The Fuelling Guide · Finish your first 10 Miles

In a 5 or 10 km you usually run without eating anything. In your first 10 Miles you are out there long enough to fill your stores over the last two days and to take two gels during the race, probably the first you have ever taken in a race. Whatever goes wrong during the race is usually something small: a first kilometre that is too fast, or a cup of water at every station because it is there. And what is new is mainly the act of taking a gel: tearing open a sachet while you run and having water with it in time. That is why you practise it in your long run from ± 8 weeks before, step by step.

This guide follows the steps of the training package “Finish your first 10 Miles” and of the heart-rate plan with the same goal: your gut training in three steps in your long run, from one and a half gels to exactly your race plan, your 10 km tune-up race as a first trial of your race-day breakfast and one gel, your dress rehearsal at the start time of your race, your two loading days on your race weekend and your race plan with two gels at fixed minutes. At each step you can read why it is in your plan and how much it asks of you at your weight. The tables follow the calculation rules of the package, so the guide and your plan give the same values. You can also use the guide on its own.

In eight chapters, a box (a table in chapter 16) sets out what is well supported, what mostly comes from practice and what is still open, such as how a runner tolerates their very first gel in a race. For each trial the guide explains, you can read who took part: runners, cyclists or other endurance athletes.

What’s inside

• What your 10 Miles asks of you: what 16.1 km costs, how far your own stores reach, why two gels are your plan and where you stand in relation to the loading cut-off, and where things can go wrong during the race: a start that gets carried along by the crowd, your first gel in a race, water or sports drink at the drinks station, two loading days that are a first for you and drinking too much just to be safe.
• The months before: eating enough for your training, eating around your key sessions, your gut training in three steps in your long run (from one and a half gels to exactly your race plan, from ± 20–30 to ± 30–45 g of carbohydrate per hour), your 10 km tune-up race as a trial run and your dress rehearsal at your start time, ± 3 weeks before, with the weigh-in test.
• The final days: your two loading days with a table for your body weight, race week day by day and the breakfast that suits your start time.
• Race day: your race plan with two gels at fixed minutes, the same for every finishing time, a lower race plan if your gut training went less smoothly, your gels and the drinks stations, drinking to thirst with an upper limit from your own weigh-in test, salt, caffeine, hot, cold or wet weather, and an emergency plan if things still go wrong.
• After the finish: what you eat and drink in the first hours, and how to get going again gently over the three weeks after.
• Good to know: what research has shown so far about women and older runners, and which new products you don’t need (yet) for your first 10 Miles.

With eight worksheets to print (your race plan, your weigh-in test, your gut-training ladder, a loading planner for your two loading days, a breakfast planner, a test log, a supporter card and an emergency plan), a reference list and a glossary.

Who it is for

Anyone getting ready for their first 10 Miles who has so far mostly run shorter distances, with or without the training package or the heart-rate plan “Finish your first 10 Miles”. The tables assume an expected finishing time of ± 1h30 to 2h00.

With the training package

If you buy the training package “Finish your first 10 Miles” (on Payhip: “Trainingspakket · Je eerste 10 Miles finishen”, with one or two lactate field tests on the track and a tailored training-plan dossier in Dutch), you get this guide free.

Size

128 pages · 21 figures · 22 tables · 8 worksheets · 119 scientific sources (with a DOI where available) · glossary of 32 terms.

This guide gives general information on nutrition for endurance runners. It is not a substitute for advice from a doctor or dietitian.