Food and Hydration for the Superior Trail 50 Mile
Posted by scott on September 18, 2009
Here is a rough accounting of how I fueled and hydrated for the Superior Trail 50 Mile race this year. This is probably 85-90% accurate as far as exactly what I ate and calorie estimates, so take it for what it’s worth. While I was training I just always wanted to see a complete plan to get some idea of what other people did as a whole picture, not just “I like this” or “that does down well”. Times are very approximate, and likely won’t add up exactly to my race time – I’m just not bothering with being that accurate. It is what it is.
Important Note: This should not be considered any type of plan or recommendation. This is just what happened to work well for me that day, in those conditions. It probably won’t work well for you, and it probably won’t work for me again. Like I said, it’s just a snapshot.
AS = Aid Station. Also note that a major ultra rule I broke is that I spent a lot of time in aid stations. I even got kicked out of one (thanks Dale! That was funny.). Most people recommend no more than about 2 minutes per AS. But guess what? I loved it! My family was there, I got to eat a bunch, and it’s part of how I really enjoyed the overall race.
| Segment/AS | Time Spent (h:mm) |
Food (cals) | HEED (oz) | Water (oz) |
| Start | —- | —- | 8 | —- |
| Start to Sonju | 1:38 | 1/2 Clif bloks 100 Hammergel 100 1/2 Lara bar 100 |
20 | —- |
| Sonju AS | 0:02 | Pretzels 60 Potatoes 50 |
8 | —- |
| Sonju to Crosby-Manitou | 0:55 | 1/2 Lara bar 100 Hammergel 100 1/2 Clif bloks 100 |
20 | —- |
| Crosby-Manitou AS | 0:04 | Banana 80 Cookie 50 Strawberries 10 Potatoes 50 1/4 PB&J 100 |
8 | —- |
| Crosby-Manitou to Sugarloaf | 2:23 | Monkey Fuel (see below) 620 Clif bloks 200 |
—- | 20 |
| Sugarloaf AS | 0:12 | 1/2 Ramen 190 Egg burrito piece 50 Potatoes 50 |
24 | |
| Sugarloaf to Cramer | 1:15 | 1/2 Clif bloks 100 Hammergel 100 |
20 | 20 |
| Cramer Road AS | 0:07 | 1/2 PB&J 200 Bananas w/PB 50 Oranges 25 4 cookies 200 |
24 | |
| Cramer to Temperance River | 1:48 | Clif bloks 200 Hammergel 100 |
20 | 20 |
| Temperance River AS | 0:07 | Turkey wrap 50 Potatoes 50 3 cookies 150 Hard-boiled egg 75 |
24 | |
| Temperance to Sawbill | 1:18 | Clif bloks 200 Hammergel 100 |
20 | 20 |
| Sawbill AS | 0:10 | 1/2 Ramen 190 1/2 PB&J 200 Oranges 25 Cookies 100 |
16 | |
| Sawbill to Oberg | 1:22 | Clif bloks 200 | 20 | 20 |
| Oberg AS | 0:08 | Strawberries 10 1/2 PB&J 200 Cookies 100 |
24 | |
| Oberg to Finish | 2:05 | 1/2 Clif bloks 100 Hammergel 100 |
16 | 16 |
Totals
4935 calories
2.12 gallons of HEED (272 ounces)
.9 gallons of water (116 ounces)
Monkey Fuel mix (Inspired by Scott Jurek’s drink mix)
16 oz. Rice Milk (I like enriched Vanilla Rice Dream)
3 tbsp Soy Protein (I like Yammer Soy Essence)
2 tbsp honey
2 tsp chia seeds
Other Notes
- I took an S! cap every 45 minutes, religiously, throughout the day. I might have been able to up that to 1/30 mins in the middle of the day during the heat.
- I frequently had a very full stomach leaving the AS and and to walk for 15 minutes or so to clear it before running again, but I preferred that to eating large amounts on the trail.
- The honey and chia in the drink mix worked well for me during training, but didn’t seem to taste right during the race. Maybe it was the heat? I could have left the honey out for sure, maybe even the chia. But it was nice to pack in those calories in liquid form.
- I carried 2 Nathan handhelds for most of the race, thus the 20/20 for HEED and water. For a couple of longer sections I could have drank more.
- This works out to about 350 calories per hour (almost 14 hour race), which was my original plan.
Run Like Monkey 
Paul Caldwell said
Yes, I think Chia can be quite healthy for people. The supposed highest nutritional value comes from a unique proprietary selection of the seeds known as “Mila” that are specially processed for the highest bioavailability available anywhere. The website is http://www.caldwell.Lifemax.net to get more info.
JKal said
congrats!! nice race … but wow, dude, that’s a LOT of food!
scott said
Yeah its a heck of a lot, but it worked for me.
Matthew Patten said
Funny how it took you only 55 minutes to go from Sonju to Crosby. It took me 1.5 hours. I thought it would take me 45 minutes.
scott said
What’s funnier is your comment that you were only running those 12 miles to prove to everyone that you couldn’t run anymore. I love that. But I bet that 1.5 felt even longer than that with where you were at.