The distance and difficulty of this event requires you to thoroughly address your nutritional requirements. You need to do 3 things;
- Carefully consider the right products to use.
- Develop a nutrition plan
- Learn how to use the products correctly through consistent practise.
Failing to plan your nutrition can lead to a poor result or a DNF.
To get you started here are 6 basic guidelines to follow. Following these guidelines, will help you stop making simple nutritional mistakes.
Hammer Nutrition has been the world’s leading endurance Nutrition Company for the last 28 years. We not only specialise in endurance product development, but also in giving you the correct knowledge/advice to successfully use them. Our 28 years of longevity is testimony to our products.
Fuelling for UTA
Once you have read and understood the 6 basic nutrition guidelines, you are now ready to work out a plan.
Plan Basics:
- Consider these 3 things;
- Product Selection. Select a product/products (base fuel) which you can use for a high percentage (60-70%) of the time. This product should be void of all unnecessary ingredients that can cause digestion problems or decreased performance (i.e. simple sugars, preservatives, artificial flavours etc.)
- Plan other similar products around this to avoid flavour fatigue.
- Set on route locations where to received your nutrition
Recommended Hammer Nutrition products.
All of the Hammer range is suitable to use during the UTA.
Our preference is to use a liquid fuel (Perpetuem or Sustained Energy) for your base fuel (60-70%) of the time and break this up with other supplements or small snacks.
- Liquids are easily digestible. Solids will take longer to digest and will take blood away from the working muscles to digest.
- By taking liquids you can be almost 100% certain of how many kj/calories you are consuming per hour.
- Taking solids you can never be sure on how many calories are being digested per hour.
- Consumption of too many solids can make you feel lethargic and slow you down.
- Remember Flavour Fatigue can be a problem.
Benefits of Perpetuem / Sustained Energy.
Perpetuem contains all 3 key nutrients (Complex Carbohydrates, Soy protein and Lipids – fat). Sustained Energy does not contain lipids, only Complex Carbohydrates and Soy protein. Sustained is more suitable for the smaller/leaner athletes to use. Sustained empties from the gut slightly quicker. Both are scientifically designed for Endurance exercise lasting longer than 3 hours and up to 24 hours.
- They provide stable long lasting (complex Carbohydrates) energy without the highs and lows of simple sugar based products.
- The soy protein will help your body stop breaking down its own muscle tissue, limiting fatigue.
- Consuming Lipids (type of fat in Perpetuem) will help you release your own fats stores. Fat will be a major contributor to energy demands. The longer you go the more important fat becomes as a fuel source. Carbohydrate usage goes down as time event time goes up.
- They can be mixed into a Multiple Hour Bottle. For example a 3-4 hour bottle can be mixed for between drink stations. Complex carbohydrates can be mixed at concentrations of 16-18%.
- Both are complete source of Nutrition. (No other nutrients are required apart from Hydration/ Electrolytes)
Hammer Perpetuem is my number one choice for training or races lasting over 3hrs. My training and racing success is only as good as my training and racing fuel allows. Perpetuem is a stable and slow burning fuel, it keeps my energy levels balanced and releases evenly hour after hour. It’s the perfect fuel for me!” – Brendan Davies – 2013 North Face 100 Winner
Electrolytes
In our opinion the use of added electrolytes is mandatory.
Electrolytes are not stored in the body. So you need to replace them on a consistent basis every hour. Treat these as an insurance policy against cramping. Our preferred choice of electrolytes is Endurolytes (1-3 / hour) or Endurolytes Extreme (1 per hour)
Other Hammer products to use.
All Hammer products can be used together. It’s a great idea to use some of these other Hammer products to use to break up the monotony of using one product.
Hammer Bars. (220Calories) – a great easy to digest alternative
Perpetuem Solids – A tablet form of Perpetuem.
Hammer gels (90calories)
H.E.E.D – High Energy (complex carbohydrates) Electrolyte Drink