What to Eat on a Long Run or Ultra? Practical Tips and Real Food Ideas
Many runners will be well aware that it’s important to fuel regularly during a long run, race or ultra, and may even be familiar with the basic sports nutrition recommendations of consuming between 30-120g of carbs per hour.
However, nutrition is something we often see going wrong in long runs and races.
We often see runners either failing to eat or drink enough, not beginning to fuel soon enough, or eating the wrong foods or fluids, leading to stomach issues.
Sports nutrition guidance can also be hard to translate into ‘real foods’. It’s hard to have a handle on how much you’re really eating (or not eating) if you’re not sticking exclusively to sports nutrition products, which are costly and a little dull to say the least!
In this article, we’ll present practical advice to help you improve your nutrition on longer runs and races.
How much should I be eating?
When running, you get energy primarily from carbohydrates and fats. While the body has ample stores of fat to fuel many days of activity (even for the leanest of us!), we only store enough carbohydrate to fuel roughly 1.5 hours of all-out running. Therefore carbohydrates are of prime importance for races lasting 1.5-hours or longer.
As the intensity of running is reduced, we can derive an increasing proportion of our energy from fats. However, some energy must still be provided by carbohydrates. Therefore, even when we’re running super easy, if we continue for many hours, some carbohydrates need to be eaten.
This is why there’s a heavy focus on eating carbohydrates during long training runs and races.
Requirements for training
The amount of carbohydrates you need to eat on a training run will depend a lot on your existing fitness level, and particularly your ability to use fats for fuel, as well as the intensity you’re running at.
However, as a good rule of thumb, on a training run lasting longer than 2-2.5 hours, you should be looking to eat between 30-60 grams of carbohydrates per hour.
Requirements for racing
When it comes to racing, there can be a performance benefit to trying to eat carbohydrates at slightly higher rates, and in shorter events.
The general guidance is that for races lasting 1.5-2.5 hours, 30-60g/hour is needed, and that for races longer than this, 60-120g/hour is recommended.
However, it’s worth noting that in some cases, the gut may struggle to absorb carbohydrates at rates higher than 60g/hour. To achieve rates higher than this, you need to eat a fairly precise balance of different types of carbohydrates that are absorbed from the gut via different ‘transporters’ (e.g. fructose and maltodextrin, which are known as ‘multiple-transportable’ carbohydrates). In practice this is hard to achieve unless you’re sticking exclusively to sports nutrition products, so 60g/hour is the upper limit we’d usually recommend for most runners, unless you’re looking to really maximally optimise your nutrition, and can get on well with mainly eating sports products.
It’s also worth noting that 90-120g per hour is A LOT of carbohydrate. Even if you use an appropriate mix of multiple transportable carbohydrates, most people would need to do some specific training to acclimate the gut to these high carbohydrate intakes, otherwise they risk some severe stomach issues.
Beyond carbohydrates, you can get really ‘in the weeds’ with the details of what you’re eating during a race. For example, some research shows that the addition of small amounts of protein (roughly 0.25g per kg of body weight per hour) can help reduce muscle damage in long events. However, again, unless you’re eating sports nutrition products only, it’s effectively impossible to hit these precise targets. Real foods will generally contain at least a little protein, and in our view, that’s good enough in most cases.
What does 30-45g of carbs actually look like?
One challenge people often encounter is understanding exactly how much to actually eat. People regularly under-estimate how much food they need to consume to even hit the 30-45g/hour minimum recommendation for training and racing.
Below, we’ve compiled a list of different foods that provide roughly 30-45g of carbohydrates so you can use this as a quick reference guide.
Sports Products
2 energy gels.
A 50g scoop of energy powder (typically mixed with 500ml water).
One energy bar (e.g. Clif Bar, Veloforte, SIS Energy Bar) though it’s important to read the label, as some (e.g. SIS Go Mini and OTE Anytime Bars) only contain around 25g of carbohydrate.
1-2 full packs of energy chews (depending on brand).
Sweet Foods
Three mini (16g) bags of Haribo.
Eight jelly babies.
Six marshmallows.
One hot cross bun.
2-3 slices of Soreen/malt loaf, or 2x Soreen lunchbox loaves.
One Belvita Filled Soft Bake.
Two Eat Natural Fruit & Nut bars.
Two Naked Bars.
One full-sized (51g) Mars Bar (note the multipack and fun-sized bars provide less than 30g of carbs).
One large portion of flapjack (at least the size of a match box).
Three fig rolls.
Three biscuit bars (e.g. Rocky, Club, Penguin).
Two large medjool dates or 5 smaller dates.
Two medium bananas.
Two slices of cake (loaf sized e.g. fruit cake, madeira cake, ginger cake, parkin).
A can of full-sugar coke.
Savoury Foods
One whole bagel, tortilla wrap or sandwich made with two slices of bread (add whatever you want as filling). It’s best to opt for white rather than wholemeal as this contains less fibre and will be more easily digested.
6-8 boiled and salted new/baby potatoes.
Half a naan bread/flat bread (typical supermarket sized breads weighing ~250g).
1/3 of a typical oven pizza.
A large (~200g) sweet potato, which can be cooked, mashed and mixed with a little stock and added to a soft pouch, so you can squeeze it directly into your mouth.
A large handful (40-50g) of salted pretzels.
Ultra-Specific Foods
These are foods that you probably won’t want to carry with you, but might be good options if you’re doing a long ultra with a support crew on hand.
3/4 of a pot noodle.
3/4 can of baked beans.
1/2 can of rice pudding.
1/2 can of custard.
400-500ml flavoured milk.
300-400ml fruit smoothie.
One small apple pie.
Liquid calories such as noodle soups, custard, milkshake and smoothies can be great options if you don’t have much of an appetite.
Just to reiterate - the foods above provide the minimum we’d recommend on an hourly basis when doing a training run lasting more than 2-2/5 hours, or a race lasting 1.5 hours or more. We often see people eating e.g. 1/4 of a sandwich, just one slice of Soreen, or one small bisuit bar, which you should now know is far too little!
Learn to read the packet
Of course, the foods above are not an exhaustive list. Moreover, the carbohydrate content of the same types of foods by different brands can be quite varied. This is particularly true for things like cereal bars, where nut-based and protein enriched bars can have considerably lower carbohydrate content. So it’s always important to check the nutritional information on the packet.
What you should be looking at is the grams of carbohydrate per portion, per 100g or per 100ml, as highlighted in the example below, which shows nutritional information for a strawberry and banana smoothie.
Don’t be fooled by crafty marketing either. There are products on the market that claim to give you ‘energy’, but which don’t actually contain any calories or carbohydrates. These typically include caffeine and/or other stimulants to give you a boost, but will not provide real energy to fuel your runs. A quick glance at the nutritional information will again help you understand what you’re buying.
Palate-cleansers, morale-boosters and more!
In addition to providing fuel for your runs, food also serves some other very important purposes!
If you’re running for a long time, particularly if you’re anticipating being out for 6 or more hours, then you can get very sick of eating high-carbohydrate foods; especially sweet and sugary snacks.
Things like salty crisps, pork pies and peanuts appear often in the packs of ultra-runners. These snacks don’t provide much in the way of carbohydrate-based energy. However, they still serve an important purpose in acting as a sort of ‘palate cleanser’ helping to reset your tastebuds so that you can continue eating more carbohydrate-laden foods.
When you’re running through regular mealtimes, then your body can also start to crave more substantial foods containing fats and protein. While you don’t want to eat too much of these foods (since they take a long time to digest and can contribute to stomach issues if eaten in excess), they can really help settle these cravings. They also provide valuable calories if you’re racing over multiple days to help minimise loss of body fat and muscle.
Foods can also provide a really important morale boost. For example, you might take your favourite food with you and allow yourself a little each time you hit an key milestone (such as every 10 miles) as a celebration and reward.
Some popular food options falling in this category include:
Crisps
Pork pies and sausage rolls
Salted nuts
Watery fruits such as watermelon, orange slices, mango and grapes
Nut butters
Small packaged cheeses (e.g. Babybel)
Cured and dried meats
Chips/Fries
You might also have seen the increasingly widespread use of pickle juice in ultra-races. As strange as it may sound, pickle juice has been shown to help get rid of muscle cramps, seemingly by providing a ‘shock’ to the nervous system, causing it to reset. It might be worth a try if you’re prone to cramping!
Caffeine
Caffeine can provide both a physical and a mental performance boost.
In a long run or race, you may feel a benefit from taking roughly 100mg of caffeine around 20-60 minutes ahead of your run, and optionally also topping up with caffeine every few hours. Too much caffeine can have health implications though, so the general guidance is not to exceed more than 400mg within a 24-hour period.
It’s also worth noting that caffeine can cause stomach issues in some people, so you should always test out caffeine in training before using it in a race, and bear in mind different formats may gave different effects (e.g. you might react differently to a caffeine gel versus a cup of coke, or from taking of caffeine before versus during).
The table below gives information on how much caffeine is in different sources:
Fluids and electrolytes
Replacing fluids is just as important as replacing carbohydrate. Losing as little as 2% of your body weight due to dehydration can begin to have a negative impact on performance.
In addition, fluids lost through sweat contain the ‘electrolytes’ sodium, magnesium, calcium and potassium. These are important for helping the body maintain proper hydration levels, and also play a role in muscle contraction. These electrolytes therefore also need replacing.
The topic of hydration is a big one, and warrants an article in it’s own right. However, we’ve tried to cover some of the key information below:
How much to drink?
It’s hard to say how much fluid needs to be consumed, as this varies greatly from person to person, as well as with the environment (e.g. temperature, humidity, altitude) and the intensity.
However, as a general rule of thumb, most people will need to drink between 250ml to 800ml of fluids per hour.
You’ll want to start drinking early on, even if you don’t feel thirsty, and drink small amounts often (e.g. a few sips every 10-15 minutes) rather than a large amount all in one go. This helps avoid getting a stitch, which can develop from drinking too much too quickly.
Be aware that fluid losses can be quite high when it’s cold. This is because more fluids are lost as water vapour in the breath, and because you’ll typically be wearing several layers which can increase sweating. The cold also suppresses thirst sensation, so it’s important to keep an eye on how much you’re drinking.
Electrolytes
The main electrolyte lost in sweat is sodium (or what’s commonly known as salt!). Generally, sodium can be very easy to replace if you’re eating real foods; particularly some savoury ones such as crisps and salted nuts.
Most sports products, e.g. gels, jellies and energy drinks will also contain electrolytes. You can also buy dedicated electrolyte tablets and powders that are designed to be mixed with water.
Ultimately, there are plenty of options for how to replace the salts lost through sweat, and most people won’t need to worry too much about timings or quantities as long as some of the food and drink consumed on a run do contain sodium.
However, if you’re a salty sweater (you’ll know this is you often see white sweat marks on your clothes and find that sweat stings your eyes), then you may need to pay particular attention to getting in enough sodium. We like Precision Hydration products for this purpose, since you can tailor the amount of sodium to match your sweat rates.
A cheap alternative is to make your own electrolyte drinks by mixing 500-600ml of water with 1/16 teaspoon of salt, 1tsp of sugar-based sweetener (e.g. sugar, maple syrup, honey etc.) and some flavouring of your choice (e.g. lemon, mint etc.). You can adjust the amount of salt you add to suit your needs and flavour preferences.
Stomach Issues
Stomach issues (e.g. cramps, nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea) are incredibly common in long running events. Indeed, one study showed that stomach issues were the primary cause of withdrawing from an ultra-marathon for around a quarter of non-finishers.
Liquid carbs
High-concentrations of liquid-based carbohydrates (energy drinks and/or gels) is one of the main causes of stomach upset.
This is firstly because they create an environment in the stomach where the concentration of carbohydrates dissolved in stomach fluids is very high, and this can slow down the rate of ‘gastric emptying’ (i.e. the rate at which fluids exit the stomach and enter the small intestine). This means a delay in the supply of both fluids and carbohydrates to the body, and an increased risk of stomach problems such as cramps or nausea. Solid foods do not create this same problem, because they do not rapidly mix with stomach fluids in the same way.
Secondly, once the fluids have entered the small intestine, the high carbohydrate content can slow the rate of absorption of fluids into the bloodstream, due to the high concentration of the fluids. If the liquid carbs are particularly strong, they can even cause fluids to be pulled from the blood into the small intestine to reduce the concentration of the fluid. This can exacerbate any dehydration, and can trigger severe stomach discomfort.
This is one of the key reasons that energy gels always require fluids to be consumed at the same time as taking a gel. If you are going to rely on gels as a source of fuel, then it’s very important that you follow the guidance on the packet in relation to how much water to drink.
Liquid carbs can be particularly problematic in the heat, due to slower gastric emptying rates induced by the heat, coupled with increased fluid requirements.
If you’re prone to stomach problems, you should only use energy drinks with a relatively low concentration of carbohydrates (roughly 4-8g of carbs per 100ml). These are known as ‘hypotonic drinks'.
Too many carbs
Another cause is simply taking on too much carbohydrate at rates that exceed the rate at which the small intestine can absorb the carbohydrates. You may remember from above that the intestine has ‘transporters’, and these can become saturated when carbohydrate intakes exceed 60-120g/hour (depending on the specific combination of carbohydrates). In this case, the carbohydrates will sit around in the gut increasing the risk of stomach problems.
This is another big reason to avoid strong energy drinks. If you need to drink quite a lot of fluid (because you are sweating heavily), you are at risk of consuming too much carbohydrate.
Fructose
Another common cause of stomach problems is fructose. This is a type of sugar that’s found in a vast majority of sports nutrition products. However, many people can be intolerant to fructose (particularly post-menopausal women). This is because fructose falls under the classification of a ‘FODMAP’ (which is short for ‘Fermentable Oligosaccharides, Disaccharides, Monosaccharides and Polyols’). FODMAPS are a type of carbohydrate that the small intestine absorbs poorly.
If you find that sports products in particular tend to play havoc with your digestion, then look for some that don’t contain fructose. You may find you tolerate these much better.
Tips
Finally, we’ll wrap up this article with some tips for fuelling your longer runs and races:
The number one tip is to practice your nutrition in training. This will give you the best chance of ensuring that the things you eat and drink won’t cause stomach issues. Ideally, when you’re testing out your nutrition, you should include some time running at a similar intensity to your target race intensity.
Another key tip is to start fuelling and hydrating early on in your race or run. You may not feel hungry or thirsty in the first 30-mins, but you should still be taking carbohydrates and fluids on onboard at this point. Think of it as taking the opportunity early in the race, when your digestive tract is working pretty effectively, to get some fluids and calories onboard to support the latter part of your run. Later in the run, this will be harder to do, and you’ll be glad you started early.
Try to pack a variety of foods, ideally including a mix of sweet and savoury options, particularly if you’re running for 6 hours or more. In a race, you may find that your go-to foods no longer appeal to you, so having a wider variety of choices makes it more likely you can find something you still want to eat.
Set a timer on your watch to remind you to eat and drink. An alert every 30-mins is good if you struggle with eating larger amounts (e.g. a whole sandwich), since you can break your hourly carbohydrate target up into smaller snacks. This can also help you keep track of how much you’re drinking.
What you can stomach on a run will depend on the intensity you’re running at. While you may be able to eat plenty of ‘real foods’ on your typical 4-hour training run, you may struggle with these foods when racing over the same duration. In this case, you might find that high sugar foods (e.g. sweets) and sports products go down better.
The heat will also impact your ability to tolerate ‘real foods’, since blood is diverted away from the stomach and to the surface of the skin to aid cooling. Therefore, if you’re running or racing in hot conditions, then you may again find that simple sugars (e.g. sweets and sports nutrition products) work best.
References
Burke, L. M., Hawley, J. A., Wong, S. H., & Jeukendrup, A. E. (2011). Carbohydrates for training and competition. Journal of sports sciences, 29(sup1), S17-S27.
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Leiper, J. B. (2015). Fate of ingested fluids: factors affecting gastric emptying and intestinal absorption of beverages in humans. Nutrition reviews, 73(suppl_2), 57-72.
Shirreffs, S. M., & Sawka, M. N. (2011). Fluid and electrolyte needs for training, competition, and recovery. Journal of sports sciences, 29(sup1), S39-S46.
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Viribay, A., Arribalzaga, S., Mielgo-Ayuso, J., Castañeda-Babarro, A., Seco-Calvo, J., & Urdampilleta, A. (2020). Effects of 120 g/h of carbohydrates intake during a mountain marathon on exercise-induced muscle damage in elite runners. Nutrients, 12(5), 1367.
