Ultra running fuelling tips to help you train and race like a pro.

Food and Fuelling

Eating: Small Tweaks, Big Difference

Your body is a machine—and it runs better with fuel in the tank.

Many runners run fasted in the morning, but that can be a mistake. Running fasted, especially if you are adding in any kind of “work” or if you are female, spikes cortisol levels, which can mess with recovery and leave you depleted for your next run.

Instead, I’d advocate, eating something small before heading out—even just 5g of protein and small portion of carbs, like half a banana, is enough to prime your body for performance.

Your brain runs on glucose, when carbs get low, so does your willpower. It’s why you can go from feeling strong one minute to feeling miserable and hopeless the next.

These are known as energy crashes or the dreaded bonk. Here is what to do if this happens.

• Step 1: Eat something—immediately. A handful of nuts, a bite of a sandwich, a gel, mar bar—anything.

• Step 2: don’t make any decisions about quitting or stopping at this point, you are not in full command of your senses!

• Step 2: Give it 15 minutes. Your mood will improve as your body processes the fuel.

• Step 3: Keep moving. Even if you must slow down for a bit.

Motion = progress.

Not realising you are under-fuelling until it’s too late, is an easy mistake to make. The trick is to stay ahead of the crash by eating often. If you know you are prone to forgetting to eat, use an alarm on your watch t remind you.

Another important point with fuelling is to not wait too long into a race before you start to eat. If you let your stomach empty and it senses the need to send blood supply to your legs/muscles, it won’t prioritise digestion. When you then eat you can feel sick.

Ultra Food ideas:

Your taste buds will change as the race goes on, so bring a mix of sweet and savoury foods. You might find you start to crave and enjoy things that in everyday life you really won’t touch.

🥨 Salty: Pretzels, salted nuts, peanut butter wraps, boiled or roasted potatoes with salt and rosemary

🍫 Sweet: Stoop waffles, energy chews, banana bread, homemade flapjacks

🥣 Liquid options: Tailwind, electrolyte drinks, chocolate milk, flat coke, milkshakes

Ultra running isn’t just about carbs and calories—protein is a massive missing link for many runners especially post training session.

Why You Need Protein

• Protein helps prevent muscle breakdown during long races.

• It aids recovery—not just after the race, but between back-to-back training days.

• It stabilizes blood sugar—preventing those dreaded energy crashes.

A good rule of thumb when it comes to amounts to consume is 1-1.5g of protein per kg of body weight. So, if you weigh 65kg, you should aim for 65-100g of protein daily. That sounds like a lot, 65g should be doable when spread across meals and snacks.

Here are a few easy sources of protein:

🐟 Can of tuna: 25g protein

🍗 Chicken breast: 30-35g protein

🥚 Egg: 6-8g protein

🥜 Nuts & nut butter: 8-10g protein per serving

🌱 Pea protein shake: A plant-based alternative (but let’s be real—it tastes best when mixed with peanut butter).

💡 Pro Tip: Gels can be hard on your stomach after many hours on the trails, they are too sweet and mess with your guts. Real food is the way to go. If like me you struggle to swallow real food on the longer runs because your mouth dries up, look to the liquid fuels like tailwind and supplement with savoury snacks to balance the sweetness of the drink.

🚨 Big mistake: Eating too much at once. Small, frequent bites are easier to digest than dumping in 300+ calories in one go.

Hydration:

Hydration needs to be mentioned here as it too is vital for keeping your motivation and energy levels up. Low in liquid and your blood becomes denser and harder for your heart to pump. It increases your levels of exhaustion.

💡 Pro Tip: As we age our thirst sensors are not as effective. We need therefore to drink because we know we should and not reply on our cues of dry mouth or thirst..