Query re reducing carbs while training for half marathon
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setharael
Posts: 8 Member
Morning all, new-comer to lower carb here and still trying to get my head around it all.
I'm on medication which has kicked my appetite into overdrive, and understand that a low carb WOE might be able to help reduce the way that feel constantly hungry. I am, however, training for my first ever half marathon. I understand that fat-adapted people don't need the carbs to fuel themselves in exercise and therefore don't hit the wall, but how is it likely to effect me while I'm reducing the carbs?
By this I mean, I intend to slowly reduce my carb intake - I'm not just going to suddenly change anything. Experience says that slow changes work far better for me in regards to long-term adherence to anything. However I presume that there will be a considerable time that I will have fewer carbs in my body to fuel my workout, but will not yet be fat-adapted - and therefore my running will suffer.
Is this going to badly affect my training? Would I be better to wait until after the half marathon (November)? Or will it not be as much of a problem as I'm worrying?
Any advice would be fantastic!
I'm on medication which has kicked my appetite into overdrive, and understand that a low carb WOE might be able to help reduce the way that feel constantly hungry. I am, however, training for my first ever half marathon. I understand that fat-adapted people don't need the carbs to fuel themselves in exercise and therefore don't hit the wall, but how is it likely to effect me while I'm reducing the carbs?
By this I mean, I intend to slowly reduce my carb intake - I'm not just going to suddenly change anything. Experience says that slow changes work far better for me in regards to long-term adherence to anything. However I presume that there will be a considerable time that I will have fewer carbs in my body to fuel my workout, but will not yet be fat-adapted - and therefore my running will suffer.
Is this going to badly affect my training? Would I be better to wait until after the half marathon (November)? Or will it not be as much of a problem as I'm worrying?
Any advice would be fantastic!
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From what I understand it can take a few weeks to become fat adapted... Since it's in Nov, I'd start now, but don't go all the way to <20g. You can still be burning ketones at 100g so if you start now and reduce slowly you probably won't find it too difficult. Another low carb friend of mine did it this way and she does quite a few halfers a year, and another friend did her first triathlon this summer the same way.2
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Brilliant, thanks for that. I'll slowly eat up what I have in the house, lowering my carbs as I go. ~100g was my tentative goal, so I'm glad to hear that it should effective.
I'm quite lucky actually - I don't eat a huge amount of carbs anyway, so I suspect that if I just focus on pushing my fat up a bit it should work out quite smoothly!
Wish me luck...
Thanks very much for your help!1 -
I eat typically 50-100 or so carbs daily. I will eat 250 on hard training days but keep my estimated calorie intake at 2/3 of what I burn
I like triathlons as my sport of choice. On a 4 hour training day it may mean 250 grams of carbs over a long ride or ride/run. All that gets burnt off and there is still fat burned. The fat adapted aspect is great but I will have less energy to straight up pound it at the end on very low carbs.
The last 100km bike race I did, I took in about 2000 calories on course, 80% of that was carbs in electrolyte packs. You also need water and salt for endurance training.
For those hours long training sessions and then fuller exertion races, you will smoke every carb out of your system
Don't worry about it
Just run hard1 -
My half is in October and I just started low-carb August first. I tried to cut carbs slowly but was pretty much all over the place: my highest day was Sunday at 130g, lowest was 40g.
Last week, all my workouts suffered. I noticed my Sunday long run (10 miles) was one minute per mile slower than the week before and it felt like torture. This week has been slightly better and this morning, my run was only a few seconds slower than a similar one two weeks ago. I already feel more energetic and believe I am getting over that initial low transition period.
I've started reading Volek and Phinney's book The Art and Science of Low-Carbohydrate Performance http://www.artandscienceoflowcarb.com/the-art-and-science-of-low-carbohydrate-performance/ that @RalfLott in the group recommended to me (thanks again)!
I ran my first half-marathon in 2013 with only water (due to an allergy to an ingredient in sports' drinks), not knowing anything about this stuff, so try not to worry. You've got quite a bit of time to adapt. Whatever you choose, you'll do great!1 -
I am running a half marathon in November as well. I am increasing carbs on Friday and Saturday morning to roughly 100g (to help with my long runs) while eating every other day around 50g. So far so good. I'd like to lose around 15 lbs by November and thus the reason for the lower carbs on the other days.0
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You will see short term performance losses as your body adapts. If your November race is an "A" race, set your carb macro at 10% and train hard between now and then. This allows your carbs to go up on days that you are active and keeps them low on less active recovery days.
There is some very interesting experimentation being done 'on the down low' by elite ultra athletes with ketogenic diets. They are having a great deal of success, but it can take more time than you have between now and November to completely maximize your performance on low carb.0 -
1. If you're cutting your carbs, you will need to be careful to maintain your electrolyte balance during endurance training. Find a method that works for you (I use Nuun, others use salt tabs, YMMV, so play around).
2. You should train with eating at the same time you're training for the race, as that is what your body will adjust to. You're still 2.5 months away from your half, minimum, and half marathon training programs are only 12 - 18 weeks long, so really...you've plenty of time to add this in.
Good luck with your half.0 -
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Thanks for this, guys - lots of me to think about. The general gist that I'm getting is to go to around 100g and just get on with it - that I have enough time to see how I feel before November.
I shall see how it goes!
Thanks all!0
