Tag Archives for " Endurance Nutrition "

9 Bronco Billy Guinea Pig Test #1: No calories, 3 hour run, 5000 ft of climbing

http://vbrisket.com/category/vexpert/ Well, I guinea-pigged myself on Friday morning and went out to one of my favorite hard trail runs that boasts 1500-1800 feet of climbing per hour on technical, rocky trail. I decided to finally make the push to the 3 hour mark before taking in any calories on a 17.5 mile run with 5000 feet of climbing The route has 5 large climbs of 900, 1500, 650, 500 and 700 feet respectively, with the rest of the elevation in the form of rolling grunt climbs. This route pretty much has you either ascending or descending nearly all the time. I broke out the Inov8 212s for their fourth official run, which I’m really liking so far (way better on technical than the New Balance MT100s).

Overall it went pretty well, I’ve been weening off gels on long runs for a few weeks and was up to about 2 1/2 hours without calories (just water and Succeed! Caps for electrolyte replacement). I felt strong most of the run. I did get some hunger pangs starting at about 1 hour, 50 minutes into the run, but they soon subsided. They returned about every half hour, but I ignored them and they would fade. I really didn’t feel the need for calories, energy-wise, until about 2:45 into the run on the last hard climb, which is pretty tough (700 feet in 3/4 of a mile). I normally would make myself run most of this climb, but with the calorie deficit, I was doing on/off transitions of running/power hiking and I found myself with not enough juice to really grind the running portions and ended up hiking more than I normally would. I held out though and made it to 3:00…but had a gel out and ready as soon as my watch rolled 3 hours. I have to say… http://vintagegoodness.com/new-goodness-at-auction-on-ebay-this-week-9/ that was the best Vanilla Bean Gu I have had in a long time! 🙂

I ended up running about 3:09 for the route…so, the gel was just to get me down the last 700 foot descent and up the final “little” 200 foot climb out of the canyon to the trailhead, as I was definitely getting pretty bonky the last 15-20 minutes or so. I was SO hungry that I devoured a banana and my recovery drink at the car immediately, called a local restaurant that’s on my way and grabbed take-out for the drive home. I think having a full round of food in a cooler at the trailhead is a must after going the no carb route on a long run. I needed calories immediately. It will get you back straight and recovered quicker…even waiting the 10-15 minutes to get the take-out was too much. On no calorie long run days, I’ll bring a full meal worth of food from now on. The banana and recovery drink didn’t even phase my hunger.

So, will I do it again? Heck yeah. Will I do it if I’m on a training run with other dudes pushing it a little harder? Probably not a full 3 hours…but definitely wait until at least 2 hours before taking any gel from now on. And, for normal long run training, I’ll keep doing it. The general theory makes sense to me. It’s suppose to help my body tap into fat quicker, conserve glycogen, and learn to operate more effectively in a low blood glucose state. I feel I need to give it some time to see if it works. Plus, in my experience, as with any aspect of training, if you don’t train it, you won’t be able to do it (at least not well). That’s how the body works. If you want to run hills well, you have to train hills. If you want to run fast, you have to spend some time running fast. The rule of specificity. I think over a few more attempts, the body will adapt and I suspect I can get to the 3 hour mark without even feeling bonky. We’ll see. Until then, I’ll keep guinea-piggin’ it up. Giddyup!

17 To gel or not to gel?

I’ve been reading a new book my wife got me for Christmas…Healthy Intelligent Training: The Proven Principles of Arthur Lydiard by Dr. Keith Livingstone. I’ve always been a fan of Lydiard’s methods and think he was way ahead of his time. I also think many folks dabble in Lydiard and don’t truly understand him. This book puts his methods in perspective and also has the benefit of our current understanding of physiology, training response, etc. It’s a geeky training book, but really good.

Anyway, point of the post…

It has an interesting section on carb intake (e.g. gel, energy drink, etc.) on long runs in training—not racing. It says we should not use ANY carbs during long training runs of up to 3-3 1/2 hours (anything over that, supplementing carbs is recommended). Also, keep in mind these are aerobic steady state runs, not hard pace. They do recommend water and electrolytes (especially if it’s hot), but no carbs in order to train our systems to conserve glycogen and burn fat.

The basic physiological premise is this…

While running slowly increases fat burning for fuel, another way to really increase fat burning is to run when the blood glycogen (carb) stores are lowered. When muscle glycogen stores are lowered, fat burning really goes up since there is little carbohydrate available to utilize. Carb stores are lowered after 1 to 2 hours of running so you want to do 30-90 minutes of running AFTER this to maximize fat burning and to help stimulate the body to store more muscle glycogen for future runs (and races). When running (and racing) for this long, the blood glucose level also lowers. Ingesting carbohydrates, either through a sports drink or energy gels, before and during the run, maintains your blood glucose level. This no carb approach challenges the body to run with a lowered blood glucose level (and over time) adapt to better handle this state of lowered blood glucose.

The long, steady state runs must be at least two hours. The longer the better. If you’re used to gels during long runs, you’ll have to ween yourself, as your body is adapted to the constant supply of blood glucose and not the lowered state. But, as you reduce, the body will adapt and you’ll eventually be able to run up to 3 1/2 hours without any carbs (Which could take up to 8 weeks to adapt fully, depending on the individual). They also recommend not having any right before the workout either. Have normal breakfast (several hours before), then go train. This is for training only, then, in a race, you give yourself the normal dose and your body feels pampered. Interesting stuff.

NOTE: The book does say, that when you do this in training, you need to be ready to ingest carbs, protein and fat immediately afterward, or at a minimum within that 30 minute window after run completion. You’ll be low and need to get your glycogen levels back up for recovery and next day training. It’s just for during the long run.

Question…have any of you tried this? I know the Skaggs brothers practice this and so does Tony Krupicka. I’ve been thinking about it for a while (the weening off completely for 2-3 hour runs). And, over the past season, have actually started ingesting less gel on long training runs than I would in a race and not taking any up to 2 hours or so…occasionally, but not consistently. However, this takes it to a different level and has a few studies to back it up. Anyway, found it interesting and thought I’d share it. Giddyup!