Monday 6 May 2013

Race day nutrition

We ran 20 miles along the coast from Porthtowan to the far end of Penhale Sands and back this weekend and I took the opportunity to try out some ideas food-wise ready for Classic Quarter.

I have a few problems with eating on the run; I have a tendency to get heart burn from certain foods during my longer runs. I've found that I have to avoid caffeine before and during runs and anything spicy or acidic also causes me issues.

For the marathon I ran with 6 gels and water and this gave me all the fuel I needed but I really find half a dozen tubes of goo is about my limit as it starts to make me a bit nauseous.

So this weekend I made some flapjacks and some hummus wraps.

For the flapjacks I used the recipe off the Scots Porridge Oats packet with a few additions, namely chopped apricots & some dates plus pumpkin and sunflower seeds.  The recipe is here.  I over cooked them a little (5 minutes less than the recipe was still a few minutes too much it seems) - anything that takes too much effort to chew is a problem on a long run - but they tasted good and went down ok.

the hummus wraps were mentioned in Scott Jurek's book Eat and Run: My Unlikely Journey to Ultramarathon Greatness and they were perfect - easy to eat, not too messy, and easy to digest.  Best of all they were savoury which is a welcome alternative.

Next week, I want to try some Nori (sushi rice wrapped in seaweed).  I tried this before but cooked the rice wrong and tried to wrap them up while the rice was still warm and they all fell apart so I'm yet to be convinced but this is another Scott Jurek tip so I will persevere.

Another idea I have is to make the most of the ice cream facilities on route.  I reckon ice cream plus a cone has to be a pretty good energy source and its readily available along the coast in Cornwall, plus the psychological benefits of a massive ice cream cannot be ignored!  For purely scientific purposes I tested out a Moo-Maid Passion fruit sorbet on arrival back at Porthtowan and the results were very promising!

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