Ultramarathon Nutrition

My Nutrition Problem
During the 2010 Cradle Mountain Run I really struggled with my nutrition, and although I wasn't that much slower compared to the previous year, I'm almost certain that my eating issues affected my performance. I can't ever recall struggling so much to eat; almost everything tasted terrible, and I seemed to have a lot of low periods where I really struggled to get the body moving.

After a bit of researching I came across The 10 Biggest Mistakes Endurance Athletes Make on the Badwater website. Whilst Steve Born is obviously heavily marketing Hammer products, if you read between the lines there is a lot of great information that can be taken out of his article. I'll briefly summarise some of my biggest mistakes below.

Simple Carbohydrates Intake
Probably my biggest mistake was a high dependence on simple carbohydrates. The problem with relying on simple carbohydrates as an energy source is that they have to be at a very dilute 6-8% solution, and at this concentration we are only able to absorb around 100 calories an hour. This simply isn't enough for an ultramarathon. Most ultra runners will know that we can digest around 250-300 calories an hour, but unfortunately we can't if we are taking in too many simple sugars. Trying to consume 300 calories an hour of simple sugars will leave us feeling bloated and nauseas.  Another problem with consuming simple sugars is that they result in blood sugar spikes and crashes.

What we really want to focus on is getting our energy requirements from complex carbohydrates. With complex carbohydrates we are able to easily absorbs solutions of up to 15-18%, allowing us to have a much greater calorie intake.

I'm currently experimenting with making my own energy gels and I have had some very encouraging results using them during my training. After I've had some more time to tinker with my recipes I'll post what I've come up with.

No Protein
I have always made sure that I have plenty of protein after my hard training session or races, but I had never thought much about protein intake during an ultra. When we exercise beyond a couple of hours our bodies actually need protein to assist in supplying us with energy. If we don't consume protein then our bodies start to consume some of our muscles, which can't be a good thing!

I'm currently working on a home made version of Hammers Perpetuem, which includes protein and also good fats. I'll post the results when I come up with a recipe that works.

Too Much Solid Food
Well I seemed to get to a stage where almost all of my energy requirements were coming from solid foods. I don't plan to eliminate solid food because I can't imagine going for over 24 hours on liquid foods, but I need to more carefully include them in my training and racing. There is no question that solid foods taste good, and sometimes in an ultra simply eating something that you like can mentally make a big difference.