Nutritional Revolution Podcast

From Course Records to DNFs: Adam Kimble Talks Lessons & Strategies in Ultrarunning

• Season 6 • Episode 184

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In episode #184, we bring back pro mountain runner Adam Kimble to talk about his incredible year of racing so far, including breaking course records at Badwater Cape Fear 50k and Outlands Endurance Races 50k, winning American River 50 miler, and most recently a DNF at Cocodona 250, and the strategies he employed, dealing with injury, and lessons learned.

Key Points:

  • How to adapt training and nutrition for different race lengths and terrains.
  • The importance of race simulations
  • Managing sleep deprivation
  • The significance of course familiarity and learning from race DNFs.
  • Practical tips for hydration: fluid strategies, salt intake, and hyperhydration protocols.
  • Upcoming races and injury management

Adam Kimble is a professional ultrarunner, race director, motivational speaker and running coach from Truckee, CA. In 2016, Adam ran 2,500 miles over the course of 60 days to cross the USA on foot. Subsequently, in November of 2016, he successfully completed a 60-day journey alone in the wilderness of South America to become winner of Discovery Channel's survivalist show, The Wheel. Following that adventure, Adam set two prominent Fastest Known Times (FKTs): in 2017 he became part of the first duo to ever run self-supported on foot across Great Britain (Scotland, England and Wales) while summiting the highest peak in each country along the way; and in 2020, he set the supported FKT on the Tahoe Rim Trail—a 171-mile circumnavigation of Lake Tahoe.  Most recently in 2025, Adam finished 4th overall and ran one of the Top-10 fastest times ever at the historic Badwater 135.  Adam's life mission is to push himself past his perceived limits and achieve the impossible. His calling is to share what he has learned and help others grow in their journey so as to push through the ceiling and achieve their own 'impossible'.

Please note that this podcast is created strictly for educational purposes and should never be used for medical diagnosis or treatment.

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Hello everybody and welcome back to the Nutritional Revolution podcast. This is Kyla Channell your host, and today we have for you guys a returning guest for the third time, Adam Kimble and he is a professional ultra runner, race director, motivational speaker, and running coach from Truckee, California. in 2016, Adam ran 2,500 miles over the course of 60 days to cross the USA on foot. Subsequently, in November of 2016, he successfully completed a 60 day journey alone in the wilderness of South America. to become winner of Discovery Channel's survival show, The Wheel. Following that adventure, Adam set two prominent, fastest known times, FKTs. In 2017, he became part of the first duo to ever run self-supported on foot across Great Britain, Scotland, England, and Wales, while summiting the highest peak in each country along the way. And in 2020, he set the supported FKT on the Tahoe Room Trail, a 171 mile circumnavigation of Lake Tahoe. In 2025, Adam finished fourth overall and ran one of the top 10 fastest times ever at the historic Badwater 135. And this year in 2026, he's won the Badwater Cape Fear 50K, the historic American River 50 mile, and the Outland Endurance races 50K. He most recently told the line at Cocodona 250 where he unfortunately DNFed and we talked to Adam about that journey as sometimes our DNFs can provide the greatest insight into what we need to do next. Adam's life mission is to push himself past his perceived limits and achieve the impossible. His calling is to share what he has learned and help others grow in their journey. So as to push through the ceiling and achieve their own impossible. This is always a fantastic and fun episode whenever Adam's here. Loved it, always learn a lot. So enjoy the episode. Hey, you guys, before we get into the episode today, I want to tell you something I'm really excited about. On June 2nd at 5 PM Pacific, I'm sitting down live with professional ultra runner Dani Moreno, and I want you in the room. We're calling it Fueling for Success. And here's why I think this one's going to be really special. Dani's heading into Broken Arrow 64K at the end of June, right in the heart of summer race season. And if you're gearing up for something big yourself, whether that's your own A race or something like Western States, this is the conversation you want to be a part of. We're going to talk about how Dani's fueling ahead of a key mountain race, how she handles hydration and gut training at the pro level, how she navigates recovery and injury setbacks, and what actually shifts in her nutrition when race season gets close. But honestly, the biggest appeal here is access. This is your front row seat to speak directly to a professional ultra runner and ask her your personal questions. Not a panel, not a webinar where you're muted the whole time. This is a real conversation with Dani and I'll be there too sharing how we've worked together from the sports nutrition side. So you're also getting a peek behind the curtain of what an athlete and nutritionist relationship actually looks like in practice. When you reserve your spot, you can also submit your questions ahead of time so we can make sure they get answered. We're capping this at only 15 people. That's intentional. This is meant to be intimate. Early bird pricing right now is $67 and it goes up after that. So don't sit on this one, you guys. Grab your spot. The link is in the show notes. I'll see you on June 2nd. Welcome back, everybody, to the nutritional revolution podcast we have for you guys. Returning guest, Adam Kimble. Thank you for joining us. Yeah. And this is this our third pod with you. Sweet. We will link the other pods in the show notes with listeners. If you guys want to go back and check those out, it's always a fun convo when we're when we get to chat with Adam. This one's going to be a real fun one. But before we do that, Adam's got another set of two truths and lies. So we're gonna, I'm super pumped you like remember to do that. So, and are up to do it a third time. So I'm gonna let you break those down for me. Okay, I thought just to mix it up this time. thought this would be cool So a couple months ago was the 10 year anniversary of when I ran across the US so I was like, know what? I'm gonna do a a trans con Two truths and a lie themed one. So here are the three. Okay when I was running across the US I officiated a wedding When I was running across the US I passed somebody going across the US in the opposite direction And when I was running across the US, an entire middle school came out to cheer me on. I feel like that probably definitely happened. I hope it did at least. um And you know how I do it I always like but I think the best way to do it is the the lie is a version of the truth, you Yeah. I mean, I yeah. Could you pass on to go in the opposite direction? I think that's possible officiating a wedding. If that's true, I want to I so badly want to hear the story behind that. Like, was it did you like coordinate to be a certain place where someone one of your friends getting married or something? How much time did that take out of your cross across the United States? but that also could be very hard to like pass somebody going the opposite direction. Do you have to do the same route or like how do you determine that? No, generally, like, you know, I was trying to break the record at the time and I didn't, the typical, both with FKTs and things, I guess this is technically an FKT, the sort of rule of thumb, and you don't have to do this, like the rules don't explicitly state this, but the general rule of thumb is following what the person who has the record did. But when it comes to like crossing the US, you can kind of do whatever you want, so, yeah. Okay. I'm going to say that the. kind of want the first one to be true, because I want to hear that story. So I'm to say the middle one is the lie that you did not pass somebody going across the US in the opposite direction or crossing the US as well in the opposite direction. But we'll find out at the end of the episode from our listeners. We are for our listeners to who are maybe listening to this after the fact. We're recording this in on May 19th, 2026. And so. Adam, you just came off of American River 50 where you crushed and then, and you, was that a course record, or course record at the Outlands endurance race 50K, right? Yeah, so I ran in like a six month, or six month, in like a six week period I ran the Badwater Cape Fear 50k, American River 50, and then Outlands 50k. And won all of those, set course records at the 250ks, but not American River 50. Holy smokes. That's incredible. Congratulations. Yeah, thank you. It was a good start to the season and I was feeling really good. And then, then we have Cocodona. Do you want to tell us about Cocodona? as well. ah No, but you know this, like, the thing that I love about endurance sports is that they can teach you so many things and um in this case for me it was just a matter of I was going into it knowing that I had some, a little bit, I was a little bit physically compromised and I didn't know to what degree that would impact me. um And what's interesting is that I think like, If it had been a 100 mile race, I think I probably would have been okay. Because I was close enough to 100 miles before things started to kind of go off the rails. But in a 250 mile race, you know, it's hard to hide from those kind of things. yeah, ultimately I have several issues going on with my hips and it kind of got to a point where it was really inhibiting me. And what's interesting is that at the time that it was happening, my wife told me, she's like, I saw a look on your face that was kind of like, it's like sometimes if you're in a position where you're fighting through something and trying to overcome it, it's like that looks a certain way or that is a certain way. And my wife has seen that in me many times, you know? But in this case, she's like, I just knew this was different. Like this was just your body wasn't functioning correctly. And there was no, like, I didn't have to try to battle through what do I do. It was like, I don't really have a choice, you know? ah So was tough, but it was also, I was glad that I gave it a shot because I felt like if things held up, I felt like I could have done something really special there and we can get to this later, but I do, I'm going to return to Cocodona because I still believe I can do something really special there. ah So hopefully return with a fully healthy body and see what happens. Yeah. With those races in the six-week window, mean, and crushing those, do you, and then having Cocoa Donut shortly after, were you feeling any of the hip stuff in the prior races? So interestingly, no, that was the other thing. I had some, like I've been dealing with these hip issues for a few years now, but it's kind of been like on and off. I had a little bit of a flare up before Badwater, which we talked about last year, but then during the race was okay. um And then kind of took some time after that race to like reset and then train for several months and was feeling good. And I think it's just, you know, you know how it is. There's like, you can reach a certain point where something isn't aggravated, but then if just the repetitive nature of hours and hours and hours can finally catch up to you, and I think that's just what happened. Yeah. Well, let's talk about, I do you want to start with Cocodona and finish with the American River? Or do you want to start with American River and go the other way? Okay. So having had that volume under your belt going into Cocodona, I mean, were you, were you feeling, did you, do you feel really ready or did your body feel like it had recovered from those prior races? Yeah, so I definitely felt like I had recovered and part of it part of the like racing those So closely to the big race was I was trying I I had already been having some like there was some question marks in my brain about is my body going to hold up for this just because like I said the last couple of years and knowing that there's been a lot of ups and downs and So I was sort of using those as like a little bit of a litmus test and I know it kind of goes both ways right like you can do that. Like it was actually instilling confidence in me because the races were going well. But at the same time, I also know that that could have also positioned me a little bit worse for Cocodona. And it's just, it's hard to tell that. And I've done it. I've like, I've experimented with this stuff over the decade plus that I've been running professionally, where sometimes I'll go into a race having not raced anything else for months beforehand. And sometimes I feel the need to get on a start line and test some things before doing that. And so, Yeah. I think each situation is different and it can depend on what your needs are within that season and that particular race. But for me, I really wanted to test a few things and see how it held and then it held well. But I also was fully aware that a, you know, American River 50 was like six hours and 40 minutes, knowing that like I would have to go 50 to 60 hours more than that. There's just no way to simulate that, you know? rate. So that was the tough piece. I did go up, like I mentioned this on social media, but in the days leading up to the race, I was kind of waffling back and forth because on one hand I was like, I feel like I'm gonna have to get really lucky for this not to be a problem. ah So do I even start the race? But in hindsight, I actually am glad that I started it because it was a good chance to see that basically the first hundred miles of the course, know what to expect for the next time I come there. ah while it was like a tough pill to swallow, not being able to do it, I came there to do, was also a really good learning experience. Yeah, certainly. mean, and this was your first coca-dona ever, right? Yeah. So thinking about coca-donuts, terrain, temperatures, distance, when you're doing your races that you've done leading up, you like, like you're saying, trialing different things, nutrition, pre-race prep? Like, are you doing anything different that you were wanting to have as a tool for coca-dona that would be different for the shorter distance stuff? Yeah, you know, I was trying to sort of replicated how, I mean, I was running at different paces than I would have been during Coconona, but everything else nutritionally, I was trying to do the way I felt I would need to do it during Coconona. ah So in that respect, also like, I love that too, it's just like, I was like with the athletes that I coach, I was referred to it as a dress rehearsal, right? It's like doing a race like that as an opportunity for you to spend however many hours replicating what you hope to do. for a longer period of time at the next one, And so that was the intent too. And all of that stuff went well. felt like nutritionally I was on point. And actually like during coca-dona, um like energy, other than the hips was good. um And so from that perspective, again, it's like I'm encouraged by the way the beginning of it went. um And now it's just getting this one thing fixed and then. going back and giving it another shot. Yeah. So talking about running different paces, does that like for the American River 50 versus Cocodona, do you decrease your intake per hour for a slower pace or are you keeping it high because you know you're going to be out there for that much longer? Yeah, so um great question. I generally for like a longer effort, I will decrease the amount, but my strategy for coca-dona was initially to start at a higher rate and then sort of taper throughout both from like a standpoint of knowing that over the course of time, it's going to be harder for my gut to continue taking in that much, but also because the coca-dona course and in hindsight, know, so after the race, I basically like A few days after the race, was sitting with a sports medicine doctor at the University of Nevada, Reno, talking about next steps. And he was asking me questions about the race and I told him the first, so it's interesting, for a 250 mile race, Coconona is very runnable, which is something that is exciting to me. Like it's my style of a really long race. But what's interesting is that not quite a third, but basically a third of the vert of the entire race is in the first 50K. Oh. So you climb 10,000 feet in the first 50K of the race and there's only 35 or 36,000 feet total for the entire 250. So when I told him that, and with the hip stuff, he was like, well, that would have blown up your hips right away. Just the, you know, the ascending specifically. um But to get back to your question, part of that too was knowing there was going to be gnarlier terrain. That was another reason to increase the carbon take. So I was kind of thinking, To get specific, in my mind I was thinking like 100 to maybe 120 grams of carbs per hour to start and then slowly taper that throughout the race and probably later on in the race be in the 60 to 80 range maybe. That was the thought and I never got to the 60 to the 80 part, ah but it was going well for the first many hours. Nice. And are you doing that like 100 to 120 in America, like American River distance or? Yeah, nice. usually, and I've been doing that, like, for a while to know, and it's not that I don't never have gut issues, but I've done that enough that I feel I can handle it pretty well. And so, and for me, it's always a mix of gels and like a hydration mix. I usually do a high carb mix so that like, it's just always easier for me to drink a bunch of the carbs than it is to eat them. Yeah. And so I'll kind of do gels in and drink, but leaning heavier into the drink side. Yeah, what do you um do like a neutral flavor? Do you try and mix things up for like savory versus sweet or what do you go for? Yeah, I try to keep it neutral or like low flavor if I can but then if I'm drinking something that's like a little bit sweeter than yeah I try to offset actually sometimes I'll in my um like card mix I will sometimes throw in um like a salt tab or something to like spice it up a little bit and that actually helps me um and yeah it just kind of like makes it feel a little bit different because over the course of like many many hours the sweetness as you know can become a problem. So I just try to limit that as much as I can. Do you do anything, like I've heard of em different athletes doing minty chewing gum or trying to brush their teeth in the middle of a 100-mile or 250. I've heard like a couple cool things that people were doing. Those are a couple of them, but I'm trying to remember if any others come to mind. But do you do anything like that to help like the palate and I don't know, just like the teeth feeling? Yeah, the brushing the teeth is a great idea. And then I actually the chewing gum thing, too. There's a there's a gum that I will use specifically in races like this called run gum. I think it was actually you've heard of it. Yeah, it was started by Nick Simmons, who's a former Olympic runner. But it's a it's just a caffeinated gum. But it's like mint flavored and does a good job of kind of like cleansing the palate so to speak and making it feel a little better. But yeah, I do feel that it's at least for me, it's important to oh kind of ah sweep that the sugary feeling away because it can cause ah some GI distress or just like get in your head like I can't touch anything sweet anymore. Yeah, for sure. Certainly. um With the hydration, so we talked a little bit about carbs, carbs per hour. Are you, how are you thinking about like fluids and how much you're wanting to target per hour for Cocodona versus like American River? Yeah, so again, the general my general rule of thumb is for something that's gonna be like so much longer and at a lesser pace I usually tone things down from what I would normally do so Just purely based on the speed that I'm moving at when I'm you know running a 50-mile race It's I have to be intaking a lot more salt liquid all of it and actually American River 50 was a kind of like sneaky hot day, which historically for me, those have been the days that I've handled the worst because um like, for example, when I run a bad water or a Western States or like a desert race in my head, I'm like, this is going to be scorching hot. You've got to be, you've got to absolutely be ready for this. When it's like 80 to 85 degrees and it's hot, but you weren't really like thinking it was going to be quite that hot. Those are the days, you know, it's like, those are the days that catch me off guard. So. So I actually in like the second third of AR50 I had like not full on cramping but like the muscles were starting to tense up a little bit and so I had to sort of over correct, get in more salt than I had been taking, got back to like a good bass line and then maintained it from there. ah But yeah, generally for me, know, I'm kind of like... Depending on if it's like a hotter race. I'm like over a liter an hour of water like up 40 ish ounces usually um But coca-dona actually the beginning of the race was weirdly cool that race that race It's been different in different years, but typically it's pretty warm the first day and This year was like great. It was like cloud cover. It was great so so I was able to intake a little bit less than normal, but Yeah, I think for me, even if I'm taking in less, like being around a liter an hour is usually pretty good for me. Yeah, yeah. Do you like in preparation, do you do any hyper hydration like that morning or the day before at all? I tried to do the day before. was pre-hydrating the day before as my go-to. I mainly, in the morning of, usually a few hours before the race, I'll try to take in a bunch. I just don't want to get to the start line where I feel like I have to pee right then. ah But I do the couple days before, I'm like, fluids, fluids, fluids. I always feel like the way I think of it is you're going into this thing and if you're already topped off, at a really good spot, then it's gonna take you a lot longer to get to a bad spot. So that's sort of the mentality I take into that. Yeah. any salt the day before too? Yeah, nice. I just saw at a conference there was a new like hyper hydration protocol that they're shifting towards. It was in cycling, but endurance cycling. I feel like it could work for runners too. It was shifting to the morning because they were saying when they were having athletes do it the day before that they were peeing too much of that fluid volume out. interesting. And so they were having them do, it was 20 to 25 milliliters per KIG fluid with 3000 to 5000 milligrams of sodium two to three hours before start. Yeah. Like I think they said it increased blood plasma volume by 40 % or something crazy. mm-hmm. Yeah. So, and it's, I mean, it's like 3000 milligrams of sodium in like a liter for most people. Like when you do the math or a little over a liter. But I think like I've had a few of my athletes tested and it seems like it didn't increase the P like P output because the sodium was so high. So, yeah, I would test it. I'd love to hear if you test it. also to your point, cycling has historically kind of been the predecessor to ultra running. It feels like they test all the stuff. When it works, then it trickles down to our sport. Totally. Yes. Yeah, there's not like it's yeah, you're totally right. Like the tour, like Tour de France, right? It's like that's kind of where a lot of this, think, started and then and then, it's evolving. So but I did have one of my runners. He tested it on race day. I him not to test it on race day. Did it anyways. But all that to say is he came back to me and he shaved like an hour and 45 minutes off his prior race time. Yeah. nice. going to say like 14 minutes or something instead of an hour, 40 minutes. I was like, all right, you go. He was a very heavy sweater, too. So hyperhydration worked really well for him. But. Yeah, I'm also a pretty heavy sweater and that's something that like I would I would try that on race day. I'm usually like don't mess with you know, don't mess with new things. But because I take in like especially in these races, I take in a lot of salt. That's something that I would feel comfortable doing because I it would be fine for me, you know. So but it sounds like. Yeah, exactly. That's great, though. for coca-dona. So yeah, so thinking about coca-dona, like something that is multiple days, like carb loading. you like, you're going through that. yeah. I mean, if you did do it, if you did carb load, do you try and carb load for something like that? Yeah, again, a little bit different than I normally would because it's more like, ah it's just such a longer thing that in my mind you've got to make a lot of more like in race adjustments than you might otherwise. So yeah, my mentality was like, I'm going to carb load maybe not to the degree that I normally would and then just focus on making smart decisions within the race ah because it just feels like... It's all about just like trying to keep things as even keeled as you can and slow burn for a very very long time. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, totally. Do you, how do you think about like sipping in eating or I mean, you get some of your calories right from your drink mix, but are you trying to sip every 10 minutes or like what's your protocol when you're out there? Yeah, so even when I'm like focusing mostly on hydration for calories, I'm still trying to eat something like every 30 minutes, whether it's a gel or something else. And then, yeah, sipping every five to 10 minutes ah and just trying to keep it as constant as possible. Yeah, again, I just feel for stuff this long, I feel like the best thing that you can do is to try to... maintain just a steady intake. ah And so that was my mentality was just never have any valleys, just be constantly trying to keep yourself at a certain level throughout the entire day. Yeah, certainly. Did you get to a point at all in Cocodonto where you needed to do any like external cooling stuff? Okay. Not really. Again, it totally like I was totally prepared for that and did quite a bit of heat training leading into the race and then it ended up being like really cool that first day. yeah, so so didn't like didn't have to use ice at all. There was a little bit there was actually one in that first. So in the first 76 miles, you only see your crew. Twice and the second time is at mile 76 so from the start you see them at mile 30 like five and then you don't see them again until 76 and so in those two sections particularly the first section there was one stretch where Even though like the cloud cover was good. It's just have been like a long time and they actually it's funny they there's a at one point there's a at different points on the course they have a water capacity Mandate where they say you have to have the capacity to carry this but then at two at two points they make sure that you are actually carrying that amount of water and The capacity is four liters, which is like so much water But what's funny is that in both of the spots where they had us leave with four? I ran out of like close to the aid, but I ran out of water both times. So It's just like long stretches with a lot of climbing so slow and then if it had been hot, I mean I would have like run out faster, you know? uh So, yeah. I was thinking when you said one aid all the way or one crew visit. So yeah, so you're starting out with four leaders at the start line to that crew section. they at the start line you just had to have the capacity so I didn't actually I know I did start with four liters So I I told because that I think it's like mile seven. That's where they make you There's from mile seven to where there's like a huge stretch and that's where they make you carry the four liters But I just thought to myself it's seven miles I'll be carrying a little more weight, but then when I get to the eight I won't have to be messing around with all my bottles. They'll just already be filled So I got there I refilled the two that I've been holding and then everything else was full and then I went from there and And I kind of in my head I was like, I think this is excessive and then it turned out not to be. For me at least. For somebody else that maybe doesn't drink or sweat as much as I do, they might've been okay, but for me I needed it. Gosh. So what is like, so you can, you said you were targeting a leader an hour. So, so what is the time from like that 35 mile crew to when you see him again at 76? How long has that taken you? so I think I got to the 35 in six and change hours and then it was another another like five or six until I saw them again at that 70 mile mark so Yeah, cuz it was actually maybe even a little more than that I think I I think I got into the 76 mile 8 station race started at 5 a.m I think it was maybe 7 or 8 p.m. At mile 76 so So yeah, it's when you when you extrapolated out like I actually it does make sense and there are there are like there were some aid stations Non crude aid stations within there and then a couple water stops as well But the water stops they had limits on the amount that you could take so that they didn't run out So so like there was a couple times that like had I had there not been a limit I would have taken more water at those stops, you know but now but it to oh sorry do you ever have to pull from like streams or are there streams out there i don't know There I don't know if they're like there weren't streams this year in in years where there's like more precipitation maybe But ah but yeah, there was no no option no option for that this time but ah Yeah, thankfully the cloud cover helped us a bit Right, that yeah, if someone needs to invent a way to make water not weigh as much, and then we like, we'll really have some performance advantages. In that and that's what's you know, it's it's funny both for this race and I think we've talked with us before but I I do some race directing for a stage race company like the multi-day stuff and one of the things that people Don't think about as much is uh Especially when they're training is how heavy your pack is gonna be when it's fully filled with with water It's like you got all your stuff. Yeah, but if you're like maxed out on water, that's like significantly heavier, you know ah How much do think it weighed with good question. I actually don't know, but ah thankfully I do some weight vest training and hiking and I also, from these stage races, I'm used to carrying a pack that's got way more weight in it, you know? So I think that helps. People that haven't done that kind of stuff, it can be alarming how heavy it is, you know? So that's a good recommendation, is if somebody out there is listening to this and you're gonna do a... 200 mile race or whatever, just make sure that you're used to what the pack feels like with everything in. Totally. Yeah. Gosh. So, okay. So you mentioned getting into the 76th mile mark and it was, I think you said six or 7pm. Makes me think of caffeine. Were you planning on taking caffeine and how are you going to time that for something like Cocodona that's 250 miles? Yeah. yes, definitely planning on taking it. I did what I always do and do a little caffeine taper leading into the race. I usually just do a week. So like really the only caffeine that I get on a daily basis is coffee. ah And so I just start drinking. And interestingly, like it's funny, some coffee drinkers that I talk to, they like, they just won't drink decaf. But like, I like actually, I don't care. ah I just love the ritual of drinking coffee and the taste in the taste of it and So I just switched to decaf For like a week sometimes more but usually just like a week before the race ah and then I like to have that kind of like it feels Like I've kind of again like cleanse the palette ah And then when I take it during the race, I feel a significant difference like yeah, this is really helping So I told myself I was gonna wait till like I I told myself I would take a little bit of caffeine on the first day but like limit it pretty good so I had a little bit of coke and I think one or two caffeinated gels ah that had like I'm trying to remember how much 40 milligrams or 50 milligrams of caffeine something like that and did that in the first ah like 12 to 14 hours ah And then once it got to like nighttime, middle of the night, then I was like, okay, I'm going to start taking like a little bit more when I need it, but still not do too much. and then my plan was, had I gotten to like fully into the second day, I was going to again, try to limit it during the day. And then the second night, my strategy was going to be to like really hammer caffeine and then like, just, just like try to make a strong push through that second night. and then continue taking as much as I needed to get to the finish line. Because my hope was so the winner of the race this year, Rachel Entreken ran 56 in change hours. ah I knew it was ambitious, but I felt like mid 50s was definitely doable if I ran the right race. So in my mind, was thinking I'm finishing on Wednesday. And so it's like, so Tuesday night, just hammer it and then get through to Wednesday and then get to the finish line. be done. gosh. And what products are you liking for caffeine, aside from the run gum? Yeah, so run gum, know, soda, coke, and then the caffeinated gels that I typically use are Morton. I like those ones. So those were the main sources. And then I also I was also like, you know what, if I need I'm not like an energy drink guy, but I was like, if I need a Red Bull or something here or there, I'll take it. And actually, one of the things I like about the run gum is that it has taurine in it, too, not just caffeine. And ah in my experience from like the multi day stuff, touring has been helpful for you know energy and like focus when you're really tired. Yes, yes. just I was at a conference, a sports literature conference last week and there was a company, I think it was Science and Sport has now also a run gum or sorry, caffeinated gum. They gave me some samples. I haven't tested it yet, but it's eh it's 100 milligrams per one piece of gum. And I think it's 50 milligrams per two pieces of gum for run gum. Right. Yeah. So, yeah, I'm curious to try it. Yeah. Yeah. It'll be a banger. Were you trying to do a like milligram per kilo dose of caffeine or was it kind of like more how I feel I'll use it and try and. I've never actually been maybe that's something I should look into but I've never actually been Specific with the caffeine intake. It's more just been like I need caffeine now. Let's take a dose, you know but yeah, that might be something that I should look into more because ah Again, it's like my my rule of thumb is ah You're gonna it's especially with a multi-day thing You're going to need it so much more later into the race. And so I don't want to create this like numbing effect of taking it early and then it not working when I need it to work. So it's delayed gratification to make it more effective later in the race. sure. Did you have any sort of sleep? Like, were you going to try and sleep at all in Cocodona Like through Cocodona? yeah, that's the thing that and again, ah you know, assuming I had back next year, the I'm like fascinated by this aspect of it because it's like even the people that so so this is like another encouraging thing to me is I forget it was either like the first eight or the first 10 finishers overall finishers in the race had all done the race before. Mmm. So it just lends itself to like these type of races like you learn so much that the people that have done it multiple times like the the first place male finisher This was his fourth time running the race ah So it's like yeah, there's just so much to be gleaned and and learned and anyway ah So my strategy and this was based off of what I had heard from from other people anecdotally and then also based off of my own experience on the Tahoe Rim Trail because That was 172 miles and it took me 37 hours. And I got to like mile 100 or 105, it's a little over 100. And it was like middle of the night or like middle of the morning. And I knew, I felt like that was a good opportunity to try to sleep. So I laid down for like 10 minutes and just couldn't get to sleep. And it was like, I think it was still a restful 10 minutes, you know? But I just, was like, I can't sleep, I gotta get up and go. So that one I... laid down but didn't sleep for 10 minutes, so basically didn't sleep in 37 hours. So in my mind, I was like, I'm going at least 30 hours before I even think about it. And I think probably closer to 40. But I was also gonna see, like, the other thing that I've learned and that I've heard from a lot of people is if your body is telling you you need to sleep now, then do it right then. Mm-hmm. So I knew trying to plan it out was probably not going to work. So my strategy was just, let's see if I'm feeling like I'm a zombie and I'm not moving well at all, let's take a little rest and then go from there. So that was strategy, was just wait until the body needs it and do it. Yeah. That totally makes me think too of another like presentation that was at my conference on creatine and sleep like sleep restriction. Do you would you utilize creatine like on a multi-day event or like increase the dose on those nights where you're not getting sleep? Yeah, so that's another thing that I haven't need to experiment with that I haven't specifically like during these multi-day events. So I probably will in the lead up to next year do that like train that. m Because I think that yeah, I think that it sounds like that could have a really positive effect. The other thing, the thing that is like from what if again, this is just anecdotally, but the drawback that I've heard is potential GI distress if you. Mm. Mm-hmm. But yeah, I'm such a fan. It's funny, up until like a year ago, I had never used creatine. And then I just kept seeing all the information and the studies on it. I was like, I feel like I need to do this. And now I'm like, absolutely everybody should be doing it. It just seems like there's no negative to doing it, and it can only be helpful. So yeah, so I've been. using it consistently for the last year or so and Really like it and I think it would be a an interesting thing to try out So I'm trying to do was there like I think I had heard in some of those studies people were doing like 20 Grams, is that right? Okay sleep restriction, he was saying 20 to 30 grams. Yeah. if it's like a big day for me, I'll take 10 grams. Like just a normal day would be five, but if I like, in like a phase where I'm strength training a lot and feel like it's helpful, I'll take 10. So that would be a significant increase for me. But it sounds like it could be really effective, so yeah. And it's acute dosing, right? So like you do it for like two days maybe. then break it. He was suggesting like break it into like 10 gram doses. So like 10 grams in the morning, 10 grams in the afternoon or evening. Maybe even if you're doing 30, maybe you're doing 10, 10, 10. But yeah, he was saying like the big component of that dosing when there's sleep restriction is more it's improving the cognitive functioning piece. Right. And so Yeah, it was really cool how it could bring back up the brain creatine levels and really fascinating stuff. Yeah, again, feels like, again, I don't know enough about the drawbacks, but it feels like if that works, it could be really, really helpful, you know? So worth exploring for sure. Yeah. Definitely test. Don't test first time on race day. Right. Listen. Right. Yes. Yeah. You want to make sure your GI can handle it well. Okay. So we covered caffeine timing, sleep strategies, fluids, carbs. How much of this was or was not potentially different for something like the American River or Outlands 50K? Yeah, ah no, not terribly different again, just like, you know, I don't know what I would say, probably like a, maybe like a 20 % reduction in just about everything. You know, fluid, carbs, all that. And actually, like I said, to start the race, there was no reduction, but then I was planning to really taper it down. But yeah, otherwise, kind of business as usual. Just getting and I'm also the other thing is I don't know if we've talked about this before Kyla but for me It's kind of like the idea of the pre hydration in the days leading up to it in the beginning of a race I tend to Overdo it is not the right word. But like I I go a little harder earlier with the Expectation or the hope that that will set me up better later Just because like I know myself and I know my body and if I get behind it all then that's way more of a problem. So I try to get more carbs than I might need or more fluid than I might need early. And then if I overdo it a little bit, I can tone that down as opposed to you get behind and it's really hard to catch up. Yes, yeah. I remember there was something on like, they were talking about hydration versus carbs. Like you could take carbs and your blood glucose will pop up in like 10 minutes. But if you get dehydrated and to fully rehydrate can sometimes take 72 hours. It's insane. So like getting behind on hydration is, yeah, you don't want to do that. no, and I always tell my athletes, like, when you're in a low point in a race, if you keep eating and drinking, you can come out of that low point, and you will come out the low point. If you stop eating and drinking, that's like the one guarantee that you're not gonna be able to bounce back, you know? Yeah, shoot. Goodness. OK, well, with the hip stuff that happened in Cocodona, what's coming down the pipeline for you? Like what's on the calendar for you the rest of 2026? yeah, so the only thing that I have on my calendar and it's gonna be dependent on what the next steps are, which I'll get to in a second with the hips, is the company that I do some race directing for has a multi-day mountain race in Kyrgyzstan. And I'm signed up for that, that's in July. So it's a five stage, like 130 miles over five days. And yeah, that. Haven't been to Kyrgyzstan before but I've seen the photos and it looks amazing the T and Shan mountain range for people that are familiar with that beautiful area of the world, but So that will hopefully be coming up next but pending what's going on? So I've been meeting with some meeting with an orthopedic surgeon and getting some testing and stuff done I have a CT scan coming up which is kind of the last step and then once we get the results on that We're gonna see what's next, but it looks like there's a decent chance that I might be getting a hip scope, which is a minor arthroscopic surgery done on both hips. And interestingly, there's a fun tie in here. So there's this friend of mine, Kevin, who interviewed me leading into Cocodona. He did like a series where they interviewed a bunch of the runners for the race. And Kevin has done Cocodona before. And he saw, I made a post after the race about what was going on with my body. And he saw it and he reached out and he basically told me he had all of the, like all the same things that I had. He had a hip impingement, a femoral acetabular impingement, which is I have, FAI in both hips, and some micro fractures in the hips too. And he had all of that stuff. And he got the procedure that I might be getting done like 10 years ago and he said he's had no pain since. So that was really encouraging to me. It's like, know, surgery is always a big deal, even when it's a minor surgery. But I've kind of had this like low grade, even when things are good, this low grade pain for a few years now. And so the thought of like potentially getting this done and then running totally pain free is like really exciting. So yeah, so that's where I'm at. so I'm really like regardless of what happens, I'm really hopeful. And I think big things are coming and I still feel like my my best running is ahead of me, which is exciting. So yeah. that's great. That's good to hear though that have feedback from other people who've had similar surgeries. And that was 10 years ago. Medicine has improved so much in 10 years. Yeah. so if I do get the surgery done, the guy that's gonna do it, ah so I met with a sports medicine doctor and he referred me to this orthopedic surgeon and he goes, just so you know, this guy that I'm referring you to, like, I tell all of my athletes at the university, my grandma and everyone I know, this is the guy that you go see. So I also have a lot of confidence in the person doing the surgery as well, so. That's amazing. That's always good. Yeah. If he's going to send a family member there, that's always a good sign. Epic. Okay. Well, I'm going to jump back to your two truths and the lie. So you said, well, these are all about running when you ran across the United States. So that you officiated a wedding at one point when you were running across the United States, that you passed someone going in the opposite direction, crossing the United States and that the entire, an entire middle school cheered for you. I thought the passing someone Was it the lie? Is that right? Were they going the same direction? Is that what it was? Alright, so I'll just I'll just go in order so I Did officiate a wedding? my my my best friend growing up Him and his wife who was also a good friend of mine growing up they they got married and the plan was I was so I Was supposed to be done with the run across the US, but it took longer than I had hoped Yeah. were still out there and we're like, what is gonna happen? And so we were in, I started in California, we were in Georgia and they were getting married in Florida. So I finished up one day and then we got in the crew RV, drove down to Florida. I officiated the wedding, we stayed overnight, drove back and then I continued the run across the US. So we lost like a day and a half basically ah on the run. But at that point, I wasn't going for the record anymore so it was like, let's do this and. Wow. That's great. Then, when I was running across the US, there was this woman, I believe her name was Suzie, and she was a British woman who was doing a run around the world. But she was taking years and years to do it, so she would run and then stop in a place and then do all that. And anyway, she had this cart of all of her stuff, and she literally was running across the US in the opposite direction of me. What are the chances of that? This is insane. Wow. So that is true. Okay. So an entire middle school didn't cheer for you. this is the deviation from the truth was that the entire middle school wasn't there in person. This was a school called South Middle School in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. They reached out to me before the run and one of their teachers, her name was Ruth, ah she was like, hey, we're gonna follow your entire run across the US. We're gonna create curriculum around it. So they were talking about the states that I was in and what was happening. Amazing like you know geography stuff, and then they were doing like math of how long it's gonna take me to get here and ah So they did an entire thing around it, and then the students were like they literally sent me letters Videos and we were exchanging stuff throughout the entire two months that took me to do it And then when I was done they brought me to Eau Claire, and I spoke to the entire school, so that was really cool, too Yeah, yeah That's also so cool of that teacher. Like, I would have loved to be in her class. That sounds amazing. Wow. and yeah, she she was amazing and the whole the whole staff and the students were awesome. So that was really cool. There was like all kinds of incredible connections with people like when I was running. It really did feel Forrest Gump ask. And actually, for for people that didn't know me or didn't know that I did this at the time that I was running across the US, my hair was super long and I had a huge beard. So we actually filmed the Forrest Gump spoof, which was a lot of fun. That was a lot of fun. And my friends that do video stuff did a great job with that. there were so many points across the country when people were coming out and running with me and it was just like an incredible experience. So, yeah. Okay, well, those are really fun stories. Where can our listeners find you and follow you? Yes. So on socials, particularly Instagram, @adamkimble818 And then my website, adamkimble.com is a great place to reach out if you need to get in touch for any reason. Yeah. We will link both of those in the show notes for listeners. You guys can go follow Adam. Are you taking on any clients for coaching or you've maxed out? ah I am. I'm actually coaching more people than I ever have right now, but my rule of thumb is like a friend of a friend. I can always make space. So ah yeah, if somebody reaches out through the show, I'm always happy to collaborate. All right. Well, thank you again so much for your time, Adam. This is always, like I said, so fun and so informative. Yes, thank you, Kyla. I always have a blast. So thanks for having me back on.

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Kyla Channell, MS

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