I have a question for anyone who uses Huel for long endurance events.
I use Huel Black regularly for ordinary hiking trips and a few times recently have used it during a couple of 100km races and this weekend during a 128km race (fast walking not running). In between Huel meals I also use other carb foods such as hot cross buns etc to try to keep carbs going inside.
However I’m going to the desert later this year for a multi day ultra event where we have to carry all our own food and I’m thinking I might be better switching back to the ordinary Huel with the higher carb value to it as I’m thinking that maybe this will reduce the need for other carb foods potentially (and weight is important as we’ll be carrying all our own food for the day).
Does anyone have any experience of using the standard v black editions during endurance events - and has anyone noticed a difference? I prefer Huel black so would stay with this if there isn’t going to be a significant benefit.
Any thoughts from other athletes, endurance event participants, or anyone with knowledge on this subject, would be appreciated.
Thanks
Sue
I don’t know anything about nutrition for endurance events and there must be lots of expert advice on the web about macros for endurance, but it’s a great idea - a Huel-fuelled ultra runner. Good luck!
I’m not an expert on endurance events or ultra marathons, however, the two things I know for sure are that it is essential to maintain your blood glucose and electrolyte levels, therefore appropriate intakes of carbohydrates + sodium, potassium, chlorine etc. are important.
The good thing is that all of our products are nutritionally complete, therefore I wouldn’t worry about the mineral side of things at all, although you may want to take extra electrolytes with you!
When it comes to glucose, it is essential for aerobic respiration and it is clear to me that you’ll be staying within the aerobic window during your fast walk.
Let’s quickly compare v3.1 and Black Edition (Vanilla) in terms of carbohydrate content: v3.1 contains 39 grams, whereas Black Edition 18. We’re looking at a difference of 21 grams at 400 kcal, or 105 grams at 2000 kcal, which if you look at things this way, does make a difference.
Once again, I’m not an expert but I would definitely choose v3.1 over Black Edition based on its higher carb content as you will want to consume as many carbs as possible!
The white for sure for the reasons mentioned above. Personally I would also mix some extra carbs on it given the energy expenditure needs in such events (except if you are a keto guru and swears by no carbs while having the experience of doing such events without carbs).
Bon Marathon Des Sables
I am doing a 100km ‘run’ on September 9th but at the speed I will be doing, food won’t really matter so much. I expect if I had any intention of putting in a good time or was doing a long gruelling event I expect that regular Huel would be a more suitable choice due to the increased carbs.
I once tried to run a marathon on a low-carb lifestyle - I was able to finish it, but the time it took was embarassing. I really suffered, and I cannot recommend doing that. But you have to fill your carb stores before, so that the liver can build up a maximum of glykogen reserves. Of course these will never be enough on a marathon, so you have to train your body to get into beta oxidation of fatty acids, but the only way of doing that is doing also long runs of almost marathon distance prior to the event.
And of course you shouldn’t have any deficiency in B-vitamins, zinc, Q10 or other micronutrients directly or indirectly involved in carbohydrate metabolism.
I didn’t want to lose weight back then, but as I have already been put on a liquid diet as a child getting nutrition right has always been a challenge for me. I thought some formula shakes from the supermarket might be okay, at least cheaper, and there were not many alternatives, but of course that is not a good nutrition before a marathon. They tend to be too high in protein and too low in carbs.
I haven’t tried the essential powder, but maybe that would be a good option for you. It seems that it contains almost exclusively complex carbs. Haven’t tried it myself, though, as it comes only in two flavours that I would never order. But tastes are different.
While a lot of carbs are needed for these events, do not downplay proteins either as they are very important for recovery in multi days endurance events…. So you need an higher ratio of carbs during the effort and plenty of carbs AND protein after the effort to recover for the next day… Good luck!
