Young marathoner with 2:40PB and want to improve
Young marathoner with 2:40PB and want to improve
Start by making sure to have had your last bite to eat at least two hours priors to all runs.
Start very slowly for all runs. Maybe go into marathon pace after a good 20 min warm up in training.
Go gluten free.
Reduce carb intake during training, especially carb intake that is not within one or two hours after running.
I think to get good at metabolizing fat at marathon pace you should be good at metabolizing fat during any activity.
very few people have celiac disease; gluten-free diets are faddish and unnecessary for most. Fat burns in a carbohydrate flame, which means that you should take some early-run carbs and then go long. The ability to switch to fat metabolism is perhaps genetic. It is not even clear that fat burning is so useful for endurance athletes, apart from enhancing weight loss. Fuel is fuel. That said, the modern world is awash in far too many grains and sugars. Read some Mark Sisson. I'm vegetarian, but he still makes interesting arguments about the perils of modernity.
Thanks so far, but always when avoiding cabs or doing such big gaps I feel like no power (than also lack of motivation, not to talk about running maybe 2hrs...)
me thinks it will help wrote:
Start by making sure to have had your last bite to eat at least two hours priors to all runs.
Start very slowly for all runs. Maybe go into marathon pace after a good 20 min warm up in training.
Go gluten free.
Reduce carb intake during training, especially carb intake that is not within one or two hours after running.
I think to get good at metabolizing fat at marathon pace you should be good at metabolizing fat during any activity.
This is great advice to totally sabotage your training. If you starve yourself of carbs, your training will suffer. The research on this is overwhelming and conclusive.
The main thing you should be focused on if you want your fuel to last longer is increasing your lactate threshold. A higher LT means you're burning fewer carbs at the same speed.
You might also consider alternating long runs with fuel and long runs without. It's not worth doing all of your long runs sans fuel, because the performance detriment will outweigh the fat burning benefits.
Be careful about your pacing in your race. Starting off too fast, even if it feels comfortable, can mean that you're torching carbs early on. This will bite you in the second half of the race.
Don't be afraid to use a lot of GU in your race (if the stomach can handle it). Glycogen is really one of the key limiting factors to marathon performance, and you're capable of absorbing about 60 grams per hour at marathon pace. Not taking on fuel is silly.
A high fat, low carb diet during your taper is also something to consider, though you have to be very disciplined about reading labels and limiting carb intake for it to work. You can accept the carb starvation effect on your workouts during this period because the work is pretty much done. Switch back to almost exclusively carbs during your last 2 days.
to both of you - carbs and gluten are not mutually exclusive
In other words, you can eat TONS of carbs and still eat gluten free at the same time.
I eat a high carb, low gluten diet.
me thinks it will help wrote:
I eat a high carb, low gluten diet.
me thinks it will help wrote:
Reduce carb intake during training, especially carb intake that is not within one or two hours after running.
Am I missing something, or did you not advocate reducing carb intake?
You can't train yourself to metabolize fat. All you can do is keep your hormonal environment right, i.e. insulin low and glucagon and hormone sensitive lipase high.
I eat a larger than normal load of carbs within a two hour window after running.
Think bananas, real oat meal, other fruits and berries and if I want a big meal I can eat real corn or real rice products and real legumes (which includes peanutbutter).
Thank u for the useful responses
Actually your body will burn fat just fine. Just train to improve your speed.
It's no surprise that animals which perform epic endurance feats while burning fat as fuel also eat a very high fat diet.
Your body gets good at burning what you provide for it.
The average person today has been raised on sugary snacks and can't function without having a donut break every hour and thus isn't a fat burning machine.
800 dude wrote:
Am I missing something, or did you not advocate reducing carb intake?
What does that have to do with "starving" yourself of carbs? The average westerner eats far too many carbs.
If you're a young marathoner with a 2:40 pb, wouldn't you have a coach, especially as you are outside of the US.
Just out of interest. Why has gluten (a protein) got anything to do with this?
The best fat burners in the world don't eat gluten.
800 dude wrote:
me thinks it will help wrote:Start by making sure to have had your last bite to eat at least two hours priors to all runs.
Start very slowly for all runs. Maybe go into marathon pace after a good 20 min warm up in training.
Go gluten free.
Reduce carb intake during training, especially carb intake that is not within one or two hours after running.
I think to get good at metabolizing fat at marathon pace you should be good at metabolizing fat during any activity.
This is great advice to totally sabotage your training. If you starve yourself of carbs, your training will suffer. The research on this is overwhelming and conclusive.
The main thing you should be focused on if you want your fuel to last longer is increasing your lactate threshold. A higher LT means you're burning fewer carbs at the same speed.
You might also consider alternating long runs with fuel and long runs without. It's not worth doing all of your long runs sans fuel, because the performance detriment will outweigh the fat burning benefits.
Be careful about your pacing in your race. Starting off too fast, even if it feels comfortable, can mean that you're torching carbs early on. This will bite you in the second half of the race.
Don't be afraid to use a lot of GU in your race (if the stomach can handle it). Glycogen is really one of the key limiting factors to marathon performance, and you're capable of absorbing about 60 grams per hour at marathon pace. Not taking on fuel is silly.
A high fat, low carb diet during your taper is also something to consider, though you have to be very disciplined about reading labels and limiting carb intake for it to work. You can accept the carb starvation effect on your workouts during this period because the work is pretty much done. Switch back to almost exclusively carbs during your last 2 days.
You should also avoid doing typical Vo2max workouts during the last few months before the race.
Bad Wigins wrote:
800 dude wrote:Am I missing something, or did you not advocate reducing carb intake?
What does that have to do with "starving" yourself of carbs? The average westerner eats far too many carbs.
The average westerner has nothing to do with the average 2:40 marathoner trying to improve. Most endurance athletes don't get enough carbs. Approximately 8 grams per kilo of body weight is necessary to prevent performance degradation in athletes training at high volumes. Very few Americans consume this many carbohydrates.
SMJO wrote:
It's no surprise that animals which perform epic endurance feats while burning fat as fuel also eat a very high fat diet.
Your body gets good at burning what you provide for it.
The average person today has been raised on sugary snacks and can't function without having a donut break every hour and thus isn't a fat burning machine.
The average person can indeed increase their capacity to burn fat at marathon pace by consuming a high fat, low carb diet. But doing so would be totally counterproductive to the goal of running fast, because it would be so detrimental to training.
We're not Siberian Huskies, and we weren't designed to burn fat easily at high intensities.
800 dude wrote:
But doing so would be totally counterproductive to the goal of running fast, because it would be so detrimental to training.
I'm with 800 dude. Training in a glycogen depleted state will limit the quality of training you can do. In a sense, carbohydrate is a powerful ergogenic aid.