UTMB race week: sleep, travel, nutrition, and course-specific recommendations

The week before UTMB is loud — expos, pasta parties, and everyone comparing Strava vert. The runners who start fresh usually did less sightseeing than they planned and more sleeping than they wanted. Race week is about protecting Friday night, simplifying decisions, and writing down anything your future 3 a.m. self will forget.

Arrival timing and acclimation

If you fly from sea level, arrive in Chamonix or the Arve valley at least three full days before the start when possible. You cannot fully acclimate to alpine terrain in a week, but you can adjust sleep, gut, and jet lag.

• Day −4 to −3: easy walks, short uphill hikes below race effort — no hero climbs
• Day −2: shakeout run on soft trail with poles and full pack weight you will carry
• Day −1: 20–30 minutes max, flats or gentle uphill, then feet up
• Avoid the temptation to hike Mont Blanc massif hard — tired quads beat inspired photos

Sleep and stress — protect Friday night

You will not sleep perfectly the night before UTMB. That is normal. Bank sleep on Wednesday and Thursday instead. Set a hard stop for expo and social time Thursday evening.

1. Set two alarms and a crew text chain for Friday wake-up — not just one phone
2. Lay out start-line kit before dinner Friday: bib, pack, poles, jacket, cup
3. Agree with crew on one communication channel (WhatsApp or SMS) and backup meeting points
4. No new shoes, no new gels, no new breakfast — repeat what worked in your longest training block

Nutrition strategy by race phase

UTMB is 30–40 hours of eating under stress. Plan calories per segment, not per hour — steep climbs reduce intake; runnable descents are your chance to catch up.

France start → Les Contamines (0–30 km)

• Start conservative — adrenaline hides dehydration on the first climbs
• Target 60–90 g carbs per hour only if you have trained gut tolerance at that rate
• Use aid stations for real food early: soup, potatoes, soft fruit
• Salt early if the day is warm — cramping later often starts as under-fueling now

Italy section → Courmayeur (30–80 km)

• Heat and sun exposure spike here — ice in hat, regular electrolytes
• Switch to simpler flavors if sweet gels revolt — broth, rice, savory bars
• Caffeine only on schedule you wrote in training — not when you panic at Lac Combal
• Courmayeur is a decision aid station: eat sitting down, dry socks, honest pace check

Switzerland night → Champex and beyond (80–130 km)

• Cold kills appetite — warm calories: soup, tea with honey, soft potatoes
• Set 30-minute eat alarms even when you do not feel hungry
• Poles save muscular cost on climbs — fuel the arms-and-legs system together
• Grand Col Ferret and Col de la Forclaz are mental chapters — pre-write one sentence each for why you continue

Final push → Chamonix (130–170 km)

• Switch to whatever still goes down — coke, fruit, anything
• Crew should focus on calories and morale, not pace lectures
• Break the finish into aid-station to aid-station — Vallorcine feels far until it is not
• Save one gel or favorite snack for the last runnable path into Chamonix

Crew and pacer recommendations

UTMB crew access is limited compared to some US ultras. Know exactly where your crew can see you and what they are allowed to do. Write a one-page crew brief: your likely arrival windows, foods that work, and phrases that help when you are irrational.

• Courmayeur: full reset — calm voice, food ready, no questions about quitting unless you ask
• Champex: warmth and simplicity — dry clothes, hot drink, clear next-segment instructions
• Vallorcine: short encouragement only — you are close but not done
• Agree in advance: when crew should call a medical decision versus when to push you out smiling

Pacing and cutoff awareness

UTMB cutoffs are real and cold. Build a pacing table with buffer on hard climbs, not on descents where mistakes cost time and ankles. Note three checkpoint times where you must be ahead of schedule — usually before Courmayeur, before Champex, and before Vallorcine.

Sample race-week timeline (Mon → Sat start)

1. Mon: travel, grocery run, register lodging keys with crew
2. Tue: bib pickup window if open, gear check, expo short visit only
3. Wed: drop-bag prep, shakeout, early dinner
4. Thu: transport drop bags, confirm crew transport parking, lights out early
5. Fri: rest, short walk, kit laid out, crew sync at fixed time
6. Sat: start — execute the plan you wrote, not the plan you wish you had trained

Build your UTMB plan in Taper

Use the race-week timeline page for day-by-day tasks, the nutrition page for segment calories, and Strategy subpages for Col du Bonhomme, Grand Col Ferret, and Col de la Forclaz notes. Taper's readiness score on Home helps you see whether checklists and plan pages are filled before you fly to Geneva.