Nutrition planning for my first 24h race
Nutrition planning for long ultra races. It really is a jungle. Or is it?
This weekend it's time for my first really long ultra challenge, a 24-hour run in Gothenburg (Sweden) — Pace on Earth Invitational. The truth is that I have previously “only” run distances up to 100 km (which I did once at Kullamannen 100 miles 2017, DNF) and mostly only races between 50-80 kilometers. And now I’m going to run for 24 hours. How things will go physically requires a completely separate blog post, and my main focus right now is my nutrition plan for the weekend. I mean, running is the easy part. I just need to run a little longer than I usually do… But nutrition planning on the other hand, that’s a whole other matter.
In previous races I have followed the strategy "bring everything that tastes good and pray that it works out." And guess what — it has always worked out! But one also needs to keep in mind that most of my races have lasted for a maximum of ten hours. And in ten hours, I suppose that the risk of getting bad stomach issues is much less common than during a 100-mile mountain race or similar…
My second ultra race ever in September 2014, Black River Run 50 miles. 20 years old.
My first and so far only DNF, Kullamannen 100 miles in November 2017. Had lasagna at the aid station in Mölle, it was warm and cozy and shortly after that my race was over…
So what are the things that have "always" worked out for me? A combination of sports drink, coke, coffee, water, gels, ClifBloks, bars, banana pancakes, pizza pieces, chips, salty licorice, rice balls with salt, banana and cinnamon buns. I have usually mixed everything wildly depending on what I’ve craved for and how hungry I’ve been.
I'll also admit that I’m not a fan of numbers, and I have never even given a thought to how many calories or carbohydrates I need to get every hour. I’ve always found this totally uninteresting, and for the most part things have gone well anyway. I know, that’s a little naive, which is why I also understand the importance of having a somewhat strategic energy plan when it comes to running longer distances. So I have decided to try to put at least some effort into my nutrition plan for this weekend.
Recently I received the following recommendation from Johnny (my friend and co-coach): Eat/drink about 60 g of carbohydrates and 250 kcal / hour. This might correspond to e.g. one gel incl. about 500 ml of sports drink every hour. Sounds easy enough! With this info, I at least have a good base to start from.
The other day I also threw out the question about nutrition planning for 24-hour racing in a local ultrarunning Facebook group to see how others have done it in the past. I got lots of comments with different answers and was almost even more confused than I was before…
But among the answers, I figured out that there seem to be four popular strategies in terms of nutrition planning for this type of racing:
1) SPORTS DRINKS AND GELS FOR LIFE
Simply gorge on sports drinks and gels for 24 hours. It sounds completely nuts — who has a stomach of steel to handle that?! I know I don’t anyway. So this strategy is a no-go for me.
2) CLEAN EATING
Focus on eating and drinking only "real" and "clean" food throughout the race. This means no refined sugars, white flour and so on… I imagine that a nutrition plan like that could consist of lots of fruit, Hüma gel (that counts as clean, right?), water, nuts, etc.… Does sports drink count, too?
An incredibly tast chocolate cake made with rice flour. Maybe that could be something to snack on this weekend?
3) THE SWEET TOOTH
Do just the opposite as above, i.e. live on sweets and other refined sugars for 24 hours! I'm not a big fan of sweets, but my go-tos would probably be Tutti Frutti mixed with licorice and dark chocolate with sea salt… I’d drink coke and elderflower juice with an extra pinch of salt added to it. But the real question is if using this strategy means I have to maintain a constant intake of candy in order to keep the sugar level at a constant and stabile level, so as not to get a real sugar low all of a sudden? Imagine eating only candy for 24 hours. Not tempting…
4) MIX IT ALL UP
Lo and behold — there is a method that combines ALL of these strategies above! We can call it the “mix it all up”method. Experimentation deluxe version. This must be the method that most people use, right? A little sports drink and gels mixed with some "real" food and sweets. The only difference is that the proportions don’t look the same for everyone.
Snack break (Earth Bite bar) during an adventure run in Lappland, Sweden July 2019.
THE CONCLUSION
What I will say now may not exactly be a huge revelation, but I actually think that I will go for the mixed method. Buy everything I normally eat during races and combine it with some wild cards. Because the truth is that I have no choice but to experiment — no matter what I decide to do with the nutrition plan, it will be a new experience and a new lesson because I have never run 24 hours before. And who knows, if it turns out that I actually enjoy running in circles around a 1-kilometer track for 24 hours, I’ll be able to use these new insights during my next challenge, refine my nutrition method and eventually make it absolutely perfect.
Or wait, is there even something called the perfect nutrition method? Because when you come to think of it, there are so many other things that can have an effect on the end result such as daily form, stomach health, need for sleep, weather, boredom and so forth…
So no matter what happens this weekend, I will go into this race with the motto that failure is not an option. What I mean by this is that no matter what happens — whether my stomach crashes completely or I end up flying through it all like a superwoman — it will be a lesson learned for my future races and challenges. And going home with a bag filled with new experiences and lessons learned is perhaps the biggest prize I could receive.