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Tips for Walkers

Nutrition Tips

Even if you are not walking the full 150 miles with Robert Jackson, it is important to take care of yourself both before and during the duration of your walk.

Listed below are some nutrition tips for the couple days leading up to your walk and for your walk itself. Even though these are just last minute tips, they might really help your endurance level and your enjoyment of your walk. Remember to eat well and have fun!

1. Carbo-load, don't fat-load. Carbohydrate-rich foods include pasta with tomato sauce, plain baked potatoes, rice, breads, cereals, fruits and juices. Carbohydrate-poor choices include pepperoni pizza, cheesy lasagna, cookies and ice cream. These foods get the majority of their calories from fat. They may taste great and fill your stomach but the fats will not your muscles. Only carbs get stored as muscle glycogen. And as you well know, glycogen depletion is associated with extreme fatigue.

2. No last minute hard training. Resting (that is, doing very little exercise) is the best way to train in the 1-2 days leading up to your walk. Your muscles need time without exercise to store carbohydrates.

3. No last minute dieting. You can't load-up on adequate carbs if you are dieting and restricting yourself. The best-fueled walker will have greater stamina and endurance than the dieter who may be a few pounds lighter but is sub-optimally fueled. If the scale reports you are actually gaining weight, fear not! You might gain a little wait by eating all the carbs-do not be alarmed! With each ounce of carb you store as glycogen, you also store three ounces of water. The water gets released during the walk and helps maintain hydration.

4. Be sure to fluid-load as well as carbo-load. You can tell if you are drinking enough by monitoring your urine. You should be urinating frequently (every 2 to 4 hours) and the urine should be a clear color and of significant volume. Juices are a great fluid choice because they provide not only water but also carbohydrates.

5. Eat tried-and-true foods. If you drastically change your food choices (such as eating six pieces of fruit per day when you generally eat none), you may end up with intestinal problems. Simply eat a variety of the tried-and-true carbohydrates that you've enjoyed during training. Even traveling athletes should try to maintain a standard eating schedule. This means you may need to pack food with you--instant oatmeal, your favorite breakfast cereal, some energy bars, your favorite crackers, etc.

6. Eat a moderate amount of fiber. If you carbo-load on lots of foods made with refined white flour (white bread, bagels, crackers and pasta), you may end up constipated. Include enough fiber to promote regular bowel movements--but not too much fiber, or you'll have the opposite problem! Moderate amounts of whole wheat bread, bran cereal, fruits and vegetables are good choices.

7. Eat the morning of the walk. You'll need this fuel to maintain a normal blood sugar level. Although your muscles are well stocked from the foods you've eaten the past few days, your brain gets fuel only from the limited amount of sugar in your blood. When you nervously toss and turn the night before the event, you can deplete your blood sugar supplies and, unless you eat carbs, you will start the event with low blood sugar--and then go downhill from there!

Replacing the lost energy with a light to moderate breakfast (as tolerated) can help prevent you from hitting the wall. Stick with tried-and-true foods: cereal, bagels, toast, fruit, sports bars and/or juice. These carbs will both feed your brain and stave off hunger.

NOTE: If you know that eating food before the walk will upset your system, have an extra-big snack before you go to bed. This will help maintain adequate blood sugar on marathon morning.

8. Drink adequate calories and fluids during the walk. During the walk, you'll have greater stamina and endurance if you consume not only water, but also some carbohydrates. This means, drink sports drinks, consume gels, energy bars, hard candies and any form of easy-to-digest carbs. You should target about 250 calories per hour after the first hour (which is fueled by your breakfast) to avoid hitting the wall. The slower you walk, the more you may need to fuel yourself during the 26.2 miles. Some runners boost their energy intake by drinking sports drinks. (Eight ounces of PowerAde has 80 calories (20 grams carbohydrates); 8 ounces of Gatorade has 50 calories.) Other alternatives include diluted juices or defizzed cola; water plus hard candies, gummy bears, jelly beans, energy bars, bananas and other easy-to-chew and digest foods that friends hand them along the way. Your muscles welcome this food. Despite popular belief, what you eat right before and during exercise does get digested and used for fuel along the route! Hopefully, you have experimented pre-walk to determine what settles best.

Nutrition Consultant, Joints in Motion National Marathon Training Program