Trail running fuel

[oswin]

What do you eat on a long trail run? Looking for cheap, easy to eat, easy to digest. I've been eating sugary dried mango and it's been okay, but looking for more options. I know that gels/gu/etc are one obvious option, but I don't want to regularly rely on them. So far I have found that I need to eat about 35 minutes in, then every 20-30 minutes - at least if I'm eating a couple of slices of mango. Trail mix seems to be a popular one at aid stations but I wonder about the ease of actually eating it.

I expect the 25k I am doing in May to take 3-4+ hours, so I figure that fueling is going to be super important. I can always feel when I get to that point where I should have eaten 15 minutes ago, and it's hard to come back from that.

[vcubergirl]

I know a few people who swear by Pb stuffed dates, for the sugar and protein. I've used dates a few times, but never with Pb. But I've never run longer than 2 1/2 hours!

[campermom]

I use Gus and chews, but I do have a mini whole wheat bagel with PB and J around mile 11.

My local running store carries these and they had them at my 50k, I love them. They are very portable and fit nicely in my pack.
www.honeystinger.com/products/bars/cracker-n-nut-butter-snack-bars



Another huge win was chocolate covered espresso beans.

[Wines Not Whines]

I love dried mango! My favorite trail running fuel is peanut butter filled pretzels. They’re really good, and I like the extra salt. Mini nutter butters, Oreos, and Cheez It’s are also great. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten gels during trail runs. Real food works well for me on the trails.

[oswin]

Mar 13, 2019 20:03:00 GMT -5 Wines Not Whines said:

I love dried mango! My favorite trail running fuel is peanut butter filled pretzels. They’re really good, and I like the extra salt. Mini nutter butters, Oreos, and Cheez It’s are also great. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten gels during trail runs. Real food works well for me on the trails.

Ooh, I hadn't thought about that kind of snack! Cookies can be a great source of quick carbs. Partially I was also thinking about the amount of chewing - the mango gets annoying because you really have to chew it, you can't just shove a big piece in your mouth - I take like 4 bites per piece and I'm basically walking while eating. And if my nose is stuffed up, which it has been frequently, breathing is also much more difficult while chewing. Oreos take much less chewing, especially with water.

[itsme]

Honey Stingers

[chw57]

During my 50 mile race I had payday bars and mt. dew at every aid station
On long (20+ mile) training runs, good old PBJ on white bread has worked perfectly. I also LOVE honey stinger stroopwafels.

[labbie]

Trail running makes me crave real food. I enjoy just about anything, depending on length of race. Cheezits or cheddar goldfish, pb pretzels and chips (salt and vinegar or dill pickle flavor) are my fave salty snacks.Cookies or dates for easy sugar, and if I'm out more than a few hours, bring on the pb sandwich, or my new found love for multi-hours, mini pierogies. They go great in a snack baggie :-).  The dates stuffed with pb sound heavenly...may have to try that!

[foundmylazybum]

If you need to eat 35 min into a run--then one thing you need to examine is if you are undereating overall. Really that shouldn't be happening. Pretty much any guidance on fueling suggests that you don't really need to consume calories until you are going over at least an hour. The issue that you have--and you already described it is that ANY food you consume on a trail run isn't going to "bring you back" to baseline if you are consistently under a good caloric intake.
Honestly, I'd look at overall nutrition first--b/c this is a bandaid solution.

[jane6672]

Mar 15, 2019 14:52:04 GMT -5 foundmylazybum said:

If you need to eat 35 min into a run--then one thing you need to examine is if you are undereating overall. Really that shouldn't be happening. Pretty much any guidance on fueling suggests that you don't really need to consume calories until you are going over at least an hour. The issue that you have--and you already described it is that ANY food you consume on a trail run isn't going to "bring you back" to baseline if you are consistently under a good caloric intake.
Honestly, I'd look at overall nutrition first--b/c this is a bandaid solution.

Yeah, I’ll say I wondered the same thing reading your post. If you’ve eaten adequately before (I mean the last couple
Of meals, or for a morning run, the night before), I don’t think you should need to fuel so early. What do you typically eat beforehand and have you played with that at all?

[oswin]

Hmm, I think I was undereating sometimes, could be that my 35-40 minutes in was determined on days I had under eaten. In general I don't under eat by much (I'm not dieting), but I am always hungry in the mornings after eating breakfast. Last time I had a big bowl of raisin Bran, then several slices of toast with butter. I think I felt I needed to eat about 50 minutes in. But that makes sense to me, I've been easily burning 600 calories per hour, you body doesn't store much more than that in muscle glycogen IIRC. Next time maybe I will add peanut butter.

[foundmylazybum]

You're body can burn glycogen or fat. Once it runs out of glycogen it starts working on fat stores and you become a better running machine.

You dont want to run yourself into exhaustion but I guess imo, 35 min into a run is really, really early to feel hungry and then be having to eat every 20 min after.

Here is an article from skratch labs on when and how to fuel. blog.skratchlabs.com/blog/timing-your-pre-during-and-post-workout-nutrition

If you go to their blog, they have one at the top discussing eating for an ultra and it talks about eating extra days beforehand.


You may not realize you are under eating. This happened to me. I honestly believed I was fine and I was..for someone who wasnt running! But if you are running a fair amount of miles you have to eat more.