How Jan fueled mountain marathon at 130g Carbs/hr with Pep
This write-up and the video below explain my complete Race nutrition Race The Wolf trail marathon!
Total fueling goals:
- 120-140g Carbs per hour
- 1L to 1.5L liquid per hour 1700mg Sodium per hour (I'm a heavy salty sweater so my fluid and Sodium needs are high)
The race should take 5-6hrs, so bringing 6hrs worth of food. There is a drop-bag aid station at mid-point, so half of this nutrition I'll carry in my vest at the start and the second half I'll replenish at the aid station:
- 6x Pep pouches (consuming 1 pouch/hr)
- 90g Carbs each
- 900mg Sodium each
- Green Pep is Race Lemon Lime flavor
- Pink Pep is Race Raspberry flavor
- 90mg of Pep Caffeine (=1 cup coffee) added to each Raspberry pouch for the second half
- 2x 1.5L hydration bladders (1 for first half, 1 for second half)
- 90g Carbs in each (Pep Race Unflavored)
- 2400mg Sodium in each (from Pep Race powder and Pep Extra Strength Electrolytes)
- 4x empty flasks (2 for first half, 2 for second half)
- 30g Carb each (Pep Race Unflavored)
- Consuming these flasks would take me from 120g to 140g Carbs per hour
Post race report:
Gorgeous day on the home mountain! Good buds, new friends, everybody pushing the limits and feeling alive!
First race with Pep Nutrition for me! Had the best day out there. Beat my last year's time on this course by 32 minutes!
I'm sure everybody is getting tired of hearing this all the time, but proper fueling just completely changes the game. It's still a sufferfest, but you can push more, feel stronger doing it, and finish feeling not hungry, not drained, not mentally foggy... kinda ready to go have a nice chill afternoon. Rather than crawl up in a ditch and sleep.
I'm sure lucky race number increased vigor and made a huge difference today, too.
720g of Pep carbs = 130g of real-food Carbs/hr
8400mg Sodium = 1525mg/hr
4.5L liquid = 800ml/hr
Weather was pitch perfect. Like 50F and cloudy.
The only improvement is that I still cramped a bit at the last third of Blue Ridge, the biggest climb of the day, 1.5 miles with 2100ft vert, and had to slow down for at least 30 minutes to prevent legs from locking up. But they never did, and with more liquid and food, the cramps ended up going away, and was able to go full gas the last 2 miles to the finish. Should have done a tempo session up that grueling climb to practice that kind of terrain. Also should have drank more, at least 1L/hr, even though it was cold.
12th place today. Competition was stiff! Last year my time would have been enough for 4th.
