A team of researchers from Liverpool John Moores University undertook a series of studies looking into the nutritional requirements of recreational athletes participating in hill-walking/running events. Whilst sports nutrition is a growing field, most research has focused on elite athletes competing in high intensity sports of short duration. Little has been carried out to discover the optimal nutritional strategies for events such as mountain marathons.

Appropriate nutrition is essential for optimal performance in exercise and failure to provide sufficient nutritional intake may have an impact on the occurrence of physical and mental fatigue and therefore affect performance. This can also lead to an increase in the risk of injury and incidents occurring, especially in adverse weather conditions or when navigating in poor visibility and travelling over rough terrain.

The studies looked at the diets of a range of hill-walkers/runners participating in an endurance event (the Longmynd Hike being one of these) and compared them to measures of physical and cognitive performance.

The results of the study are now available here.