Post marathon eating binge

After a marathon you are meant to eat loads right?

Firstly to replace all the calories you have burned and to refuel your body with all the nutrients it needs to recover from its exertions.

Secondly to reward yourself for all the hard work during the actual marathon and all the efforts of training. 

I know using food, especially bad junk type food as a reward is not a healthy mindset but hey we all do it, right?! 

To be honest following this latest marathon I haven't had a massive appetite. Directly after running I felt empty and quickly consumed some water, a lucozade and a mars bar from my race goodie bag along with a tortilla wrap. But other than that I didn't feel hungry and writing this article three days on I still haven't had a huge hunger. 

Come an hour or two later I still didn't feel that hungry. Not really knowing what I wanted to eat only knowing I should eat we headed to wetherspoons as I knew they at least provided a wide range of food options, my selection was a Mexican chicken burger and two pints of cool refreshing cider.

To be honest I struggled to finish! It wasn't the greatest burger but was perfectly edible and wetherspoon chips are a personal favourite but I just couldn't really manage it all.

I know your body including your stomach takes an absolute hammering during a marathon and its not easy for your stomach to recover from all the sickly sugary energy gels and lucozades.

Later on in the evening I tucked into a few sweet treats, again not through a sense of need or hunger but from a sense of reward and entitlement.

What the old marketing phrase? A finger of fudge is just enough to give the kids a treat? Or in my case a whole pack is just enough to give the marathon runner his chocolate fix!

My post marathon sugary eating binges are nothing new, after the Beachy Head Marathon last year I consumed pretty much an entire packet of a Marks & Spencer chocolate biscuit selection pack at around 4am in the morning after the run as I couldn't sleep and felt bored in my hotel room with only the biscuits to keep me entertained! 

Monday morning the day after the race I was sure I would feel ravenous after not eating that much on the day of the race so I eagerly looked forward to taking advantage of our hotels buffet breakfast.

I didn't really feel that hungry and to be honest didn't eat a crazy amount, my metabolism is definitely working overtime though as I didn't feel stuffed or bloated at all and my stomach soon felt emptish again.

Tuesday and back at work I treated myself to a Japanese curry as a nice break from my training staple of brown rice or potatoes. 

I then carried on the chocolate eating with a pack of 'family sized' twirl bites. 

I blame supermarkets for providing these snacks at such a cheap price and the advertising them as soon as you walk into the store!

After an intense training programme I think its important to let yourself go for a few days and just eat whatever as its hard to sustain complete healthy eating for longer periods. In my case its necessary to have a few 'cheat' days with another event coming up so quickly so I can get eating bad foods out of my system before I refocus on a healthy diet again.

Thanks for reading, what do you like to eat after a long run? Any favourite cheat foods or weird urges you love to eat after running?

Post run snack foodporn

Soon after I finished my marathon on Sunday I started upon the important job of refueling.

Feeling ravenous and eager to fuel my muscle with much needed calories and nutrients I quickly consumed what food I had within reach.

My post race meal consisted of:

A tortilla wrap I had packed to bring with me as an easy way to replenish on carbohydrates.

A banana, the trusted runners friend so versatile to provide a tasty shot of energy and carbohydrates either pre or post run.

Last but not least a Mars bar which was part of the post race goody bag. Having given up chocolate and sweet sugary foods in the several weeks building up to the marathon combined with the urgent desire for great tasting calories high in sugar that Mars bar tasted Amazing!

So in those few moments an idea was formed....

Why not combine the three ingredients into one awesome post run snack?

So that is exactly what I did last night after my run:

One tortilla wrap:

Add one banana:

Mash up said banana:

Add the Mars bar, I only had mini ones so decided to use three:

Pop in the microwave for a bit, I opted for 45 seconds which did the job nicely:

Then wrap up into a kind of burrito shape:

Then eat and enjoy!

The verdict:

It was everything I had hoped for! Melted gooey chocately goodness with the fruit banana flavour all combined in a warm sticky mess. OK not the ideal snack if you haven't got a sweet tooth or don't like sickly desserts but for me it worked out perfectly!

I have for a while been trying to think up some ingredients so a sweet desert based burrito and I think this idea could form the basis of my plan. I just need to finalize a few more ideas for what to add, I need a few extra flavours going on and something with a bit more bite and crunch. If you have any ideas or if you have done something similar I would love to hear! 

Nutritional information:

For the health conscious among you or just for your general information this is how this snack stacks up:

                      Wrap - 180 calories - 34g carbs
                      Banana - 100 calories - 25g carbs
                      Mars bars - 240 calories - 39g carbs 

Vanguard Way Marathon Report

Time to reflect on my third marathon yesterday and my first of three marathons in the next three months. Warning this blog may turn into a bit of a marathon read and doesn't even fully cover everything that happened along the way! 

Yesterday I completed the Vanguard Way Marathon, a small local trail marathon starting out in South Croydon following the Vanguard Way trail out to Limpsfield and back. The race was organised by a member of the 100 marathon club and I was in awe of some of the runners I ran with who were rightly introduced and acknowledged at the start of the race, a few had run in the region of 500 marathons and one gentleman was on the verge of completing his 1000th marathon in the coming weeks! If that didn't motivate me to run then I don't know what would have!

The run turned out to be really enjoyable with some great trails, countryside and scenery to experience. I enjoyed some great running and felt stronger and ran more than in previous marathons. I also experienced some great camaraderie with my fellow runners along the course. 

The marathon turned out to be a rather eventful few hours of running.

Preparation

In the week leading up to the marathon I had very much enjoyed 'the fun part to marathon training', that is the bit where you get to eat loads under the guise of 'carb loading'. Despite eating lots I managed to keep it all healthy and clean with lots of potato, flapjacks and tortilla wraps, you can read about some of my carb loading fun here. 

I felt pretty good in the build up to the run although I had missed out on a few long training runs due to illness and injury, see previous blog articles here.

The start of the marathon was about an hours drive from home, so I made sure I was all organised and ready to go the night before with only a little bit of packing in the morning. We set off in good time and we managed to find our way their easily and got there in plenty of time. I say 'we' as although I wasn't running with anyone I had my number one supporter my wife with me acting as driver, support crew, photographer and cheer leader.

This was my first event with my camelpack and I must say it worked out well as it was comfortable to wear, allowed me to stay well hydrated throughout the run and I was able to carry energy gels a lot more comfortably than my running bum bag I used previously.

The Actual Run

The marathon was a small scale trail marathon only in its second year. The course was marked out with tape and spray paint arrows which required a certain amount of self navigation and awareness to ensure you stayed on the right track.

Lets just say that although I didn't have any real running problems my navigation wasn't as successful! 

Detour number 1

After around 3 or 4 miles I was part of a largish group of maybe ten runners coming down a trail picking up a decent speed enjoying a decline in the trail. We came to the bottom of the section, over a crossroads in the path and I followed everyone through another gate up onto the next part of the trail. As the trail started to get steeper I was now part of a group of maybe 20 runners when 2 or 3 runners started to raise questions over whether we were on the right path and if any markers had been spotted. After a bit of discussion they decided to head back but I made the decision to press up following the majority of the other runners ahead of me.

It turns out we had missed our turning and had ended up going up and around the golf course rather than along the bottom of it an up the other side. After a mile or two we met up with the proper route again and I think the detour only added a short distance to the course. Although I was at fault for not observing course markings and getting caught up with the group I don't consider this error to be my fault which is frustrating as it cost a lot of time in deliberating and discussing which way to go and how to proceed.

Detour number 2

Just after the half way turnaround I was running with another guy who I had been running with for several mile and we had struck up quite a bit of conversation about the course and the run. The route took us onto a bridge over the motorway and back onto an off road track into a wooded area. I was confident we should then veer off to the left down a few steps onto another trail. Following the guy in front I kept my eyes peeled for this passage to the left but couldn't see it so I thought I must have been mistaken and kept on running up the track. A few minutes later and I started having serious doubts over where we were heading and sure enough shortly after the other guy stopped to question me. We consulted the map and decided we were unsure of where to head so should continue to the next junction before deciding how to reconnect back with the real trail. We were soon caught up by another runner who confidently reassured us we were on the right path and should keep going straight on. I voiced my concerns that we had missed a turning to the left through the woods and although the other two thought this might be correct we decided going back would waste too much time and we should just try to reconnect to the real route. After pressing on for several minutes with the three of us having contrasting views on how to proceed I decided it was time to whip out my phone to consult my mapmyrun app which had been tracking my run. I quickly identified where we had gone wrong and where we needed to head to reconnect with the route. A few hundred metres down the side of a busy road and we met up with familiar territory and the course. Easily a mile wasted and more time lost in discussing where to go. 

Worse than the detour upon trying to quickly navigate the most direct route through a field of cows I failed to notice a rather large muddy patch and ended up taking several large squelchy steps. As if that was bad enough the mud wasn't pure mud and contained the kind of smelly stuff you unfortunately find in cow fields! My trainers got pretty dirty and wet which made them heavy for the next few miles but the worse thing was the stinking smell caused my the cow excrement coming from them which thankfully only lasted for a few miles! 

Detour number 3 

Coming into the last 4 or 5 miles the trail passed through some woods before coming out onto residential roads towards the finish in Lloyd Park. I was managing to find my way OK while trying to make ground on two runners a few hundred metres ahead of me. I remembered from the way out that there was a tight poorly signed corner which I think I managed to take, I was then heading straight along a path for ages waiting for the path to come out onto roads. It took me too long to realise I had gone to far and obviously had missed a turning. Upon consulting my phone to check mapmyrun My heart sank as I realised I had ended up a long way off course. I quickly planned the most direct route to link me up with trail again determined to get back on course and complete the route. My heart quickly sank as I realised it was around 3 miles to join me back up towards the finish line and the start of this journey was a steep long hill! I walked/jogged my way towards the finish carefully checking my map to make sure I was heading the right way and taking the most direct route. 

I decided to keep going until I hit the marathon distance and then to just concentrate on getting back to the finish line. I had spent so long looking at my map and trying to navigate that my race time had suffered greatly.

After an age I caught sight of the park where the finish was, I felt like a right idiot heading towards the finish line in pretty much the opposite direction of the actual course and my wife was shocked to see me creep up on her from the wrong direction! 

So the finish brought a range of emotions, I was so pleased with my actual running performance as I ran throughout the 5 hours it took me to complete the course and my legs were full of running in the final miles. I was so disappointed to have messed things up so much though! 

I was very downhearted to have put so much effort in and sacrificed so much to end up with a disappointing time caused largely by my detours and the delays and stoppages they caused. 

Recovery

Post race apart from the anguish, frustration, disappointment and annoyance of taking so many detours physically I felt good, really good! Throughout the day I kept waiting for the pain to hit me but it never came. 

Directly after finishing I did a bit of a shakedown and cool down and as well as taking on plenty of water I consumed an energy drink, a protein shake, a banana, a mars bar and a tortilla wrap. As well as no physical pain I didn't suffer any stomach issues either during the race, directly after the race, after eating or during the drive home.

I did take a huge amount of satisfaction from feeling so good after such an effort and knew it meant I had trained and prepared very well.

First thing I did when I got home? Before I jumped in the shower I popped my favorite source of post run dirty carbs in the oven and as soon as I was washed up I devoured it pretty much as quick as I could.

A Chicago Town takeaway style filled crust pizza, hits the spot every time! 

Thanks for reading and I plan to share more thoughts from the marathon and my experiences soon.