During the last 20 kilometres of my 100 km ultra trail run, my head was telling me: “I need a break from it all - mentally and physically.” Only a few minutes after the event when I was finally in our van and had eaten my vegan Subway sandwich, my mind was already thinking about what’s next. I had to laugh about myself :) Not too long ago I was in agony and all I wanted was a break from running and as soon as it was over and I had something to eat, I started to think about what the top 3 things are I need to work on so I can improve my performance at the next 100 km ultra. Crazy, I know, but it’s the truth.

So here are my top 3 things I need to figure out for the next 100 km ultra.

1. Chest pain and breathing issues in the last ~20 kilometres

   • From around kilometre 83 onwards, I felt a very strong pain in my chest which didn’t allow me to breath properly. Every time I took a deep breath, I thought my chest is going to explode. I experienced such pain that I only could breath in a very flat and slow manner and only through my nose.

   • I haven’t figured out yet completely what has caused this issue but my best guess is that I packed too heavy over the full 100 km, thus, the weight of all the hydration and nutrition on the front of my bag pack put too much strain on my chest which only allowed flat and slow breathing through the nose.

   • So I’ll need to pack more lightly and time my nutrition and hydration in accordance to the check-points better. Hands-down: I put a great focus on my plant-based nutrition and I don’t want to run out of hydration at any stage of the event so I rather bring it all myself and make sure I always have ~2 litres of water with me. But this is clearly not working too well so I’ll need to rely a bit more on the check-points.

2. Nutrition in the last ~20 kilometres

   • As mentioned above, I put a great emphasise on my plant-based nutrition. So I packed a big variety of food for this challenge making sure I’ve got savoury, sweet and sour food in liquid and solid form with me. In hindsight, I haven’t prepared enough savoury and solid food though.

   • In the last part of the ultra challenge I couldn’t eat anything anymore because only the thought of another sweet power bar made me nearly vomit and once you vomit in an ultra race, it’s game over.

   • So the solution to this should be fairly simple: More of the delicious self-made tahini-molasses mix on bread and having more of the vegan pizza bread at the check-points.

3. Hydration in the last ~20 kilometres

   • It was dark and very cold in the last part of this ultra trail run event. So I thought, I’d like to get some tea at the last check-point to warm me up a bit which helped. But my next idea wasn’t one of the best ones. I thought I’d fill my water flasks with warm water (which was there to make tea) instead of the cold water so I would keep warm in the last section of the challenge. Well, I have to be honest: This warm water tasted disgusting. I mean absolutely disgusting. Just try a lukewarm tap water from a flask and you’ll know what I mean.

   • Again, once you vomit in an ultra race, it’s over because if you can’t keep fluids or food inside, you’ll run out of energy quicker than you think. So instead of risking a DNF (= did not finish) because I can’t keep the fluids in, I decided not to drink anything for the last ~20 kilometres. It was tough, honestly, and I knew that I’m also risking dehydration which would also mean DNF but since it was in the middle of the night and the sun didn’t burn down anymore, it was the right choice for me in this moment.

   • I’m still not sure what exactly I can do about it next time. Probably trying out some other fluids or perhaps even tea in the flask? I don’t know yet and that’s the exciting part: I am going to figure it all out in my training runs so I know for sure what’s working for me and what’s not. If I’d only could give you one advice for the event day, it’d be: Don’t try out anything new on the event day.

If you’re interested to know what challenges I’m going to approach next, go check out my challenges & races section. And if you’re inspired and would like to start working towards on of your goals but don’t know how, just get in touch with me and we’ll figure it out together. Working with me means you’re not only getting a highly personalised nutrition and training plan but I’ll support you in making time and space for it in your daily life. The MindFuelBody concept is all about adapting your habits and lifestyle in a holistic, healthy and sustainable way so you can live a long and fulfilled life.