I am competing in a Paddy Palin multi-sport adventure race this weekend and I need some help from the experienced ‘lengthy duration event runners’ out there with fueling myself before and during this event. We expect we’ll be out on the course for between 5 and 6 hours starting from 9.50am.

I am planning on eating a bowl full of oats, bran, yoghurt and stewed fruit for breakfast at around 7am, but am unsure of what types of food I should be eating and when I should be eating them from then on. I have not ever tried to use gels and would prefer to avoid them where possible. I will be carrying a camelback which I intend to have full of water and will carry a bottle on the bike filled with Gatorade, or similar.

I would very much appreciate some guidance as to what and when to eat/drink during this event.

avocado/salads multigrain sandwiches with celtic ocean salt

ps - I would never have breakfast combining cerials, yoghurts (or any dairy) and fruits
regradless if it is race day or visiting mother in law

Solace, I'm guessing that it is your usual, healthy breakfast. You appear to be consuming a fairly large quanity of fibre there, which may not be your best friend during the race.

During the race, I find much of it comes down to personal taste. When it comes to fueling your body, no matter how osmotically balanced, high/low GI, scientifically tested a product may be, if you're going to look at it and think "If I eat that I'm going to puke.", it is going to be of no benefit to you.

A couple of rules of thumb I use for longer events include:

The longer an event and slower I'm moving, the more opportunities I will have to take in solid food.

"Proper" food tastes much better than specially designed sports foods. That's why Food Tech companies employ food scientists to manufacture their products with fruit or chocolate flavours. That is also why these same scientists are not employed to genetically modify a fruit so it tastes like a sports bar or a sports drink.

If I am thirsty and I can comfortably drink something containing some calories as well as at the same time hydrating myself, I might as well. Sports drinks (or cordial, fruit juice, coke) can be a very convenient way to keep them calories coming in.

The Great Potato Deity is divine in all its incarnations. It is advisable to pay respectful homage and worship the gods of Baked, Boiled, Mashed, Chips and Crisps at various times in your path to endurance enlightenment.

Olives taste better than salt tablets.

Trawl through some of the recent nutrition threads. There has been plenty of advice from runners answering similar questions.

Hope this helps in some way.

A couple of weeks ago, I ate a breakfast of Weetbix, milk and banana, but then again, that was a few hours before Ironman, rather than prior to visiting Rudolf's mother-in-law.

Thank you for the advice guys.

I had a trawl and found lots of interesting information and have formulated a plan. I think the most significant thing I got out of it is that less can in fact be more.

I am thinking I will stick with the normal breakfast as any potentially resultant problems are normally well and truly evacuated within a short period of time after eating.

I have no advice Solace.

I just wanted to wish you good luck on your race.
I hope you have great fun.Although it sounds tough.

Yondi