Very excited that UTMB week coming up.
The fields in all of the main races is absolutely stacked with best trail runners.
Got a feeling Jim will win UTMB this year.
Very jealous of @p00key who will be there first hand
Would have been there myself but for the fact that Mrs T told me I had to go to a family holiday in Anglesey instead - yay 
I really like his channel and it’s the only one I’m a patreon member of. I get much more value back than the £5 p/m I pay
Before UTMB fever takes over, I wanted to ask about fueling for the Arc, potentially. I never seem to get my fuelling right but am getting it better.
Hydration wise I go ok on one bottle filled with water and the other with a SIS tab in it and then a chewy salt tab every hour. The salt tabs may no be enough but I find every hour is traceable and easy to stick to, otherwise it just goes very random.
For the Arc, and possibly Wendover Woods 50 in Nov, I’m thinking of getting some calories in via drinking. Theory being with cold, thick gloved hands, will I be inclined to ignore unwrapping food/ de-gloving etc. I know I’d have to eat at some points but at least with calories in the bottle, something is going in when I’m tired, cold and it’s dark.
Any thoughts on where to start with this?
Not quite that distance but when I did Dukeries 40, I worked backwards from rough time (5 hours) at 200-250 kCal per hour so worked out what 1200 kCal looked like in gels, some sweets for something interesting and a couple of drinks.
One thing that worked well for me both in terms of calorie density and a boost was I got a can of monster energy drink. Opened it 24 hours in advance and let it go flat then put in a 500 ml bottle that got passed at half way. Pretty much downed it in one. 500 ml hydration 250 kcal and a good hit of caffeine all in one so covered a good hour of kcal’s. Obviously energy drink taste might not be for most but I like it and am sure most those energy drinks are of a similar ilk
As per other threads an option could be to put some gels in a flask and water it down, then drink that more water to dilute further
Thanks. I was thinking about something like Tailwind, or something I can easily replace with a stick type sachet but haven’t really got much further in my thinking than that.
I guess my question is, how do you effectively eat in a cold winter ultra?
Zipvit gels used to have a lot of grams of carbs and were quite tasty
Yeah good point. Zipfit were what I used as my ‘bomb’ for IM
A UTMB insta post implied they are sticking with wave starts for a lot of the races next week, I’ve not seen which wave but my ranking puts me around 820/2300!
Trying to reduce the density on the course. Probably not a bad idea, can’t imagine many sprint finishes for position 
So everyone has different cut offs?
It’s not clear but I’m guessing it’ll be over 30-45 minutes so won’t have a big impact on the finish line as it’ll be open for the full race.
Edit, just had an email.
3 waves every 15 minutes from 9, I’m in wave 2, so doubt we’ll catch people in front for a long time, if at all
Just got to get out there and start practising with it I guess. See how your body reacts.
When I did the Arc I didn’t use any liquid calories from memory. Had the usual junk in my pack and then ate the hot food at each aid station. Was my first 100 though, and I deffo spent too long at each aid station.
In subsequent ones I’ve severely limited sit down time (if any) and just gone for a more ‘grab and go’ type approach backed up with 1 flask of liquid carb at each water station.
Brecon was too much to go for a predominantly liquid strategy, and I think caused my ultimate downfall (ankle injury aside). 13 hrs on NC I think represents my limit on the predominantly liquid strategy.
I’m sure I’ll do a 100m again some time. I’ll have 2 types of liquid cals so as not to get bored, but I’ll supplement with much more real food in the pack.
Good points mate thanks. Just reading this book about the Arc and the guy is tucking into sausage and chips at the aid station. I’d never leave! 
Dug this out FP. Don’t know if any use to you?
I’ll read it myself later. Be interesting to see how I read it with today’s knowledge compared to 2018.
Precision Hydration do a 90g bomb.
Answer:
I’m definitely MUCH more blase about 100 milers now, and have very much demystified them in my head. I think it’s easy to forget how hard this stuff is when it’s been a while since your last race though!
That was a great read, thanks mate. I am pretty nervous about the climb up to Minnack. Stephen Cousins filmed it and it looks fucking terrifying!
Saw this , thought he did much better than Timothy Olsen considering he didnt have a camper van to sleep in every night and hot meals . Talk about hardcore.
Wow - that is a fantastic feat of endurance