Author: Christina Gray
Please welcome guest blogger Christina Gray. Christina is a multi-sport athlete who regularly engages in ultra-running, climbing, weight lifting and other fitness activities! She’s been an athlete for many years and is constantly pushing her body to reach new levels of performance. As a vegetarian, she’s constantly experimenting with how to fuel her body during endurance events in ways that will allow her to perform at her absolute best. It is unlikely one person’s nutrition plan will work perfectly for any other person and it’s critical to experiment with nutrition on training runs. One of our trainers, Allison Pelot, is a nutrition coach and may be able to help. Our Naturopathic Doctor, Shena Vander Ploeg, is also well versed in overall nutritional needs of the body. In addition, several staff are endurance athletes who can discuss their personal nutrition plans while training and competing.
This blog briefly explores some of the nutrition Christina used for a recent 40-mile run around Mt. Hood. Nutrition tends to be specific to the individual, especially for endurance events. See what you think of what worked for Christina. She LOVES to talk about this stuff, so if you ‘run’ into her and have questions make sure to ask!
Gourmet Trail Food for the Long Haul
Some friends and I recently took on the circumnavigation of Mount Hood. We were going to run it in one day (but not super speedy like some of our friends who chase down the fastest known times on the route).
The plan was for a 15-hour day covering 40 miles and approximately 10,000 feet of climbing. That much effort requires a lot of energy, which means lots of eating! I have done some experimentation to find what works best for me. Currently, there are the three key elements of my eating plan: powdered drink mix, fruit puree, and real food.
The core of my energy for this run came from Tailwind. It is an easy to use powder, with calories and electrolytes that dissolves quickly in water. Dissolving it in water means all I have to do is drink water, and I don’t have to worry about digestion because I am consuming liquid calories. Consuming liquid calories is a strategy a lot of runners use to try and avoid some of the problems associated with the body trying to digest solid foods while engaged in strenuous physical activity.
The challenge I have with using Tailwind is that unless I am at high altitude (8,000 feet above sea level or higher), I need fewer electrolytes for hard runs. The only way I know this is by experimenting. My solution is to use a lesser amount of Tailwind for a medium-intensity run and add fruit juice so that the calories match up with my needs for a high-intensity run. I started out with a hydration bladder filled with enough Tailwind and pomegranate juice for 3 hours. I packed enough Tailwind in a sandwich baggie for 6 more hours and added a powdered juice mix to that.
I also brought fruit smoothie packs (I got the ones for toddlers – I go for organic, any brand). If you are sensitive to fiber in your running diet, just be aware that these things do have fiber, and time your consumption appropriately. The nice thing about them is that they have simple flavors, are easy to digest and are hydrating. Unlike sport gels or gummies, I don’t have to drink lots of extra water to start digesting them.
The third major source of calories was my nutrient-dense sandwich wrap which was the gourmet aspect of this trip! It consisted of a home-made crepe-style pancake, home-made hummus, avocado, scrambled egg, and fresh greens from my garden. I packed two of them (just in case) but only planned on eating one for lunch. Each wrap was about 600 calories of delicious nutrition from REAL food.
The main source of nutrition was the hummus, which was made up of only about 25% garbanzo beans. The rest was Brazil nuts, pumpkin seeds, cashew butter and hemp seeds ground in a spice grinder and mixed with olive oil, sea salt, and pepper. The hummus, egg, and avocado pack in lots of protein, trace minerals and fatty acids, such as iron, zinc, magnesium, selenium, folate, niacin, copper, vitamin K and E, antioxidants, fatty acids like the omegas.
The salad was mostly bitter greens and lots of herbs from my garden, the stronger the flavor the better for my palate. Bitter herbal flavors help stimulate your appetite. I used kale, bitter lettuce, endive, basil, lemon thyme, and arugula. I put a little apple cider vinegar on the greens to wilt them, but no oil – there’s lots of oil in the hummus.
The sandwich wrap is really high in complex fatty calories that will give you a slow burn. This balances out the quick-burning sugars in the fruit and sports nutrition items like Tailwind.
I finished the run feeling great. I still felt that I had energy left to burn. I had consumed almost everything I brought with me (about 3,500 calories) except for the second sandwich wrap and some hard candies.
Explaining the Aftermath: I took a photo of all my wrappers (pack it in, pack it out! This is an absolute MUST for trail runners who are also great stewards of the environment) to help me keep track of what has worked for me in the past. Here’s a list of all the food in my ‘aftermath’ photo… (3) Sample energy drink powder packets; (2) ProBar Bolt energy chews; (6) fruit smoothie packs; (2) ginger crystallized tea packets; (10) assorted hard candies; (2) sandwich wraps; (1) Nuun container; (12) scoops of Tailwind plus fruit juice powder in a baggie. Left over after the run: (5) hard candies and (1) sandwich wrap
Bonus: the extra hummus and salad made a really tasty dinner the night before! Yum!
