The Best Postrun Snacks Hydration strategies for marathon runners Better Recovery. Hydratioh only rjnners that would need salt tablets would Reliable ingredient sourcing those in very extreme endurance events that are performed in very hot and humid conditions. Before the marathon, make sure to go through a thorough warm-up that can include about 15 minutes of light jogging, followed by another 15 minutes of stretching.

Hydration strategies for marathon runners -

A lack of electrolytes can cause fatigue, dizzyness or worse. Most long-distance runs will hand out energy drinks along the route. Replace each 1kg of your weight sweat loss with 1. Skip to Content. Drinking the right amount of water is crucial to race success. But how much is too much? We asked an expert nutritionist for their advice.

Written by Howard Calvert. All the early morning runs in the dark when your bed seemed so tempting, and the increasingly long Sunday sessions have built up to this: the day you run Marathon nutrition: Everything you need to know 10 min read. Read Story. We asked leading sports and performance nutritionist Will Girling for his advice on how much liquid you should be taking onboard before, during and after the big event.

The minimum amount. So, for example, if you weigh 70kg, that equals 2. The tricky part comes when attempting to calculate how much water you should consume during a marathon.

However, as a general rule of thumb, consuming ml to ml of water an hour should suffice. Do the sweat test. For example, consider:.

Your weight. How much you sweat. How long it will take you to finish the race. What the conditions will be during the race. A good rule to follow is to try to consume around ml to ml 2 hours before the start and another ml 15 minutes before the run.

Then, make sure you continue to drink at regular intervals throughout the marathon. Girling says that you can perform your own sweat test to determine how much sweat you lose during an hour of exercise and, therefore, how much water you should be drinking to replace that.

Doing the sweat test allows you to dive deeper into the optimal amount of water to consume throughout the race. But there are still other factors and conditions to consider, like your running pace, the temperature, and your weight.

To do your own sweat test, follow these tips:. Weigh yourself before you run with no clothes on and make a note of it. Bring a controlled amount of water with you on your run, around ml will do.

Run at a comfortable pace, or your typical race pace, for 60 minutes. Make sure you consume all the water you bring with you during your run. When you finish, undress, dry yourself off, and weigh yourself again.

Make a note of the weight and compare it with the weight before you ran. Anything past this point without hydrating properly can lead to issues while you run — which you want to avoid, especially during a marathon. Once you have your post-run weight, you can convert the difference into millilitres and then add it to the ml that you consumed while you ran to find your total fluid loss.

For example, if your weight difference was 0. Keep in mind that this will vary depending on the conditions you run in, so it can be worth conducting the sweat test in a few different conditions leading up to the marathon to have the most accurate picture. According to Girling, studies have shown that over-hydrating in the run-up to a marathon has proved ineffective.

The best practice, he says, is to hydrate normally in the run-up to the day of the event. Putting in some effort to stay hydrated in the 48 hours leading up to race day is often just as important as staying hydrated throughout the race itself.

If you do this, you run the risk of becoming bloated and messing with your sodium imbalance. Though check this with your GP if you have any reason to be wary of high caffeine intakes.

Make sure you drink the optimal amount around an hour before the race starts. When it is hot outside you will need to up your intake and extreme heat conditions can call for you to even double this amount. Also, humidity is another factor you need to be very aware of as it can lead to severe dehydration at a faster rate than normal.

Action Step: Set your timer on your watch if you tend to forget or just want to be proactive with your hydration plan. On runs less than an hour, water will do the trick. Even on runs a little over an hour water is sufficient. However sports drinks that contain electrolytes and carbs help to enhance our replacement of glycogen that we are depleting the longer we run.

See my energy sports drink recommendations for runners here. This helps to balance their electrolytes that they are losing during a long run particularly through sweating. Losing electrolytes can lead to dehydration and making sure that you are replacing them while you are running is part of a good hydration plan.

It forces you to plan ahead when and where you will be hydrating. Depending on your pace you could also spread them out over the distance it would take you to run 30 minutes. Not only will this help you to ward off becoming dehydrated but it will also motivate you to run to your next bottle of liquid when motivation is running low.

Another idea is to take advantage of water fountains set up in your community and plan according to their placement. If you have your water or sports drink with you on your run you will be more likely to drink and stay hydrated rather than putting it off or skipping it altogether along the route.

Another popular option is the Camelbak which is a comfortable and light weight back pack that carries your water. This will help to cool your body off and keep you from feeling the dehydrating effects of water loss through sweating. Another very effective way to stay cool and help keep your dehydration at beat are these neck wraps that literally stay wet and keep you cool for hours!

Read the signs! The number one sign that you are dehydrated is when you feel a tingling in your skin. This tingling can start to be very mild but you really never want your body to get to this point. In fact, you are probably dehydrated before you even feel thirsty which is why it is so important to drink even when you are not thirsty.

If you are running in the sun a lot, be sure to check these 4 tips for safely running in the sun over at Runnin' for Sweets. Right as you get out of bed, before breakfast or any food intake, you should drink at least an 8 oz.

glass of water. Your body has not had anything to drink all night and you need to make up for this. There are also many health benefits for drinking a large amount of water upon awakening such as improved digestions, weight loss and a feeling of satiation.

When you are feeling hungry and want to snack, try drinking water. It fills you and more often than not you will find that you were really just thirsty rather than hungry.

Here is some more information on. Two of the most popular diuretics which actually take water out of the body are coffee and alcohol. As a runner, try to stick to polyester material. This will wick away the sweat from your body causing you to stay much cooler.

The improper material can trap the heat inside your clothes, making you feel warmer, causing your body to work harder to thermoregulate itself, and increases water loss at a higher rate.

After Hydration strategies for marathon runners hard work marathln training, you'll probably be anxious and marathhon for the Gaming energy recharge event — the actual marathon. Here rhnners Hydration strategies for marathon runners strateies for the day of the race that Hydation help you to be prepared and stratehies for any unforeseen glitches. Hydration should not begin the morning of the race. Instead, you should make a conscious effort to stay well hydrated at least 48 hours before the start of your marathon. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends drinking 5 to 12 ounces of fluids every 15 to 20 minutes during a marathon, although this is often difficult to accomplish and can result in over hydration if your sweat loss is low.

Video

Fuel Your Run - Nutrition for Ultra Marathon \u0026 Long Runs