Hi Reader,

The road running and ultrarunning world has seen significant improvements in the past few years, with record-breaking performances at major races like the Leadville Trail 100, Western States, UTMB, and Comrades and the famous sub 2 for the marathon, albeit not an official record. These advancements raise questions about what's contributing to faster and longer runs. As humans, we have not suddenly evolved and or improved genetically.

What's going and behind these improvements? More importantly, how can you benefit from this and run faster, and further?

More Carbs Per Hour

What influence does the Tour de France have in improving running nutrition? Simply the peloton has been experimenting and refining the large increases in the amount of carbohydrates (CHO) we ingest (and absorb, the key part). Elite cyclists are consuming upwards of 120g CHO per hour, along with the mixing of sugars (fructose and dextrose) and are fuelling a higher output for a much longer time. While it is easier to consume fuel while riding a bike, compared to running, you can still use these increases as a runner and train for these increases.

We are seeing some of the elite runners eating similar amounts of carbs as the cyclists, reaching up to 120g CHO per hour. That's a lot when you think the average gel has 23g CHO in it, we are the equivalent of taking 5 gels an hour!!

The next change has been the increase in palatability in gels. Have you ever had the old Gu grape flavour? You'll know what I mean! With the additional benefit of being easier to digest and the increase in carbs, we can consume more and have less risk of GI issues.

The simple equation of more energy means an ability to maintain your race pace, or even race at a higher intensity at or near your threshold. Compare this to the previous thinking of slow and steady. We have to be careful here, and along with the gut training that has to be practised, this is a high-risk, high-reward strategy. If you get it wrong and not something I advocate for most people, it could be a long day out there.

The big caveat is that you need to train your gut, the same as the legs, particularly during your weekend-long run. Gut training involves training for the absorption of those carbs, plus getting the stomach used to running whilst it is holding food.

Key takeaway - practice, practice and practice your nutrition in prep for race day and have a plan A, B and C for when it goes wrong. You can imagine the scene if you tried jumping straight to 5 gels an hour.

All in the Super Shoe

Super shoes have been on the road since 2016 when Nike introduced their first model, the Vaporfly at the 2016 Olympics. Vendors are now bringing them to the trails. There are 2 parts of these shoes to improve your running economy, the foams and carbon plates.

The foam and carbon plate work together to return energy, in a similar way your achilles already does. This gives an average of about a 4% increase in running economy. Note average, some people are super responders and see increases of 7%, whilst others, only see smaller improvements of 2% or less. Your response can vary based on the brand and model.

Trail and ultra running do bring in some nuances, yep we like to be different. First, trail surfaces may not have the rebound ability as a hard tarmac road, especially as the trail becomes more technical, leading to a loss of efficiency. Can you imagine running super technical trails in a pair of Alphaflys? Second, a bigger benefit for ultras may be super the shoes reduce the feeling of muscle soreness, think that stabbing pain in the quads at mile 50! Personally, I'll take that.

The Rising Tide of Professionalism

Trail and Ultra running is now big business. This is leading the elite trail runners to have running as their job, as opposed to a hobby they happen to be good at, which was the case several years ago. Moving to ideal training areas, engaging a coach, nutritionist and mental skills coach to create a high-performance team.

With a more professional crew, including other pro runners, checkpoint stops are now more like an F1 pit stop than a 10-minute chill in the deck chair.

Training modalities have improved, with cooling at hot races taking a focus and the preparation including months of heat acclimatisation. Runners are no longer taking a couple of days off work and heading to the start.

All these are now not just the domain of the elites, for us non-elite runners. We have access to this high-performance capability, from quality coaching and deep data insights to expert nutritionists and mental skills. If you want to go faster the help is there.

A Growing Sport

We now have a larger pool of runners. When I first ran Ultra Trail Australia over a decade ago, there were about 500 runners. Today there are 7,000 runners at that event across 5 distances. That's a huge increase in the pool. Not just lifting the bar for the elites, but for us at the middle and back of the pack as well.

The Dark Side - PEDS

Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDS), as much as we think the sport is clean, we are starting to see it creep into our sport. Unfortunately, there is not the same doping testing framework and out of season testing as there is in other sports. As the benefits and prize money increase, the dark side of PEDs is going to creep in with cheating. Note all the other areas I covered are legal.

How Can You Benefit?

Over the last few years, we have seen a big shift in what we thought possible in ultra running and benefits all of us. A rising tide lifts all boats. What we are seeing at the fast end of races is flowing down to everyone. All the above (PEDS excluded) are useful to and will benefit runners of all abilities.

Practice your nutrition as you would any other part of training. Work out what food works, then gradually increase the amount of carbs an hour you are taking. Have alternates for when it goes wrong.

Budget dependent, give the super shoes a go. The next generation of trail shoes has been released and you might be in the 7% improvement. For any shoe, keep it simple, make sure they fit, are comfortable and fit for purpose.

Dila in your A races and have a well planned crew and CP routine. Don't underestimate what you can do before reaching the CP and after you leave. Even walking whilst stuffing away your flasks will save time.

When it comes to drugs, just say no!

See you on the trails,

Ash
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