24 Hour race fueling - The alternative view

   At FANS 24 I crewed Don, his brother Tom also ran.  They both hit 100 miles.  Tom is built like a linebacker, his idea of fueling is 3 square meals.  He eats 3 square meals every day, why should race day be different?

  I have thought about this for a few days.  Many runners have a big issue with their stomachs.  We pound highly engineered calories, along with some easier to digest normal food. 

  I am able to eat a pretty darn big meal and go home and do a long "Feeling Guilty" run.  It takes 3-4 hours for this big meal to empty out of my stomach.  If I run too fast, I will fight the food trying to come back up.  So a big meal pretty much forces me to take it easy.

  I am seriously considering experimenting with Tom's 3 square meal (Plus a late night snack) plan.  Eat a decent breakfast of eggs, bacon and waffles about 1 hour before the race.  Eating chicken or hamburger along with pasta around 6 hour into the race.  Having chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy 12 hours into the race and a 2am snack of 2-3 servings of Roman Noodles.  In between this bigger feedings, I anticipate drinking water for 3 hours and then taking some engineered stuff until the next big feeding.

It may be the worst idea / biggest blow up ever, but I think it is worth the experiment.

Now I just have to find the desire to run another one of these puppies.

Good running to all!