Ultrarunner Courtney Dauwalter In Workout Gear Says "Mountains Feel Like Home"

Ultrarunner Courtney Dauwalter is letting fans see what one of her typical daily runs looks like in beautiful Colorado. Dauwalter, 39, shared a video of herself wearing blue shorts and a shirt, hitting the trails against a spectacular mountain background. "Mountains feel like home. ⛰️😍 @salomon #WelcomeBackToEarth," she captioned the post. "It's where our greatest athlete should be," a fan commented. Here's what the athlete's diet, training, and wellness regimen looks like.

Dauwalter starts her day with two cups of coffee with creamer, and a little bit of dry cereal. "My go-tos are all the sugar cereals, and right now, that means Cinnamon Toast Crunch," she told Runner's World. "And then I usually get going with my training. I'll do anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour of some gym stuff, which is just hip activation and some glutes and core—basic bodyweight stuff."

Dauwalter runs for hours every day. "Then I'll head out for my main run of the day, which is usually somewhere between two to four hours," she told Runner's World. "During that, I'll have Tailwind Nutrition—lemon or naked flavor—in my hydration bottles and Honey Stinger waffles or chews. On some shorter runs, I might have nothing. And then I'll get back and usually, I just grab whatever food is convenient and easy in the fridge."

Dauwalter doesn't plan out her runs too meticulously. "My speed workouts are usually not super planned out," she told Trail Runner. "I just go out on the trails and mining roads and find a hill I like to do speed work on," she says. "I'll meander that way and when I get there I try to do something faster on a 400-meter stretch and then it kind of depends how I feel." 

Dauwalter fuels herself with pizza before a race, but doesn't eat breakfast on race day. "The night before a race is usually pizza, just because basically, anywhere you travel in the world, you'll be able to find it, and it's pretty predictable in its ingredients," she told Runner's World. "But I'm not super attached to anything or picky about it… On the morning of a race, I do just coffee and usually no food. For me, I've dialed in my race nutrition through a lot of trial and error. I've found a few things that seem to consistently work for me, and during a race, I'll only eat and drink those things."

Dauwalter tries to do squats throughout the day. "Before a run, I'll do some activation exercises to get the hips and the glutes activated and some core work," she told Trail Runner. "Squats are so easy. You can be standing there at your fridge in the morning and you can bust off a couple squats. Your glutes and your hips are so important in running and if you can keep those areas happy, it will prolong, I think, the distances and the amount of time you can be out there."