Hi team,
Most runners think nutrition is something you “fix” the week before race day.
In reality, fueling is a trainable system – just like endurance, pacing and durability.
If your fueling fails, your fitness becomes irrelevant.
Here is the framework I use with my ultra and long-distance athletes at Apex Rises Coaching.
This is not marketing nutrition.
This is what holds up in long races.
Fueling is not a plan. It is a performance system.
For ultras and long trail events, the main goal of nutrition is simple:
Maintain usable energy, preserve gut function and avoid compounding fatigue.
The mistake most athletes make is trying to find the “right product” instead of building a system that works under fatigue, heat, altitude and terrain.
1. Train your gut – just like you train your legs
The gastrointestinal system adapts to repeated carbohydrate intake during exercise.
When you regularly practice race-level fueling in long training sessions:
carbohydrate absorption improves
gastric emptying improves
perceived gut discomfort decreases
This is known as gut training.
If you only try to hit higher carbohydrate targets on race day, you dramatically increase your risk of nausea, bloating and vomiting.
Key coaching takeaway:
Practice your race fueling during long runs and race-specific sessions – not only during easy training.
2. Separate calories and hydration
Highly concentrated carbohydrate drinks slow gastric emptying and increase gastrointestinal stress.
In long ultras, a far more robust approach is:
calories primarily from gels, chews and solid food
fluids primarily from water or low-concentration electrolyte drink
This allows:
independent adjustment of energy and fluid intake
better tolerance in hot conditions
more flexibility when pace and terrain change
Key coaching takeaway:
Fuel and hydrate as two related but separate decisions.
3. Build a simple and repeatable food system
In very long races, decision fatigue and flavour fatigue are major limiting factors.
A practical approach is to define:
a small group of highly reliable foods (“core foods”)
a secondary backup group for later race stages
Foods should be:
easy to open
easy to chew
easy to swallow
well tolerated under intensity and fatigue
Variety helps, but simplicity sustains intake.
Key coaching takeaway:
Complex food plans fail under stress. Simple systems survive.
4. Target carbohydrates per hour – but individualise it
The performance literature consistently supports carbohydrate intake during endurance exercise.
Typical targets are:
30–60 g of carbohydrate per hour for many athletes
up to ~90 g per hour for athletes who tolerate multiple transportable carbohydrates (glucose + fructose)
However:
higher intake is not automatically better
tolerance must be trained
terrain, intensity and temperature change requirements
Key coaching takeaway:
Your target is the highest intake you can consistently tolerate – not the highest number on paper.
5. Hydrate to thirst and adjust sodium to conditions
Current consensus no longer supports rigid drinking schedules.
Hydration should be guided primarily by:
thirst
environmental conditions
duration
individual sweat rate
Excessive fluid intake increases the risk of exercise-associated hyponatremia (dangerously low blood sodium).
Sodium intake can improve comfort and support fluid balance in:
hot conditions
long events
athletes with high sweat rates
But sodium is not a substitute for appropriate fluid management.
Key coaching takeaway:
Drink for physiological need, not fear of dehydration.
Why this matters for serious athletes
In ultra-distance racing, nutrition errors accumulate:
reduced carbohydrate availability
worsening neuromuscular function
declining decision making
increasing pacing errors
This is one of the main reasons athletes with strong training still underperform.
Fueling must be engineered into the training process — not added at the end.
This is exactly how I integrate nutrition planning into race preparation with my athletes.
If you are preparing for a major race this season and want help building a fueling system that actually holds up under pressure, we work on this directly as part of your coaching.
Train smart. Fuel deliberately.
Claude
Apex Rises Coaching
References
Jeukendrup, A. E. (2014).
A step towards personalized sports nutrition: carbohydrate intake during exercise.
Sports Medicine, 44(Suppl 1), S25–S33.
Jeukendrup, A. E. (2017).
Training the gut for athletes.
Sports Medicine, 47(Suppl 1), S101–S110.
Costa, R. J. S., et al. (2017).
Systematic review: exercise-induced gastrointestinal syndrome and nutritional strategies.
Sports Medicine, 47(1), 5–27.
Thomas, D. T., Erdman, K. A., & Burke, L. M. (2016).
Position of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Dietitians of Canada, and the American College of Sports Medicine: Nutrition and athletic performance.
Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 116(3), 501–528.
Burke, L. M., et al. (2011).
Carbohydrates for training and competition.
Journal of Sports Sciences, 29(S1), S17–S27.
Hew-Butler, T., et al. (2015).
Statement of the Third International Exercise-Associated Hyponatremia Consensus Development Conference.
Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine, 25(4), 303–320