(They work for just road running too)
Since I purchased my first pair of Trail Shoes back in 2005
or ’06 I have seen a lot of changes in the sport of Trail Running and ultra
running. I actually had to drive to Chattanooga to find a store that had a
selection of trail shoes and a knowledgeable sales person to help choose that
first pair. For fuels, there were GUs and Gels and Hammer had energy products
designed for bike racing that worked OK for trail racing, to a point.
Electrolytes were pretty much limited to capsules you swallowed every hour or
so during a run or race. All this worked OK, Usually!
If you needed a hydration pack, you purchased a small hiking
pack from an outdoors store. Things like water bottle holders and jackets you
purchased from the local road running store or hiking store. Back then, I actually make peanut butter and
jelly sandwiches to take on long runs and I threw in a few cookies. (Well, I
still take cookies.)
As I mentioned, many of these products were designed for
endurance biking events, especially Hammer Products and there is one big
difference between a 5 hour bike race and a 5 hour 50K run. A bike rider’s
upper body stays fairly stationary on the bike during a ride. The legs do
almost all of the moving. In a run, your upper body is bouncing up and down with
every single step. When your body bounces up and down, so does your stomach. If
what you consume during the event is not absorbed almost as fast as you take it
in, all that stuff starts sloshing around and your stomach rebels. You will
likely spend the rest of your race battling nausea.
The electrolyte caps work great as long as you remember to
take them on schedule. In reality (reality being the middle of a very long
race, 10 hours, 20 hours, 30 hours, etc…) you will likely encounter two
problems. First, after hours of running your mind just doesn’t function at peak
performance. If a runner is using electrolytes, (salt caps,) and plans to take
one cap per hour every hour, you will likely have no problem for 4 or 5 hours. But,
as the day or night wears on it is really easy to get off schedule. Is simply
becomes difficult just to keep up with the time. I have looked at my watch and
noted it was 10 minutes until I need to take a salt cap. The next time I was
aware of looking at my watch it was 10 minutes past when I should have taken
the tablet and I had no idea if I actually took the capsule or not. By hour 22,
I would be doing good to remember what I was supposed to do on the hour, every
hour.
The second problem many people have with electrolyte caps is
that they become very difficult to swallow late in a race. Most of us have no
problem early in a race swallowing capsules. Throw one on your tongue and take
a big drink of water and it’s gone. Now, fast forward 15 or 20 hours into a
race. If you do remember that you need to take a salt cap, you put it on your
tongue, take a big drink of water and capsule goes nowhere or worse, it causes
you to gag and you spit it out. Once I get to the “can’t swallow a cap” stage,
that’s it for the “salt caps,” I have to get electrolytes some other way or not
at all. Without electrolytes your body does not absorb water very quickly so
the water you drink starts sloshing around in your stomach. “Nausea!”
Several years ago, NUUN came up with a tablet you just drop
into 16 oz. of water and your electrolyte mix is perfect. As you drink your
water/NUUN tablet mix, you get exactly the right amount of electrolytes. This
sounds simple and works great in training runs. (By the way, training runs,
especially those very long training runs, are where you sort out your
ultrarunning plans. It’s where you find out what works and what doesn’t, what
you like or don’t like and what you can eat and what you cannot eat. Then you
go to an ultra and realize what worked great in training runs really doesn’t
work in an ultra. On to plan “X” or “Y.”) For me, the NUUN tablets worked great
in training runs and short races. Then I tried them at the Tahoe Rim Trail 100
in July 2011. Mid-afternoon, 9 or 10 hours into the race, I started feeling sick
at my stomach. I realized the ratio of NUUN mix was way too strong. It tasted
awful. I poured the mix out before the next aid station and started over with
the correct ratio.
Sometime around 9 or 10 PM, 15 or 16 hours into the race, I
stared feeling sick again. This time my mind was somewhat dysfunctional and I
couldn’t figure out what was wrong. I ended up having to walk most of the
night. Just before arriving at the Bull Wheel Aid Station on top of Diamond
Hill Ski Resort about mile 71 I finally figured out the problem. Once again the
NUUN tablet ration was way off. I had walked for 6 or 7 hours before I realized
why I felt so bad.
The reason I was having trouble keeping the ratio correct was
because I was wearing a hydration pack with a water bladder in the pack. It was
difficult to determine exactly how much water was adding at the aid stations. Basically
I was just guessing. At night, it’s even harder to judge the amount of water
added. Each time I added water I would throw in the correct amount of
additional NUUN tablets, per my “guess.” With each aid station stop the mixture
became a little stronger. The change was so subtle I never noticed it until the
water became undrinkable. Too much salt is just a bad as not enough salt. They
both make you sick. I dumped the water out of my Hydration Pack and filled it
with straight water and took salt tablets the rest of the race with no problems
what so ever.
Marlette Lake and Lake Tahoe from the Tahoe Rim Trail 100
Course
Just one of many snow fields along the crest of the Tahoe
Rim Trail.
I don’t like to waste water at aid stations because in all
remote aid stations water has to be carried in, or in some cases filtered from
streams or collected from springs. In some extreme cases, such as Kroger’s
Canteen in Hardrock, snow must be melted and sometimes carried up the mountain
several miles. At these aid situations, water is a valuable commodity not to be
wasted. To use NUUN Tablets I would have to find a way of accurately measuring the
water added. It was simpler just to carry salt caps and remember to take them.
Until about 6 months ago I continued to use nothing but
Electrolyte caps and an energy drink mix. Then, in the Pinhoti 100 this year, by
sunset, I was no longer able to swallow electrolyte capsules and things went
downhill quickly. I decided it was time to find something new.
Several people had told me about a new product called
Tailwind. It is a drink mix that combines carbohydrates, electrolytes, and
since you mix it in water, hydration all in one product. I decided to give it a
try during my training runs for the Lookout Mountain 50 Mile in December. The
stuff worked great. I ran Lookout Mountain consuming nothing but Tailwind and
finished over an hour faster than the previous year with absolutely no stomach
issues and I felt strong to the end. I have used Tailwind in two other trail
races this year, Mountain Mist 50K and the Grand Viduta Stage Race, (a three
day race) plus the Mercedes Marathon, also this year with great results. Yes, I
carry a water bottle even in road races. I only had to slow down for water at
aid stations three or four times in the entire Mercedes Marathon. I like to drink
a little when I am thirsty, not just when I am passing through an aid station.
Tailwind is available in large, multi-serving packs on the
left and in individual serving sizes, on the right. The small size is a great
way to find out what flavors you like. Read more about Tailwind at Tailwind.com.
Give it a try, even in a road race.
There is still the issue of the mixing the correct water/powder
ratio. Running with hand held water bottles or the correct hydration pack can
solve that problem. With the ever increasing popularity of ultrarunning, more
and more companies are focusing on new products for Ultra runners. Two of those
new products are shown below. On the left is one of several new hydration packs
introduced by Salomon over the last couple of years. On the right is one of the
new packs produced by Ultimate Direction. These packs have two bottle holders
on the front and these particular packs have room of a hydration bladder in the
back compartment. That extra water could come in handy for very long training
runs or if you are running a race with long stretches between aid stations,
especially if it will be hot. I discarded the small, blue collapsible Salomon
bottles and use my Ultimate Direction 20 oz. bottles for both packs. It’s easy to
mix Tailwind in a bottle and keep the ratio correct. These packs are both light
and comfortable and the Salomon pack even comes with a “heat shield” to keep
the water from making you cold in cold weather or to keep you from making the
water hot in hot weather. (That’s a smart heat shield!)
The Ultimate Direction Pack The Salomon Pack
