Training for the Indiana Trail 50 Mile has pushed me to try all sorts of new things. I’ve been reading books and blogs, asking ultra runners for advice, and experimenting to find what works for me. Every run feels like a chance to test something different. A new warm up, another tactic for blister prevention, or an unfamiliar route that nets more elevation gain.
I certainly don’t have things all figured out, but I’ve dialed in at least one thing: my fueling plan. Turns out that while I am not a super strong trail runner (at least not yet!), I can put back quite a bit of food and keep moving.
During my 31-mile run at Chain O’Lakes State Park, my husband Louie crewed for me. The course is a loop, and it’s relatively easy to bike from one side to another via the roads. At each rendezvous, he unfurled my food bag and I grabbed something, whether I felt like I needed it or not. Here’s what I consumed:
- Two-and-a-half hours before, I ate a bowl of oatmeal with chia seeds, peanut powder, maple syrup, and soy milk. Normally I’d eat this close to the run, but we had a long drive to get to the park! I also had about 20 oz. of coffee and plenty of water.
- 30 minutes before, I ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on whole wheat bread and a chocolate croissant.
- From the beginning of the run, I started on a hand-held 17 oz. bottle of Tailwind Green Tea Buzz, plus plain water in my hydration pack.
- Stop one: The first time I met up with Louie, I grabbed a home-made grit cake. I will definitely make these again to have a savory option available. One can only eat so many sweets and bars. This is a tidbit I learned from my friend Sarah, who survived a whole ultra with only date-based bars, but really wished she’d had more variety.
- Stop two: I scarfed down two small boiled, salted potatoes while Louie refilled my Tailwind with a fresh 17 oz. I’d made it through about 14 of the first bottle.
- Stop three: This time I pocketed a two-pack of blueberry fig bars, which I ate along the way.
- Stop four: Again, Louie topped off my Tailwind. I made it though 2.5 bottles total throughout the run. While he did that, I ate two more small potatoes. I wished I’d added even more salt to them, and made a note to pack some extra salt for race day.
- Stop five: This was the last food stop, and I took a Sunflower Seed Picky Bar, which I ate while I ran.
- At our final meet up, I ditched my hydration vest and put plain water in my hand-held. It felt so good to run light and free for the final few miles.
- As soon as I finished, I had a bottle of Tailwind Vanilla Recovery.
I wish I had tallied the calories to compare what I took in to what I burned (3,175 calories, according to Garmin). I never got hungry until the final mile of the run, but that may have actually been my mind drifting toward the pizza I knew we’d get for dinner as soon as I was done. I actually don’t think I need to eat quite that much on race day, but it was good to know that my stomach can handle it if needed.
Pictured below: (1) Sand Lake, near the start and finish of the course. (2) Early signs of fall on the trail. (3) These feet carried me 31 miles! The shoes from Salomon came in my swag bag at Oiselle’s Bird Camp. (4) The course had wooded trail sections like this, and also steeper, more technical trail, and lots of grass sections too.
It was pretty great to get my longest training run in at the site of the race. I had underestimated the elevation gains, so I know what to do for the rest of my training—a lot more trail running and hill repeats!