Relentless Forward Progress_ A Guide to Running Ultramarathons - Bryon Powell [50]
Real food with significant amounts of protein and, particularly, fat take longer to digest than engineered carbohydrate energy sources. Keep this in mind while racing. If you eat such foods, try to do so 10 or 15 minutes ahead of your next scheduled eating period. When that’s not an option, consider taking in some easily digestible carbohydrates along with the protein- or fat-rich food. This is the beauty of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or a turkey-avocado tortilla roll-up.
Perhaps the most common adage connected to ultrarunning advice is that we are all “an experiment of one.” This could not be more true than with food. What works for one runner may not work for another. Indeed, what works for you one race might not work at all in another race. Still, you need to experiment on what mix of calorie sources (carbs, protein, and fat), which type of foods (for carbs, do you prefer gels, sports drink, fruit, grain-based solid foods . . . ?), and then which specific foods (which brands, which flavors, and even which mix of flavors you prefer). Once you figure out your primary plan, have some alternatives in mind that work for you if that primary plan fails. Whatever changes you make to your plan, aim to minimize any prolonged breaks from eating.
All of the nutrition lessons for race day should be applied to training. Unless your previous running has shown you otherwise, it’s unlikely that you’ll need to consume any calories for a run of less than two or two and a half hours. Your glycogen and fat stores should be more than sufficient. For runs over two and a half hours, start eating on a semi-regular schedule from the beginning of the run. Given that the effort of a training run is likely to be less than that of a race, you require fewer calories per hour and you can get a higher percentage of calories from fat. That means you can back off your caloric intake per hour to perhaps 50 to 75 percent of race day levels. Part of the goal of long runs is to train your body to burn fat, so consider eating even less on some runs . . . with extra calories available in case of a severe bonk.
Note, however, that it would be useful to have a few hard long runs before your focus race, be they self-planned or preparatory races, in which you test out every aspect of your race day nutrition and hydration plan. What works on a three-hour trot may not work when pushing your body for longer periods. Those just making the switch to ultras may want to practice their race day nutrition plan during most or all of their long runs of more than two and a half hours.
Nausea
Like an army, ultrarunners march on their stomachs. As race distance increases, the ability to fuel continuously becomes increasingly vital lest you be reduced to a very long post-caloric bonk walk. Unfortunately, nausea is widespread during ultras, and so are its causes. Below are a few common causes of and solutions for this.
Many runners develop a fueling plan that works great in training only to find themselves retching trailside during a race. The cause? Taking in too many calories for the increased effort of racing, running too hard in high temperatures, or some combination of the two. Aside from basal metabolic functions,* three bodily systems compete for your limited blood flow: your skeletal muscles to run, your digestive system to nourish, and, when hot, your skin to cool. Increasing the blood flow to any one of these systems limits the flow to others, thereby decreasing their function.
* For the record, I’m including your brain among your basal metabolic functions.
Because you need to keep eating and as weather manipulation is rarely an option, your best bet is to slow down, at least temporarily. Even a modest reduction in pace of 30 seconds or a minute per mile for 15 to 30 minutes, or walking on level ground for 5 to 10 minutes, can greatly improve the state of your stomach with minimal time cost.