Ultrarunner Courtney Dauwalter has a one of a kind approach to nourishment, education, and even gear—she races in a signature type of basketball shorts and a saggy T-shirt—and obviously, it’s performing for her.
Considering the fact that 2017, the 35-calendar year-previous has been all-in on her operating occupation. In 2018, Dauwalter gained the Western States 100-miler, then in 2019, went on to gain the famous Extremely-Path du Mont-Blanc (UTMB) race in France. Even 2020 couldn’t hold her back again: In October, she raced the lapped-class Big’s Yard Ultra, operating a whopping 283.3 miles in 56:52:29.
“Normally, I’d have quite a little bit of vacation for racing and training,” Dauwalter tells Runner’s Globe. “And this earlier calendar year, I hardly flew at all. It was pretty fun, although, to get the possibility to just take a look at my property trails and be in this article a little bit extra.”
When it arrives to nourishment, a person detail is crystal clear: It takes a ton of fuel to cope with her teaching load, which ordinarily involves at minimum a pair of hrs on the trails around Golden, Colorado. “I would describe my look at on food items as just wanting to take pleasure in everyday living fully,” she claims. “And for me, that is eating and consuming points that seem fantastic and flavor great, and not really stressing about it.”
Below, the ultrarunner shares how she fuels with cereal, nachos, mashed potatoes, and stuffing.
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A Working day in the Lifestyle
A standard coaching working day would start off with two cups of coffee with a French vanilla creamer, and some handfuls of dry cereal—usually just straight out of the box. My go-tos are all the sugar cereals, and proper now, that indicates Cinnamon Toast Crunch. And then I normally get going with my schooling. I’ll do any where from 30 minutes to an hour of some gym stuff, which is just hip activation and some glutes and core—basic bodyweight things.
And then I’ll head out for my main run of the day, which is generally someplace concerning two to four hours. For the duration of that, I’ll have Tailwind Nutrition—lemon or bare flavor—in my hydration bottles and Honey Stinger waffles or chews. On some shorter operates, I may possibly have nothing. And then I’ll get again and normally, I just seize no matter what foods is easy and effortless in the fridge.
Later, I’ll go operate with my spouse when he’s done functioning. And then we’ll have evening meal with each other. My lunch might be grabbing veggies and hummus or some fruits out of the fridge, and our dinners generally will have a great deal of veggies in there. But I’m not counting or maintaining monitor of any of it.
I believe everyone gets to navigate their possess path nevertheless they want to. If persons want to be holding track of sure items, or subsequent selected eating plans, and that would make them satisfied, then that is great. But I never obtain joy in that. I do not have a coaching strategy. So occasionally I’ll go away the dwelling with a hydration vest stacked for a genuinely extended run, and then I only make it an hour that day or just one mile that day, and then I contact it for regardless of what motive. So at times my planning for the operate does not match what the run in fact is. I just try to hear to my physique, my mind, how all the techniques are operating, and then let my feet dictate a good deal of what I do for training.
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Experimenting With Nacho Toppings
Usually, we’re really standard with our nacho toppings. My spouse and I are huge on hoping them at diverse eating places, though. 1 I distinctly don’t forget was at a brewery: It was pulled pork nachos, and it arrived on this round pizza pan tray, just piled significant with barbecue-themed stuff—lots of jalapeños, veggies, and layers of cheese. We have really gotten to see the selection that is feasible on nachos.
Then, currently being dwelling so a great deal this yr, we started out taking part in all around with it. And on Thanksgiving, we did not want to make a feast for just the two of us, so we had been like, “What if we nacho this issue?” Thanksgiving foodstuff are all greater blended alongside one another, so this is just putting them on chips with the melted cheese. How can that go wrong? And it turned out seriously fantastic! I highly advocate it. We begun with blue corn chips and Colby Jack cheese, and additional ground turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, sweet potatoes, fried onions, dried cranberries, gravy, and jalapeños.
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Imagining about new nacho thoughts weirdly occupies very a number of miles of my working pondering. We’ve talked about breakfast nachos or dessert nachos, and what these could glance like. Also, Mediterranean nachos could be pleasurable to check out with feta and some olives.
If I had to select the very best nacho toppings, of training course, you have to get started with cheese. Then clean jalapeños, pico de gallo, guacamole, and ground beef. Just after that, that is when you get to just appear in your fridge and see what you have. Any leftover veggies or any random frozen veggies or canned veggies—all of that is reasonable activity when putting jointly your nachos. So use nachos as your fridge cleanout.
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Mashed Potatoes to Gasoline 100+ Miles
The evening ahead of a race is commonly pizza, just mainly because basically, any place you journey in the globe, you’ll be in a position to uncover it, and it’s very predictable in its elements. But I’m not tremendous hooked up to anything or picky about it.
On the early morning of a race, I do just espresso and typically no meals. Then when the race commences, I’m by now digging into my pack with all my goodies. It’s various, but that is just how I have been performing it for a while and I like it. It feels like I’m telling my belly what we’re executing that day if the foodstuff is just coming in a gradual drip.
For me, I’ve dialed in my race nutrition via a good deal of trial and mistake. I have observed a handful of items that appear to continually operate for me, and in the course of a race, I’ll only try to eat and consume those points. So I preserve it definitely seriously very simple during an ultra: Honey Stinger waffles and chews, and then mashed potatoes. I make them the day right before with just immediate mashed potato powder and load them into these reusable newborn food items pouches so I can drop them in my vest and have them with me out on the path. It is these kinds of a straightforward meals, and you really don’t have to chew! The point that stops men and women from consuming through ultras is their mouth and their gag reflex, but you can get mashed potatoes down no subject what.
At Big’s Yard Ultra in October, the tempo that you are managing at and the period that you hope to previous for can make it a minor distinctive for fueling. I did my basic principles of Tailwind, Honey Stinger waffles, and mashed potatoes, but then I experienced to incorporate in a whole lot a lot more real meals. I was hungry and my stomach was not receiving jostled that substantially due to the fact my rate was pretty chill, so I additional in gnocchi, pancakes, and one point, anyone ran to McDonald’s and acquired some double cheeseburgers and french fries. I believe the most shocking and mouth watering addition we experimented with was Stovetop stuffing—it’s just essentially spiced bread, but it was seriously good.
Finish Line Beers
Truthfully, I normally crave beer at the finish line. And then, frequently, savory nonetheless seems fantastic. So maybe a handful of several hours right after a race, I’ll have a pizza or Mexican meals. Whatever is easy is commonly the winner. I pick my beer seasonally, so in the summer season, I’m all about the pale IPAs—the lighter consuming stuff. And then these days, with the chilly, it’s been the Sufferfest stouts and dim beers. For me, any beer goes with nachos, so I pair my beer far more with the period than the meals.
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