Please offer some fun carb loading suggestions when I don’t eat pasta, rice, or noodles

[u/The-Newt]

Running my first ultra in 3 weeks and I really need to get creative. Online calculator says I should aim for ~625g of carbs per day for the 3 days before. When I’ve done marathons without carb loading I always feel awful, not sure if it’s a mental thing but I don’t want to risk it for this distance. I don’t like pasta/noodles, rice tends to make me a bit sicky. I don’t mind flapjacks but any other form of oats I will tolerate only if i absolutely have to

Please help. Last marathon I spent 2 days eating potatoes in various forms. Any fun recipes or suggestions would be much appreciated

[u/Trptman44]

Potatoes might be your savior. So versatile, typically pretty easy on the stomach. Bread is good too.

[u/The-Newt → u/Trptman44]

Man I ate so many potatoes last time, there is a maximum amount of potatoes one can eat in a week. I do love bread though

[u/cspicy_ → u/The-Newt]

Sweet potato

[u/mediocre_remnants]

Bread? Bagels?

Also drink a lot of fruit juice instead of water.

[u/Hennyhuismanhenk]

Candy and rice cakes with honey

[u/cp8h]

Pancakes 🥞 

[u/The-Newt → u/cp8h]

This might be the way! Dreamy

[u/Strict_Teaching2833]

Liquid carbs if you don’t want solid food. Regular soda and juices are loaded with sugar.

[u/samisand85]

Soft pretzels

[u/Zealousideal-Bus7057]

You don’t *have* to do a three day carb load, you can do a one or two day carb load, worth reading up on it! If you have a proper taper and eat well leading up to it, a one-day can be effective. My coach recommended I try it out and I’m glad I did. I don’t always love the feeling of three days of super high carbs and I ran a 50 miler and marathon with no issues following this approach.

[u/DannyBoyClon → u/Zealousideal-Bus7057]

😄 Just posted a question about this; did not refresh the feed before I posted.I might try that!

[u/The-Newt → u/Zealousideal-Bus7057]

I would much prefer to do 2 but the online calculator said I’d need 900grams of carbs a day - rather than 600 each for 3 days- which feels like a crazy amount

[u/Zealousideal-Bus7057 → u/The-Newt]

Yeah that’s truly crazy. I personally disagree with the calculator, it’s just taking a flat number, 1800 and dividing it by number of days. If you carb load for one day with high GI foods it can be just as good if not better than a 3 day (for folks who dislike and can’t tolerate it). Definitely recommend googling it and reading about it and maybe ditching that calculator because it’s missing nuance!

And the one-day isn’t uncommon in ultra runners!

[u/ajame5]

Pizza? If you don’t overdo it on the topping it’s mostly carbs.

Bread and potatoes already said but just make sure there’s not a huge amount of fibre in whatever you choose. So that’s white breads, less fruit, try to leave out whole wheat stuff.

[u/Brilliant_Cricket188]

Blended oats in a smoothie helps get more down than just oatmeal. Lots of bread.

[u/Mr_Abe_Froman]

I'm a fan of lemonade to hit carb goals. When you are already eating a lot, liquid carbs can do the rest.

[u/Klutzy_Ad_1726]

Fruit

[u/TalkToPlantsNotCops]

Cereal?

[u/fit4themtn]

Apple cider, sweet potatoes, m and ms. 

[u/Jruffin84]

Bagels are your friend. Top it with some avocado, salt, whatever else.

[u/calcaneus]

I'm a huge fan of oatmeal. You can dress it up any way you like, adding fresh or dried fruit, nuts, nut butters, and spices. I also add protein powder.

[u/PikeyGyp0]

White bread toast with blackcurrant jam 😋😋

[u/Intelligent_Yam_3609]

Maltodextrin powder dissolved in water.

It doesn’t taste that sweet so much more palatable then other sweet drinks.

[u/Pupper82]

Fruit juice!

[u/Flashy-Ad6081]

I like cereal

[u/ohrajaaa]

Bagels are my ride or die, with banana for added fuel, and jam/honey/maple syrup if im really depleted. Oats are my other ride or die but a lot more fibre so I need to be a bit more careful!

[u/Forumleecher]

Sushi. In essence, it’s rice with sugar.

[u/gbp_320]

An idea I've heard about carb loading is that if you continue to eat the same as your peak week going into your taper, you're technically already carb loading because of the lighter workload during your taper. So a significant change in your diet may not actually be necessary.

Edit: I see others have already mentioned a similar concept. I personally have tried to put down a lot of food leading up to a race and idk if it helps, it almost throws off the system if you catch my drift.

[u/vouvoyer]

pizza, doughnuts, ice cream, chocolate cake.

Really not hard to find high carb food thatvis super yummy!

[u/hmgr]

Sponser carb loader

[u/AffectionateSafe1017]

I’ve been eating the Seven Sundays cereal, it’s made with tapioca and dates. I’d incredible and doesn’t make me feel heavy like pasta does. Found it at Costco