The New Rules of Marathon and Half-Marathon Nutrition

Great book for all aspiring and seasoned runners..

This book does a great job covering the nutritional side of long distance running for marathons. I use some of the strategies for before and during my races and they work. I recommend reading this book.

O livro traz muitas dicas boas para se preparar para uma maratona. É interessante porque ele é corredor e compartilha várias experiências

I wish I had bought this sooner. After I found myself trying to train ( and failing miserably) I decided to read this. I noticed an immediate change and its helped me to fuel my body differently. I also love the training guide, its really helped me to pace myself.

Last year I became a full member of the “Wall Hitters’ Club”, missing out on my debut marathon target (4h) by 1’12”. So this year I was determined to get a time that started with a 3. I turned to a Matt Fitzgerald training plan from ‘Brain Training for Runners’, which I’d used several years previously to successfully achieve a goal of a sub-45 10K.It wasn’t until 10 days before the race that I dug out another Fitzgerald book I had on the Kindle (‘Racing Weight’) to remind myself what he had to say about carbo-loading that an ad for ‘Marathon Nutrition’ popped up. Out of curiosity I downloaded the sample, read something about caffeine fasting that I’d never heard of before, and then downloaded the full book.Obviously, I like Matt Fitzgerald’s writing. His training plans seem to work for me. All the advice in ‘Marathon Nutrition’ worked for me too. I quickly read the key chapters on taper nutrition, pre-race and in-race nutrition. I realised that last time I had massively under-fuelled! Massively under-estimated the amount of carbs I would need to consume the day before and the morning of the race and under-estimated the frequency with which I should be consuming gels during the race by about 30%!I don’t know which bits of Matt’s advice worked for me – the fat-loading, caffeine-fasting, carb-loading, quick pre-race gel or quantity of gels during the race. But, as a package, work they did. I had a very short drastic dip in pace just after mile 20, but got my head together, confident I’d done the right prep and then continued at target pace all the way through the final six – feeling tired, but never spent. And definitely not the ‘Wall’ feeling of the previous attempt. In fact, my last mile was the fastest and I finished strong in 3h56m23s.If you’ve ever hit the wall, or want to minimise the likelihood that you will on your first attempt, follow this advice. Great book that has given me the huge satisfaction of achieving the result I wanted. Thanks, Matt!

Matt Fitzgerald ist ja bekannt für sein wirklich exzellentes Buch "Racing Weight", das sich den konkreten und spezifischen Ernährungsthemen für Ausdauersportler widmet. Ähnlich fundiert und mit zahlreichen Studien unterlegt liefert er in den "New Rules of Marathon and Half-Marathin Nutrition" wertvolle Tips für Ernährung in der Marathonvorbereitung und im Wettkampf selbst. Auf das Thema der Qualität der Studien will ich nur kurz eingehen und darauf hinweisen, dass trotz zT geringer Stichprobengröße und methodischen Mängeln zumindest ein relevanter wissenschaftlicher Bezug zur interessierenden Population hergestellt wird; bei vielen anderen Werken wird munter mit physiologischen Erkenntnissen der Normbevölkerung gearbeitet - wie weit das dann relevant ist möge jeder für sich selbst entscheiden.Ich denke das wichtigste ist sicherlich dass die Empfehlungen funktionieren: Beim letzten Marathon wurde ich von einem Besuch des Manns mit dem Hammer verschont. Alles ist unproblematisch umzusetzen, man bleibt von exotischen Tipps - ich sage nur Chia - weitgehend verschont.Einige wenige Ansätze trüben für mich das Bild: Die Vorschläge am Abend vor dem Rennen doch ein (verschreibungspflichtiges) Schlafmittel zu nehmen und direkt vor dem Wettkampf Schmerzmittel einzuwerfen sind nicht ganz meine Linie. (Wobei Matt Fitzgerald auch darauf eingeht dass zumindest letzter Punkt umstritten wäre.)Insgesamt sicherlich eine lohnenswerte Lektüre für Marathonläufer, die den Ernährungsteil solide angehen wollen.