English Breakfast

By Uta Pippig

Dear Friends,

© Betty Shepherd

I hope you are making solid progress in your training. Focusing on nutrition is immensely beneficial for your marathon preparation. Good nutrition will not just keep you energized and healthy during the entire training process, it will also optimize your race performance.

I hope the following information (that I have passed on to some of you before) will be helpful in refining your nutritional regime. Please, use it in conjunction with your preparation for any race.

• Details of a proper diet, especially carbohydrates, to help your body transform the incoming calories into muscle glycogen instead of fat by eating small amounts throughout the day and choosing the right products.
• How to start your day with the right breakfast that will help energize you throughout the day.

There also are a few pressing nutrition-related topics—particularly about hydration and your post-exercise nutritional routine. I will include information about both in one of my upcoming messages. For now, though, as you train harder and longer, you will need to pay more attention to hydration—before, during and after training. Proper hydration throughout the day is essential. And please focus on a good post-exercise nutritional routine since it will help to speed up your recovery.

An overall fit and healthy body is important, especially during this challenging time when you have to deal with a heavier training schedule and heightened training conditions. I realize a proper diet is a very personal matter and we all have our weaknesses (mine is cheese cake!). But maybe you can refine your nutritional habits in a way that will help your body to be at peak energy for your training and your running. Now also is the time, until a few weeks before your event, to experiment—though please, do not wait until the marathon. Try out some new things now and see what will work best for you on Race Day and the days leading up to it.

Perhaps you already know some of the information I am about to give you, but I hope this message can still be beneficial, even if it serves just as a reminder.

Choose a diet that generally includes enough water and the right carbohydrates—like those in oatmeal and muesli—and good fats—those with omega-3’s, which are contained in salmon and fish oil products.