Photo courtesy of Andrew King - D4 Productions

Thursday, April 29, 2010

11 myles - 1.13:54

Coyote Ridge - 7:00 A.M.
30s, misty/slush, dry trail
mind/body - really good
easy effort

For the first time in 3 weeks I've had some zip to my legs - I really felt good! 6:43 avg. with the last mile in 6:27. Andy says he's gonna beat me in Pokey (all in good fun) so I've gotta step it up for the next 3 weeks.

I read a very good article in Running Times last night in regards to nutrition and, in particular, teaching your body to burn fat. The credible part of the article is that it referenced Meb as taking on this strategy for 3-4 weeks. The article makes 3 points: 1) skip the gels for training runs up to 20 myles 2) Schedule two workouts per week before breakfast 3) Do a depleted double; meaning do a morning workout w/o carbs, don't refuel on carbs alone, then do a second high intensity workout later in the day. The big take away for me was to do runs in the morning when no carbs are on board and use what's left of the liver glycogen. Today I tried that. I noticed a change at the 45 minute mark when I started to feel fatigued, then at the hour mark energy started to pick up again. My take is that I ran completely out of liver glycogen, my body shifted gears and found another source of energy that I was able to finish on. The question is, what was the source? If it was some residual fat in my blood then that's good. Now I've gotta try it again and see if I come up with the same thing but go a little longer and see how long it lasts.

Last, you gotta read this blog post from Ian Torrence. He does a great job in his explanation of the course, you actually feel like you ran it after reading. Click on the hyperlinks for the locust and manzanita - you'll get the idea of "nasty overgrowth"

3 comments:

trudginalong said...

Good stuff Scott, good luck at Poky, I hadn't realized it was so soon.

Anonymous said...

Scott, don't forget about muscle glycogen. Let's say that you workout on a Thursday around noon. Eat lunch after wards and then eat dinner that night. Your legs will accumulate glycogen based on those meals, and so will your liver. Remember, only the liver has the enzymatic machinery (glucose-6-phosphatase) to release glucose derived from the breakdown of glycogen in to the blood. That glucose can be used by organs like the brain for fuel. Muscle does not have that enzyme. Thus, if you are working out after a longish fast aka first thing in the morning without eating anything, your brain will rely on liver glycogen for fuel, which may be diminished somewhat after 12 hrs of fasting. Your leg muscles should be in pretty good shape. So its likely that these 'changes at the 45-60 min mark' are the effects of liver-derived blood glucose you are experiencing vs. actual shortage of muscle glycogen which will power your running. Also, don't forget that in someone like you, a highly trained endurance athlete, you are going to burn fat and glycogen at anything above lactate threshold, which is a lot of your workout intensities these days running 50's, etc. So you have trained your leg muscles to spare glycogen by being more efficient than Joe Blow at metabolizing fat. But really, you are only going to be using fatty acids and glycogen (glucose) as fuel sources in your muscles. Anyway, I'll stop babbling now and head to the fridge for a beer. Nice job @ Zane Grey and good luck whipping AJW @ Pocatello

Unknown said...

Anon - good stuff! I'll go get a beer too - cheers! You gotta try New Belgium Ranger IPA.