Expedition Playbook: Nutrition

In our final edition of the Expedition Playbook, we cover the ever-elusive topic of nutrition – or, to be more precise, race-day(s) nutrition.
 
If we’re being honest, we thought about sidestepping nutrition entirely. Perhaps more than any other topic we’ve discussed in this series, race nutrition is probably the most varied and personal issue in our sport. Talk to ten racers, and you’ll find ten different strategies for fueling during an event.
 
That said, keeping yourself fueled and hydrated is directly linked to your ability to reach the finish line and meet your race goals, and we would be remiss not to unpack it just a bit.
 
Let’s begin with what you won’t find here:

1. General nutrition tips for an active/athlete lifestyle. Here, we will only focus on fueling during an event.
2. A straightforward fueling how-to. Simply put, there is no one way to fuel during an adventure race. Rather, we’ll be offering a general rundown of various fueling philosophies, with some broad suggestions for planning your in-race nutrition strategy.

philosophies of race nutrition

Talk to a room of adventure racers, and – broadly defined – you’ll generally find four, sometimes overlapping, approaches to race nutrition.
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1. Daily diet: Racers who follow this approach typically eat the same types of food in a race that they eat in their daily lives. For some folks, this means following a vegan, paleo, or gluten-free diet. For others, it means maintaining a “clean” whole-food approach to race fueling. You can hear Wilo Nater from Team Onyx talk about this philosophy on this episode of the Dark Zone Podcast. Then there are those who flip this idea on its head and integrate “race foods” into their daily lives, an approach made famous by the indomitable Mari Chandler.
2. Flexitarian: Here, racers distinguish between their day-to-day fueling and their race-day strategy. Often, this means a relatively clean approach to daily diet, with race-day fueling based on whatever looks good at the grocery store before the race. For others, it means a balance between performance foods (gels, bars, etc…) and real food (anything ranging from PB&J to jerky to boiled potatoes to Oreos). We know of one team that endured eight days of racing in Patagonia on confectioners’ sugar, macadamia nuts, and spicy jerky, because it was light, calorically dense, and largely free, thanks to their sponsors that season. Spoiler alert: it didn’t go well.
3. Eat your Calories: In this approach, racers will distinguish between fuel (calorie intake) and hydration (water and electrolytes). The thinking here is that your gut will only handle so much, and it’s better to think about this intake in two separate spheres. Jen Segger, the official coach of the Endless Mountains Adventure Race, subscribes to this strategy.
4. Drink your Calories: Racers who choose this approach aim to limit the amount of food they need to take in and instead rely on liquid calories for steady energy and efficient fueling. Bend Racing is one of the most vocal proponents for such a strategy, subsisting largely on their “secret” four-hour fuel and reserving food for fun treats. We once had a teammate who took a similar tact with Hammer Nutrition, adding 800 calories of Perpetuem to a single bike bottle. It proved to be a lifeline for nursing a team member out of a sour stomach and unhappy gut.

general tips

While there are endless approaches to race nutrition, we find that there are some tried-and-true strategies that reach across almost all teams. Here they are, in no particular order:

• Know, roughly speaking, how many calories you need to keep yourself going. For some racers, this will be 150 calories per hour; for others, it's 300-400. We find that most racers aim for roughly 200 calories per hour – and rarely sustain that for the duration of a long event. The better you’re able to meet your nutrition goals, however, the better your body will hold up and the less your performance will suffer.
• When you’re planning for your leg-by-leg nutrition, work as a team to honestly assess how long you expect to be out, and then make sure that you have enough fuel to get you through. There will inevitably be developments you didn’t plan for. At some point, things will likely go sideways. You may find yourself passing around the last bag of animal crackers – or worse, the last packet of Listerine strips – to keep yourselves going until the next TA. But the more you can plan in advance, the better chance you have of being prepared.
• Train your stomach to be race-ready. Think of nutrition as a fourth (fifth? sixth?) discipline of adventure racing. Practice your nutrition in training so that you can execute during the race without surprises.
• Eat early and eat often. Set a watch to go off every thirty or sixty minutes, and eat something every time it chimes. Don’t fall into the trap of getting behind on calories. We find that the best way to keep your stomach from turning is to make sure it always has something in it.
• Think about race nutrition holistically, especially in expedition racing. What tastes good on Day 1 will likely sound terrible on Day 4. When you’re packing your food, account for variation across legs, not just within.

• Don’t forget the protein, fat, and salt. It’s easy to get through a short race on simple sugars. But the longer the event, the more your body will crave savory foods. Think salami sandwiches, tuna packets, hard cheeses, chips, olives, and pickles.

• Think about the balance between weight, caloric density, and the ever-important eatability. AR fueling is about getting the most bang for your buck – and knowing when you want to make concessions. We had one team member who pulled out a bag of shelf-stable beets in the middle of a late-race bike leg in Tasmania. We were incredulous that he had been carrying such a heavy and calorically-light package for the previous ten hours, but they went down like nectar from the AR gods.
• TA calories are different from race calories. More likely than not, you will come in from a stage – especially in an expedition race – in a calorie deficit, even under ideal circumstances. A TA is a great time to refuel with foods that you won’t carry with you on the course. Rehydrated meals; baked goods (banana bread!); canned noodles, soup, or veggies; fruit cups; or even a pizza from the shop around the corner can all provide an immediate caloric boost – and if you know they’re waiting for you, they can provide a mental boost in those final miles into TA, too!
• On this note, as we discussed in our post on sleep, if you’re going to sleep in transition, we highly recommend filling your belly before you lay down.
  
  

An orange toast at a pub near the Cliffs of Moher, during the 2016 Itera Expedition Race in Ireland.

​Speaking of the pizza shop around the corner: don’t be shy about stopping along the course. While some racers may shun convenience stores, fast food, ice cream, or coffee shops, these spots can be a magical elixir on a long stage in an expedition race. Be efficient and deliberate, and if you’re going to sit down and take a real break, make sure you have a plan for when you’re going to get up and get back out there. More often than not, these short pauses will give the team a collective boost on the course.

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• Share! An oldest truism in AR is that you’ll want to eat whatever your teammate pulls out of their pack. As long as you have enough collective calories for the stage, spreading the love will keep everyone happy and fueled.
• Fueling hygiene: Extended periods of continuous eating and drinking can do a number on your mouth and tongue, and over time it can really impair your ability to eat comfortably - or eat at all. Make sure to rinse your mouth out with water regularly. Pack a tooth brush and toothpaste for TA. Bring single-use toothbrushes like Colgate Wisps with you on a long leg. The more deliberate you are about keeping your mouth clean, the easier it will be to take in calories as the race goes on.
• Finally, and most importantly, know your body. Know what will keep you going and what you’ll be able to get down when things are beginning to go south. Know what you'll want (or be able) to eat in hot temps versus cold. Know what will go down easily and what will turn your stomach. Know what food will make you happy on Day 4 and what you’ll end up tossing in the trash can after the fifth time you stuff it back into your pack and dig for something else.

 
And that’s a wrap for the Endless Mountains Expedition Playbook. Train race, prep smart, recover well, and we’ll see you in the woods!