Low HR Training

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Carb Loading if fat adapted (Read 14 times)

    Hi all. Haven't been on here in some time, Question, if you are a fat adapted endurance athlete, is it beneficial to carb load before a marathon? From what I understand reading Dr. M's response to Jimmy is that you should wait an hour or so into the race before any carb supplements to not diminish fat burning. But what about the days preceding? Does it inhibit fat utilization by having glycogen stores full in the days or day before a race?

     

    BTW, I am a pretty strict paleo/primal eater, and train with few to no carbs, but I want to maximize race potential.

     

    Thanks,

    Tom

    BeeRunB


      What do you mean by fat-adapted?  There's the Maffetone reaching your potential aerobic speed (at MAF), which makes your body very good at utilizing fat during racing. Then there's the Phinney-Volek-Noakes fat-adapted in which you worship the great goddess Ketosis, and never eat more than 50 carbs a day and live in ketosis, and bare the burden of keto-breath. among other possible side-effects and maladies.

       

      Keeping in the Maffetone Method world, there have been people who have said carb-loading is not necessary. Like the endurance great, Stu Mittleman. He didn't think you needed any calories during a marathon. A few others that have passed through here who ended up being really fast at MAF concurred. They just ate normally, and only took water during a marathon.

       

      Ultras are a different story of course. Not sure if it's possible to get through one without eating.

       

      There is a study or two that show if you eat some extra carbs the 2-3 days before a race, you'll top off your glycogen stores. That's what I did before the marathons I ran. During the marathon, I didn't take a gel until 45 minutes into the race, and didn't touch food closer than 4 hours before. I had a stretch of  good marathon times (for me) while doing these things. They might have not helped, but they surely didn't hurt.

       

      petert


        Hi runninghusker:

         

        here's my $.02, hope it helps...

         

        I feel like I'm pretty fat adapted by now, and have not needed to carb load for the last few marathons, but I still do a bit of it.

         

        For the last one, I just had a big breakfast of crap (French toast, cereals, O.J., etc., maybe 200 grams of sugar) the day before, and then did my normal MAF high-fat thing for lunch and dinner.

         

        Recently, Noakes has said 200ish grams max. is about all you should realistically need on top of your regular food intake, if carbo loading.

         

        To directly answer you, if you want to maximize race potential, then yes, get some sugar in you, as sugar is the limiting factor in a distance of marathon or longer.  And other than a bit of weight gain, eating extra sugar the day before is not going to kill you, especially during the marathon.

         

        I also took 4 GUs during my last marathon, when I probably "needed" 0-2.  Same principle.