upper 40s, sloppy, clear
mind/body - good
easy effort
7:06 average today with not much effort at all. Again, like yesterday I didn't feel the calf until I started to think about it so it should be fine moving forward.
I conducted a small experiment today (n=1). An experiment I tried back in 2006 prior to Leadville... Can I survive all day on gels alone? I mean, we do it for the most part in 50 and 100 mile races, why is it so hard during a normal day? This is not scientific by any means but here is what I did: woke up and had my normal pot of coffee (maybe that's cheating already but I do it on race day), a couple gulps of EFS liquid shot every 15 to 30 minutes up through 3 P.M., went running, resumed EFS liquid shot through 7:30 P.M. And then I broke down and had a bowl of pasta...
Here is what I found: My energy was constant but low, ketone bodies were starting to build (could tell by the bad taste in my mouth), the run was normal with good energy, but eventually I broke down because I kept walking into the kitchen.... I guess you can say the carbohydrate craving took over my hypothalamus. I know my liver glycogen was running low because my thinking and cognitive thought was slow. So how do we survive 50 and 100 mile races on the little amounts of real food we eat? Does Adrenaline help metabolize fat? I don't know. Care to postulate?
Alright gotta go eat something but in the meantime I'm gonna read more of Noakes book and try this again with a different supplement.
Another reminder of Spring
10 comments:
Dude you can't live on gel and gu. We have enough glucose in are body to last a couple minutes during a run and then we start to burn fat, thats why we hit a gu every hour. If your sittin on your ass eating this stuff well guess what happens your body stores fat. This is a simple way to explain. I wouldn't recomend doing this unless you want to get fat. I'm sure there is alot of info. online, the guys from efs should be able to break it down for you. I think you should try all day twinkies next time. Mike
By the way your looking fit as ever, and your posting some amazing times, good luck at the big one see you there. Mike
This is a great experiment, which I think underlines my suspicions that the "easily digestible carbs only" approach is not the whole story. The body seems to need so much more, even just to carry on a resting metabolism. I'd be interested in seeing what a difference you'd see incorporating some sort of protein source. Like peanut butter, or even recovery drink.
Alright Mikey - I disagree.
Our bodies have 4 sources of energy; liver glycogen, muscle glycogen, protein, and fat. In addition to the serum glycogen that you eluded to. Serum glycogen comes first from the liver and then muscle then a little bit of fat and protein. At rest, without eating anything, our body will be depleted of liver glycogen in 18 hours - most of which will be taken up by the vital organs. Muscle glycogen does not deplete for 48 hours at best. In order for this carbohydrate/energy/glycogen to be stored into adipose tissue, levels of glycogen need to be satisfied in the blood first. Call it a resting metabolic rate. Whatever is left over will be stored as fat after liver and muscle glycogen have been restored. Having said all that, the main energy source is fat in our body accounting for up to 91% of all stored energy. The trick is to teach the body to use the fat as energy. Can we kick start that process by depleting our stores and are there enzymes that help during exercise to make the shift to fat earlier?
I may just try twinkies cause there loaded with trans-fat. Or now as Geoff says, maybe a couple slabs of peanut butter...
Mono, di, polysacchrides all come into play here as well. Mono's broken down easy, poly's a little bit more energy required but lasting longer. EFS has both mono and poly for quick energy and sustained energy - I just can't figure out if my brain overpowers my body when I go into the kitchen with all that food.
Thanks for the comment Mikey!
Scott,
As a fellow Mexican, I think it's easy. The Mexican body has lots of extra stored energy from all of the beans we eat growing up. These are to be used in strenuous events such as crossing borders, evading la migra, or running 100's. That's why you can go nuts on race day, but struggle though a normal day. Hope that helps clarify things.
Drinking my nightly Tecate,
Patrick
That is just waay too easy Patrick - why didn't I think of that! Burritos at night in the San Juans while crossing rivers - it's just so natural...
I can't immediately find it but I recall an article where Brian Meltzer tried this with the thought he'd go for a week on gels, powerbars, etc. He got the idea from Supersize Me. He thought if the guy could live off burgers for a month, he could certainly live off this much better food for a week.
He lasted like three days, and gave up after he started smelling weird.
It was in Trail Runner mag back in 06 - now I remember reading it. I can't imagine starting to 'smell' like gel... couldn't be nearly as bad as pee smelling like asparagus, could it?
Muscle glycogen can only be used locally in muscles and is not used to increase blood glucose levels. Liver glycogen is the only glucose storage unit that can be used to increase blood glucose levels. Fat cannot be converte to glucose, only to ketone bodies which can be utilized by brain and heart as energy. Protein (amino acids) can be convereted in some cases to glucose but also used as an energy source through other intermeidates. Several hormones play a key role in fat and glucose metabolism. You already know the key roles of insulin and glucagon. To your question about 'adrenaline' aka epinephrine...it is responsible for the classic 'fight or flight' phenomena and acts to increase blood levels of fatty acids and glucose by stimulating breakdown of triglycerides and glycogen in liver. It also increase glucose utilization in muscle cells via glycolysis. If your body is breaking down skeletal muscle for energy, you are up shit's creek and have bigger problems to worry about. Dietary protein is the major source of protein energy. And on the fat question, fat is metabolized to energy (ATP) only under aerobic conditions in the mitochondria. Endurance exercise enhances your ability to use fat by increasing the number of mitochondira in your skeletal muscle (legs) cells. Thus, even at rest, you can burn more fat via this mechanims. Metabolism is complex and I'm sure there are many answers to still unravel especially in endurance atheletes.
Anon. Thanks for the clarification. Good stuff!
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