Ultramarathons, ranging from 50 miles to 200 miles and beyond, present unique challenges to athletes. Proper nutrition and strategic fueling are crucial for success in these demanding events. Ann Trason, a legend in the ultrarunning world, dominated the sport from the late 1980s through 2004, setting world records and winning prestigious races like the Western States Endurance Run a staggering 14 times. Her insights into diet and training offer valuable lessons for aspiring ultrarunners. She has won the Western States 100 mile race 14 times, she broke 20 world records in ultrarunning, , she raced and often beat the top men in the sport.
The Importance of Diet and Bioenergetics in Ultrarunning
Shawn Bearden, also known as Dr. Ultra, emphasizes the significance of "bioenergetics," explaining how the body functions during endurance running. Diet and physical behavior play a vital role in a runner's efficiency and performance, with recovery being an essential component of training.
Ann Trason's Approach to Nutrition
Trason's career coincided with the rise of sports nutrition science, and she was an early adopter of energy gels. Before the advent of GU Energy Gels, ultrarunners primarily relied on jelly beans, hard candies, or Coke for calories. She teamed up with Dr. Bill Vaughan as an early adopter and tester of his prototype energy products.
The "French Hotel Berry" Experiment
In the autumn of 1993, Trason ran a road 100K in Amiens, France. Bill Vaughan provided her with early tubes of berry-flavored Energy Gel, which they called "French Hotel Berry." However, the early packaging was messy to use. Trason won the 100K in France (and set a world record), but the homemade packaging was a bit of an issue: “I had on this white Nike uniform, and during the race I was squeezing purple energy gel all over me.”
The Importance of Portable and Easy-to-Open Packaging
Trason's experience made clear the importance of a portable and easy to open package for Dr. Vaughan’s new gel-concoction. With input from her and other early users, the first production-ready package design held just a single serving and could be opened with one hand and a mouth on the go.
Read also: The Hoxsey Diet
A Winning Fueling Formula
Trason eventually developed a winning fueling formula for her streak of Western States victories. The ultrarunner used a simple strategy, consuming a 100-calorie Energy Gel every 30 minutes while she was on the course. “I would use a countdown timer on my watch and take one when it went off. My crew would hang out at the aid stations with GU Energy Gels attached to bottles with a rubber band. It was easy, literally like clockwork.” Energy Gels allowed her to pace her energy intake.
Training the Gut: Maximizing Carbohydrate Tolerance
Athletic training usually focuses on the muscles, lungs and heart. To sustain their high energy levels for long periods of time, endurance athletes need to consume large amounts of carbohydrates during exercise. In order to consume carbohydrates without experiencing gut discomfort, athletes should incorporate gut training. During exercise, the body diverts blood from the digestive system and to the muscles. While this is essential for the muscles to perform, the reduced blood flow slows down digestion and results in problems like gastrointestinal (GI) issues.
Strategies for Gut Training
Gradually Increase Fuel Intake: The main method for training the gut is to gradually increase the amount of fuel you consume during your workout. Increase the amount. Once your body gets used to the 45g near the end of your session, add more. Build up to 90 grams/hour. The body is capable of absorbing ~90g of carbohydrates per hour (in the form of glucose and fructose).
Train with Fluids: Competitive eaters often train their stomachs to handle large volumes by consuming lots of water. This approach can also work for athletes. In one study, runners initially experienced discomfort when they consumed large amounts of fluid during exercise.
Exercise After a Meal: As a general guideline, athletes are told not to exercise right after a meal because it can cause GI distress. However, according to Asker Jeukendrup, exercising after a meal can increase tolerance.
Read also: Walnut Keto Guide
Factors Affecting Digestion on Race Day
No matter how well you train your gut, there are numerous factors that can affect digestion on race day. Unfortunately, you sometimes can’t realize what these factors are until you are 10 hours into a 12-hour race. Not only should you simulate the race conditions, such as elevation and temperature, but also eat the same types of foods and fluids before and during the simulation.
Avoiding Common Causes of Gut Distress
Before you start training your gut to tolerate and absorb carbohydrates better, it’s important that you remove common causes of gut distress during exercise.
Reduce Fiber Intake: Fiber slows down the rate of gastric emptying, meaning food takes longer to leave your stomach and reach the intestines where it can be absorbed. To prevent these problems, you should reduce fiber from your diet 1-3 days before an event.
Stay Hydrated: During intense exercise, blood flow to the gut is already limited. When you combine the reduced blood flow with dehydration, the gut becomes particularly susceptible to damage. To prevent this, athletes should make sure they are following a good hydration strategy.
Combine Glucose and Fructose: Research shows that combining the carbohydrates glucose and fructose as fuel, particularly in the ideal 1:0.8 ratio, results in the body oxidizing the carbohydrates more efficiently.
Read also: Weight Loss with Low-FODMAP
Mental Preparation and Mindfulness
Find the connections between mentally preparing for ultra-running and mindfulness and meditation. Ann Trason said “well, I’m an eccentric but…” and went on to say that it doesn’t matter to her why people run an ultramarathon. Whatever works for you! If you try an ultramarathon and decide you’d rather do something different in future, if it has become a bucket list thing to tick off, well great! There are more people trying it! Whatever works for you! “But, you know, I’m eccentric”. Her whole attitude just seems to be so fantastic - whatever works for you, whatever gets you motivated, the important thing is that you are passionate about something. Think about what motivates you. You will need something to make you push on when it is really, really hard. This varies so widely for everyone but its important to know why you are doing whatever race it is you are doing.
The Importance of a Race Plan
Have a race plan. Ann Trason mentioned having a spreadsheet! The advice is to think of your three goals - the goal that is just out of reach, but only just, and perhaps not at all, a goal you know you can achieve if everything goes well and you really try,and a goal that’s the minimum that will make you happy. Then look at the course, look at where the hills and aid stations are. Work out at each point, what you need to be eating and how much. Or what you should have eaten by that point. What should you have drunk? What splits you need to achieve at each of the aid stations in order to make your goal. Plan out the race like that so that it makes it a lot harder to just “forget” to eat or drink. This is perhaps more relevant for the really long distance races like an Ironman or ultramarathon but I think it trickles down. Especially with the fact I have a half Ironman coming up I really need to think about this. At the moment I only have a (c) goal - to finish, so I need to try to work out what I want my other goals to be. Then I need to think about how many calories and what type of calories I want to take in on the bike and on the run, and when I want to take them.
Checking in with Your Body
Keep mentally running through your body from your toes to your head to check you are okay. “How are my toes feeling? How are my ankles feeling? How are my shins feeling? How am I doing?” etc etc etc. This not only keeps you focussed, but will keep your form better as you concentrate on those parts of your body and means that you will spot when anything is going wrong sooner. It keeps you thinking about what you need to do in order to take care of yourself. Again, perhaps more relevant for the longer distance events, but I did this throughout my marathon and it really, really worked. It was more a motivational thing,as by thinking about those various parts of the body in turn I realised I wasn’t feeling that bad around the 20 mile mark, which surprised me and gave me a bit of a boost! And at the end when my quads were killing me, it was the surprise that it was my quads and not my knees that hurt and allowed me to say “well its only my quads so its not that bad” and keep on running.
The Mental Fortitude of Ann Trason
What I think I excelled at was staying in the moment and really thinking about my body and problem-solving. To be a really good ultrarunner, you have to be thinking all the time and working with the course and working with yourself. I've always just looked at 100 miles as life in a day. The press made more out of the races than I ever did. I didn't think about anyone else while racing, no matter what's been written about me. I was competing against Ann.