A friend of mine is training for a marathon, he was progressing and building up his distance when he hit the wall. His training hadn’t changed, what could the problem be? When there is a problem, something has to change. After looking into his mileage, days trained, and diet, the best advice I could give at that point was to eat and drink on the run.
• Eat on the run. At every 45-50 minutes of training you need to eat. When your body has exhausted it’s reserves of glycogen, you’re headed for a wall. The “wall” or “bonking” as many like to call it is obviously different for everyone. For me if I didn’t get some sort of food in me at about the 1st hour mark at a 10 minute pace that was at the 6th mile, I was headed for a crash. I would need to get grub every 45-50 minutes after that, as well.
When my blood sugar reached that low point, every annoyance would be amplified. Any minor discomfort would seem unbearable, and even start into some sort of mild hallucination. Your senses get dull, and can put you in real danger especially with the dangers of traffic and other roadway hazards. I got lost on a 10 mile training run one time and had to finally pull into a garage and borrow their phone book to call a friend.
It will take training and practice to know what works best for you. I’ve tried Goo, peppermints, gum, and an assortment of bars. Goo was not for me. Peppermint and gum are great for shorter distances and can save your bacon in a pinch. I would eat half a cliff bar every 45-50 minutes and supplement w/ peppermints throughout. Yes, cliff bars are bulky and take up space, and are hard to eat on the run, but the difference it made for me over the 4 1/2 hours of keeping my blood sugar at a level for performance in a marathon was invaluable.
The dangers of not eating during longer training sessions are not worth it. Unless you’ve experienced it you probably think eating during training is not for you. When your body runs out of readily available glycogen other mechanisms kick in. Sure the aerobic system starts converting fat to energy, but your body will also feast on bulky inefficient muscle mass. Unless you are going for that wispy look, this catabolic effect is no good. Proper nutrition and hydration before, during, and post training will help minimize the loss of lean muscle mass, and ensure optimum performance.