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Posted on the Ultralist:

In preparing to run a 24hour race, I’m looking for your best suggestions regarding fuel to try during training. Specifically:

What food and drinks are most recommended?
How much food and how much drink are recommended?
Any time frames / patterns of consumption that you recommend?
Any special thoughts to avoid stomach cramps?
Thanks, Chuck - California =================================================

I was stumped at first trying to figure out how to categorize my suggestions, then decided they are all sort of trivial.

During training you try just about everything in the grocery store to find out what works for you. My desires for pickled pigs feet should not be of concern to you. Find the soup, pasta, parfait, barbecue,
whatever that you and your stomach like after several hours of doing the roundy-round.

The number of calories and drinks will vary with personal size, air temperature, effort level, drink flavor, and stuff like that. Again, you will need to find out what you, your mind, and your body likes.

Things I have consumed during a longish run: PB&Js, BLTs, a can of chili (opened first, but not cooked), many flavors of Ramens, tuna sandwiches, potato soup, mashed potatoes, pineapple upsidedown cake, a chili dog, watermelon, cantaloup, brownies, hamburgers, oranges, Power Bars, Hershey bars, chocolate chip cookies, Fritos, chicken gumbo soup, Coca Cola, Dr. Pepper, a beer, various flavors of diet supplement drinks, a burrito, and stuff.

At a 24-hour it is usually easy to schedule stops. Here again, you need to practice what you want to do. If it is a track run, go to a local track (or a far away one) and practice ‘run 3-walk 1′ or ‘run 25-minutes, walk 5 minutes’ or just run until you fall over, then eat something from the above list and start again.

The tailoring of suggestions from the masses into what works for you will be one of the more difficult tasks.

Run gently out there.

John M.