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Any other endurance athletes here...?
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Posts: 934 Member
Years ago I had great success on Atkins. Then I started running and eventually biking and gave up on low-carb, since it's not generally viewed as conducive to aerobic activity.
A couple of years ago I was sidelined with a busted wrist from mountain biking and reverted to Atkins for a couple of months, since I knew I could drop some weight while forced inactive. When I did return to running it was after reading about some Keto endurance athletes and discussions with an ultra-runner friend who had great success doing 50 and 100 milers on very minimal carbs. A guy who won the Western States 100 is also a Keto runner.
Almost immediately I was battling nausea, even on slow 3 mile runs. It would kick-in within the first half mile and only stop when I stopped running, which sent me back to the carbs.
I'm giving it another go and so far my runs and rides on the indoor trainer have been good and nausea-free (6#s lost in 11 days, woot!! -- about 20% to my goal). In hindsight I suspect that my prior nausea issues were more likely due to the pain meds I was on while my wrist was healing...and perhaps I just plain wasn't taking in enough calories.
I do find that I don't have an "fast gears," which makes sense. Higher intensity aerobic efforts make use of quickly available glycogen (sugar) energy stores in our muscles, but Keto = minimal glycogen. I'm running a relay race this weekend, so will likely carb-up a day or two to replenish my glycogen stores for that, then go back to Keto. I'm hoping to drop another 15#s or so before I really start training for any Spring/Summer races. Then I'll likely switch to something like a low-glycemic index plan to fuel faster efforts.
If you're in much the same boat, how are you handling workouts and races?
A couple of years ago I was sidelined with a busted wrist from mountain biking and reverted to Atkins for a couple of months, since I knew I could drop some weight while forced inactive. When I did return to running it was after reading about some Keto endurance athletes and discussions with an ultra-runner friend who had great success doing 50 and 100 milers on very minimal carbs. A guy who won the Western States 100 is also a Keto runner.
Almost immediately I was battling nausea, even on slow 3 mile runs. It would kick-in within the first half mile and only stop when I stopped running, which sent me back to the carbs.
I'm giving it another go and so far my runs and rides on the indoor trainer have been good and nausea-free (6#s lost in 11 days, woot!! -- about 20% to my goal). In hindsight I suspect that my prior nausea issues were more likely due to the pain meds I was on while my wrist was healing...and perhaps I just plain wasn't taking in enough calories.
I do find that I don't have an "fast gears," which makes sense. Higher intensity aerobic efforts make use of quickly available glycogen (sugar) energy stores in our muscles, but Keto = minimal glycogen. I'm running a relay race this weekend, so will likely carb-up a day or two to replenish my glycogen stores for that, then go back to Keto. I'm hoping to drop another 15#s or so before I really start training for any Spring/Summer races. Then I'll likely switch to something like a low-glycemic index plan to fuel faster efforts.
If you're in much the same boat, how are you handling workouts and races?
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