 Good article - I'm going to hijack for a food question I have.
I'm doing an event in a few weeks time and am wondering what food to take. I'll be walking up to 50 miles over 48 hours carrying 40kgs and probably without sleep. Anyone got some suggestions as to what I can eat to keep me going?
Whatever I eat I will have to carry, so it needs to be fairly light. It obviously needs to be high energy but also appetising so that I can force it down after 40 hours when I am knackered.
Currently looking at taking fruit loaf, dried fruit, ginger cake, flapjacks and some chocolate bars. I will also be binge eating beforehand to stock up on low GI carbs.
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 That sounds like fun, but I'm more interested in where you got your image. Did you make it up yourself or find it on your cybertravels?
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 Hi DP
In July I did 100km (62.5 miles) non stop, no sleep etc. A few tips...
Take a huge selection of stuff, even if you only have small amounts of everything. I found that what I actually fancied when dog tired and freezing was very different from what I thought I would want. To the extent that I would let my support crew know I wanted X as I passed a checkpoint, but by the time I got there I fancied Y.
If you have a support crew for your event this is easy. If not, you may have to eat what you take, sadly.
Probably my "favourites" were:
peanuts
chocolate coated raisins
organic seed bars (more moist and tasty than cereal bars)
mini snack size dairy milks
more nuts!
For the first 8-10 hrs I did fine, eating nuts and raisins while walking, grabbing cheese sandwiches at a checkpoint etc. However, after 18 hrs I had stopped caring, and was subsisting on a diet of nurofen, pro plus, glucose tablets, and Lucozade Sport! (yes, yes, I KNOW this wasn't healthy but it was only for the last 6hrs or so) I really couldn't face anything else, and wasn't hungry. I was drinking cast amounts of water though, so make sure you have some means to re-fill your water.
I'm also interested in what event you are doing, do tell :)
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that should have read "vast amounts" in the last post.
Ohh and add the tiny packets of mini cheddars to the favourites list too!
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I've done a couple of long endurance events and have a few tips:
Drink little and very often. You can keep going without food if you really have to, but if you dehydrate you'll grind to a halt. Consider getting a 'bladder' system like a Platypus or similar.
Energy (carbohydrate) drink is good, quite dilute though, as the doggy says. You might find that after many hours of drinking it you can't stomach it anymore. Some people find that certain energy drinks upset their stomach, best to try out before the event.
Don't expect to be able to eat sweet food all the time. My stomach rebels at the thought of more sweet stuff after a while - take plenty of savoury things.
Defizzed coke is great for the last couple of hours, assuming you don't have to carry it for the whole event.
If you aren't stopping to camp, do you really need to carry 40kgs? What event is it?
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 When I am planning a long caving trip, I usyally "bulk" up beforehand because cavers are obviously limited as to what they can take on a long trip underground.
Even when walking, I tend to travel light.
I usually have a pasta meal the night before, and a light porridge brekfast on the morning. I have taken to those "Oats so simple flavoured ones of recent and I had toyed with the idea of taking them with me ready made up in a stainless vacuum flask.
Generally though I find the "bulking" the night before and the light porridge breky fills me with slow release carbs and sustains me for the day with the lightest of "snacks" en route. I have to qualify that of course with the fact that being a "grandfather" now means that my metabolism is much slower than it once was and perhaps I don't need as much to sustain me as I once did !
;-)))))
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 Brown Ale in the platypus, then? ;o)
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Oh don't you start !!!!
;)))
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My non-drinking father used to have a small bottle of brown ale at Christmas for a treat. I had a sip once.
Yuk
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 Hang on a minute.
You're going to be carrying 40kg?
What the chuffing heck for? Or is all your outdoor gear green?
Amphetamines, I think. You know it makes sense...
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please tell, which event? why the 40k's?
good luck.
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 You are clearly bonkers. After 30 miles try nibbling at the little men dancing inside your wrists. The voices will tell you what to do after that.
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