Carbohydrate Per Hour in Ultra Running: 90 vs 120 Grams with Paul Booth

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Episode Summary

Paul Booth, sports nutritionist, exercise physiologist and PhD researcher in ultra-running metabolism, is back on Mikkipedia, straight from UTMB week in Chamonix, where he raced OCC and worked with elite athletes. Mikki and Paul pick up where they left off a year ago, talking about how much carbohydrate trail and ultra runners actually need. Paul shares results from his own blinded field study comparing 90 g and 120 g of carbohydrate an hour over 55 km. It found no difference in total time, climbing or descending, but every runner had more gut distress on 120 g after about four hours.

They also cover how Paul builds race plans from lab testing, training files and years of race split times, and why he thinks faster ultra times owe more to better training environments than to race-day fuelling. He explains the everyday gaps he sees most (refuelling after training, protein at breakfast and meeting total energy needs), and why age-group runners may do well starting nearer 60 g an hour and building only if they need to. Paul is careful to say his findings apply to trail and ultra running up to the distances he has tested, not to cycling or triathlon.

Key Topics

Paul's OCC race: just over 11 hours on a hot day, fuelled at about 60 g of carbohydrate an hour, completing his set of UTMB ultra racesCaffeine at the elite end, including a CCC podium athlete who took far more caffeine than planned while racing through a knee injuryLab testing in heat and altitude chambers to find each athlete's gut ceiling, and using race modelling to find where carbohydrate can come down as well as upWhy Paul thinks faster ultra performances are driven mainly by more professional, strategic training, and why over-fuelling on race day adds nothing but gut issuesThe risk of pairing very high in-training carbohydrate with "burgers and pizza" to meet energy needs, when fruit, vegetables, fibre, iron and micronutrients still matterThe most common everyday gaps: delayed refuelling after training, too little protein at breakfast, and under-eating total energy on high-volume daysWhether 120 g an hour is justified: Paul sees elite intakes settling around 100 g, and reported high intakes are often overstated once discarded gels and bottles are countedPaul's 90 vs 120 g field study: no significant difference in time, climbing or descending, with a consisten