Pre-race Shake Plan and the Traveler Mini Loop 25M - 2/26/11

One of the main things I wanted to run this race was to try out a new "liquid" nutrition plan the morning of and a few days before the run.  I've noticed over the course of paying attention to my weight how greatly it can fluctuate depending on how much and what I eat.  Of course a lot of that is body weight, but even a greater deal seems to be "food weight."  The idea came from reading another ultrarunners website (the link can be found on this blog's homepage).  His idea included some exercise nutrition studies which found endurance to be increased with supplemental powders such as branched chain amino acids (BCAAs), glutamine, and another protein powder  as pre-race and during race nutrition source.  I tried this out and made a shake composed of 2 servings of a soy protein meal replacement product, a 5 g glutamine/BCAA powder (tropical punch), 2 tbsp of red Gatorade powder and 2 tsp salt.  This was taken about 2 hours before the race and I was happy to not have any stomach discomfort from this mixture.  (BodyTech - Bcaa & Glutamine, 6.9 oz powder).  Lab studies have found BCAAs to increase fat metabolism during endurance events and glutamine supplementation has been shown to increase endurance in rats.  FYI - endurance athletes are actually recommended to have more protein than bodybuilders!  I think that says something about our sport.

My last 2 days of meals before the race were also all shake based with a combination of the soy powder, bananas, cocoa powder, peanut butter, etc.  The idea to have what I'm going to call "pre-chewed" food to allow better digestion and less "bulk" build up.  By no means was I malnourished, each meal shake consisted of 1000 calories and was well balanced nutritionally.  The main reason I did this came to fruition race morning when I weighed in at 178 after starting the week at 188.  A ten pound drop is nothing to play with over hours of activity!  Coming from Jack Daniels, 1 pound of fat loss (healthy) can drop 2 sec/mile off your pace which can quickly add up to a PR during a race.  Since this, I have switched to having shakes for breakfast to increase my protein intake and I simply like my shakes.  I have also started using a pure protein powder to achieve the former.

The Traveler Mini Loop was a replacement race for the White Rock 50K in AURA's Ultra Series and, sadly, probably won't be ran again.  This was my first trip to this area where the AT100 is held (future goal!).  This is one of the most beautiful areas that I have ran in thus far.  Much of this is due to the pretty intense climbing that you have to do on old forest service roads.  There was about 3200' of climbing which was generally relentless throughout the course; it seemed you were always either walking up a hill or flying down one.  The highlight of the course came fairly early after a long climb.  I reached a vista overlooking Lake Winona where the race started - gorgeous.

It was also another great opportunity to meet and get to know some of the other crazy ultra runners in the area; a nice change from a traditional road race where there's just no time for that sort of business.  I covered the course in 4:17 which I am very happy with since I was taking it easy in preparation for the LR Marathon the next weekend.  This race gave me a great confidence boost going into the next week because of the way I handled the elevation and made me look forward to the next trail race.  It was also my first race to get to wear my Camelbak (packed with TP just in case).