Tag: Nutrition

What and When You Eat Matters

Running has always been my happy place—a place I think and unwind. I’ve resisted the idea that running places stress on my female body. But speedwork, long runs and weightlifting stress muscles. And with perimenopause an...

Calories, Counterpace System & Strength Training

How do I ensure I eat sufficient calories for my needs? (@jmbarbit) There are numerous challenges to overcome as an ultrarunner and one of the greatest, at least from a nutritional perspective, is consuming enough calor...

How to Eat for Increasing Miles

As summer heats up and the pandemic winds down, many ultrarunners are eager to put in some big miles of training in preparation for the backlog of events. We will stack up big training weekends, cajole our trainin...

Carbohydrates: What’s the Magic Number?

Carbohydrate has four calories per gram which equates to 240 - 360 calories per hour. Current nutritional guidelines for carbohydrate intake during ultra activity is 60-90 grams per hour (g/hr), which lasts 2.5 hours or...

Winning Nutrition at Big's

For 60 hours, Maggie Guterl lined up ready to start a 4.166667-mile loop every hour. But what happened in those furious 9-12 minutes leading up to each start tells an incredible story of teamwork and some gold star skill...

Kyle Pietari: Making Healthy Work

Busy. It’s one of the most used four letter words in describing all the things in life you either can’t or don’t make time for. It is also one of the most used words in describing all the reasons you either miss a run or...

Fueling at Western States

With its hot temperatures and a fast pace, the bright spotlight of Western States can really showcase athletes while also being an Achilles heel for others, especially when it comes to nutrition. I asked a collection of...

Essential Recovery Nutrition

After finishing your long run, hard effort workout or morning run that lasts over 90 minutes, what’s the first thing you think about? Let’s all admit that unless you’ve developed a good routine, getting in a balanced mea...

Flavor Science: An Interview with Magda Boulet

URM: The flavor wheel includes sweet, sour, salty, spicy and stringent (bitter). Can you describe how GU determines their variety of flavors based on this wheel, knowing that there will be more demand for a sweet flavor...

Fat Adaptation, Strategic Carbs and Ketones

As I left Paradise aid station on loop three of the 2016 HURT 100, I yelled over my shoulder to my crew, Jesse Haynes, “It’s working, man, it’s working!” I’d moved into the lead over course-record-holder Gary Robbins and...

Overcoming Nutrition Challenges

One of the things I love about coaching ultrarunners is adapting the standard recommendations and best practices from the running industry into an ultra-specific context. All too often, the recommendations we see aren’t...

New Fuel for 2019

Every year, runners search the shelves of their local running stores for the latest nutrition products to help their performance and recovery. Here is a recap of what’s new on the market, along with the innovation behind...

Eating Whole Foods

Ultrarunners are typically healthy eaters. By healthy, I mean, we eat a lot. And we run a lot. Running and eating go well together.When it comes to being a healthy eater, there are different definitions. Diets or types o...

The Role of Protein During Exercise

During exercise, we typically think of carbohydrates and fats as our main sources of fuel, while protein is associated with recovery. Today, many sports nutrition bars, gels and drinks contain branched-chain amino acids...

Sport Supplements in Ultras

Last month’s column was dedicated to vitamin supplements and their possible benefits. But there are hundreds of other WADA legal substances sold with promises of improving athletic performance. (WADA banned substances sh...

When You Are Iron Deficient

Iron deficiency is a significantly underdiagnosed problem in distance runners. Low levels of hemoglobin in the blood or low levels of the iron storage protein ferritin, can have a huge negative impact on your ability to...

Vitamin Supplements

Ultrarunners are obsessive people particularly when it comes to health. We are all cognizant of the stresses those extra miles can wreak on our health and we like to do what we can to mitigate the negative effects. One o...

Fat Approach: Avoiding Pitfalls

In late 2011, I decided to make a change in the way I fuel my body. After years of following the standard endurance protocol of high carbohydrates, I needed a change (for more information on why please see my piece in th...

Fueled with Bananas, Almond Butter and MHB&B

He has speed at the short distances and has found great success at the 100-mile distance as well. And, if you don’t know him by his racing resume you might just know Dylan Bowman from his sweet dog and running companion,...

Coaches Have to Eat Too!

There is advice everywhere we turn when it comes to the best way to: train…race…and recover. We look to the experts for all of this, so I figured it would be nice to see what some of our favorite ultrarunning coaches are...