The art of the backyard Ultra.  I have personally run a lot of ultra marathons. I had a bit of time off running and training. But this year I have gotten back amongst it. 
I was at the very first backyard ultra in New Zealand. The riverhead BYU. I participated but did not compete. I think it was later that same year I also did the Blue lake 24 hour challenge , completing 100km in a fairly similar style event. 
This year though. I started training again and after a few months had the opportunity to enter and compete in the inaugural Kings BYU in Northland. What a great event. I managed to clock up 100km . Now the nutrition aspect can be a make or break. What will work and what will not. what is the goal and how best to achieve it. There are always so many factors to take into account and, to be honest even the best laid plans can fall to pieces on the day. 
Here's my 5 tips .
1) Stay on top of your nutrition from the start. Its impossible to play catch up in a backyard ultra and one bad loop is all it takes to wreck your plans. So start on your first loop and stick at it. 

2) Keep your nutrition as varied as possible early, as the loops and hours accumulate you will feel less likely to have variety and may completely go off some foods. You will be grateful you started with some choice and it will hopefully delay any flavour fatigue you may get when later you can only stomach a few options and your crew is starting to annoy you .

3) To help with preventing gastro issues keep your choices low fat and low fibre. Carbs are king during the event. Get them in you and regularly.

4) Make sure that you have trialed your choices during your long runs in the lead in. All long runs for the month or so prior should be treated as a dress rehearsal for the real deal. 

5) Have options including liquid options , as the event goes on it becomes harder and harder to stomach food , it can be hard to have enough moisture in your mouth to chew. have easily chewed, moist ( I said it) options , have liquid options. 

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​Alot of the time you will hear what nutrients are shown to be lacking when following a plant based or vegetarian diet.
News flash "normal diets " are generally always lacking in nutrients for any given population too and often unhealthy in other ways like highly processed foods.
Don't get me wrong, you can follow a plant based diet full of highly processed foods too, it's not an automatic pass into being a health and well being guru .
No matter what dietary regime you follow for what ever reasons, it can be healthy and meet all your needs if your mindful and informed.
Get advise and take into account your specific needs. Then get after it.
https://www.facebook.com/HamishJohnstoneNutrition/
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OK, so I love Pancakes and I love pizza so I try and incorporate different versions of these into my diet and into my training. So here is a vegan friendly version that does not consist of odd or hard to find ingredients that you can whip together in no time and they are pretty YUM too. Yee har. 
What you need: 
2 cups of plain flour
2 cups of fortified soy milk (cause B vitamins OK, may need more just to get it to a good pancake batter consistency) 
4 very level Tablespoons of baking powder
2 Tablespoons of sugar (carbs for your muscles OK)
2 Tablespoons of oil (what ever you got OK)
A wee bit of salt to taste (1/4 teaspoon) 
1/2 a cup of pea protein ( optional or put some good protein option on ya pancake after)
Whack all the dry stuff in a big bowl, dig a little hole on the middle and put all the liquid stuff in, then mix her up! Heat up a non stick pan , maybe a lil oil before each pancake. If you want to get specific use a 1/2 cup measure for each pancake. Should make about 10 solid sized pancakes and they come in around 25gm carb and 10 gm protein per pancake.
This is a great option straight after training to kick start refueling your muscles glycogen stores and is a great amount of protein to begin that muscle repair and building after a tough session. Alternatively take some for a long training session or to get ready for a training session if you don't want to stomach something heavy, they're low fibre so easy on the gut. 
I make them and save some for the next day! They have passed the kids taste test too.

It was a Sunday and it was time for me to get out and complete my long run. I had been busy at work in New lynn finalising different things for the week ahead. I usually carry everything I need in the back of my ute keeping all my stinky running and training gear very separate from the cab. Today I was running out of time I really wanted my run to be about 30km, so I grabbed all my gear, got changed and sorted out what nutrition I may need to take. Lately it has been pretty cold so I haven't needed much hydration (lower sweat rates) during runs and have been able to get away with not taking much fluid. However I knew for a 30km run I was probably going to need some decent carbohydrate during it, to get the most out of the training......I was a bit unprepared. I found one Gel floating around the cab! Maybe I could get away with this. Time was really running short. So I threw the gel in my pocket and took off from the office. Everything was going great. At about the one hour mark. I started to feel it, I know that feeling, that ebbing of energy, but I was only about 12 km into the run.... I didn't want to use my only gel just yet. Then I thought I could just go into the gas station further up the road to replenish, as a dietitian I would be able to put something together from the servo offerings. Then I remembered I had taken all my bank cards out of my cell phone case so they didn't get sweaty ! DOH. SO I had my gel and continued on. Needless to say I really started to feel the lack of energy by the half marathon mark. I got back to my office with 30k under the belt having consumed one gel. So my next best thing to do now was REALLY make sure I got good Post training recovery nutrition in ASAP. The first 60-90 minutes after exercising is when the body will be most effective at replacing muscle glycogen and facilitating muscle repair through protein uptake. SO I jogged to the supermarket. Now what to get fast?. I am a vegan so it cuts out a lot of handy options I could have grabbed like low fat creamed rice!, a lean meat option from the deli and some bread, 330ml of  flavoured milk.... But I ended up looking at the chocolate soy milk , 500ml of this would give me 44gm Carbohydrate and 15gm protein in liquid form, fantastic. Plus it tastes great. Bonus it would help with rehydrating. Sometimes you cant always be prepared but if you know what you need you can still make do in most situations. Getting that post training nutrtition in means helping to make sure my body is adapting how I need it to and keeping me in good shape going into the next training week. 

So 8 weeks ago, I DNF’d the Tarawera 100 miler pulling the pin at 102km. Roughly 18 hours running. I had been training for 10 weeks and hadn't run for the year previous. To make matters worse I possibly was the most disorganised for a run I had been…..like I can be disorganised but it verged on ridiculous for that run. I wont go into it much but what little chance I had of smashing it I undercut with bad prep.
Coming into the ROF I had another 8 weeks training under my belt so was already in a better position. This time I decided I would make sure I did all the little things I often didn’t before a run. So I forced myself to get an earlier night (last race I had less than 4 hours sleep 2 nights in a row). I got to registration earlier in the day dropped in my drop bags (although I did leave my race bib there and had to go back and get it doh! Luckily Ali Squadrun co comander and coach had seen it and gently reminded me that I may need it for my run).
I got to the earlier race briefing and managed to make a vegetarian tiki masala nom for dinner then back at my tent, I organised all my stuff before I jumped in bed and laid it all out like I see other runners do in their pictures ( maybe I am a proper ultra runner when I do that?) . Last race I didn't have much sleep, no breakfast ,couldn't find much needed vaseline and made it to the start line seconds before start after running across a field to get there! 
Morning of: This time my alarm goes off at 3am, I get up, get dressed (wow this being prepared makes things WAY smoother in the morning, must do it again) Jesus this thermal long sleeve top is tight! Feel like I should be a mime doing interpretive dance right now. No time to change it. I probably should have checked that before, ah well. I have some toast and a coffee and walk down to the start ! Feeling incredibly accomplished at being on time and having had breakfast hahaha I am thinking wow what am I capable of with sleep, breakfast and being on time…..its a good day so far and it’s not even 4am! The mighty Chateau is bustling with nervous excitement and has a giant Goat to boot ( I do not think we are allowed to actually boot him). We have a karakia then are told wave one goes first then wave two….I ask they guy next to me what’s this waves business he tells me wave one is fast runners, wave 2 slow runners. I figure I am in the middle, so wait for wave one to end to slip to front of the next…..but its actually just one wave of continuous runners so I jump aboard the train and we are off. This is it, head light on and we are running. 
4AM everything lit by headlamps, the air is crisp and we soon hit single trail with an ebbing pace which I keep telling myself is a good thing because I have a long way to go but I just want to fly. I decide to try do a facebook live stream from my phone so I can enter the competition worth 2Grand where you tag #ROF but I can not figure out how to do it while I am running single track in the dark! Arghhh I will try later. It doesn’t take long to hit the first hut and I’m slowly falling into a rhythm and the trail is starting to thin out. I'm getting a little warm so try to roll up my sleeves to my elbow but this thermal only makes it halfway up my forearms, its sucking my will to live! ahh it will do. I decide to chuck on my play list that I meticulously made the night before the race, to keep me revved up. But my headphones have only one side working and its coming in and out so sounds like I am listening to my favourite band while deaf in one ear and they're performing on the other side of a motorway! Wel...jungle…got...games…..everything…..how….names….to the…..shananana…. I listen to it like that for way to long for any sane person, then my headphones just die, part of me with it, I had the most epic play list ever…..I ponder how many of the songs I can sing and what order I would have listened to them. I am just going to have to entertain myself then.! God damn it that play list was the business too. I start singing (in my head). Even my mind voice needs lessons. Why did my headphones forsake me! Now the suns coming up and the pastel colours over the volcanic terrain is insane! For some reason I think of vanilla and I decide I want a vanilla Gel, they’re in the side pocket of my vest and I keep trying to open the zip , but my hands feel strangely numb….they're not working properly any more…..weird as its not that cold. Whats going on with these hands then. I look down at them. I nearly run straight off the trail in shock! They have doubled in size….generally I have monster banana hands any way, but that Thermal top is so tight all the fluid in my body has pooled in my hands leaving me a lumbering husk of a man with sausage fingers. ! I try to make a fist….its impossible and painful. I pull the thermal down try to stretch the sleeve to let blood flow occur and keep moving, intermittently making fists to check and see if the swellings going down….its not but its not getting worse, I have scissors in my pack and I may have to cut the sleeves off. Will I have to cut my hands and let the fluid seep out to releave the pressure? Its too soon to make that call. I will see how it pans out. I have an ultra to run. Soon I am running along board walks and can see the beautiful cascade falls in the distance, another hut goes by, then the climb up the amazing cascades the beauty of the falls distracts from the quad burning of the climb, then more climbing with less distraction up toward the road and I see a sign that the aid station isn't far written on it “ first leg done, see that wasnt hard was it , just 2 more legs to go “ love the puppet master. It actually has me laughing out loud. Chris Townley is a funny guy. And then I hear a laughing from the road above I look up and I couldn't tell but I think chris was sitting having a laugh at us all reacting to the sign! Gold! I've made the first aid station as I try to reload up my bag with my sausage fingers discreetly without horrifying anyone who may witness the marshmellow man hands fumbling gu gels as quick as he can, its comical, its entertaining me.
Leg 2: It is running down hill on road for a bit and I am weary of smashing my knees too bad, at 86kg with a few kg in my back pack, I know I am putting a lot of stress on them and I need them good for a bit more yet! I decide this is a good place to try that facebook live business again after a few minutes of bumbling around everything but Facebook live, I give up on it I am feeling like this should be easy and I am just not getting it! I will try later. So I facebook call my wife instead, to say hey, that I love her and that I just finished leg one. Soon enough we turn left into bush and are flying along I find a good rhythm and decide to pull out my poles to conserve my knees and legs as much as possible for the far more runnable 3rd leg. I am looking at my watch and its telling me my pace so far is good enough to get in before dark, yusss, that's the goal I set myself, get in within 14 hours Ring of fire has 3 different ribbons for the mens 72 finish, under 10 hours gold, before dark volcanic red and within 20 hours blue. I came out 6 weeks ago and had a go at the course and it took me 18 and a half hours self supported, but I am sure I can do 14! I've had 4 more weeks training since then, so surely I can do it! Surely! I have a habit of thinking I will do way better than I actually do, but I lOVE the push to try. Plus I always have the back up or contingency goals. This race it was goal 1) Finish before dark. 2) Finish before 20 hour cut off 3) Finish after cut off. Only way not to is be physically pulled from course! In the description of the course this second leg is described as the second hardest. I actually think it is the hardest, not just because we hit it with a solid volcanic half marathon on the legs , but it is soul sapping going through the volcanic valleys, through the desert region. Each valley seems to get bigger and bigger and the will wanes. And each time you get to the top the wind is intense. We are lucky we have great weather, this section will be absolutely brutal with some higher winds and rain. It is through this section that my over all pace slips , making it look a lot tougher to get in before dark. But it is also this section where I seem to pass a lot of people especially in the relentless steep climbs and descents. All that rock hopping on the coast and running up Piha road in training has paid dividends. Finally I see a bus on a road and know that Tukino Aid station is only a few km away!
3rd Leg:
I dont hang about long at the Aid station, load up some more Gu Gels scull back 500ml fluid, fill up both my soft flasks, put on my squad run cap and shades and I'm off my watch says about 9 hrs and 45 minutes. Another down hill from the aid station and I am feeling good, relay runners intermittently fly by. Its relatively flat and the terrain is very runnable and I can see I am pulling my over all pace back in! Yuss I think I can make before dark if I can sustain this for the whole leg…...but anything can happen. Once again I fall into a good rhythm, my hands have finally gone back to they're natural gorilla hand state I can finally start waving at trampers as I pass by without them thinking I have the foams hands on from a League game. Strangely this makes me feel pretty good. I can feel a few niggly blisters going on, my face is feeling a little burnt and wind burnt but my legs overall are holding up. I am running in Hoka oneone speed goat 2’s and they have really helped my legs stay fresh. They have felt amazing on the climbs and great grip and cushion while I smashed rocky descents! I am pretty stoked with their first outing on an ultra for me. Before long I pass the last hut and know its only another 15ish km to go, 15 fast becomes 10 and I have been passed by some speedier 72ker runners, hauling my 86kg plus pack weight means I'm usually not the fastest gazelle in the pack on the flats. I get into feeling a little flat now and start concentraing on how tired my legs , so I pull my glad bag from my pocket, in it is a note I wrote the night before “pain is temporary, glory is forever , MOVE” yusss sir. I move. I catch a glimpse of the chateau its so close but so far and it disappears again. The last few km of any race I have been in is tough,this is no different its like my body knows the end is close so just wants to stop and have a nap, its a constant mental battle. I've slotted in behind another 72ker who is keeping a good pace, I know he doesn't want me to pass and to be honest I don't know if I have it in me. We run together silently. Soon we are told … you've got this 2.5km to go, go get it. Its up lifting and he picks up the pace so do I and I stay with him. More glimpses of the chateau and with less than a km to go a couple of guys see my running buddy pass, then as I approach they say” are you going to run him down ?...I reply man it would seem mean plus I don't think I can. And then I think Come on Hamish lets go , I get an adrenaline kick and I let fly, up past him, finally, onto the road a lil zig zag and I am there running into the finish line to see coach Ali from Squadrun who gives me a big hug and my Volcanic red before dark medal. Officially finishing in 13 hours 18 minutes. Then I get a another hug from Coach Kerry. I am stoked and I am spent. It was an amazing adventure on an epic new Ultra in a place I love. As the adrenaline wears off and fatigue sets in I creep off back to my tent for a curry and coke and to rest my legs.
Note: a roof top tent with ladder access was exciting till the day after the ultra and climbing in and out involved contortions and weight placement very unique on smashed post Ultra legs.
ere to edit.

, I think the Some of you may know that earlier in the year I decided to enter an Ultra Marathon. Not just Any Ultra, The Hillary. I chose The Hillary because over the preceding years I had tramped different parts of it at different times, because I started surfing along the coast line that it trails, because I basically live on it , because I felt drawn to do this one. Because I got brought up in the area that it traverses. I'm not sure whether its a good idea to, not actually be a runner and, not really have run for 3 years at all and enter a 80km Trail run with 14 weeks to train , but I did. I really didn't have much of a clue about training for it. I had run a very bad and flat marathon 3 years earlier and then stopped running having supposedly ticked that off the bucket list, I had entered the Auckland half marathon to help raise funds for diabetes in Nov 2015 but I actually only trained for that for 2 weeks. And hurt my knee during the event, but when I saw The Hillary Advertised I knew ! The time was NOW! Bad knee, no training and 14 weeks to figure it out! I like the sounds of that and so I started . I found a plan on line to follow that seemed pretty good and told myself my number one rule in training for this would be “make it to the start Line” . So many times I have heard or seen people talk about training for an endurance event but never make it to the start line because they don't listen to there body and push it to hard to soon. My training plan was pretty simple 3 runs in the week Tuesday through to Thursday basically 14km, 8km, 14km . Monday and Friday were rest days and I was suppose to do 2 long runs in the weekend and slowly build them up till a peaked a few weeks before the event .
Its assumed that you are running 50-80km a week before you start this plan. Obviously I wasn't. So I did what I could and built into it, having a bung knee made sure it was impossible to run too much and my first two weeks I managed 32 km total by Sunday, I truly believe the sore knee saved me from over doing it . The following week I managed to up it to 69km. My knee had stopped aching by then. This is where I needed to start to figure out , Nutrition and Hydration . How was I going to do it. How was I going to manage the long runs (20-40km) and how was I going to make sure I was fuelled enough for the event it self. The first thing I decided to figure out was my hydration. My next blog will discuss this!  

When I was younger it wasnt something I ever gave thought to. Now though …..well, I am a dietitian so I suppose I should think about this kind of thing. Should I eat for my surfing ? Will it help ? How? Annnnd will it make me a better surfer ?

These tips are just general advice and so are the food suggestions, for more specific or tailored nutrition get in touch with me or any other qualified dietitian. First things first, you have to have fuel if you want to go the distance ! Now when I surf I generally hang in till the bitter end, till I cant feel my face/feet anymore or until the waves have become so bad …..Im forced to belly ride in on mush, because Im trying to maximise my surf time , to maximise my wave time, to get better.

1) Fuel up before you hit the water , dont fill up.

Try get some good longer acting Carbohydrates in their. You want to last the distance and do not want your arms turning to jelly while your caught on the inside or battling a rip to stay in place.Im usually in the water 2-3 hours on average. I usually surf on the New Zealand west coast which means lots and lots of paddling! Which in turn means burning up fuel. SO before you hit the water make sure A) your hydrated and B) you have fuel on board. I like something easy because a lot of the time Im hitting the water first thing in the morning, I dont want to be too full but I have to have that energy.

Heres some ideas :

• Porridge with a toppping of fruit and seeds
  
  
• Muesli (homemade means you can customise it)
  
  
• Toast with banana and peanut butter
  
  
• Weetbix with fruit topping
  
  
• Poached eggs on a couple of slices of toast
  
  

2) Keep hydrated , it will stop your performance fading

It will keep you sharp, why…..because all the research says so! The effect of the sun, the salt water and the exercise will sap the fluid right out of you! So make sure you have fluid to sap, hydrate. This includes when you get back out of the ocean, take water in your wagon.


3) Eat well, when your not surfing

To maintain your weight . Not just for health and heart and fitness. But because surfboards cost a bit of coin and we both know a few Kg difference makes all the difference to how your board responds in the water ! Dont sink !Eating right for surfing will make it easier to maintain the weight you want to , I mean you dont want to get to big and no longer fit your new multi hundred dollar wettie, Figure out what weight gives you your best performance with your equipment and try and stay around that by eating well. Watching your portion sizes and keeping the junk food to a minimum. Remember alcohol carries a fair whack of calories too.

4) Post surf snack!

Be prepared , it makes all the difference to your next surf . Restock your fuel stores (muscles ). So you can be out smashing waves for your 2nd or 3rd session of the day ……..well at least the next morning anyway .Ever get back from the water and devour everything in the house ? Or alternativly not get a chance to eat but feel fatigued for your next session?

If your a devour everything kind of person , at least your body is telling you , refuel! But you want to get the right food in at the right time (the sooner out of the water the better). You want to help your muscles repair so including protein is good and you would have depleted your glycogen (fuel) stores in your EPIC ALL TIME session so you need to replace them and research has shown the sooner you do it, the more efficient it is. If your like me and most other surfers, you are probaly heading back to your car so your limited on what kind of epic cuisine you can really create. Preperation is the key here.

Heres some ideas:

• Some dinner left overs might do with a mix of protein and Carb…..like tuna and rice or a stir fry , Peanut butter Sandwhiches
  
  
• Flavoured milk
  
  
• low fat cream rice (YUM)
  
  

Will it make you a better surfer? Well No , not directly. But it will help you surf longer, help you get out for more sessions and reduce your fatigue…….so eating the right foods at the right time can help you maximise your surfing to help get you hit your goals! Got any other tips, let me know in the comments . 

So here's my first update. One week into my training and weightloss. I have managed to do a 5km run on Monday, followed by a 6.5 then a 6 km run. I went away for the weekend but kept active. Although no running. I came back to Auckland midday Tuesday and manger to go for a ten km run that night. I glad because my endurance is now slowly building. I haven't really had to change my eating much around the running because I'm not running for very long yet and not very often. But I am making sure I keep well hydrated. I have made a conscious effort to reduce my portion size at dinner and any unneeded snacking. Just as a tweak I cut sugar out of my coffee. I weighed in this morning On my scales at 87kg exactly. So that's a little over 3kgs weightloss and I'm well on my way to my goal running weight of 80kg!

This weekend I hope to build my long run to around the 15km mark.

Ok, I have not put anything in my blog for a while. I've been rediculously busy lately doing work for the DHB, doing work for Diabetes NZ and seeing my private clients....... Let alone all the time for family and recreational pursuits.

I decided to enter the Auckland marathon this year, I did do it last year..... Which was my first ever distance event. I completed it but had not trained enough. I promised myself that I would try again next year but train better...... Well I'm 13 weeks out and have effectively just started training! Ah well :)

So first things first, running that distance and putting in the km ill need each week will undoubtedly take its toll on my body and legs. I need to be lighter to reduce that toll. Last year I ran it weighing about 90kg. This year I've decided that it would be better to be 80kg. So my goal will be to lose 10kg in the next 13 weeks.

I started my training and weightloss on the 5/8/13. Ill keep this blog updated with my progress both in km and kg haha.

It is such a different beast to deal with this.......long steady aerobic exercise in regards to fuel as oppose to anaerobic.

But I have my plan and my goals. So onward we march.

Monday I ran 5km , Tuesday I rested, Wednesday I ran 6.5km and jogged 1.5.

The aim of the game is to make it to the start line injury free, rack up km each week and get to the best running shape I can in 13 weeks. This is going to be tough, but nothing good is easy and ill have fun trying.