Road to Grandma’s Marathon: Training Highs, Lows & Fueling Smarter

In this solo episode of the Endurance Athlete Journey Podcast, Katie shares an honest and detailed update from her marathon training block as she prepares for Grandma’s Marathon.

She walks through recent weeks of training, including challenging speed sessions, long-run workouts, strength work, and the reality of balancing fatigue, life, and consistency. From navigating tough workouts on low sleep to adapting pacing in warm conditions, this episode offers a real look at what marathon training actually feels like behind the scenes.

The second half of the episode dives deep into nutrition and fueling strategies. Katie breaks down how she approaches daily fueling, meal planning, and recovery—without falling into the “what I eat in a day” trap. She shares practical insights on:

•  Fueling before, during, and after workouts 
•  Why under-fueling can impact sleep and recovery 
•  How to plan meals during busy weeks 
•  Long run fueling strategies and carb intake goals 
•  Listening to hunger cues and letting go of scale anxiety 

Whether you’re training for a marathon or just trying to better support your endurance goals, this episode is packed with relatable experiences and practical takeaways to help you fuel smarter and train stronger.

For coaching inquiries:

Coach Katie → https://fuel2run.com

Coach Justin → https://tabularasaracing.com

Podcast Email → theenduranceathletejourney@gmail.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Hello and welcome to the Endurance Athlete Journey podcast. I am Katie and I am doing my solo episode today on the road to grandma's marathon. So I believe this is episode four. So I can't believe I've already been kind of in the thick of the training, I guess, for the past four or five weeks. I wanted to go ahead and do a little update since the last time I talked, so a couple weeks ago. And then I really want to focus the rest of my podcast episode on nutrition and kind of the things that I'm doing for optimizing nutrition, how I'm fueling, um, when I'm thinking about recovery from workouts with it in regards to nutrition. I'm really hoping that you can get something out of what I have to say and what I'm doing. Um, when it comes to nutrition, I'm not gonna be extremely specific because it's not gonna be like, oh, this is what I eat in a day, um, exactly to the T with a bunch of photos of everything I'm eating, because my needs are gonna be different than your needs, and everybody's needs are a little bit different. So basically, this will be kind of an overview of the way I'm sort of thinking about fueling, what things I'm doing to make sure I'm getting enough to fuel, but I'm not gonna be like extremely specific because you really need to figure out your own fueling needs individually and what specifically works for you. And I really irks me when people sort of do that here's what I eat in a day, sort of situation, because then it leads to that comparison trap of, oh, maybe I'm not eating, maybe I'm eating too much, maybe I'm not eating enough, whatever that person's eating isn't really what you need to be eating exactly. So um I try to not do that, rather just kind of share some useful things that I'm thinking about with fueling, a little bit about how I'm planting my fueling, but nothing very, very extremely specific. And when I do talk about like fueling during workouts, I kind of j like to be a little bit general about how I'm thinking about it. And you know, I might provide you some ideas of what I'm doing, but again, it's individual for each and person to try to figure out their own fueling needs. So just because I'm taking in a certain product absolutely does not mean that you need to be taking in that specific product. In fact, I really encourage you to just try different things and see what works best for you because that is the the best thing about training is kind of being able to try different gels and different gummies or different things that you think might work for you and figuring out what that might be for you could be very different from what is what I'm doing. So, anyways, I'm gonna start on. I think we left off the last time I talked a little bit about my half marathon that was unseasonably warm and was a bit of a struggle and and kind of left me feeling a little bit like not super confident for my marathon, but I think I'm I think I am making progress. So I think Tuesday the 31st was the last day that I recorded. Uh so we're gonna kind of move on from there, and I'm gonna start on Wednesday, the April 1st. And on Wednesday, April 1st, I did a speed workout where I did five times one mile at about 95% of my 5k pace, which I think ended up being about maybe 615, 620 pace. Um so I did a progressive warm out up, some strides, and then I did those one mile repeats. And because I had to do that near where I live, it was a little bit hilly. So each of the repeats were some of them were a little bit slower, depending on if I was going to be going up or down a hill. And um, but I think overall it went okay. I remember feeling tired, like the pace was a little challenging for me. Um, but it's just during marathon training, I tend to to the speedy workouts tend to be a little harder because I'm not always going into them 100% fresh because of the volume that I'm doing, and just kind of knowing that those are going to be a little bit more grindy, grindier, a grindy workout, I suppose would be the way to say it. Um but then the next day was a recovery day, uh a double. So I do early uh morning seven miles and then I did some three miles on the tremel, very easy. I did do my back squats on Thursday instead of Wednesday. I kind of I think there was a reason. I I did some arm strength on Wednesday, but I there's a reason I couldn't maybe usually try to pair my legs with the workout, but I think there was something kind of going on, and I just didn't do that. Um so I did back heavy, heavier back squats. Um sort of how that sometimes looks is I do like some lighter squats and then kind of progress to like five, a couple, five, um, five reps at like slightly heavier, and then it goes down to like three reps at heavier, and then I kind of stay, I do anywhere between four to five three sets of three reps at like a fairly heavy weight, not too heavy, I'm not maxing out. Um, and then I might do like one or two reps at a heavier end just to kind of get one or two heavier reps in. Um, but I don't want to overdo it, so I kind of keep it at lower reps, higher, slightly higher weight, and and and maybe more sets of it versus doing a lot of reps of higher weight. Um and then I do often like some accessory movements. I call them like single like deadlifts and step weighted step-ups, just um sometimes bands. So I do like the heavy set and then some accessory movements. And then on Friday, it was just an easy run with some um actually just an easy run. Um oh, I think I might have added some strides in there. And then I did my cardio, my elliptical. So that week I did do two elliptical sessions. Um, I try to aim for three, don't always get three in. I think I also did two hot tubs. So I've been doing some heat training where I've been trying to get in the hot tub um and just basically stay in there up to my neck, you know, up to here as much as I can. Um, you know, I thought, oh, it's the hot tub. I like the hot tub. It's gonna be nice to get in the hot tub. And it is nice for like the five minutes, first five minutes I'm in there. And then the second five minutes gets harder, and then by the time I get to ten minutes, I am struggling. I'm looking at the clock. You know, I sometimes have to come up a little bit out of the water to get like a cold drink of water and then try to get back in. And it's so it's actually been quite a bit of a struggle to do the hot tub training, and I've only been able to do that a few times a week just with the timing of everything and use the time I have to go to the gym. I was hoping to kind of get up to three days a week. I'm not sure if I'm gonna be able to do that. Uh, maybe, maybe as I get closer into May. But I think I don't know if it's helping. I mean, I I've been able to stay in there slightly longer each time, so it's like almost like I'm acclimating to it a little bit. Um, it's hard to say if it's helping or not, but maybe if it's a hot, like as the heat actually, it'll be noticeable in my workouts a little bit that I'm maybe a little bit more adapted to the heat. Um, but this is more passive heat training. I feel like I've done some active heat training unintentionally because of how warm it's been as well. Um Saturday I did a workout, it was um almost like an alternation run or overunder. You, you know, again, those are just some ways of or intervals with cruise intervals sometimes, where you do like an interval and you're kind of at a cruising pace and you're not necessarily having a recovery. So I think there's different terms for this type of workout, but essentially what it was was a three-mile progressive warm-up. So starting really easy, kind of progressing, and then adding in a few strides, and then starting the workout. It was actually 1200 meters at about 90% 5k and 400 at 80% 5k. So I think that ended up being like 635 pace for the 1200 meters and then like a 7, 720, 7 minute, 720 pace for the 400, um, alternating and that no stops in between, no rests. So you're just alternating between those two paces for basically six to seven miles. I ended up doing about seven miles at this, and um, yeah, basically you're just kind of it's almost like a tempo run, but you're running faster and slower, faster and slower, just slightly, you know, faster and slower, and never really taking like a break or recovery between. And I felt actually really good um during this workout. I feel like there were some of the miles that were a little slower than I would have liked. Many of them were really on point. I think I was able to kind of keep it around like a 645 pace. I think for the most part, I was able to get a good amount of work in and feel pretty good for that workout. Um, I did do some pliometrics beforehand, so the pliometrics are essentially they're not like a whole lot of volume. It's just some short like box jumps, drop jumps, where I'm jumping off of a box and then kind of jump and then jump up. So you jump down and then do like a little jump and then isometric calf raises, some jump squats, and jumping lunges. So usually that's like three sets of like three reps each, or nothing excessive, just a little bit of some biometrics. And I and I've been doing that a little bit before the workout, sometimes just to kind of get some additional activation in. I think those help help me feel kind of more peppy when I do the plometrics first, along with maybe some activation and movements and some stretching, some dynamic stretching. So that kind of helps me for my workouts. So I try to do those plyometrics a couple times a week, but I really haven't been good about doing them twice. I've only really been able to get them in once a week. So I'm gonna try to try to be a little better about that. But I did do then later in the day some bench press that day, and then a really easy 10 miles on Sunday because that was Easter. So I was trying to kind of fit that in between everything I didn't have time in the day to do a long run because of the family things and my son um having him do the Easter basket stuff and like finding eggs and um going over to family. I just had enough time to squeeze in that that rolling hills easy 10 miles. I got it done. And then Monday, the six was eight miles progression, just starting out real easy and progressing to a faster and faster pace. And um I did that, and then the elliptical, and then Tuesday was again a little speedier, spicier session at 800 meters around I would say 10k pace or 95% of my 5k. So oh gosh, I think it was like most of them are around between 613 pace to six seventeen pace. So they were it was pretty spicy. I mean, it was hard to I was challeng again, just from the volume that I've been hitting, it was just kind of I those workouts tend to be a little bit more grindy, like a little bit more challenging for me. I usually love speed, but I just don't feel as fresh, and so I kind of know that there's gonna be a little bit of discomfort in those types of speed sessions, and um that's okay. I just kind of have to deal with it, and and I got it done, and then I did my deadlifts, my and some accessory movements again with the deadlifts, it's similar to my squat days, it's just kind of getting the heavier sets in, and then some accessory movements, so it was like some Bulgarian split squats and some hip thrusts with my bands, a few other band movements on that day. And then Wednesday was truly like a nice, easy recovery day, and I also did my uh elliptical that day. So I got two sessions in, um, actually three sessions in last week for elliptical, and that ends up being about 20 to or each of these were about 25 minutes long, and then so again, I do that right after my recovery, kind of right, so I can kind of continue the benefit of the cardiovascular training. So it kind of adds on additional cardio without a lot of wear and tear on my muscles, which is nice. And then the afternoon I took my son and we went on a little, he went on a bike ride, I went on a jog. And usually with him, it's really easy. It's a lot of stop and go. It was like a 10-minute mile, so just an easy couple miles in the afternoon with him. Um, the unfortunate thing is, and this is one of the things I want to talk about when I'm talking about fueling, is I'm just not really great at fueling sometimes when I'm busy. Like I that's where I struggle, is just getting in enough to eat. And this particular day, because of being busy, trying to make it back at home. I had some appointments and things I had to attend to for work, and then I had um to pick up my son, and then we were meeting someone for dinner. I just didn't, I don't think I fueled enough, and then I shared something with my son for dinner, and I just don't think I ate enough this day to kind of cover how much exercise I was doing, and I ended up waking up in the middle of the night on Thursday on Wednesday night into Thursday and kind of had some worrying about some things, had a little bit of things on my mind, and then it was just hard for me to go back to sleep. So I did have another workout on Thursday, and because I had that hard workout Tuesday and didn't sleep very well Wednesday night, um, I was a little bit nervous, and it's hard sometimes with the way the training goes to push my workouts another day over because I was going to actually have this very hard workout on Sunday, and this this like yesterday. So I didn't want to do push this workout too far over into like Friday or Saturday, because then I wouldn't be able to get the workout I wanted to do Sunday. So you have to either, in these such situations, you have to either just say, Am I gonna be okay? Can I push through? It's only been one night, it's not several nights of poor sleep. Can I push through or should I like should I pivot and do something lighter? Or you know, should I do an switch it to another day? Well, that's not really gonna work. So I ended up trying saying, I'm gonna give it a shot. I'm gonna see how it goes. And so this was supposed to be like a tempo run. So it's supposed to be like two mile warm-up, eight miles tempo, two miles cooldown. So about 12 miles total. I do my warm-up. I'm like, yeah, I'm not feeling great. I'm tired, but I'm just gonna give it a go. And I did it. I did eight miles. The first mile was a little bit on the slow end. I was supposed to do this, I believe 95% of my marathon pace, so just a little slower. I think that ended up being like maybe a 650, 655 pace is what it was supposed to be. So I started out a little slow on the first mile at 710, just kind of feeling it out. Got a little faster, 7, maybe like 654, 655, 657. I think the third, the fifth or sixth mile was slower because it was all uphill. And um like around here it gets pretty hilly. So I try to pick the flattest place I can go, but it was a little uphill. And then the last, and then the last two miles, I just was like, okay, I'm gonna go for it. And it was those two miles were a bit faster than marathon pace. So I was able to push it in the end and then kind of cool down and get home in time. I didn't I think I ended up running 11 and a half miles because I had to be home by a certain time and I was pushing it, but I did it, it was done. I was a bit tired, it wasn't perfect, but I was pretty close. And the last two miles I was able to really push it and feel good. So um I'm happy with that. You know, sometimes when you're marathon training, the workouts just don't go perfect. And as long as they go well, okay, or you're able to pivot a little bit, maybe slow down a little bit if you have to, and still get a good workout. It's, you know, you're still getting that stimulus. And, you know, I I think that's the key is that even though maybe the pacing wasn't exactly where it needed to be a hundred percent, it was close, I was able to do it and get a good workout in. Um the afternoon I was able to fit in just some back squat, but that's it. I was only able to do some back heavy back squats. Um, and then the next day was recovery and some more, some remainder of some of my leg strength stuff plus a bunch of bandwork. So with the bandwork, I do like a bird dog row with a kettlebell, um, some hip flexion work, um, donkey kicks, but I call them donkey kicks when I'm standing and I'm kind of kicking back with the band around my legs and just kind of hitting my glutes, almost like I'm ice skating, like kind of pulling my leg back, um, trying to get my glutes firing up, and I do some bare plank drag throughs with the dumbbell where you're kind of in a plank, bear, bear crawl position, and you're kind of pulling the dumbbell through and then pulling it through. So you're kind of pulling it this way, pulling it this way, and trying to keep your core really nice and tight. Um, so I do a lot of like some of those accessory movements. Um, I try to do them. I wish I could do them more, but honestly, like I don't have like most of us who are training, I don't have the time every day to do all of these, like an hour worth of strength and accessory stuff. So I just do the best I can. And then Saturday was a nice, really slow recovery. I did do some strides in there, six or five uh 20-second strides, and some of my upper body later in the day. And then so I do bench press, overhead press, ring rows, triceps, extensions. I just try to maintain some upper body strength during marathon training as much as I can because I know it's important. Um, but again, it's hard to fit all of this in, so I usually only end up doing one day a week of really dedicated upper body strength. And then with my 20-mile workout, it was actually a workout. Um, it was similar to the weekend before, and that it was kind of like an alternation run, but it did have a little bit of recovery between each set. So it was eight times two kilometers at a hundred percent marathon pace with 90 one kilometer at 90%. So it ended up, it was supposed to be like a 640 pace and then a 720 pace, like one and a quarter mile is a two kilometers, and so that is that was at marathon pace, and then one kilometer is like 0.62 or something like that miles, and that was at 90% marathon pace. So it was alternating with just a really short, like less than 200 meter jog in between, um, just to kind of give an opportunity also just to fuel a little bit in between, so slow down, just kind of make sure I was able to like drink and eat. Um, but it was a warm day. I started out too late. I started at 9:30. I I need to start getting myself together earlier. It's hard for me. I like to have my relaxed mornings on the weekend with my son and my husband just kind of hanging out. It really is something important to me. Um, but as the weather warms up, I am gonna have to really shift a little bit and get up earlier and get out the door earlier because it was already pretty warm. And I ran out of water. I did out and back, so I ran out one way about six miles and came back doing this workout. And um, I was running out of water already. I had to re-hydrate, put all the, I had a handheld water, refilled my water, went out another direction, realized I was already out of water, had to so I had to come back to the car a little more often than I originally thought, but it was important. I was like 28 ounces of Nalgine plus another 28 ounces, and I was I by the time I was done with my run, I was out of water. I was like done. So I'm glad I brought both water bottles. I wish I brought more water, it was warm. Um, I wasn't able to hit the paces 100%. Um, I was struggling a little bit more at that marathon pace. Uh and then the there was one um section where it was a little like the the six six rep was a little slower. Um, but I did it. I got it done. I think the warmth kind of got me like I would have been a little better off if I'd been a little bit cooler out. Um, but I feel good about it for being my first 20 miler and having some of that pacework in there. And it was a really big day, so I was tired. Oh, I did a little bit of the plyometrics before that workout too, but didn't do as many as I normally do because I knew that was going to be a long run. But anyways, so that was a long day. I was tired. I'm tired today. I don't know if it probably isn't super visible. I feel tired, but usually with the recovery after the long run, um, it just is like the next day, I'm just kind of exhausted still. Like my brain is still like needing a little bit extra. I feel like I'm a little bit foggy the next day. It's hard for me to be do anything that involves a lot of thought process. Um, and that's just part of marathon training with those 20 mile air runs. And even despite trying to fuel and doing every little tactic I knew to try to get the the fuel and as best I could, I still struggle because it's just so much on the body to do. if you're adding in any sort of like marathon pace work or harder harder efforts into the 20 miles it's just hard um so i'm feeling it a little bit today but i did do a really easy i mean really easy jog five miles this morning like real recovery and then um a little bit on like 20 minutes on the elliptical and so I'm gonna try I'm trying to decide right now what I'm gonna do um I was supposed to do like kind of a cutback week this week where I was gonna sort of lessen my mileage and sort of take it easier and and recover but I'm kind of wondering if I shouldn't just kind of jump right into another full week of 70 miles again and just see and kind of take it week by week. If after this week I'm totally shot, you know, maybe then do the recovery week but if I could do a couple more weeks um and then take a recovery week then maybe try that. So I'm not sure it was pretty rough this morning trying to run I'm pretty tired. I think I'm gonna kind of see how things go tomorrow and if I feel better feel more up to it um feel like I can do my workout tomorrow which is kind of just another progression run. And then my bigger workout won't be until Thursday anyway. So then I have another kind of long workout on Sunday and it won't be a it won't be another 20 mile or it'll only be like 14 or 16 um then I think I'll be able to maybe make it work. But I am going to take one day off this week. So Friday I'm gonna try to take that day off from running and just do maybe some upper body stuff if I can or maybe move that to another day. But um that's challenging is when you try to hit that mileage and you have one day that you're not running, you have to put more mileage on the other days which just makes it a little bit more logistically hard. But I do know I do recognize that it is important to take a recovery day and take a day off from running every so often and um if I'm going to kind of continue with this you know higher mileage for another couple weeks it might benefit me to have at least one day off. So I was gonna kind of do that today but it ends up Friday is just a busy day so it works out better for me to just not run on Friday. But we'll see. So when I talk with you in a couple weeks I'll let you know how that goes if I was able to keep up that you know momentum or if I had to end up taking a cutback week. So I'll keep you all posted. But that is my update on my training. Now I want to pivot and use some of my remaining time since somehow I spent a lot of time talking about training I want to talk about my nutrition and what I've been doing how I'm thinking about fueling what I you know my meal planning, my long runs, when am I taking in fuel for workouts, when am I not? So uh let's let's do that now. So I think that's easier and I can kind of go back to some examples from my training the last few weeks but um let's just kind of start I guess with like breakfast like what am I doing generally in the morning for breakfast. So this is a tough time for me sometimes because I'm trying to get my son out the door also for school and he is a it's a struggle. I'll just put it that way he's very resistant and I think most children just don't have the concept of time. So he's kind of like okay like I'm just gonna dilly dally and then it's a little it's a little bit stressful in the morning sometimes. So I try to get up you know but a lot of times I'll make like a smoothie in the morning and this has been something I do many days because he likes to have it I can have a smoothie I make something else like maybe I have these frozen waffles I'll put peanut butter and jelly on for him or I'll do oatmeal try to have something and then the smoothie is kind of something I might sip on or have ready for like after my workout. So I'm always trying to have something um before a workout that's got carbs so maybe like a frozen waffle or two or peanut butter or I mean oatmeal with peanut butter, some maple syrup sometimes I'll put like this protein milk in there and try to have that. So it's kind of like more carb heavy because most of the time I'm doing some sort of running in the morning and then oftentimes lately it's been like a smoothie after my run or I'll sip on it a little bit before and then finish it after my run. And so um that's something I've been doing a lot and then he likes the smoothie it's hard for him to eat enough in the morning so it's been kind of nice to have the nutrition the extra boost fruit in there I put berries I put banana I put yogurt sometimes I'll put in um protein powder I don't always put it in for him because he doesn't probably need it as much as I do um and he's getting the yogurt so there's some protein but sometimes I'll kind of make his and then re-blend mine with the extra stuff in it. You know so um but then yeah so then I I'll have that and then after my workout if I haven't had the smoothie or finish that before I'll drink the rest of the smoothie and then try to have something else that's kind of carby. So one one thing I've done especially if I'm not going to eat a meal right away is to have like sweet potatoes. I really like sweet potatoes. So I've been cooking sweet potatoes I did this one week um not as much last week but the week before I cook them really good in the microwave and then I kind of maybe finish them in the oven if I'm cooking something else but I I'll just have like these whole sweet potatoes cooked and ready to go and then what I do is I just take them out. They're in the fridge I take one sweet potato out I reheat it kind of open it reheat it put some maple syrup and some pecans on there and then I'll eat it just like that. So I'm getting that extra carb like immediately after sometimes I'll do like toast with peanut butter or sometimes I'll do like a yogurt with granola and some fruit just depends on the day. Sometimes I'll go right into eating lunch and so oftentimes lunch is just leftovers. I try to make enough dinner I try to make enough food in general that there's always something kind of leftover for lunch. So I'm always kind of thinking like I always plan out my dinners I kind of know what I'm gonna have for breakfast and then I always try to make extra stuff for lunch for both me and my son. So we both have something to eat for lunch. Right now I have some leftovers from last night I have some chicken in there sweet potato and and veggies um I have some pasta so I'll have a few things even for this week kind of left over ready to go to eat. And then I do snacks so oftentimes snacks I'll make these protein banana peanut butter chocolate chip muffins. I've been doing that a lot lately and basically what that is is just bananas mashed up. I think it's like I use either almond flour or gluten free flour because my son has celiac disease so everything has to be gluten free. And then it's peanut butter it's very simple there's no egg I can't have eggs so there's no egg in there and some protein powder and basically maybe baking powder and salt and a little bit of maple syrup. And that's pretty much it. And I just mix it all up and put it in the oven and I have these muffins ready to go I I I do add chocolate chips to them but um and so I'll take those out oftentimes for snacks during the day. I do buy sometimes I'll have on hand these like organe shakes that I take with me sometimes if I'm busy and need to go pick up my son from school and I need a snack I'll take that. I do snack on potato chips so believe it or not it is okay sometimes like you know during a marathon training when you're trying to get enough calories you know that is just one of my like they're salty, they're good, they're a nice snack. I don't overindulge on them, but I definitely have those available to be able to have something for a snack that's got carbs like sometimes I'll do popcorn sometimes I'll do fruit I'll do string cheeses so there's a lot of things I'll kind of snack on you know sometimes they'll be nuts or um like walnuts or something but I'll have a lot of options to kind of snack on during the day and I'll generally have at least one or two snacks. And so it kind of depends on what's going on and but I try to have these things kind of on hand especially the muffins and then the the uh shakes and fruit and things like that that are just easy to kind of grab and take with me or just eat really quickly while I'm kind of on the go or in between sessions or work stuff. And so that's kind of the thing I really try to do is I plan ahead my whole week I plan what I'm at for dinner making sure that there's enough for leftovers so extra chicken, extra beef, whatever we're having extra pasta cook up extra rice so they have these sorts of carb things available and I'm not just making it for dinner. I'm making sure that whatever I'm making is going to be extra for me and my son especially um my son eats sometimes what I'm making for him might be a little different just because he's picky but I'll try to have extra for myself so I have things to have for lunch for throughout the week and then I know what the dinners are going to be. I actually just but order through King Supers and they s they just arrive. I don't have to go shopping I I used to like going shopping but now we live out in the country it's a lot of time that it you know I want to save for running and other things so I just have them deliver my groceries here and it's easy and then I have everything I need I think the biggest thing is just spending it's hard sometimes but I have to spend some time Friday night planning what we're gonna have the next week and ordering the groceries and so that does take time and sometimes it's not exactly what I'd love to be doing on a Friday night but it's so important to make sure that you're planning ahead and thinking about what you're gonna eat and how you're gonna fuel when you're training a lot especially if time is limited. Because if you don't do that and you're just kind of willy-nilly like ordering things or not really thinking about what your meals are going to be and and just you know not planning ahead not even going grocery shopping you're you're kind of setting yourself up for underfueling and and maybe not even picking the best options. And so it's really important do you know do I want to be doing the meal planning and the ordering of the groceries on Friday night when I'd rather be relaxing. Like not really but that's what I have to do in order to get our groceries on Saturday so I can be set up because it doesn't really help me to have the groceries delivered on Sunday when I'm doing a long run stuff. There's just so much going into that day so I have to have it done Saturday and they want you to order it like a day before. So it's just the way it works out and it's something that's important to do. You know so I get it it's hard to meal prep it takes time to do this stuff but make it as easy on yourself as possible if you have the ability to deliver the groceries like go ahead and do it. It makes my life so much easier and so for my fueling so that's just kind of day to day um for fueling during workouts I do try to do a gel for some of those harder workouts. So even if it's not like even if my workout is less than 90 minutes. So let's see for example like the day um like the workout last Saturday where I did the alternation run on the on the fourth I did I took a gel in mid like midway during that workout. I think I took I had fuel I obviously ate before I took a gel midway and then I think I had like a shake and something else that I had immediately after then on my way home. So that's an example of a day that I would um make have a gel even though that particular run was only I think an hour and a half or a little over um the day I did like the 12 11 and a half mile run this last week where it was a tempo run on Thursday the ninth, I also took a gel midway. And so sometimes I'll take one or two gels even on those shorter runs, but those workout where I'm putting a lot of effort in and I've found that it actually really helps my recovery when I'm taking the gel in on some of those really um big workouts. So I think you even did it on the 800 meter workout I took a gel and it was only 10 mile workout. I found that not only does it help me be able to get through those last few reps feeling good, but it helps me recover faster. And honestly I think that's one of the things that's been really helpful in this build is just saying I have to fuel more during some of these workouts and actually take in the carbs during um sometimes I'll take in like a um a handheld water bottle with electrolytes and or some sort of super starch super carb drink mix and I'll do that sometimes during some of these workouts or some of these runs in addition to a gel. So I am really working on getting more fuel during um not every session if it's a recovery session if it's like recovery in less than 90 minutes I'm not always taking in a gel for that but I might be taking the handheld water bottle with some fuel in there during those. So I do sometimes take in something um but it's really important I think to to take the fuel in before during and then immediately after I really try to get in some carbs whether it's like the sweet potato or some sort of lunch or a smoothie with lots of fruit bananas and and different things in there. I'm trying to do that most immediately after I'm done just things that I'm doing that are really work for me. I do think it's okay to have some convenience items but really planning ahead is going to be key. I don't generally also like do a lot of meal prep on Sundays I sometimes will but most of the time I have night like evenings available to make dinner so I just make extra for the next day or two but if you have a really tight schedule on the weeknights like it may be worth spending some time Saturday or Sunday afternoon making some things in batch cooking items so that you have things during the week. So maybe doing some protein some you know right extra thing of rice or pasta or the sweet potatoes like I'm talking like I was talking about and maybe some um shredded chicken or grilled chicken or a tissue chicken or you know having things like the muffins like I make ahead um just having those things like a little bit of stuff that you make ahead so you have those available for those like busier days when you don't really have maybe another option and it's okay to use convenience items like canned tuna or cottage cheese. A lot of times I mean there's even days I do for lunch just like a a yogurt bowl with Greek yogurt fruit and granola. I mean that's sometimes my lunch just because I'm busy and I maybe didn't plan ahead as much or it's kind of the end of the week I don't have another option like it's got protein it's got carbs it's got some fruit you know so it's got fiber and other nutrients in there. And so it doesn't always have to be exactly like a meal like lunch meal traditional as long as it kind of checks the box of giving you your carbs and protein that you need and some of those additional nutrients I think that's fine too. So for my 20 mile workout I did want to talk a little bit about fueling for that because that was my first big 20 miler. I had a big bowl of oatmeal in the morning with peanut butter I had a little bit of maple syrup in there and I had my water my usual coffee and I do put cream in my coffee I sometimes put the protein milk I sometimes use like a creamer that's got sugar. Honestly one of the things I'm not worried about is too much is you know gaining weight. Surprisingly enough I think I've actually gained a couple pounds maybe it's hard to tell because running I don't weigh myself very often so I weighed a few times over the last week it seems like I have maybe actually gained a couple pounds but I'm not actually at all worried about it because of how well I'm generally feeling during workouts and how well I've been sleeping to me because traditionally I have such a struggle sleeping after not fueling. So one of my big things when I know I haven't fueled well fueled well during the day is when I wake up at night hungry, like in the middle of the night and then it and then I can't get back to sleep and it really disrupts my sleep. So I've been trying to really work on not only prioritizing sleep, but fueling enough so that I don't wake up hungry. And that may mean that perhaps I've been overshooting it a little bit but I'm not noticing it in how I'm running. In fact I feel like I'm running really well and I'm recovering really well. So I think when it comes to like weight that you're looking at during training, you know the goal really shouldn't be losing a substantial amount during training. And sometimes it is possible to actually gain weight and I think that it's okay to gain a few pounds you know if I continue up the upward trajectory I might have to kind of take a deeper look at maybe do some actual food logging and really get into the nitty gritty a little more because I don't do that a whole lot. I try to be more intuitive um but I'm not too worried. I have a feeling that it'll all kind of even out and maybe you know I've just been feeling really strong. So it could be coming from muscle it could be something else you know could be fluid retention I don't I don't think so but you just it's just best if you instead of being so worried about any sort of weight change especially weight gain is to really analyze it a little bit and be like okay well how am I feeling how am I recovering you know how are my workouts going and if everything's going really well then I don't think I would be as worried but if you're kind of feeling like whatever change of weight is happening is also correlating with poor performance or not recovering or you just feel heavier maybe then maybe there's something more to be worried about. So I think that's important just to mention that you know it is okay. Sometimes you actually may gain a little bit of weight during marathon training which is counterintuitive but in my case with my history of sort of sometimes being so busy and under fueling I'm not worried. In fact I'm kind of taking it as a good sign that maybe I am been better at fueling this go around so far. So for that 20 mile workout I did take in a gel every 30 minutes um and I did have in my water bottle a super starch so I did you I was using actually the Morton kind of using some of up of that I actually like the tailwind or scratch super carb mix better so I'll probably get through this Morton one and and and go back to that but I had some of that super starch in my uh in fact I put one almost an entire super starch thing in a Nalgine and and and some grapefruit um electrolyte stuff that I have and kind of mixed it up so it actually tastes like something and then mix that it up into 28 ounce Nalgene and then put half of that in my bottle for the first part of my run and the second half for my second part of my run and then I ended up having to fill it again one more time with an with some water and electrolytes because I was so thirsty and it was warm. But so I had probably it was a two and a half hour run. So I think it ended up being maybe closer to 55 or 60 grams an hour. I'd like to try to get it up a little higher than that actually when I kind of calculated afterwards I thought I was doing a little bit better with fueling but it was a little lower than I would have liked it to be so over the next so several long runs I'm gonna kind of really practice trying to get in maybe closer to 70 or 80 grams of carbs an hour see if that how that helps me feel better afterwards how it maybe helps me feel better during um I was pretty wiped out after I mean honestly that's gonna happen after a 20 miler one thing I did do is I took immediately took a ketone IQ shot after that run and I've just found that that just helps I don't I think it's just that it's that alternate fuel that you're getting it just helps me feel better generally for my I don't know a post workout like recovery I don't do those ketone shots during I don't find them to be helpful for me anyways during my runs but it does help after it doesn't taste particularly great um even the apple sour apple flavor that I tried was still pretty still got quite a flavor to it so you have to kind of be ready to shoot it down and then maybe have something else to eat with it. I had like a bar and um like a it was like an organ bar and a protein shake and on my way home and then immediately had some carbs. I don't feel particularly hungry after a long workout like that. I kind of feel a little bit off so it's hard for me to eat. So it's mostly just trying to drink things and then I did end up having some salt and vinegar chips when I got home just because I needed that saltiness just tasted good to me and then I was able to kind of eat some pasta and kind of get some more fuel in after that. So it was just a kind of mostly just snacking the rest of the afternoon honestly just to kind of try to get in enough fuel and I think I did a g a a pretty good job with it. I mean a little hungry today, but I didn't but I did sleep well and I didn't have any sleep disruptions and generally felt okay this morning, just maybe a little bit hungrier today, which is honestly just hard to get in enough energy and calories throughout the day when you're doing some of those long workouts. So sometimes the next day you just feel a little more hungry. So I just encourage you to sort of honor that, you know, hunger if you feel like you need a little bit more, even though maybe it's a recovery day, it's probably just because you were in a little bit of a deficit on the long run. It's just hard to be able to completely match your energy um output on on some of those really really long days. So it's common to feel a little hungrier the next day. Um but overall, like that's kind of how I've been thinking about fueling. Um just generally like trying to be thinking about like my my protein. So having like that smoothie with the protein and then having like lunch and dinner be pretty have some form of protein in there, whether it be any any kind, like sometimes we'll do chicken beef, I'll do tofu, sometimes it'll be something like Greek yogurt. Um, but I'm always having a protein at lunch and dinner and a good amount, and then I always try to have a protein for the most part at snacks, um, something with a little bit of protein, like nuts, or a string cheese, or the muffin I make that has some protein in it. So I feel like I'm getting a good amount of protein throughout the day. Um I often do peanut butter in the morning. Um and sometimes I'll do um trying to think of like other protein things, but that's you know, but it's kind of trying to fit that all in um throughout the day. And then I do try to kind of prioritize carbs a lot around the workout as best I can. So um I feel like that's going really well. Like I said, I haven't done any really extensive logging or anything at this point. Um, I might get on chronometer and just kind of see where I'm at, but I really like to be intuitive. I generally know amounts of carbs and general foods, having been a dietitian for so long and doing diabetes education at some points with carb counting, so I can pretty much get an idea if I'm trying to get a certain amount of carb post-workout, how much I'm gonna get with each food. So I can sometimes do those rough estimations. And so um just being able to do that, I I generally know how much I might be getting, but you know, I do recommend if somebody's not really sure, it can sometimes be helpful to do some food logging just to kind of make sure, are you getting enough after is the carb, are your carbs where they should be, or your pro is your protein where it should be? Um, and then, you know, I do think as much as I don't love getting on the scale super often, I do think it's sometimes helpful just to get on once a week or so, just to A, make sure you're not losing weight, and B, you know, if you are gaining weight, you know, just being aware that that sometimes happens during marathon training and just maybe checking in and make sure it's not continuously going up throughout the process. Um, but just, you know, also using your subjective feelings of how things are going. And are you, do you feel hungry a lot, or are you waking up in the night hungry? Those are surefire signs that you're not eating enough, is if you're waking up hungry in the middle of the night. So if those things are happening often, like they had for me in the past with my training, it's definitely a red flag that you need to be eating more during the day. So sometimes doing some logging can be really helpful. Um, but yeah, that is, I think, you know, all I'm gonna say on that. I'm always happy to share more about nutrition stuff at any point. I'm I'm sure I'll weave in some more nutrition-related information throughout the next several weeks. Um, but I did want to just kind of have my focus be on that today. I think next week or next time I talk in a few weeks, I'm gonna focus a little bit more on just general things I'm doing for recovery, um, some of the supplements and things I might be taking for recovery and sleep, um, just to kind of help support those things while I'm in the middle of training and just other things I do for recovery and how I'm trying to keep myself healthy day to day. Um, but hopefully this you know, today's episode was helpful. Hopefully, hearing a little bit about what I'm thinking about with nutrition is helpful. And um, yeah, I hope you have a great week. Have some great training, and um I'll see you next time.