05/09/2025
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In the past, my race nutrition plan was simple: hit the same carbohydrate target every hour, regardless of terrain or effort. Usually, that meant aiming for ~80 g/hr all day.
This year, working with .endurance.nutritionist , we shifted to a more dynamic strategy: fueling according to my exertion over the demands of the course, rather than sticking to a static ‘X g/hr no matter what’ rule.
We also played with more than just carbs, leveraging other elements of my nutrition to help me sustain my effort and improve my performance.
I had also learned from my DNF at Transvulcania due to hypothermia, that if your hands get cold, opening gels becomes near impossible, and basically you’re screwed. So for the cold section through the night I preloaded 250ml flasks with .second gels that I could sip on easily even with gloves on, and used the .second C30 Unflavoured drink mix. Anything that removes a barrier to fueling is a win.
The gut training we did was another big factor. Being able to take on three gels back-to-back at Vallorcine wasn’t luck—it was a result of teaching my stomach to tolerate and absorb high carb loads under stress. While I was struggling to down gels after 15hours when I raced WSER 4 years ago, this year I was able to fuel for almost 23 hours on their gels and powder drinks.
It feels like in the ultra space it’s a CHO arms race about how much one can consume, and I think it is great that there has been a shift to better fueling. However what I really took away from all this is that race nutrition should be a dynamic strategy based on many factors, rather than a static target.
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