BASEBUILDING AEROBIC (Read 1319 times)

http://runningahead.com/groups/LOWHRTR/Forum/1ee41d6d30cd4fc89dfe52f69aec8331 Dr. Ernst Van Aaken wrote about using stored fat as running fuel instead of glucose/glycogen if I remember. I read that book 27 years ago. That does make sense, because a runner wouldn't be hitting the wall after running out of muscle glycogen. There would be no need for the so called *carbo loading* phase. It seems that a person would need a 5 minute per mile pace to be very easy for them in order to primarily use fats as muscle fuel during a marathon. http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=619851

You need to read further into the theory as it is designed to retrain your body. Not everyone will run 5 minute miles and be an aerobic machine. Look at the logs of people int he group and you will see people all over the map. I would suggest you read Maffetone's most recent book and it explains the physiology. Also, you can't go to the extremes of no carbs as this is quick energy it just doesn't last as long. I'm no expert on this subject, but the data shows some validation as opposed to the power running mumbo jumbo.

Dr. Ernst Van Aaken wrote about using stored fat as running fuel instead of glucose/glycogen if I remember. I read that book 27 years ago. That does make sense, because a runner wouldn't be hitting the wall after running out of muscle glycogen. There would be no need for the so called *carbo loading* phase. It seems that a person would need a 5 minute per mile pace to be very easy for them in order to primarily use fats as muscle fuel during a marathon.

It's not so much of "5-minute-mile pace" that you use up your glycogen; it's more accurate to measure it in terms of % of individual's VO2Max. You could probably safely say 5-minute pace for elite runners is a boarder line for aerobic and anaerobic. Glycogen is much more efficient fuel and, when the body is undergoing a lot more demanding work, such as running a mile all-out, glycogen would be primarily used simply because it's much easier to burn. On the other hand, fat, while it produces more calories per molecule, it requires more oxygen to burn. In other words, the demand to your body to carry out more oxygen is necessary once glycogen storeage is depleted. This shift can cause a serious stress to your body and this in general occurs somewhere around 1:30~1:45 into your close to maximum steady state pace (5-minute pace for elites; about 7 for me right now! ;o)). This is known as hitting the wall. The more you train your body to make this shift smoothly, the less chance you hit the wall. For some people, the pace is so slow to begin with that hitting the wall could actually mean more of simply tired muscle. Tired muscles means simply muscles running out of gas (fuel) or some cellular damage from pounding. Either way, our body carries plenty of fuel (mostly in fat) to carry us through 26 miles. Hitting the wall is not just simply "running out of gas(=fuel)". Of course, at no point our body uses exclusively one sourse of energy; it's almost always mixture of mostly glycogen and fat. It's just a matter of what % of each. I don't know what you mean by "carbo loading phase"; whether you're talking about carbo depletion phase, which I would not recommend at all; or simply carbing up a few days before the race (any race for that matter). I don't think it's a good idea to completely ommit that concept because, like I said, carbohydrate, or glycogen, is much more efficient sourse of energy and, the more glycogen we readily have in our body, the better. If you're suggeting that it might be better if we all live on all-fat diet and forget about carbohydrate...well, tempting, but it may not be recommended. Any form of food, once stored in our body as an excess energy, it will turn into fat. In other words, our body has plenty of fat! It's not easy to digest and, of course, there's always an issue with clogging up our arteries. Van Aaken method has been around for more than a half a century and I believe it works very well. But the point is; same with carb and fat; we all need everything in a good balance. Whenever someone started seeing, well, we need to work on speed or we need to work on long slow distance...whenever one thing gets under the spot light and people ONLY look at that one element, that's when we all get in a trouble. Even van Aaken's program is not all long slow distance with lots of walking breaks; he had his runners do a good amount of wind-sprints.