Pre-marathon Carbo Loading

With the Burlington Marathon four days away, it's time to completely rest the muscles and think about carbo loading! From what i've read, you should carbo-load three days before the race, but do so that you're not adding additional carbs on top of your regular diet but substitute some of your regular food with foods that are high in carbs. With this in mind, here's what I have planned out for my menu for the next three days:

• Thursday Breakfast. Bagels.
• Thursday Lunch. Baked potato with avocado and salsa. Snack will be my wife's incredible low-fat oatmeal cookies.
• Thursday Dinner. Chicken and bean burrito.
• Friday Breakfast. Bagels.
• Friday Lunch. Up in the air, because i'll be travelling to Burlington. Probably a sandwich of some kind. Snacks will be fruit of all kinds: grapes, apples and blueberries.
• Friday dinner:  Pasta with pesto and broccoli with Parmesan and walnuts on top. Side of garlic bread.
• Saturday breakfast: Blueberry pancakes with VT maple syrup. Mmmmm... 
• Saturday lunch: Bagel sandwich somewhere in Burlington. I'm also pretty sure i'll end up eating some of the best french fries on the planet. 
• Saturday dinner: Soba noodle salad. 
• Race-day morning: Oatmeal with some dried blueberries.

What do you think? How do you carbo load before a long race?

Long Run, Big Eating

I have a problem. Whenever I go for a long run - 7 miles or more - I eat WAY too much when I get home. I start off by chugging a glass of water, then I make a smoothie (banana, blueberries, muscle milk, soy milk and some flax seed), and then despite my best efforts, I end up basically scarfing down whatever I can get my hands on until I feel stuffed. I'm not sure what to do about it other then to have a spread of healthy food laid out for my return from the road. 

I mention this because the latest issue of RW mentions this problem in this month's "Miles and Meals" article. But their solutions aren't really anything that I can incorporate: they suggest eating a meal 2-3 hours before the run (impossible to do when running first thing in the morning) or skipping recovery snack in favor of sitting down to a full meal within 30 minutes (also impossible when I have just enough time to shower up before having to watch the kids). Any suggestions on how I can realistically battle the long-run munchies?

Carbo Loading

Since I'm running a 5K this Saturday (Canal Diggers in Worcester), I ate my favorite carbo loading dinner: penne with Bove's Vodka Sauce. So. Good.

What do you like to eat the night(s) before a race?