Nutrition for the 100000 Step Project

Sorry, I DO hate this, but… DISCLAIMER: I do not get paid by Tailwind or SIS and I am not endorsing their products. I am a user and they work for me, that doesn’t mean that they will work for you.

Ok, that’s out of the way. So let’s talk nutrition for running a half marathon to start your day and then running/hiking another 43 miles! Obviously I knew that I was going to burn a crap ton of calories. Is crap ton a word? I think it is, but I digress. My goal in regards to nutrition was to get a bunch of calories in early to get ahead of it, and then track calories as I ate throughout the day to make sure that I didn’t fall too far behind and bonk. I am proud of how I did. I’ll give you a short description of the day and then let the chart speak for itself. This will be a short but effective post; I hope.

To start the day, I jumped in with a big breakfast before ever leaving the house. You can see the details below, but my thinking was get the electrolytes in via those bananas, and a little energy boost with the PB and honey. This got me about an 850 calorie jump on the day. On my long run I ate my typical energy bar and a gel while drinking tailwind.

Like I said, for details you can look at the chart, but I want to address a couple of things generally speaking. I had to eat like a machine, so that meant eating even when I wasn’t hungry sometimes. You may be thinking “How could you not be hungry?”, but when you are pushing your body like this, the blood flows to the muscles and you can lose your appetite. That’s why it is so important to have a plan and try to stick with it in regards to calories. Also, there were times where I was craving salty food big time! I mean like I was ready to lick the sweat off my arm. When I would start to feel this way, I would increase my electrolyte/fluid intake via the Tailwind. I love Tailwind, it has all of the calories and electrolytes but without the heavy taste of Powerade or Gatorade. Give it a try. And, I would eat salty stuff, like that hotdog.

I only had one rough patch, and that was during the second hike when my hands started to swell. I think that I was simply not pushing enough fluids and electrolytes, so I addressed it immediately and within an hour or so, things were back under control. When you are doing ultra distances there is a saying, don’t let small things become big things. In other words, as soon as something starts to bother you, address it. Don’t let a little blister become a Did Not Finish (DNF).

Take a gander at the chart and ask any questions you might have. The one thing I will leave you with is this: I ate A LOT, and I still ended up with an almost 800 calorie deficit for the day. Just eating took about an hour, more if you include what I ate WHILE I walked!!!

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