The Art of Fueling for Ultra Running: Jessica Cox's Perspective

There is something extra special for me about combining my Clinical Nutritionist’s ‘hat’ with my ‘trail running hat’, especially with these ultra distances. How we fuel our body for daily health and our own personal gut health needs translates 100% to how we optimally fuel our body through endurance events. Fine tuning the amount of carbohydrates, calories and electrolytes for our individual needs, alongside the experimentation of intra-nutrition food and products to establish what work best is vitally important. Without this, it’s a quick path to running out of energy, vomiting your guts up or diving behind a tree for explosive number 2’s.

Over the past year of training, I’ve learnt what to tweak and what works best for myself, similar to how I would tweak a treatment plan for improving my client’s gut health. It’s never a one size fits all. The hyperfocus on this training nutrition was (and still is) to not only provide enough fuel to keep me going hour after hour, but also a fuel source that sits well in my digestive system without any upsets. I personally struggle with anything too ‘claggy’ or thick, so one of the key aspects that PURE Sports Nutrition provided me with is a more liquid like gel that goes down a lot easier. I found that aiming for 2 PURE Fluid Energy Gels per hour on top of my liquid carbohydrate and electrolyte mix would have me sitting between 60-70g carbs per hour.

The other key factors that I personally love about PURE Sports Nutrition is the variety of flavours. Palette fatigue can hit me hard, so being able to mix between a variety of flavours helps so much. Especially when you can choose a citrus like flavour and then follow it up with something like orange or mango. Throughout the entire Kosci50 race I was able to keep getting these gels down once muesli bars and fruit purees were no longer an option.

Last but not least, I do like how PURE Sports Nutrition incorporates real food ingredients (fruit juices) with a base of maltodextrin. I find this mix really gut friendly and personally has not created any issues with a sudden bout of runner’s gut. I don’t feel bloated or unwell after the gel consumption either. On the day of the race this was a real fear for me. Nerves can hit me hard in my gut so having trust in these gels was everything. The only nausea I experienced (which was strong when it hit!) was on the ascent to Eagles Nest most likely due to the altitude.

I truly believe that supporting your training and races with the right nutrition (and hydration) is such a fine art. I also think it needs to be seen as a continual work in process month to month, season to season as external and internal demands change. Just like gut health, nothing is static. We need to adapt to meet our environment. I’m personally so excited to keep refining what works best for me season to season, year to year to feel my best throughout.

I am now training for the Buffalo Stampede and my race day nutrition plan will look similar to this:

Breakfast: