Let’s start with the bloody obvious here! Ultra running burns stacks of calories. You are on your feet for long periods of time and are covering a lot of ground. The calorie burn can be immense. So, it’d make sense to simply say YES, ultra running is ace for weight loss but that’s certainly NOT the case. Let’s dive in further…
What You Need To Know About Ultra Nutrition
Ultra running is an endurance event. It’s going to take, WAY, longer than an hour and your body is simply not got the energy within it to see out the event in an optimal way. You’ve heard people talk about “bonking” or “hitting the wall” and this is when a runner (or any endurance athlete) runs out of energy stores. The body simply decides that it has no more to give. I’ve been there and it’s certainly not a nice place to be. I remember my mind being super willing, geeing up my body and giving it a good talking to to get going but my legs simply responding with “ack, we can walk but nothing else.”
Anyhaps, I digress. In order to preform optimally and to protect both your short term and long term health, your body is going to need nutrition during an ultra event.
So, in essence, in the spirit of this particular post, we are certainly not looking at calorie burn in isolation.
My Experience
uAs lots of people will say to me that an ultra must be ace for losing weight, I wanted to dive a little deeper.
An ultra is never about the impact it has on the scales and my view is that it should never be viewed as an opportunity to move the weight needle.
An ultra event takes fuelling and recovery and being mindful of those things is super important.
For me it starts midweek before the race with an increase in intake – both from a calorific perspective but also in terms of ensuring my carbs are a little higher (and my glycogen stores full). The day before the race I go back to a regular eating pattern – so I don’t feel overly full/bloated/lethargic.
Race day nutrition is ridiculously important and can make or break your race (I’ll do a separate dive into that but breakfast before the event and feeding during is a must in my book).
I’m always a little disappointed post race as I can’t always turn my attention to all the stuff I fantasised about during the miles, it’s more about getting in what I can.
The next week I’m prioritising recovery. Both replenishing the glycogen through carbs and getting some great protein in to aid the repair and recovery of all the trauma your muscles have experienced.
Then from one week post event into the mid week of the next week I’m working back into a more normal routine.
Effectively the ultra impacts my nutrition (and training) over that 2 week period and isn’t about gaining any ground on the scales whatsoever! Shout if you want me to dive deeper into it.
Essentially It Looks A Bit Like This For Me…
3-4 days out – being more conscious about my nutritional intake & ensuring I’m consuming plenty of carbohydrates in order to ensure my body’s glycogen stores are nice & full!
The day before – back to a normal eating pattern to ensure that I don’t hit the start line feeling bloated.
Race Day – eat breakfast (what you can tolerate/when you can tolerate it << and this can be trained for in a big way in terms of slightly shifting the feeding window within your training to see where your body responds best and trying different kinds of foods).
During The Event – start early. Make sure you have variation of food – both sweet & savoury and all being stuff you’ve trained with to ensure that your body’s tolerability of it is good. Keep hydrated too. It might feel like a pain in the ass to carry a stack of water but I’ve had occasions where I’ve ran out and it’s not been ace!
Post Race – Whatever you can. Dependant on the race and the circumstances you may or may not be in a position to eat all you’ve longed for for hours and hours but whether you fancy it or not get some stuff in. Know you might not sleep well tonight too, despite being hanging out.
Day After & The Day After That – theses are the days I’m like the ravenous beast and get some better sleep. These are rest days too but don’t compromise on calorific intake. I do recover well and these 2 days are my main recovery days.
The next week – continue to listen to your body. I usually come back to easy/recovery running and allow my body to start to unfurl BUT without any pressure at all.
10 days post event – normal service resumes fully.
Some Of My Favs
My concentration is balanced nutrition (always) and making sure that I’m taking in plenty of carbs to keep the muscle glycogen nice & full, protein to make sure my muscles are getting the very best opportunities to recover & fats because all endurance athletes are naturally fat adapted and every little helps. So NOTHING is ever barred or disconnected within my diet.
Here’s some of my absolutely favs – both in terms of endurance nutrition for an ultra event and also day to day;
Oats – porridge, overnight oats are the boss of breakfasts in my world.
Toast/bagels with jam – nothing more to say
Flapjack
Rice
Meat (particularly within main meals – sorry vegan peeps)
Chips (preferably triple cooked)
Pasta (look it’s not always top of the list for distance runners)
Jacket potatoes (a nice addition as a lunch staple on the run up to an event for me)
The night before an event I do love my hubby’s very yummy Steak & Chips for my evening meal (I’m adding that in to ensure that it’s mentioned so that I can keep persuading him to cook it for me).
In terms of products here’s some of the stuff I love…..
Voom’s collections are bloody ace in my view. The bars divide up into 4 chunks which means that you can break them up within the packaging and consume one square at a time. It means that you don’t have your hands full of a sticky bar or one that’s crumbling or breaking apart within the packaging within your pack.
For me these are super easy to consume, incredibly palatable (a bit of a taste sensation when you’d mid ultra) and super easy to digest. They don’t give me any negative gastric feedback. Love them!
Awesome Supplements – Again, this is yummy. So often you can get a “sports drink” in powder form and boy does it taste like a powder. This DOESN’T.
Fruity, tangy & wakes up your mouth as well as providing you with not only additional calories (in a liquid format – so easy to consume & absorb) as well as electrolytes too.
Incredibly yummy & does a FABULOUS job. I’m not a huge drinker but this helps stacks
I’m a fan of the blueberry flavoured SIS Go Energy Bars. Now this isn’t going to sound mega, but it is, it’s like a very moist (sorry if you don’t like that word) flapjack. It’s an easy one to store in your pack and easy to eat.
It’s one where you also feel like you’ve had some sustanance without it being heavy.
You can often find these on Amazon too.
High 5 – I’m not a big gel consumer (for Ultras). I don’t particularly love them in high quantities. I don’t like the claggy feel in my mouth and that sugary feeling that often seems to be left over after consumption BUT these are different. These are more like a shot of squash.
I keep these in my pack as energy fuelling and are also ace if you run out of liquid between check points and need to get fluids in.
Other stuff I like and carry with me – Grenade bars. I do believe that something a little different and getting some protein in during the event is a good thing. I find that these are best consumed on the power hiking uphills.
Pretzels – nom! Enough said
Lots of people swear by nuts but I don’t carry nuts as I simply have images of choking on them as I inhale (perhaps I’m just not competent at eating).
BUT whatever you do carry make sure you’ve tried and tested it. Going rogue can cause you all sorts of problems!
I hope you’ve found this useful. Dive into the comments and let me know your favs..
