Forget what you know about pasta...

This evening I joined a lecture hall full of fellow sports enthusiasts, particularly runners, to catch ultra runner, physiologist, and biomechanist Mark Hines talk about nutrition.

Always fascinating, it was another chance for me to absorb information on the action of putting one leg in front of the other.

Hearing advice from someone like Mark in particular - who lives his studies running in some of the most extreme conditions on earth - feels particularly valuable. Researched, tried, and tested advice, and not without blowing several of my ingrained preconceptions clean out of the water.

What did I take out of the talk? 

Sports gel companies don't know what they're talking about. Fructose; a core ingredient in the majority of sports gels isn't a great energy source for us humans, and can even lead to stomach cramps. 

Ibuprofen too, prescribed by doctors (even during races), can make your gut bleed and interrupts a very normal healing process.

But perhaps most interestingly is that you should forget the pasta parties. Marathon expos thrive on the things (I've been to a few...) but cereal grains and wheat based carbs clog up your gut and aren't particularly efficient as an energy source. Instead eat plenty of veg and fruit and build up familiar carbs (not pasta!) in the 3 days before a race.

It was an evening of forgetting what I thought I knew.

Then, an incredibly inspiring hour finished the night listening to the amazing Mimi Anderson. Mimi started running 15 years ago, and now, at the age of 51, has achieved more than most ultra runners can dream of. A double Comrades, a double Badwater, a double Grand Union Canal, and additional records in the JOGLE and the M2M doesn't even complete her list of achievements. Her first ultra, after seemingly only a few years of running, was the Marathon des Sables - a race that many runners see as the peak of endurance running.

She's certainly worth reading up on, if only to feel humbled by her ambition. 

It's been a while since I went to a talk, and tonight reminded me of how important these are for me. It's easy to get into a routine with running, and Mark and Mimi have lit an interest in nutrition and ultra events that I didn't have before. I'm looking forward to testing out different food strategies on my remaining 4 marathons of the year.