How to 'Properly' Fuel your Trail, Ultra and Fell Run
You've probably heard confusing advice on how to fuel your trail running; 'should I go keto?', 'do I need to do fasted runs?', 'is a pork pie really the best trail food?'. So, I'm here to blow away a few myths and set you up so you can fuel to get the best out of every session and race.
How to Fuel Your Run: #1 Eat your carbs.
You've heard it before and it sounds simple, right? But carbs get a bad wrap on social media, often conflated with advice on dieting culture, rather than sports performance. However, 100 years of scientific research and 50 years of muscle biopsies tell us that 'carbs fuel intense and high-performance workouts.' Research on 'low-carb' performance has failed to show any positive performance effect. Running up hills is high intensity - this performance is fuelled by carbohydrates (either stored as muscle glycogen or blood glucose). You need to fuel to get the best out of the session.
Here's the hard bit. Almost every runner I speak to in my clinic does not eat enough carbs, including elite runners.
So, how much do I need to eat? Here's the thing, it can be really easy as YOU DO NOT NEED TO EAT HIGH AMOUNTS EVERY DAY. Hang about, what? You only need to fuel high-intensity and high-volume sessions, such as hills, reps, intervals, long runs, and races. Easy-paced shorter sessions (<60 mins) do not need to be fuelled. Therefore, plan ahead, and eat more carbs the day before and early in the day for quality sessions.
If you run five days per week or more, focus on maintaining a minimum of 6g per kg of body weight per day of carbs. For a 70 kg runner, this is 420 g carbs. Here's what to eat:
Breakfast - Cornflakes, Bagel, Greek Yogurt Honey, Orange Juice
Snack 1 - Granola, Orange juice, Fruit
Lunch - Cous Cous salad and protein
Snack 2 -Skyr and fruit
Dinner - Sweet potato, wrap, and protein
This is a basic outline of what to eat, the full meal plan is free to download by Clicking Here. This provides an example of how to meet all your carb, protein, fat, vitamins, and mineral needs. If you need a specific meal plan prepared for you, please get in touch.
Drop me a message for info, help, and support 😀
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