Nutrition for Ultramarathon Running: Trail, Track, and Road. In the last three decades, the maturities and the number of participants in ultramarathon runs have risen continuously. In addition to the effort of prolonged running with or without packing, such events are often associated with a demanding topography, environmental conditions, acute temporary complaints and / or event-related health complications. These factors create a scenario for larger dietary needs that predispose ultramarathon runners for several barriers for food intake. In the current work, the ultramarathon’s physiological and nutritional requirements are intended to investigate and general indications of nutritional needs of ultramarathone training and competitions are given, including aspects of the diet’s logistics during the race. Research results suggest that the daily carbohydrates in the food (up to 12 g / kg / day) and the carbohydrate absorption (\ ~ 90 g / h for running distances ≥ 3 hours) support endurance training and improve endurance performance. Whether this recommendation is bearable in competition is questionable from practical and gastrointestinal perspective. Diet protocols such as glycogen manipulation or low-carbohydrate content diet and high fat content are currently popular with ultramarathon runners. Although the latter diet manipulation shows increased overall fat oxidation rates during submaximal load, the role in improving the ultramarathon running power is currently not supported. Ultramarathon runners can develop both a hypohydration and hyperhydration (with accompanying stress-associated hyponatremia) depending on the duration of the race and the ambient conditions. To avoid these two extremes, the dehydration can generally be maintained by “drinking to thirst”.
A well-proven and customized nutritional strategy is required to optimize the training and competition performance in ultramarathone running events. The article can be found under https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30943823/