What to Eat the Night Before a Long Run: 13 Meal Ideas

The night before a long run is the perfect time to fuel your body right, and it’s way simpler than most runners think. And no, it doesn’t have to be a big ol’ plate of pasta either. what to eat the night before a long run Marathon training brings with it a whole host of new questions. How do we run so far without getting bored? How do we prevent chafing? How do we carry food on long runs? Do we even need fuel on long runs?

Which can quickly spiral us into training overwhelm. Instead, try to just focus on one piece at a time.

You’ll figure out the tips to prepare for a long run, you’ll figure out how to pace yourself and you’ll realize that boredom isn’t really an issue.

Let’s look at what to eat the night before a long run and what to avoid so you don’t find yourself running to the bathroom.

Remember that these meals are part of your marathon preparation. You’re figuring out what’s going to work well on race day.

What to Eat the Night Before a Long Run

As you sit down to eat the night before, your plate should have what the body needs to feel strong and ready for your long run the next day.

Three words: easy digestible carbs.

Carbs are a necessary fuel source for your muscles. While your body will be burning both fat and carbs for fuel, if you start running low on glycogen, your body and brain will revolt.

Your brain relies on carbs and it makes complete sense that much of your fatigue could be mental.

If you’re long run is going to be longer than 90 minutes, your dinner the night before should include at least 1-2 g/kg body weight of lower fiber carbs. This will ensure your glycogen stores are ready to go the next day.

Focus on easy to digest foods
Find meals that you enjoy, so it will sound good before the marathon
Embrace high quality, but low fiber carbohydrates like potatoes, rice, sourdough bread, fruit
Ensure it’s still a balanced meal with protein and fat to keep you fuel and hit your nutritional needs
Don’t go in to long runs having under fueled on your rest day

The best runners PAY ATTENTION to how they feel after a meal.

Start keeping a journal where you not only record running data from your long run, but also some notes about what you ate and if you bonked, if you felt strong, if you had side stitches or other issues.

Sample Pre-Long Run Dinners

It comes down to this: eat a well-balanced meal with nutrients to give your body energy. Need some ideas? Here are a few of our team’s favorite pre-long run dinners.

Pizza (Yes!): High in carbs, but keep the serving size reasonable
Salmon: High protein, anti-inflammatory food that’s easy to digest
Sweet Potato: Carbs, and potatoes are some of the best carbs for runners
Basic Chicken: Simple, packed with nutrients, protein, carbs, and fat
Grilled Vegetables: Nutrients without a huge amount of fiber
Sandwiches: Who doesn’t love a good sandwich?! Enjoy some veggies, some protein and lots of flavor.
Homemade Stir Fry: Rice, veggies and protein make a super easy meal, just look for zucchini over broccoli on this night
Fruity Desserts – listen chocolate is a dessert, but adding some berries to your dinner is awesome for carbs and anti-inflammatory properties
Cereal – Yup, tons of runners grab an extra bowl of cereal to finish of their night. We love it and it’s a great final way to top up the glycogen stores.

runner with pizza

Yup, the theme with a lot of these meals is they aren’t complicated.

We want simple foods the body can work with quickly and you’ll notice we aren’t worried about a massive amount of carbohydrates. Instead, we want nutrients, protein, carbs and fat.

Do you need to eat pasta before a long run?

Nope, this is a long-standing running myth that we would like to put behind us.

If you happen to be someone who LOVES pasta and knows that you digest it well, then go for it, but that often isn’t the case for many runners.

It’s unlikely you need to carb load for a week, unless you have been eating less than 100grams of carbs per day for the rest of the week.
Your body has a good amount of carbohydrates stored in the muscle ready to go.
This does not mean it’s ok to skip dinner and then go out for a fasted long run. We know this will be a detriment to performance and goals. Do NOT UNDER FUEL YOUR BODY.
What you eat the night before matters, but equally with what you eat right before your run.

What Not to Eat the Night Before a Long Run

Your choices the night before can help to prevent runners trots (eh hem bathroom issues), ensure you have enough energy to prevent bonking and keep you from playing the dreaded game of marathon weight gain.

Runners all have slightly different tolerance levels for foods.

It tends to get better for many runners the more years they’ve been running because just like your legs adapt, your body starts to get prepared for the jostling and changes in digestion.

The reason we have stomach issues is because once you start running, all the blood is diverted from your stomach to your muscles.

So if there’s a lot of food still needing to be digested it results in cramps and praying for a nearby toilet..

A few other things to keep in mind when it comes to eating the night before:

You want to avoid large meals that require a lot of digestion, which can make you feel sluggish in the morning. For some that may mean lower in protein. I have not noticed an issue with protein, so I keep it high as I’m working on maintaining muscle mass during marathon training!
You want to avoid food intolerances, which could contribute to needing urgent bathroom stops.
A glass of wine no problem…a bottle…well that’s up to you.

If you’re overthinking the night before a meal, you’re likely creating a lot of additional stress, and you know what happens then?

It slows down your digestion.

It results in nerves before you start running.

You end up in the bathroom, which was a big thing you were trying to avoid in the first place!

So instead of freaking out about it, think about what you normally eat for dinner and whether it has ever caused issues with your shorter morning runs during the week.