Dietetic-nutritional planning for an ultra-trail of 115 km: case report

Abstract

The ultra-trail is an endurance sport that involves walking and running with extreme slope changes. The course of the competitions will be by tracks and unpaved roads, trails, ravines, etc. The importance of dietary-nutritional planning lies in the prevention of nutritional problems such as dehydration or hyponatremia, gastrointestinal problems, fatigue and hypoglycemia. The aim of the study is to plan the diet of an athlete to achieve the optimum nutritional levels to approach an ultra-trail of 115km. This case report presents 26-year-old mountain ultramarathon runner, resident in Alicante, with 3 years of experience in sport. He ask for a nutritional assessment at the nutritional service of the University of Alicante (Alinua), where dates were collected to perform a dietary-nutritional intervention to improve his body composition and cope with the mountain ultra-marathon in Castelló-Penyagolosa, which will take place on 04/21/2017. Dietary-nutritional planning was divided into three phases: pre-conditioning phase, pre-competition phase and competition phase, in which dietary-nutritional recommendations for endurance athletes were followed. The athlete successfully performed the event and adhered to the planning, with the exception of some modifications. Also, he did not manifest any problem. Nutritional counseling and planning are key to in meeting the target of the competition without endangering the health of the athlete. To improve the sporting results, several factors must be taken into account, as the profile of the athlete, the characteristics of the event, the provisioning opportunities, the sports equipment, etc.