Snack
25g squares of dark chocolate & 1 tbsp almonds
Dinner
Salmon & Med-style veg
Poached salmon fillet served with 200g roasted peppers, courgette and aubergine
Day 2
Breakfast
Apricot compote
150ml Greek yoghurt topped with 2 tbsp roughly chopped nuts and 2 apricots, puréed
Snack
2 Ryvitas served with 1 tbsp cream cheese and 30g cucumber, grated
Lunch
Hummus & veg wrap
1 wholemeal wrap smothered in 2 tbsp hummus with 80g roasted peppers and 100g watercress
Snack
1 banana & 1 tbsp almond butter
Dinner
Pesto pasta
60g spelt pasta with 1 tbsp pesto sauce and a side salad
Day 3
Breakfast
30g porridge oats served with 180ml milk, 50g strawberries and 1 tbsp sunflower seeds
Snack
2 oatcakes with 1 tbsp guacamole
Lunch
Cheese & ham frittata
2-egg cheese & ham cooked frittata style with a side salad
Snack
1 apple & 1 tbsp Brazil nuts
Dinner
Tofu Thai green curry with brown rice
Cook 100g cubed tofu with 1 tbsp Thai green curry paste. Add 80g green beans and 80g wilted spinach. Serve with 50g brown rice
