While nutrition strategy is often placed at the heart of preparation for an ultra-trail, its role is considered less fundamental for a short trail. This is a mistake, because in these hard-hitting formats, the effort may be shorter but it is much more intense, requiring nutrition adapted to the fact that it calls on specific energy sources other than those normally used in endurance events.

Thibaut Baronian, one of the world's top marathon trail athletes and 3rd in the Golden Trail World Series 2021, shares his advice on how to succeed in this very special trail format. It's an effort that took him a long time to get to grips with, between his chaotic beginnings on the distance in 2011 and the masterful performances he's racked up since 2018, but it's an effort that he's now mastered, to the point where he's harbouring great ambitions for this 2022 season, which got off to the best possible start at the legendary Zegama race with a 6th place finish, and a 5th place in the Mont Blanc Marathon.

Maratrail? Thibaut Baronian has excelled at it, so here he shares his diet advice and nutrition plan to give you every chance of achieving your own goals!

MARATRAIL TIP NO. 1: ‘THE ART OF MANAGING YOUR EFFORT

‘In these formats, if you start out too fast, you'll fall apart after the 30th kilometre, and if you start out too slow, you'll never see the leading pack again. The idea is therefore to find the ‘right group’, the one that will stay with you for as long as possible at this pace, which is admittedly uncomfortable but not unreasonable. In this respect, trail running is certainly the discipline where effort management is the most complex. You have to know how to flirt with the red zone, without ever entering it completely. Except at the end!'

MARATRAIL TIP NO. 2: ‘WHEN RACING, USE A FLEXIBLE FRAMEWORK RATHER THAN A STRICT NUTRITION PLAN’.

‘With experience, I've learnt to read and listen to my sensations. When I race, I don't have a scrupulously defined nutrition plan. I don't have a plan that I conscientiously repeat for each race number because it worked the last time. I know overall what works for me and try to create a framework where I can repeat this formula, but with a certain amount of flexibility: that of being able to improvise at any given moment.'

MARATRAIL TIP NO. 3: ‘AVOID HAVING DIFFICULTY CHEWING’.

‘This advice may seem extremely banal, but we often tend to overestimate our ability to take the time to chew during a fast race, where the pace and excitement are very different from what we experience in training or on an ultra-trail. As a result, you either skip your refreshments or digest them badly. On a maratrail, the pace speeds up gradually, so I start with energy bars and then switch to compotes halfway through the race. It's nothing like what I ate during the CCC of the UTMB, where after 11 hours of effort, I took the time to eat the small salad of rice, tuna and olive oil that I'd prepared beforehand.

MARATRAIL TIP 4: ‘BUILD UP YOUR ENERGY RESERVES IN THE FIRST 2 HOURS OF THE RACE’.

‘One of the mistakes I made when I started was to start eating when it was already too late, when I was already exhausted, when the tank was empty and hypoglycaemia was on the way. Eating early in the race, at fairly close intervals over the first two hours, helps to preserve the small reserve of energy that you'll be able to draw on at the end of the race, so that you don't ‘hit the wall’ straight away. When I feed every 30 minutes from the start, I often get that exhilarating feeling of being able to step on the gas during the second half of the race.

MARATRAIL TIP NO. 5: ‘THE CRUCIAL MOMENT AT THE 30TH KILOMETRE

‘A marathon often settles down between the 25th and 30th kilometre. This is the pivotal moment. It's at that moment that you decide whether you're going to run the great race, the honest race or the failed race. But when you're fully committed to your effort and your strategy, you tend to forget to feed yourself for lack of time or lucidity. I've learned to reconcile the two. Take on an attack or grit your teeth to keep up with a group, while keeping in mind that I'll be eating my bar or compote the next time I can stall.

MARATRAIL TIP NO. 6: ‘SUPPLEMENT YOUR NUTRITION WITH A DRINK RICH IN CARBOHYDRATES AND ELECTROLYTES’.

‘Marathon format trail running requires you to maintain a high level of energy consumption. So I supplement my intake of energy bars and compotes with an effort drink rich in carbohydrates and electrolytes. With experience and training, I've learned to dose it according to the weather conditions on D-Day, so that this energy drink is sufficiently dense in terms of intake while remaining thirst-quenching. ​

Our expert nutritionist, Benoit Nave, explains:

‘In terms of hydration, I personally recommend simplicity: water. Ideally carbonated and mineral. In particular Saint-Yorre, which is enough, along with our bars and compotes, to give the athlete everything they need to perform!​

MARATRAIL TIP N°7: ‘ADAPT MY NUTRITION AND RECIPES TO THE WEATHER CONDITIONS’. 

‘At the start of my career, I admit that I was rather nonchalant about analysing the weather conditions before the race. I paid for it in cash, particularly in 2015, at the Mont Blanc Marathon, where I threw myself on the buffet at the 30th km, the fault of a superb hypoglycaemia coupled with hypothermia. Since then, I've been a stickler for this and try to think ahead. If it's hot, I prefer compotes to bars, and vice versa if it's cold, because depending on the weather, chewing gives me a stifling or comforting feeling of warmth. I'm also careful about the recipes I choose. Specifically, in Zegama, if it's hot, I'll opt for the Raspberry-Strawberry-Basil or Pear-Apple-Mint compote. If, on the other hand, it's cool and damp, I'll opt for Banana-Kiwi-Vanilla and Sweet Potato-Carrot-Timut Pepper.

MARATRAIL TIP NO. 8: ‘DON'T SURPRISE YOUR BODY!

‘On a day-to-day basis, I adopt what I consider to be a healthy and responsible eating pattern, based on a number of simple and intuitive principles: eat seasonal, organic produce, eaten as raw as possible. I don't change a thing before I go shopping, because on the contrary, the worst thing would be to surprise my body.​

MARATRAIL TIP NO. 9: ‘THE WORST MISTAKE: LOADING UP ON CARBOHYDRATES ' 

‘Carbohydrate recharging is a popular concept, and rightly so, but it shouldn't be over-interpreted. I've seen riders who stuffed themselves with carbohydrates at the famous pasta party the day before, thinking that was the ideal time to build up their stocks. It's the 3 days before that that really count. In that time, I'm vigilant about providing a portion of carbohydrates at each meal, but without going overboard, almost as usual. What's more, my pre-race dinner turns out to be fairly sober. Generally, rice; a few steamed seasonal vegetables; a veggie steak, tofu or white meat with soya or curry cream; an Omega 3 rich oil; and off to bed!

Our expert nutritionist, Benoit Nave, explains:  

‘Like Guillaume Adam at the marathon, Thibaut is doing well to decline the invitation to the famous pre-race pasta party. In this way, he can avoid the gluten-laden refined pasta that will be served up and which will upset your intestines just a few hours before the start.

MARATRAIL TIP N°10: ‘THE SACROSANCT BREAKFAST’.

‘Flexible and intuitive about the rest of my nutrition, breakfast on D-Day is certainly the point to which I pay the most attention. If I'm out and about, for a competition far from home, I might even pack what I need in my suitcases. This is to make sure that 3 hours before the race, I have the breakfast I'm used to: my muesli, my oilseeds, my almond purée, sourdough bread, eggs or a source of protein, fruit and tea’.

©Pierre Ezcurra - Pierre Antoine Boillon - Justin Galant