Mountain Fuelled Double Race Day
The weekend after the White Rose 30, I had the bright idea of doing two races in one morning – the last round of the Dark and White Trail series (needed to race and be one of the first Senior Males back to win my category for the series) 9 miles in length, followed by the 7 mile Leg it Round Lathkill Fell Race, both of which had about 200m of climb in.
I pre-fuelled on the way up by sipping half a bottle of Xtreme Energy to get ready for my first race. I had made a Homemade Gel to eat on the way which was very easy to get down – until a large piece of date blocked the nozzle, bit more time in the blender next time! I felt strong all of the way round, coming 1st Senior Male, and second over all. Between races I sipped the remaining Energy Fuel from earlier, and ate the rest of the Homemade Gel.
I felt pretty good at the start of Leg it Round Lathkill, and got stronger over the first 3 miles until the uphill section where the previous week’s 30 miler, and that morning’s race had taken its toll. The last uphill half mile was pretty tough as my legs had run out of juice. I finished in 30th place out of about 300 starters in 52 minutes, which I was really happy with as I was expecting to grind it out and suffer through instead of actually race it!
A Strawberry Ultimate Recovery Shake went down a treat afterwards!
Fuelling improvements for next time (like I’m doing that again!):
Drink a whole bottle of Xtreme Energy before the first race so not as depleted for race number 2
Either mix up another half bottle of Xtreme for second race and snack on power pancakes and remaining home made gel or just have another full bottle of Xtreme which would have seen me home.
Don’t do 1 & 2 and instead enjoy a cup of tea and cake and not bother doing the second race!
Positives: Felt great on the flats, not so great on the hills but more of a function of muscle damage than insufficient fuelling. Having been a compulsive gel user and knowing that gooey mess can’t be good for you I’m delighted to have found a balanced fuelling system that can work on short and ultra distances. In comparison, I would have had 2x gels on race 1, and 2x gels on race 2 so the Mountain Fuel System looks to be a more effective, and cost effective, way of keeping myself fuelled.