White Rose 30 Nutrition Report
For the White Rose 30 I was keen to try a new method of fuelling myself as I’ve been using gels for my previous races, and settled on Mountain Fuel, as recommended by Tony Holland. I did a bit of research, and decided I was going to take a Night Fuel the night before (very tasty!), 2x pieces of toast and a Morning Fuel with warm milk for breakfast, and drink a 500ml bottle made up with 1x sachet of Xtreme Energy Fuel pre-race.
The above got me to the start line feeling really good, and very up for the race. My plan during the race was to consume 500ml water mixed with 1x sachet of Xtreme Energy Fuel every 10 miles, which would mean starting with a full bottle then refilling my bottle at mile 10 and mile 20. I didn’t plan any solid fuel in, as my race diet up until now has been gel-based.
What I hadn’t planned for was feeling so good that I didn’t feel the need to take any fuel on board for the first 5 miles, and very little for the 5 miles after that so that when I reached the 10 mile checkpoint, I still had approx 400ml left. I didn’t empty my first bottle until about mile 19 or so, where I refilled and downed about half of it as it was very hot! My stomach was feeling the need for something in it, so I grabbed an apple at the 20 mile checkpoint and ran on.
My plan at the 25 mile checkpoint was to grab a bit more solid fuel, top up my drink with water and push on to the finish. The plan failed there as the solid food on offer was flapjack which for some reason stops me in my tracks, so I topped up with water and pushed on.
I think I “crashed” at about mile 27, 3:45 in, with my speed dropping, completing the 30 mile/400ft race in 1st which was a great result and in a time of 4:17.
After I finished, I sipped a Chocolate Ultimate Recovery Fuel. After 2 days of rest, I was back training as normal for the next weekend’s double-race adventure!
Fuelling improvements for next time:
Be more “on it” from the start – I’m too used to taking a gel every 30 minutes, I needed to start sipping straight away and keep steadily drip feeding my system.
Have some solid fuel – Power Pancakes to snack on every now and again, and a 500ml soft flask of Homemade Gel to also sip on.
Positives: I raced 30 miles on 2x sachets of Xtreme Energy and an apple which looking back I am super stoked about, as normally I would have put away 8 gels to accomplish that! As an added bonus, my stomach post-race felt great, and I could eat as normal which is not always guaranteed!