How to Fuel for a Half Marathon #LoveMyCereal #QuakerUp

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I can’t believe it… I have done three races the last three weekends. Two were half marathons and one was a 10 mile race… WOW! I will update more later on the actual races, but I wanted to share with you how to fuel for a half marathon. I am not expert, but I would love to share what works for me.

Training and running a half marathon is not all about just how far and fast you can run. It is a lot about how you fuel your body. I have learned through lots of trail and error what I should and should eat and drink. Protein and carbs are a huge factor. I mean after all if you don’t have any fuel in your tank then you will wind up tanking the race!! I have done that a few times.

So one thing that I have recently discovered is protein balls. Seriously it is the easiest way to get in the calories, protein and carbs that you need before during and after a race. The beauty of them is that you can use a huge variety of ingredients to suit your taste and they are YUMMY! The base of them is usually oats, some sort of nut butter, dried fruits, nuts, and a sweetener. I am partial to almond butter. I think because I make so many PB&J sandwiches that I am not a huge fan of peanut butter.. haha

For this recipe I headed to my local Walmart for ingredients and I found a treasure!! Quaker® Real Medleys® cereal… Why is it a treasure? Because it already contains many of the ingredients that I put in my protein balls. The Cherry Almond Pecan flavor is a perfect match and I was able ot find all the other ingredients for this recipe at Walmart.

Cherry Almond Pecan Protein Balls

(Just a note, you don’t have to be exact with these ingredients. Play around and use the flavors to your liking)

1 cup Quaker® Real Medleys® Cranberry Pecan Granola cereal

1/2 cup almond butter

3 T honey

2-3 T flax seed meal

2 T Coconut Oil

1/4 cup coconut

Like I said the beauty of this is that you can use all kinds of ingredients in these. You simply put all ingredients in the food processor and mix until however chunky or fine you like everything. For this one I went with a more chunky texture (mostly because my food processor gave up on me..boohoo) but usually I like it more blended. I then put them in the fridge so that they harden a bit and it makes them easier to eat if they are cold.

But don’t think that these are just for fueling for a race. They are great any time of the day for a snack or breakfast on the go. They have saved me many a time when I forget to eat breakfast. Along with hydrating plenty the days leading up to a longer race as well as these protein balls, I feel more prepared and have enough calories to burn while I run.

I have some ideas for a few other recipes using some of the other products that Quaker® offers like Quaker® Life, Quaker® Squares and more.

Do you have any other tips or other things you use to share about how to fuel for a half marathon?