Quiet… but planning

It’s all been rather quiet around recently, hasn’t it?  But I’ve not been idle.  No, I’ve been worrying about what the heck I’ve gotten myself into!

Part of what I have been doing is looking into what I’ll need to organise in order to be ready for the marathon, and for my training.  One thing that I didn’t do last time was deal with nutrition, and it’s something that I plan to try to do better this time around.

From what I’ve been able to read, the dreaded “wall” seems to happen as a result of the running out of fuel – there’s a limit to what it can hold, and running a marathon exceeds that limit.  To prevent myself from hitting the wall, I should ensure that I consume carbohydrates on a schedule that allows the body to consume them in time to deliver them to my muscles while I’m running.

A lot of my information has come from two posts by companies that want to sell me energy gels – so I know I should approach with a certain amount of cynicism.  The articles in question are:

Both suggest similar things – eat a good breakfast two or three hours before starting, take a gel half an hour before the race, then from thirty minutes into the race onwards take another gel every twenty minutes or so.

That makes about ten gels through the race.    Now, how the heck do I carry them around with me?