Endurance Nutrition for Health and Performance – Are we doing it the best way ? |
http://www.sportsnutritionvlog.com/...ition-for-health-and-performance-are-we-doing-it-the-best-way/
vynatek:
I started off by going out on my long Saturday morning bike rides without breakfast and gradually progressing from being able to ride for 2hrs comfortably without food to 5hrs without food. I did the same with my running, from going for a 1hr run without breakfast to running almost for 6hrs without breakfast and just drinking water during. I do want to emphasize the “gradual progression” thing here, this type of training was phased in over years…. From simply doing 1 “empty” session a week for several months, eating during my ride from time zero, 1hr, 2hr etc…. to where I am now… 4-5 long endurance sessions run/bike per week, on empty with just water during most sessions. In amongst those long endurance sessions was speed work/interval type sessions, which again, because I was doing them in the morning, I started doing them on empty. I did this as a test after listening to a lot of critics say that it was impossible to do a high intensity session without fuelling up before. I was doing 400m/600m run interval type sessions, and hitting the same times as I was previously doing in the “non empty” state. Another critic was that this type of endurance training and low carb diet causes catabolism and muscle atrophy. However, my body composition improved with a lower body fat percentage without much change in weight, in other words, I actually gained muscle.
I then put this project to the test in competition. I started racing ultramarathons and based on what I knew about the metabolic pathways and fuel efficiency (which is the key to ultra endurance races), I could not see how the traditional porridge/fruit/toast type breakfasts pre race was contusive to my fat adapted engine. So I started racing these events on empty, just a black coffee before, to allow all the machinery to switch on. I’ve since done 15 of these ultramarathons ranging from 50Km to 170km, with the longer races taking over 20hrs to complete. I’ve won 4, finished 2nd/3rd in several and been in the top 10/20 in others. I’ve also set two national records for two trail routes and represented my country at the 2011
World Trail Championships.