Introduction to Overnight Running

‘Tis the season for making lofty goals and putting steps in place to achieve them! If multi-day running adventures have peaked your interest, but you aren’t sure where to start, or you’ve already experimented with it and think there is room for improvement, look no further. We’ve asked a couple of DPMR’s finest overnight runners to share their strategies for making overnight adventures a success.

Renee Jacobs started backpacking over 20 years ago and most recently refined her system for overnight running while doing reconnaissance trips on the Sierra High Route for her successful Fastest Known Time (FKT) run this past fall. Her engineer training/mindset promotes geeking out on the details and optimizing systems.

Helen Pelster has completed two FKTs on the Tahoe Rim Trail (TRT) over the past two years, which both required sleeping in the elements overnight. Helen, like Renee, is an engineer and loves the planning the gear aspect of overnight adventures. More importantly, she recognizes that packing for overnight gains you better access to beautiful mountain environments.

Food

If you start to weigh the items in your pack, you will quickly discover that food makes up most of the weight! For this reason, it’s the biggest candidate for trimming. One strategy is to get by with less. Training your body to burn fat more readily helps a lot here. Some people do this with a keto diet, but this is controversial and not recommended for most athletes. Another strategy is fasted running, but note that some research is now showing that this can be harmful to female athletes (check out Trail Runner’s article by David Roche for more on this.)

More widely accepted approaches include simply doing long runs or any runs that leave you in a glycogen deficit (check out the Science of Ultra podcast “Finish Low” for more on this.) You can also lower the intensity of your runs to stay in the fat-burning zone, so you need less carbs on a run.

In addition, if you start calculating the caloric density (weight per calorie) of foods you like to eat while running, you will quickly discover that running foods tend to be the least dense because carbohydrates are heavy relative to the number of calories they provide. Foods that are higher in fat get you better bang for the buck. And if you don’t think that your guts can handle things like nut butter and honey sandwiches, start bringing these fattier foods on runs during training, which will train your guts to tolerate such foods, even while running.

Here are specific fueling strategies from our athletes:

Renee Jacobs “As an engineer, I am fond of spreadsheets… So I created a spreadsheet that tabulated macro nutrients and caloric density for a variety of foods that might be taken on an overnight running trip. This helped me discover some real winners that are now staples for overnight running trips, such as:

• honey stinger gluten free stroopwaffel (122 cal/oz)
• instant mashed potatoes in a Kiinde pouch (122 cal/oz)
• Maurten 320 drink mix (107 cal/oz)
• potato chips with sugar (118 cal/oz)
• peanut fudge such as Mantecol, Nucreme, De La Rosa, or homemade (130 to 145 cal/oz)

You can save a lot of weight by opting for a “cold camp,” and leaving the stove at home. But if you aren’t quite ready to be that extreme, the SnowPeak GigaPower stove and titanium cooking/eating gear is my go-to for saving weight and room in the pack. Either way, for dinner bring a lot of calories, especially fatty foods like olive oil or sausages, to pack in the calories at night without risking G.I. distress. When I have a stove, instant bone broth powder in dinner is mandatory for the protein boost. A massive hunk of chocolate for dessert always makes it into my pack, which happens to have a great caloric density (151 cal/oz). Granola with soy milk powder (125 cal/oz) and instant coffee is my go-to for breakfast and works whether or not you have a stove.”

Helen Pelster “I’m lucky to suffer numerous food sensitivities in addition to Celiac Disease, which means that I can’t tolerate gluten. What’s so lucky about this? I’m used to a limited variety of foods, and I utilize this in my trail fueling strategy, by packing lots of the same, simple foods.

For example, below is my spreadsheet for 2 very full days (75 miles and lots of technical vert) in Yosemite last Fall. I was able to eat most of the food, and finished the adventure feeling strong.

	Qty	Weight (g) per unit	Weight (g) total	Calories per unit	Calories per g	Calories per oz	Calories total
Food
Stinger Chews, pkg	6	54	324	160	2.96	83	960
Gel, single	5	33	165	100	3.03	85	500
Dates	4	100	400	277	2.77	78	1108
Pili Nuts, 1/4 cup	2.5	32	80	210	6.56	184	525
Plantain chips, 28g	6	28	168	145	5.18	145	870
Mini-Beef Sticks	4	15	60	50	3.33	93	200
Waygu Jerky	8	28	224	100	3.57	100	800
Total			1482				4963

Running Pack

When you start running with heavy loads, the pack becomes all that much more important. The wrong pack will make running impossible and uncomfortable. Here are our athletes favorite running packs:

Renee Jacobs “Although the front pockets are not as large as I would like, I really love the Salomon XA 35 for overnight running. It makes running with loads in the upper teens comfortable and relatively easy.”

weight = 537 grams

Helen Pelster “I have an older 20-liter Salmon pack, which works great for me thanks to the ample front pocket access, including space for two 750-ml soft flasks. I also use a really dorky waist pack for front access to my water filter. I don’t want much weight on my waist, but it’s perfect for the bulk of a water filter that needs to be handy. You really want to minimize accessing gear in the back of your pack.

The key to any pack that you choose is to test it running with the full weight you’ll be using on your overnight explorations, this will help expose potential chafing and gear access issues.”

weight = 433 grams for the backpack and 89 grams for the waist pack

Sleeping System

If your goal is to actually sleep relatively comfortably, rather than have an uncomfortable bivy that demands you wake up after a short while and get going again from the discomfort, some thought (and typically some dollars) have to be spent here. There are a lot of ways to approach sleep systems, and some might be inappropriate in certain situations like rain. Here are our athletes thoughts on sleep systems:

Renee Jacobs “I try to avoid doing a trip during bad weather so I don’t have to bring a tent or bivvy. The other big key to my current system is to use the layers I am carrying anyway to augment my sleeping bag. I use a Feathered Friends Vireo UL Sleeping Bag, which weighs only 15.5 ounces and packs down really small. It has a 45 degree rating in the upper half and 25 degree rating in the lower half. I wear all the layers I brought while sleeping, including my Patagonia Nano Puff Hoody jacket (10.8 oz) and spare socks on my hands, to augment the reduced temperature rating in the upper half of my bag. Some minimalists forego a pad, or use a portion of a closed-cell foam pad but I find that the NeoAir sleeping pad is absolutely worth the weight (12oz). Not only is it comfortable, but it has a great R-value, so it keeps you warmer. And finally, a polycro ground cover (1.3oz). I learned the hard way that a ground cover is really important (if you are using an inflatable pad). This system works great for overnight temps in the 40’s and higher.”

Total weight = 28.8 oz (not including jacket)

Helen Pelster “Let me start by declaring that I’m a fair-weather adventurer. If it’s going to rain, then I usually don’t go. I use two different sleep systems depending on the weather and my mood. My simple system is a sleeping bag so thick that I don’t need a pad. I find it very comfortable under the stars, but it wouldn’t be good in humid or rainy conditions. My deluxe system is as good as any tent, IMHO, and I used it on my first TRT FKT as well as numerous astrophotography overnights since then.

The simple system is a very warm synthetic ultralight sleeping bag, a custom Convert APEX by Enlightened Equipment, the Hoodlum sleeping hat, and a ground cloth. For the deluxe system, I use a custom down sleeping quilt (also by Enlightened Equipment,) along with their Hoodlum and Footies, an insulated Sea to Summit inflatable sleeping pad, and an OR bivy.”

Total weight for the simple system = 1026 grams or 36 oz / Total weight for the deluxe system = 1796 grams or 63 ounces

Final Thoughts

Renee Jacobs “One of the biggest PIAs are bear bins. There’s really no way you can run with a bear bin in your pack. Ursacks are much lighter and more compact, and are approved storage containers in most areas in the Sierra. An even lighter option? Sleep with your food. I put my food in the scent-proof bag liner from my Ursack and use it as a pillow at night. Not for everybody and don’t tell the ranger I told you to do it.

Because phones are so darn heavy but possibly the most important thing in your pack when you-know-what hits the fan, I’d never leave mine at home. But if you are travelling in a group, you might consider only taking one for the whole group. I love my 2.2oz Palm phone. “

Helen Pelster “Unlike Renee, I didn’t come to backcountry camping until later in life. If you don’t have experience backpacking, you might consider practicing hiking and sleeping outdoors rather than making a huge overnight run your first experience.

If you’re going on an audacious adventure, be sure to to practice with your fuel and to train with your full pack weight. A lot. It’s easy to spend all winter dreaming up gear and route ideas, but don’t forget to get out and make it happen!! That, after all, is the whole point. Have fun and Happy 2021!!”