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Beware of the selfish runner’s syndrome.

While I holiday with Rottnest I have made an effort to read as much as possible, in-between running of course. One of my favourite books is the running bible by Tim Noakes , ‘The Lore of Running’. A 921 page book of biblical proportions containing just about everything you ever need to know about running and more. It must be noted though, as pointed out by my friend Mike, ‘how can anyone write so much about running, it ain’t that complicated’. 

There are hundreds of extracts I could post on the blog but this one section caught my eye this morning which I think is worth sharing. It describes the selfish runner syndrome and balancing running with life’s other commitments (There are other commitments ? ….) Noel Carroll, an Irish double Olympian, describes runners as an introvert lot. ‘They like keep their thoughts to themselves. Their behaviour is at best antisocial , at worst utterly selfish…

What amused me in the book by Noakes was a section where he offered pointers to avoid the selfish runner syndrome, or at least mask it. One of his offerings was :-

Don’t allow running to affect the way you carry out your household responsibilities. Doing so provides your family with a tangible reminder that they come second.

What a classic quote from a by-gone age (I think?). So runners if you load the dishwasher once in  while and maybe even mow the lawn intermittently you may disguise the fact that running is far more important than your family.

It gets better,

Be aware of “danger times” – you will know what these are in your household. At these times, be at your most attentive and, at all costs, do not open your mail to see if your running magazines have arrived, discuss running, or, worst of all, go for a run. Weekends too must be handled carefully to ensure that running conflicts as little as possible with the family’s weekend recreation.

Not sure what to do when I live in ‘danger times’ constantly. ? Luckily we now have the internet so I can pretend to answer emails while secretly reading my online running magazines.

One last gold nugget from Noakes.

Don’t get overtired. As a runner with a family you just have to accept that, for the sake of your family, you simply can’t train hard enough to run your best. That is the price that must, realistically, be paid.

He is a wise man Noakes, I just hope my Wife never meets him or reads this.

All joking aside, which I assume Noakes was doing when he wrote these little gems, family life and running are not ideal bed partners. I often say to my non-running colleagues that I run early morning before the family awakes and lunchtime , when the family are miles away.  Truth be told this has the knock on affect of course that after I read my youngest her bed time story I sneak off to bed myself,  leaving my Wife to do whatever she does for a few hours. (‘Karen time’ I think she calls it )

When I was training for Comrades in 2008/2009 and 2010 I have three young Daughters. After my long runs, which would sometimes be up to 50k, I would return home and like limpets the girls were on me, excited to see their Dad return. Karen, my Wife, would of course then hand then over as she had looked after the girls till then. It made the afternoons as challenging as the previous 50k of running. Many times I would bundle the girls in to the car and find a park where I would position myself to watch over them from beneath the shade of a tree but that would be my contribution. The legs would be stiff and tired from the mornings exercise where as the girls were full of life. Sacrifices had to be make. Looking back I can see why most ultra-runners are older as after the mornings training nothing would have beaten a nap, after a good sized lunch of course.

Funnily enough I only started to run marathons ,and then ultra-marathons,  when I had my third daughter, I’m not sure if it was a conscience decision but running further, although harder, was still easier than looking after three young daughters, I’m sure Noakes would understand, not so sure about Karen.

As I get older I have managed to keep my love of running and even managed to up the training but this has the negative affect on any other sporting activity with my girls. Basketball, Tennis and Netball are all far too dangerous to an ageing runner who is one bad injury from retirement. As soon as any ball based game is offered I retort with how dangerous it would be for ‘my hammy’ and runners are ‘built to go in straight lines not move from side to side !’ The girls are less than impressed, another sacrifice us selfish runners make.

Truth be told my family does realise that running is important to me and they also realise it has stolen time that would have normally be assigned for them. Because of this they are flippant to the point of uninterested in any of my achievements which is a pity because it would be nice if they were to share in my successes (or failures)  but it seems I may have not followed Noakes successfully enough.

Running is a selfish sport and families do suffer because of it but I would hope my family realises that although I love my running nothing is more important to me than family. (Just don’t tell them I said that!)

 

 

In Running you really do need friends.

Running can be a lifetime commitment and in my opinion of course should be. If you can avoid injury and maintain the passion there is no need to ever stop running. Discussing this topic with my friend Dan he raised a good point that company is another factor that can prolong your running career.

Running with friends encourages participation, if only for the banter afterwards over pancakes.  In sunny Perth I have running friends who I have met over the years and together we formed the St. Georges Terrace Running Club. (We all work on St. Georges Terrace in Perth hence the name)  This entailed purchasing some great running tops (see below) which we actually had professionally designed and made. As a group run together most lunchtimes, encourage each other, offer advice and race together.

The St Georges Terrace Running Club. A finer bunch of runners you'll have trouble finding...
The St Georges Terrace Running Club. A finer bunch of runners you’ll have trouble finding…

Over the last 8 years I have met so many great runners who have become good friends and this week in Rottnest I holidayed with my friends Jon, Dan and Paul and their families; all people I have met through our love of running. So this bond keeps you running as before long you’ll find most of your friends are runners and you need to run to be able to add to the conversations, which invariably are about a new race to enter or current running goals etc.

As well as the St. Georges Terrace Club I am also a member of the West Australian Marathon Club. ( http://www.wamc.org.au ) (WAMC) and this is another source of good friends who I race against but also  share the same love of all things running. The WAMC put on around 30 events a year ranging from 4k unto 64k and each one is run and organised by volunteers.

Without these friends I would have found it difficult to maintain the passion as, although I enjoy some ‘Kev time‘  running alone , I also enjoy the banter running with a group. So I encourage all runners to seek out like minded people and spend time running with them. It will be a major factor in the length of your running career as when these runners become your friends spending time with them will encourage you to lace up the trainers.

It also helps at the end of the run as no one likes eating pancakes alone in the cafe.

Has the Ultra become the new Marathon.?

Running has become more and more popular not seen since the days of the Sony Walkman revolution of the early eighties when for the first time you could run with music. (To the young generation amongst us we used a  thing called a ‘tape’, analog not digital music. ) People new to running inevitably join a running club or run with more experienced friends and before they know it they’ve signed up for their first race. This is a good thing as I believe you never push yourself as much as when the competitive juices start to flow with a racing bib on your chest. One thing leads to another and before too long you’ve entered your first half or full marathon.

Invariably this distance is conquered and you’ve informed all your friends via Facebook and normally your work colleagues via daily updates on your progress. The problem arises though when the marathon doesn’t seem to cut it for kudos like it use to. In the office there seems to be quite a few marathoners and worse most are faster than you. You start to get compared to John in accounts who ran sub3 or even Sheila in Purchasing who ran has ran 10 marathons while juggling family commitments and a busy career. So these days to get some real kudos it’s time to take this running to the next level, the ultra-marathon.

The ultra has the added benefit of the slower you run the more kudos you get where as the marathon is these days about not only completing it but also setting a good time. Non runners are getting use to people telling them they’ve ran a marathon and have responded asking how long they took. Again they are wise to what they consider a good time and if you reply ‘4 hours’ they look at you with pity an asked ‘what went wrong’? Not so with the ultra-marathon. Because it is still not mainstream a non runner has no idea what a good or bad time is for an ultra and even if they did the distance can be varied to confuse them. Remember an ultra is anything longer than a marathon distance, it can be 42.3k upwards.

The ultra gets even better, they tend to be in far flung locations and have pretty serious titles, again earning kudos points. How good does an ‘ultra-marathon in Death Valley‘ sound. Death valley, c’mon, if that doesn’t get serious kudos around the drink fountain nothing will. Ok, Sheila from Purchasing has ran 10 marathons but she’s never ran an ultra-marathon in Death Valley. They have no idea where Death Valley is or even what an ultra-marathon is but who cares, you are now the running god in the office, someone who wouldn’t waste their time with silly ‘girl distance’ like marathons. The universe is realigned and you can ‘strut’ around the office yet gain.

The only downside to this new running adventure is the office folk then look to you for more and more longer distances and/or exotic locations. After your first ultra you can never repeat that distance as non-runners , although initially impressed , soon become impervious to distance running unless there is a serious upgrade or the location adds some spice. e.g. The Marathon Des Sable ( http://www.marathondessables.com/en/), the toughest footrace on Earth. ! ( ..On Earth? are they saying there’s a tougher footrace not on earth, the Moon 100k maybe? Now that would be worth talking about !??)

A word of warning of course you may come across the non runner who knows a thing or two about ultra-running and while you strut around the office sprouting off about a 100k race on the local trails,  basking in the adulation of the finance department,  they walk past and grunt it was ‘no Marathon Des Sables’. Instantly your credibility is destroyed and you sneak off back to your desk plotting your next adventure.

So to some up an ultra marathon may fill the void in the office kudos states. It has the benefit of still being relatively hardcore, in the view of the uneducated, allows you to focus on distance and not time (to counter that nasty sub3 runner in Accounts) and even allows you to slow down and take your time as the longer you take will actually earn more brownie points.  I won’t even start to mention the extra equipment you get to buy and use on ultra-marathons. The wardrobe options are endless and include camelbacks, gators, water belts and my mate Mark’s favourite a cappuccino machine. ! (He doesn’t actually bring along a cappuccino machine but he wore a water belt once that had so many accessories he might as well have!)  This can become more of a hindrance than a help as I always remember feeling my mate TB’s camelback at the end of the 6 inch ultra-marathon ( http://www.6inchtrailmarathon.com ) and it must have weighted 10k; and that was at the END of the race not the beginning !!

The 6 inch is a good example of the small step up needed from the marathon distance. Remember anything longer than a marathon is classed an ultra. The 6 inch is 46k (assuming you don’t get lost, which I have on a number of occasions!), so for that extra 4k you get to shoot down Sheila in Purchasing as you’ve ran an ultra-marathon and as everybody knows so much harder than the silly marathon…

So lookout Sheila,  we’re coming for you ?

6 Inch Trail
6 Inch Trail

After the Runners high comes the Runners low…

Everybody talks about the runners high, this sense of euphoria one experiences when they cross the line at a major goal event. I’ve discussed what I feel it is, a sudden overwhelming sense of relief, or release,  after you achieve something after putting yourself either under pressure or into the ‘pain box’. Anyway, after this ‘runners high’ you can sometimes come a cropper and experience what I term the ‘runners low’.

This feeling is the same in all sports and happens after achieving something you have worked so hard to do. There’s a classic scene (there are so many classic scenes in this movie of course.) in ‘Chariots of Fire’ when Harold Abrahams has just won the 100m gold and everybody else is celebrating while Harold himself is reserved and alone in the changing rooms. What Abrahams is struggling to come to terms with is success after so many years working towards that one 10 second race. All of a sudden he has no purpose, no target, no reason to do what he has been doing for so long. It must be daunting ?

The same can be true for us recreational marathon runners, albeit probably not as severe. Once we have completed the marathon and achieved the ‘runners high’ the next day all of sudden we have no goal. No reason to put in that early morning 5am start, no reason to double up or run a threshold until your lungs feel they are about to explode. There is no purpose after so many months of having something to achieve, a target to overcome. This feeling , coupled with the emotions of the previous few days of finishing a marathon, makes the runners high seem so long ago.

There is hope though and it as easy as getting on the internet and searching for the next goal, the next target, the next reason to structure a long term plan. Before you know it you’ve signed up for another race and it’s back on. Another phase begins towards another goal race which will probably have a target finish time just that little bit quicker than the previous race. Let’s face it we don’t do all this to slow down !

So my advice is to get back on the horse (so to speak, if you actually get on a horse you’ll probably get disqualified, remember this is a running blog!) and set yourself your next goal. It works for me, no off season, the next race is normally a few months away at worst but I know it’s there for me, waiting. Admittedly after a marathon I do feel low for a few days because I love to run marathons and the feeling you get when you finish one is why we do what we do. It has never let me down in 40 runs so far . (and the 16 ultra-marathons have also delivered of course)

Remember we are runners, we need a goal, something to make those 5am alarm calls worthwhile. What else is there to do at 5am in the morning anyway?

Another tick in the box pre-World Masters Marathon. Gotta’ love Rotto.

Rottnest half went very well. Trusted in my training and yet again it delivered. Finished with a comfortable second place after racing for the first 2 kilometres and then realizing that my opponent was running my 5k pace and was relaxed doing it. I had discussed the start with my friend (coach?) Dan Macey last night and his final words were go out slow and build into it. I did smile to myself when the first kilometre came up at 3:15min/k with the second only marginally slower. Time to wave goodbye to Stuart Caulfield, the winner by over 3 minutes in the end. Please note Stuart was running in the 20-24 age group. Doesn’t matter how much training I put in, age and talent will always beat plain hard work unfortunately. It was nice to keep Stu honest if only for 2k !

After Stu left I settled down in to a pace I was confident I could maintain to the finish and was happy with a 1:17:06. The conditions were brutal and I felt for the marathon runners. This year was the first year the marathon started nearly 2 hours later than normal and the weather had not been kind. I was done by 9:45am but most of the marathon runners had not even hit halfway. It got very warm very quickly.  So massive kudos to anyone who ran the marathon today, you earned your medal.

It wasn’t easy  running the half and seeing all the marathon runners working so hard. Running 2 laps on Rotto’ is hard work but the 4 lap course tests you like all good marathons should. Add in the 4 hills (I missed one when I was discussing Rotto’ a few days ago!) and times that by 4 gives you 16 hills and the heat was brutal..  All my friends reported suffering to new extremes and I was very quiet when asked how the half went. Couldn’t really compete with their ‘war stories’.

So todays lesson is again ‘trust your training’, if you put in the hard yards you will be rewarded on race day. I’ve said it so many times but this needs to be repeated, running is an honest sport, if you put in the time you will be rewarded. I’ve questioned myself over the last 4-5 weeks as I’ve been running some serious kilometres and then racing at the weekend. So far I’ve not been let down. Now though it is taper time and this is a difficult time for us runners. We love to run and the thought of not running does not excite me but I realise it is for the greater good.  I must admit to sneaking out for a 10k recovery this afternoon but I did take it easy and I’m a big believer in the benefits of running on fatigued legs.

So I have a week in Rotto with the family for the first week of my taper culminating with the 5k World Masters track on Saturday. This is a starter for the main course on November 6th, the marathon. ( http://www.parth2016.com ) It’s been a long journey to this race and I can see the finish line, just got to try and not run as much as normal. How hard can that be ?

Finally a bit shout out to Thomas Millard who ran 3rd male in the 5k and also first in the under 12, 20:25. It gets better, his sister, Jessica, was first female in the U12 and 7th female overall, 25:12. That is great running and the two of them are certain stars of the future. What a family, must be something in the water in that household. Outstanding.

Rottnest Half medal
Rottnest Half medal
More bling, don't mind if I do..
More bling, don’t mind if I do..

Holiday with Matt Fitzgerald

While I’m on holiday I like to try and read or,  even reread,  running books. Remember as a running tragic if I’m not running I like to read about running. There are so many good authors out there who have written so many good books it would be silly not to. Even now I’ve only brought 3 running books with me and I may need to call my Wife who is coming out Monday to bring a few more as I’ll probably finish these (they are all rereads actually) by the end of the weekend.

Of course my staple diet is Matt Fitzgerald and his ’80/20 Running’ . This has become my bible of late as I step up my training distance to over 100miles (160k) a week. By making sure 80% of this volume is low intensity I am able to sustain this without any fatigue issues. As Matt mentions in his book there are a few extra rules, small print, to his 80/20 Running blueprint.

He comments that the 80%/20% split is a guideline and not to follow religiously. It is more of a moving target and serves as a best case rather than a ‘set in stone’ target. Rather it is there to make sure you don’t over compensate either way e.g. 100/0 , 30/70 or 50/50. ‘The ideal balance of training intensities is a narrow range rather than a precise ratio’ . With periodization you may move the ratio more to the easy as you build up your base and just pre-race this ratio may change as you run more race-pace runs Once you have raced you may taper,  when again the shift is more to the 80% slower runs.

Matt also mentions training cycles and puts twenty-four weeks as probably the maximum the body , and mind, can sustain to absorb increased training loads. Looking ay my training lately I’m probably 16 weeks into a  heightened training program so it looks like I may have timed it pretty will with two weeks left pre-Masters Marathon.

Other rules Matt describes are topics I have touched on in previous posts and all make good sense. Build up your weekly average slowly and he even mentions no more than an average increase of 10 miles a week per year. I personally think this is far too conservative i.e. if your average weekly mileage was 20 miles one year I can see no reason why, if you were to commit to running,  and follow all the training rules you could not increase to any distance , within reason of course.  Limiting yourself to 30 miles a week average seems too restrictive. Sorry Matt it looks like you’re not perfect, or I’m wrong. (which has happened before funnily enough.)

Matt also describes the hard/easy principle where you should not have two hard training sessions in a row. As I described in a previous post the recovery run after a hard session is as good, if not better,  than the original hard run because you are running on fatigued legs. Thus even though it is a recovery run you are still preforming some good and increasing fitness, how good is that?

His fourth rule describes the tried and tested workouts which he splits into low intensity runs , these include the recovery runs, foundation runs and long runs. Next is the moderate intensity which include the fast finish runs (as the name suggests making the last few kilometres your fastest, and one of my favorite runs due to training with Tony Smith !!! AKA the T-train) . Next are the Tempo run, Cruise intervals and long runs with speed play. Finally is the high intensity runs which include speed play (fartlek), hill repetitions, short intervals or long intervals and mixed intervals. So many ways to have so much fun.

Finally Matt mentions Step Cycles where the running load is varied week to week , making each week slightly more challenging than the preceding, typically these adjustments are by increasing or decreasing volume. His last rule describes training progressively as you move towards your goal race. If it is a 5k your training should culminate with training sessions done at or near 5k pace. Likewise for a half you would sharpen up with a few workouts that closely simulate  the endurance and intensity demands of that specific distance.

All these rules make sense and have certainly helped me rediscover some racing form of late. I would highly recommend you search out any Matt Fitzgerald  ( http://mattfitzgerald.org/ ) literature, he knows what he is taking about.

 

Holiday light reading
Holiday light reading

Rottnest here I come

Booked on there 3pm ferry to sunny Rottnest for the inaugural half marathon on Sunday. I then have a week on the island with my coach Dan ‘I have a plan’ Macey. (and the family of course, its not all about running)

Check out the Island on the their website, inspiring. ( http://www.rottnestisland.com )

Excited to get a holiday but tinged with a sad feeling knowing I won’t be running my favourite marathon on Sunday. Two weeks to the World Masters is just too close to do both justice and Rottnest will be here next year, the World Masters is a once in a lifetime, in Perth anyway.  It will be so surreal not running the marathon this year. As I have mentioned before consistency is a key to improvement and this even goes to entering the same events each year. This would have been my 9th Rottnest on the bounce, to go with my 8 City to Surf marathons and 10 Perth marathons. I am a creature of habit and not doing Rottnest will be a big ask. Even now while typing this I’m thinking could I do both and treat Rotto’ as a training run with a medal at the end. The answer is of course no but it doesn’t stop you asking the question.

Leading out the marathon in 2013
Leading out the marathon in 2012

 

Running marathons is what I do and the reason behind all the hard work, early mornings and time in the ‘pain box’.  When you finish your marathon and you achieve your target it is so worth it. The ‘runners high‘ is real and on a number of occasions I have experienced it. Comrades in 2010 when I ran a 7hrs22mins and got a silver medal (awards for running the 89k course quicker than 7hrs30mins) , City to Surf this year and last when I ran times I though beyond me and finished top 5 on both occasions, and Perth 2013.

You don’t have to achieve PB’s to get that feeling. In Bunbury 2012 I went into the marathon under done due to a nasty calf knot and set off confident of an easy sub3. I went through halfway in 1hr28mins and thought to myself ‘I’m in trouble here’, needless to say the next 21k I was watching my average pace creep up and it was touch and go right up to the last 1-2k, I eventually made it in 2hrs59mins and 20+seconds. Man that felt good. After putting myself under pressure from the halfway mark I was under the pump the whole second half and mentally it was a real struggle. That feeling of seeing the finish line will go with me to the grave.

So what really is a runners high ? To me is it a overwhelming feeling of relief when you achieve something that really is so hard you need to push your mind and body to breaking point. You don’t get a runners high jogging in to the finish line 30 minutes over your best time, you get it when you have pushed yourself to the limit, drawn a line in the sand and then step over it. When you cross that line there is a wave of emotions that wash over you and on a few occasions I have been brought to tears of joy. It’s a funny sport when you end up crying tears of joy when you finish. Not many golfers experience that, more like tears of frustration. (Being a Fremantle Docker AFL supporter I have also experienced tears of frustration of course, so I can understand what you Golfers go though trust me!)

Is it addictive, hell yeah ! It is still achievable, I think so. You may not get PB’s as you get older but you can always push yourself harder and further, maybe this is why Ultra-Running is becoming so popular. It’s a double whammy, as I mentioned before you get to eat as much as you want while ‘racing’ and if you run long enough I’m sure you get the runners high at the end. You’d want to anyway.

Home for the next week.
Home for the next week.

Nutrition, and the winner is…

After yesterdays post on Noakes and his High Fat, Low Carbs (HFLC) diet I had quite a varied response. Some people replied positively supporting Noakes but most were of the opinion the high carb diet is still the one for runners, especially those who need the fuel as they are logging big kilometres. I’ve attached a YouTube link below supporting the HFLC diet for information.

 

This being my blog I have decided on the proper diet for runners  and as this is a runners blog this is what is important. First if the diet is working you’ll see a performance increase, you’ll sleep well and won’t be too stressed. If the diet to achieve this includes a lot of carbohydrates and you keep your weight under control then so be it. Conversely if you can see a performance increase on the HFLC diet so again so be it. Each of us is different and no one diet will suit all needs.

That being said I think a common enemy is sugar, not the natural kind found in fruit but the processed kind so loved by big business. Now as all avid readers of my posts will know I do like the odd pancake and muffin now and again and that is fine, but not everyday ! I also avoid all ‘fizzy’ drinks and OJ etc. (unless I’m carboloading of course when OJ is my goto drink of choice) I’m a water and tea man now , with one cappuccino early morning.

Diet wise I eat a lot of fish, chicken, salad and rice with garlic bread normally. For sweet its yoghurt and the odd digestive. Breakfast is three weetbix.  Lunch is normally rice and meat. I’ll also eat my fair share of fruit at work as its free and why wouldn’t you. Is this a perfect diet ? No , not really. I don’t eat enough vegetables and never will, sorry Mum,  just not my thing.  Can I improve my diet, yes, will I, maybe. I feel it does give me an opportunity  for a running improvement if I was able to find a better diet. Food is fuel, better fuel better performance.

Have I solved the nutrition puzzle, not really. Everybody needs to find the best fuel to help them perform to the best of their ability and be the best you can be. Diet is only one piece of the jigsaw but it one overlooked by so many. Improving your diet will improve your running, that is a given. With all things in life moderation is the key. A healthy diet can also be an enjoyable diet, you just need to find the right recipes.

I suppose diet is more important to those Ultra runners, they love to eat. In fact I think some ultra runners are food junkies first and runners second. The end justifies the means so to speak. I’ve seen some unusual running diets in my time. My friend Dan once took 2 McDonald’s burger on a 46k recon run. His logic,  they were full of preservatives, sugar, salt and all things that runners need. Call me old fashioned but I prefer the odd Gu.

These days I don’t use anything on any run, even my long runs that are more than 2 hours. I believe your body burns it owns fat if you don’t give it external sources of energy.

Right as I’m a runner and not a expert of diet I have attached an article by someone who has a Ph.D and probably spent years researching this post. Deborah may help or muddy the waters, either way it may generate enough interest to push you to investigate more and that can only be a good thing…..

 

Fuel On Fat For The Long Run

By Deborah Schulman, Ph.D

It Is More Efficient To Tap Into Your Unlimited Fat Supply

MIGRATORY BIRDS and whales rely on stored fat to fuel their long, strenuous journeys. Developing your fat engine will increase the amount of energy you can generate, reduce the amount of carbohydrates you use, and stretch out the glycogen supply during long runs. Added together, you have a more stable and enduring energy supply, better endurance, and faster finish times.

To illustrate, let’s consider Shane. Shane is a computer engineer in his late 30s who has stayed active over the years with yard work, occasional football games with his kids, and sporadic attempts to weight train. In short, he was not aerobically fit. Inspired by the fortitude and tenacity of his wife, who just ran her first marathon, he decided to train for a marathon.

He was determined to be informed and methodical about the process. Many of the books he read recommended training with a heart rate monitor. The books said that most people run marathons at 75 to 80 percent of maximum heart rate, so he decided to do a test. He consulted a chart to find his heart rate at a more manageable effort of 65 percent and set off running. After only 90 minutes on the road, he felt nauseated and fatigued. His legs felt like bricks, and finally he was forced to stop. In other words, he bonked well short of the distance he would need to cover to finish the marathon.

Due to his low level of fitness, most of Shane’s energy was coming from the limited carbohydrate stores in his liver and muscles. He simply ran to the end of his carbohydrate supply. Carbohydrates are necessary to maintain exercise at any intensity. An excessively high rate of usage combined with low carbohydrate stores reduced his endurance, even at relatively easy running speeds. Had he eaten GU or drunk Gatorade, he still would not have been able to continue for much longer. A training program that focused on switching to fat for fuel would change that.

PUMP UP THE VOLUME

Arthur Lydiard contended that the most important aspect of conditioning is volume. In the 1960s his training concepts were revolutionary. Even the track athletes whom he coached followed a marathon-based aerobic conditioning program in the initial phases of their training cycles. Considering the phenomenal success of athletes who trained under Lydiard’s tutelage, such as Peter Snell, John Davies, and Lorraine Moller, and other athletes who have followed his program principles, his theories were insightful. Subsequent research has shown that they also possess a sound physiological basis.

While many of America’s marathoners switched focus to quality (and reduced mileage) rather than quantity, coaches from Japan, Italy, Mexico, Germany, and China were incorporating Lydiard’s principles into highly successful training programs. Naoko Takahashi reportedly ran up to 80K (50 miles) per day in preparation to become the first woman marathoner in the world to dip under 2:20. Catherine Ndereba ran comparatively modest 100-mile weeks in the buildup to her world record of 2:18:47 at Chicago in 2001. Jerry Lawson, imitating the high-mileage successes of Bill Rodgers, Alberto Salazar, and Frank Shorter, ran up to 250 miles per week en route to his then American record of 2:09.

Metabolically, high-volume training makes sense. There are two main sources of fuel for exercise: carbohydrates and fats. The energy supply from carbohydrate and fat is inversely related. High rates of carbohydrate use reduce combustion of fat. Carbohydrates are used preferentially at very high efforts, such as a 5K race, or at low fitness levels when fat metabolism is underdeveloped.

Conversely, when you teach your body to rely on fat for fuel, your combustion of carbohydrates goes down, thus “sparing” carbohydrates. This benefits performance in endurance events. You become very fatigued when you run too low on carbohydrates. We store only a very limited amount of carbohydrate (glycogen) in our bodies. Compare this with a relatively unlimited supply of fat. Even an athlete with only 6 percent body fat will have enough fat to fuel exercise lasting for many hours. When you use more fat, you generate more energy and your carbohydrate supply lasts longer.

Follow the principle of specificity. If you want to teach your body to use more fat for fuel, then create training conditions that generate high fat metabolism. Your body will eventually learn to prefer fat.

Research conducted at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden during the 1980s showed that, within the leg muscles of highly trained endurance men, the activity of enzymes that break down fats was 100 percent higher than in the untrained subjects. As a result, during exercise they had a much higher ability to regenerate the ATP that fuels muscular contraction than those who had a greater reliance on carbohydrates.

These researchers found that the maximal oxygen consumption (or V.O2max) was 50 percent greater in the trained men. Maximal oxygen consumption measures aerobic capacity: the efficiency of the lungs to transfer oxygen to the blood, the capacity of the blood to carry oxygen, the power of the heart and blood vessels to deliver large quantities of blood to the muscles, and the ability of the muscles to use the oxygen. Fats cannot be burned without oxygen. Not only did these men have more enzymes to combust the fat, but they also had more oxygen to feed the fire.

Researchers have since demonstrated that, after a 12-week six-day-per-week program of 45 minutes of running and cycling at a high intensity, fat combustion increased by 41 percent. This was accompanied by reduced reliance on carbohydrates.

MILES MAKE MITOCHONDRIA

The enzymes of fat metabolism are located in structures within the muscle cells called mitochondria. Fats are transported into the mitochondria where, in the presence of oxygen, they are broken down to generate energy. More mitochondria means more fat metabolism, more ATP, and more energy.

High-volume training increases the amount and size of mitochondria. Longer exercise bouts produce the greatest gains in mitochondrial content. A 90-minute run provides a better stimulus than a 60-minute run. It is common for runners to do “two-a-day” workouts to get in the necessary mileage. However, this research indicates that a runner will receive much more benefit from running one 90-minute workout than two 45-minute workouts. There is, however, a point of diminishing returns. A three-hour run is better at nudging the mitochondria content upward than a 90-minute run, but the gains are offset by the necessity of a longer recovery time between workouts.

During the base phase of building miles, it is the daily consistency of training over a period of weeks and months that will boost fat metabolism.

After the base phase and basic fat metabolism have been established, training time should be shifted into very prolonged runs of three or more hours, depending on your event. Very long runs are important in preparation for the marathon and longer events. After two to three hours of running, the leg muscles run low on glycogen. Hormonal adjustments to the low glycogen levels shift fat metabolism into an even higher gear.

Miles may make champions, but those miles should be carefully developed, monitored, and arranged to get the maximum effect. In his buildup program, Lydiard recommends alternating longer 90-minute to two-hour runs with 60-minute runs on other days, aiming for a total of 10 to 11 hours of weekly running.

Give yourself plenty of time to build up to these levels. Jon Sinclair, former world-class runner turned coach, cautions that it is not practical or even possible for most people with full-time jobs and families to build up to running 10 hours per week in a mere three months. The amount of mileage you will be able to run depends on your lifestyle, physical capabilities, and prior training history. He advises his less-experienced athletes to build up mileage over a period of many months or even years. His associate, Kent Oglesby, took four years to prepare a 3:15 marathoner for the rigors of running 100 miles per week. The result was a 2:46 marathon, which earned her a spot at the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials.

TRAIN AT THE TOP OF YOUR FAT-BURNING ZONE

My speed in long races had been declining since I had become a masters runner. For a number of years I had been running LSD (long, slow distance) type training. In the process of researching and writing about fat metabolism, I read Lydiard’s book Running the Lydiard Way. Lydiard’s formula advocates not just high-volume training but high volume at speeds near the “maximum steady state.”

In other words, most training should be conducted close to the highest speed that you can run without going anaerobic. This is the speed where fat metabolism is at its highest. For experienced runners, the maximum steady state equals an intensity of 70 to 75 percent of maximum heart rate. For those just launching their running careers, it will be closer to 60 to 65 percent of maximum heart rate. Studies have confirmed his theories. Volume and intensity interact to produce even greater gains in mitochondria development. Daily runs of 90 minutes at 70 percent max will boost mitochondria 30 percent higher than equivalent time spent at an easier 50 percent effort.

After purchasing a heart rate monitor and calculating my target heart rates, I was surprised to find that my LSD training intensity had been substantially below my target training intensity of 70 percent. Initially I had a hard time running more than 60 minutes at that effort. However, after only six weeks of faster training, I was easily able to maintain that pace for a full two hours. Although LSD training will increase fat metabolism and endurance, it will limit your endurance at marathon paces. Long, slow running will only teach you to run slowly for long periods.

On the other hand, you can run too fast on your daily runs. At faster paces, oxygen demand exceeds supply. You are now anaerobic. Fuel reliance switches predominantly to carbohydrates, and the result is the accumulation of lactic acid. Lactic acid inhibits the enzymes that break down fat and therefore reduces fat metabolism. If you go out for a 45-minute run at 10K race pace, you will be burning less fat and generating more waste products than if you ran those 45 minutes at only a 60 percent effort. Daily hard efforts will result in accumulation of waste products and decreased recovery, and lead to declining performances. It’s better to run a little too slow than a little too fast.

RAISE THE LACTATE THRESHOLD

Let’s return to Shane after 24 weeks on his Lydiard-based training program. His fat metabolism is augmented, there is a substantially reduced reliance on glycogen, and his glycogen stores are larger. He again decides to test his ability to run at 65 percent of his maximum. Before the test he makes sure to get plenty of carbohydrates in his diet so that his leg muscles and liver are loaded with glycogen. This time he was able to continue for three hours.

His skeletal, connective, and muscle tissues; his metabolism; and his cardiovascular, nervous, and endocrine systems are now prepared for some faster training. His next step is to focus on increasing his endurance running speed and reducing his lactate production.

Endurance races are aerobic races. Marathons tend to be run at just below the level where you start to accumulate lactic acid, which is known as the anaerobic threshold (AT). How many times have you started a race too fast and gone anaerobic, only to suffer later and run slower than you planned or even had to drop out?

With a higher AT, you will be able to sustain faster marathon and ultramarathon paces. Elite world-class marathoners often have such a highly developed fat-burning engine that they can run marathons at 85 percent or higher of their maximum. For the rest of us, 75 to 80 percent is a realistic goal.

Anaerobic threshold training augments the basic fat metabolism you have spent so much time developing. The result is faster running speeds over the long haul. A measured dose of faster, anaerobic training will teach your muscles and blood to metabolize and buffer lactic acid. The goal is to generate a manageable quantity of lactic acid that your muscles can dispose of easily and permit a sufficiently long training session and quick recovery. Venturing too far into the anaerobic zone will generate too much lactic acid, reduce the amount of work you can do within your training session, and risk lasting fatigue and overreaching. Marathoners don’t derive much benefit from 400-meter repeats.

Faster, sustained running at 80 to 85 percent and mile repeats are good methods to increase lactate tolerance. Oglesby recommends tempo runs of 10 to 12 miles at 15 to 30 seconds per mile faster than goal marathon race pace. An added benefit of these tempo runs is that the marathon pace feels easier and more manageable.

A recent study examined the effect of high-intensity interval sessions on fat and carbohydrate metabolism and lactate concentrations in cyclists who had been training two to three hours per day for years. They replaced some of their endurance miles with two weekly sessions of 6-9 x 5-minute intervals with 1 minute of recovery between. After six weeks, the percentage of energy coming from fat during a one-hour trial had increased from 6 percent to 13 percent. How well this applies to a race lasting more than two hours is unclear.

Because of the results from studies on interval training such as these, many runners have opted out of the extended base-building phase citing “quality over quantity” as the rationale. I would like to emphasize that high-intensity training builds on the increased strength, resilience, and fat metabolism developed during those long, high-quality aerobic miles. Jumping into AT training before your body is sufficiently prepared will not produce the desired results: fast marathons.

SHOULD YOU EAT AND RUN?

It is best to start an exercise session with stable, fasting blood glucose levels and higher blood fat levels. Glucose is a powerful regulator of fat metabolism. The higher the glucose content of the blood, the lower the fat metabolism. High blood glucose levels are generated from dietary carbohydrates.

This effect is associated with insulin. High blood glucose stimulates the hormone insulin to be released from the pancreas. Insulin is a storage and growth hormone. Its main job is to reduce blood glucose but it also acts to store fat and protein. In the process, insulin directly blocks removal of fat from fat deposits. These deposits are an important source of fat for exercising muscle. Insulin also reduces fat burning within the muscle. Therefore, increased insulin is considered to be antagonistic to fat combustion during exercise.

In an interesting piece of research, investigators at the University of Limburg in the Netherlands and at the University of Texas collaborated to determine whether high blood glucose and high insulin levels reduce the amount of fat burned during moderate-level exercise. A group of endurance-trained men cycled for 40 minutes at an aerobic 50 percent of maximum after an overnight fast. On another day, they ingested a drink containing 100 grams of glucose at 60 minutes before and then again at 10 minutes prior to the exercise test. This is a carbohydrate equivalent of drinking one and one-half liters of Gatorade an hour before a race and again 10 minutes before the start. While this may not mimic real-life situations, what the researchers found was telling. Fat metabolism was substantially reduced for the full 40 minutes of the exercise after the carbohydrate load.

While most people would not eat that much carbohydrate before a run, it is common for people to eat a sports bar, bagel, or banana in the hour prior to training. Try to avoid eating for at least two hours before a run.

It takes as little as 20 grams of ingested carbohydrate to raise insulin and reduce fat as fuel. If you have nutrition awareness or read the nutrition labels on foods, you will know that a couple of slices of bread, a banana, a sports bar, or a soda each delivers more than 20 grams of carbohydrate.

Fasting increases blood fat levels. Running after your overnight fast will increase fat burning. A cup of coffee beforehand may boost it even higher. Once exercise has started, eating carbohydrates does not generate a substantive insulin response. If you are starting a long run lasting two hours or more on an empty stomach, you may want to eat a sports gel or bar after 20 to 30 minutes throughout the run. Otherwise you will be faced with the nausea and fatigue of low blood sugar and have a poor training session. If you tend toward hypoglycemia when you get up in the morning, you may want to eat something in the minutes immediately before you head out the door. It takes 30 minutes for insulin levels to peak.

However, before a long race or run you will have more endurance and perform better if you eat a meal containing carbohydrate two to three hours before. Early in the morning, your liver glycogen stores, which supply blood glucose, have been depleted by the overnight fast. The brain and nervous system rely on blood glucose for energy. If you start a marathon without replenishing these stores, you will bonk. The two-hour time interval is sufficient to reduce blood glucose levels back to normal and restore fat metabolism.

WHICH DIET IS BETTER: HIGH FAT OR HIGH CARBOHYDRATE?

There has been considerable research in the past decade on the effect of diet composition on endurance. Prior to now, endurance athletes usually followed a high-carbohydrate diet with the rationale that enhanced glycogen stores are known to fuel superior training and marathon race performances.

Most sports nutritionists recommend a diet that supplies 6 to 8 grams of carbohydrates per kilogram of body weight. These levels of dietary carbohydrate can easily reach 400 to 600 grams per day. This adds up to 1,600 to 2,400 calories of carbohydrate per day. This type of diet doesn’t leave room for adequate amounts of fat or protein.

The downside of a high-carbohydrate diet, especially a diet loaded with sugar, is reduced fat metabolism and fatigue. This is largely due to chronically stimulated insulin levels. The effects of insulin can last up to eight hours, especially after a big dose of carbohydrates, such as you might get from a big plate of spaghetti and rolls followed by a bowl of sorbet.

Initially, studies found that high-fat diets, where fats supply 60 percent or more of the calories, showed promise as a means to better endurance. Fat burning is increased on high-fat diets, even at rest. Exercise tests showed higher endurance in subjects who had been eating high-fat diets in comparison with high-carbohydrate diets.

At issue, however, was the intensity of exercise used for the tests. High-fat diets improved endurance at relatively low-intensity levels. When the intensity was increased to mirror race situations, the advantage disappeared. The higher- intensity exercise required more carbohydrate, and the subjects simply lacked adequate glycogen to continue for extended periods. The lesson is that you can reduce your reliance on carbohydrate, but you can’t eliminate it.

We now know that both high-carbohydrate and high-fat diets cause fatigue and poor performances. The best diet is probably somewhere in between: one that supplies enough fat to stimulate fat metabolism and maintain production of testosterone and estrogen and also supplies enough carbohydrate to keep the brain and nervous system happy and the glycogen stores filled. Many sports scientists are recommending a basic diet that supplies 50 percent carbohydrate, 30 percent fat, and 20 percent protein, with additional carbohydrates after hard or long-duration training.

MORE QUESTIONS

There are still many unanswered questions regarding nutrition and endurance sports performance. Before a marathon or longer race, will fat loading in combination with glycogen loading boost performance? After hard or long training, should you also concentrate on replenishment of fat stores in the muscles? What type of fat, saturated or unsaturated, is burned for fuel? Will eating fat during races that last four hours or more benefit performance outcomes?

What profile of fats in the basic diet is best for an athlete? The skeletal muscle membrane is made of fat. The composition of this membrane directly reflects the profile of fats in the diet. A diet high in saturated fats will generate a more solid, less fluid membrane. A membrane that incorporates more unsaturated fats is more fluid, allowing a more efficient flux of oxygen, water, fat, and glucose. New theories hold that these membranes are more leaky and require more energy to maintain. Conceivably then, a diet too high in either saturated or unsaturated fats could be detrimental to endurance performance.

While there are new training methods being developed to enhance marathon performance, you will find substantial success with theories that are now 40 years old. In contrast, the field of sports nutrition research is currently experiencing great strides. In the early 1990s, the accepted dogma of a high-carbohydrate diet came under fire and was dismantled. Until we have more definitive information, it is wise to follow a moderate, low-sugar, common-sense diet with high nutritional quality.

With a training and nutrition regimen that coerces you to tap into your fat supplies, you can teach your body to use more fat during your migration through the marathon, and beyond.

 

Tapering, when less really is more.

As I’m racing Rottnest half this weekend I ran this morning and that is it until the race on Sunday. This is my half taper routine, 48 hours of no running and nothing too strenuous the week of the race. Obviously for a marathon it’ll be a good two week taper with very little on race week.

My legs still feel fatigued but they felt the same pre-Fremantle half two weeks ago and still managed a good PB so it’ll be another ‘trust in your training’ sprint from the start line and hopefully I’ll be able to maintain whatever pace I settle into until the end. Rottnest though is a different animal compared to Fremantle. Three nasty hills on a two lap course means six nasty hills, add in heat and possibly wind and the pressure of a PB is non-existence. This weekend is about a top 5 place (depending on who turns up of course?) and pushing myself into the ‘pain box’ for the last time on a race of distance pre-Masters Marathon November 6th. ( http://www.perth2016.com )

It will be the first time I’ve ran a half at Rottnest, actually the first time anyone has as it’s the inaugural event. I’ve ran the marathon ten times so it will be weird running at half pace on a course I have only ever ran at marathon pace. Judging the hills for pace will be a challenge but truth be told it’ll just be the normal ‘suicide pace’ until either something blows or the finish line.

Predicted time will be hard because so much will depend on the conditions on the day. You are exposed on sections of the course so a head wind would be a challenge. Heat wise we are expecting  25-28 degrees which will be the first time I have raced in anything above 20 for the year probably. Coming from the UK originally I’m not a fan of racing in the heat and this will certainly affect my time.  (I do enjoy horizontal rain and extreme cold funnily enough, we call that summer in Cornwall!)

On the bright side I have a week to recover on the Island so will be treating it as a training camp with some speed work pre-Masters 5k the following Saturday. This will also be the first week of my marathon tapering so will do my best to only run once a day. This will be a challenge as I am now totally accustomed to double-up days, need to look at the bigger picture though. A good taper is so important as the legs and mind need to be fresh for the marathon. I have attached an article from Running Competitor which gives you some tips to taper like a pro. Hey, if we can’t run like a pro we can at least taper like one…

 

The Art Of Tapering Like A Pro  By Duncan Larki

Mastering the final few weeks of training is trickier than it seems.  Marathon training is hard—the long runs, hill repeats and the arduous track sessions take a tremendous toll on both the body and mind. When many marathoners review their training schedule they get giddy at the sight of the taper, which typically starts two to three weeks out from race day. The reduction in volume and intensity is a welcome one. But what many runners don’t realize, however, is that the taper can be just as (or even more) difficult as the rest of the training cycle.

Why is this? How does a taper help a marathoner in the first place and why do you need them?

First, the benefits: According to 2006 U.S. mountain running champion Nicole Hunt, who now coaches at Speedendurance.net, tapers “bolster muscle power, increase muscle glycogen, muscle repair, freshen the mind, fine-tune the neural network so that it’s working the most efficiently, and most importantly, eliminate the risk of overtraining where it could slow the athlete down the most.” Additionally, Hunt notes that a well-designed taper will increase a runner’s performance. “Studies have indicated that a taper can help runners improve [performance] by 6 to 20%,” she contends.

So what exactly is a “well-designed” taper?

The key is to find the optimal balance between three key training elements: duration, weekly mileage, and key workouts. A taper that doesn’t incorporate enough rest can leave a runner feeling burned out going into the race, while a taper overabundant with rest can be mentally taxing and result in a deterioration of fitness

How long you taper for usually depends on the distance of the race you’re targeting and what kind of mileage you’ve been logging from week to week in training. A typical taper for a marathon is two to three weeks, but some runners like American-record holder Deena Kastor only taper for 10 days beforehand.

Conversely, Hunt usually prescribes a three-week taper for her athletes. If you haven’t felt “fresh” at the starting line for recent races, look at the duration of your taper. Consider adding an extra week (or even a few days) of reduced volume and intensity to your schedule. On the other hand, if you’ve been prone to longer tapers and feel like you’re heading into your races too rested, shorten them up a bit. 

Weekly Mileage

Regardless of their duration, a taper requires backing off your weekly mileage in order to rest the legs for race day. Mammoth Track Club coach Terrence Mahon, who guides elite marathoners Kastor, Josh Cox amongst others, has his top runners running 120-130 miles per week during their peak training periods. Surprisingly, however, he doesn’t cut down their overall volume too much during their taper, reducing it down for most to a relatively still high 90 miles in the final week before a key race. “We have found in the past that dropping mileage too much leads to a de-training effect,” Mahon says. “We don’t lower things universally in our tapers.” Mahon believes marathoners need to keep doing long runs throughout their tapering phase. “The farther you get away from big [mileage] numbers, the more confidence you lose,” he says. Mahon maintains that the best way to keep his runners close to the “big numbers” is to give them a longer single session, approximately 17 miles, during their taper period, and then follow up the next day with a short 6 easy miles. “It keeps their head close to the race distance,” he says.

Hunt is more systematic with how she handles weekly mileage during the taper phase. In general, Hunt assigns “about a 10% reduction in mileage the third week out, a 15% reduction the second week out and the week of the marathon about a 50%+ reduction.”

Key Workouts

Workouts, along with running mileage, are stressors on the body. As such, a sound tapering regimen reduces both the frequency of the workouts, along with their duration, in order to maximize rest and recovery leading up to the race day. During the taper phase Mahon has his runners completing the same type of workouts they’ve been doing all along in training–mile repeats for example–but gives them more time for recovery. He calls this element the “density” of training. “We try to put some extra space in our workouts during the taper,” he says. Specifically, Mahon may give runners more time to recover between repetitions in a workout, or he may give them fewer workouts to complete during the week.

As opposed to increasing recovery time both during and between workouts, Hunt has her athletes completing shorter, faster speed sessions during the taper. “For the final two weeks I gradually cut the mileage but maintain speed with strides and short intervals,” she says. “The focus is on recovery and goal pace for muscle memory and short bursts of speed.” Some examples of Hunt’s taper surges are 20 x 15 seconds or 10 x 30-45 seconds mostly at 3K to 5K effort.

Experiment, Learn & Trust

Taking these two differing philosophies into account, look at your next taper as an opportunity to vary it in some way. Aim for the right balance in your routine: adjust your mileage and fine-tune your workouts by either giving yourself more time to rest or maybe even picking up the pace. Find what works best for you.

At the end of the day, the most important thing is to trust in your training. As Tyler McCandless, U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier, says: “the best advice on tapering is to believe in the process.”

 

Rottnest Start line.
Rottnest Start line.

What nutrition is best for runners?

Well this post is another cup of tea and digestive biscuit or two type post. What is the best diet for runners or the population as a whole ? With most things in running there is no reinventing the wheel. You’re normally faced with the ‘norm’ and one alternative. e.g. run less, run faster as opposed to run slower,  but more,  to run faster. I personally suspect either method works if you follow them religiously. The problem occurs when you half heartily follow one but add in some of the other.  Anyhow this post is about what is the best nutrition for achieving the best performance.

In the good old days it was always high carbs, low fat and sugar, normally natural, as fuel. Even today if you google best running diets it’s mostly pasta, rice, bread, honey, orange juice, low fat yoghurt, skinless chicken, semi-skimmed milk etc. We’ve all seen it a thousand times. I’ve been following this for many years and it has certainly helped me. Or has it ?

Recently Tim Noakes, a highly respected write and MD changed his view on nutrition virtually 180 degrees. Noakes is the author of one of, if not the defining book on all things running, ‘The Lore of Runing’, a 944-page tome known as the distance runner’s bible. He has come out and said forget everything he wrote in that book about carbohydrates. Back then, he questioned whether they were as necessary to a runner’s diet as many experts believed but still recommended them, particularly as fuel for workouts and races.

Now, Noakes won’t touch most carbs and tells others to avoid them, too. His book about this new lifestyle, The Real Meal Revolution, has sold more than 200,000 copies in his native South Africa the last two years, making it one of the country’s all-time nonfiction bestsellers, and it has helped launch a change in dietary thought much the same way the Atkins diet did across America years ago.

Noakes originally started his low carb, high fat diet in 2010 after research led him to believe the carbohydrates he’d eaten all his life contributed to his Type II diabetes, which runs in his family. His new eating habits resembled those of ancient foragers, most similar to a late 1800s European fad known as Banting. Noakes’s diet consists of about 5–10 percent carbohydrates, 60 percent fat and 30 percent protein. Sugars and processed carbs are forbidden. The mainstays are eggs, fish, meat, leafy but not starchy vegetables and nuts. His advice opposes dietary guidelines laid out by the Nutrition Society of South Africa, which recommend making “starchy foods” part of most meals and using fats sparingly.

Compare this to the ‘norm’ e.g. this article on Runners Connect advocating all the things Noakes is dead against. (  https://runnersconnect.net/running-nutrition-articles/best-carbohydrates-for-runners/ ) or this article from Runners World.

CARBOHYDRATES AND RUNNING
Carbohydrates (sugar, starch, and fiber) play an important role in maintaining a healthy diet and fueling your runs. Carbohydrates are stored in your muscles as glycogen, which your body taps into during a workout.

But not all carbohydrates are created equal. The more processed a carbohydrate is (like packaged foods and sweets) the more it becomes stripped of its nutrients, making its calories “empty.”

To fuel your body and your run, reach for complex carbohydrates like whole fruits and vegetables, dairy, whole grains, potatoes, and legumes. These foods provide a host of nutrients, including fiber, vitamin C, and calcium, that will help runners feel full and perform their best.

You can benefit from simple carbohydrates (like table sugar, maple syrup, or dextrose), which provide quick bursts of energy. This type of sugar (found in energy gels and chews) is good for on-the-run fuel because it is quickly absorbed and can help replenish the glycogen stores you’re depleting on a long run. You’ll want to refuel regularly on the run before your muscles become fully depleted. Try to consume 30 to 60 grams every hour, depending on your intensity and also body size.

Carb-loading may be a runner’s favorite part about marathon day. But to do it properly, it’s important not to eat heaps of pasta for days on end—you’ll feel sluggish and it could lead to GI distress on race day. Instead, slowly increase your carbohydrate intake about three to seven days leading up to your race. For example, have oatmeal and fruit for breakfast, add a dinner roll to your salad, have a handful of pretzels as a snack, and add rice or other whole grains to your dinner.

Activity Level Recommended Intake
Light activity (less than 1 hour per day) 1.3 to 2.3 g/lb. body weight
Moderate activity (1 hour per day) 2.3 to 3.2 g/lb. body weight
Extreme exercise program (4.5 to 6 hours per day) 4.5 to 5.5+ g/lb. body weight

Are all the running experts wrong and is Noakes a visionary preaching a complete change on how we fuel efficiently ? More importantly has he found the cure for diabetes and obesity.? Finally if he has will big business let him? I read that if Noakes is telling the truth it would be the end for four large pharmaceutical companies  who survive on providing the drugs necessary to combat the 20th century diseases associated with over eating and bad diets. Then all the industries built up on providing all these carbohydrates and sugar we rely on currently. Big business does not like change as it normally affects the bottom line, they are not at all interested in finding cures for most diseases they supply drugs to combat, why would they?

Personally I feel Noakes has some good points. We all eat to much sugar and can certainly do without it, there are natural alternatives. Can we go low carb, high fat. ? I’m happy to eat bacon and eggs for breakfast , as encouraged by Noakes, but giving up probably my main food group will be a big ask.

Finally what about pancakes, protein surely ? Not even Noakes would try and take my pancakes away, would he? I regret eating that digestive biscuit now, well maybe regret is a tad overboard….

 

 

 

I have attached an interview Noakes gave to Marika Sboros ( http://www.biznews.com/health/2015/01/19/complete-idiots-guide-tim-noakes-diet-banting-lchf/ )

 

Strictly speaking, it’s not correct to call Cape Town sports scientist Prof Tim Noakes’ low-carb, high-fat (LCHF) diet ‘Banting’, but he doesn’t mind if you do. The eponymous William Banting was fat – a heavily overweight, ailing British undertaker, and he ate low carbs on the advice of Dr William Harvey in 1862. Banting lost weight and felt great. Harvey wrote about it, but under pressure from medical colleagues, modified the diet into high-protein, low-fat. German physician Dr Wilhelm Ebstein took it to Europe, and changed to high-fat, low-carb after realising the key was replacing carbs with fat, not protein, as fat reduced hunger more effectively. So it’s more correct to call Noakes’ diet ‘Ebstein’, or ‘ketogenic’. Banting may stick in SA, where it is a culinary ‘revolution’, with Banting restaurants, meals and products popping up all over the place.

That has had some doctors and dietitians frothing at the mouth, and looking on Noakes as SA’s next ‘Dr Death’. President of the Association for Dietetics in SA Claire Julsing Strydom has reported Noakes to the Health Professions Council of SA for telling a mother on Twitter that good foods for baby weaning are LCHF – in other words meat and veg. The hearing is looking like the nutrition equivalent of the Spanish inquisition, as orthodoxy seeks to silence Noakes and his heretical views once and for all. Whether they will succeed is anyone’s guess. What’s more certain is that Banting is going global , as evidence piles up in favour of its safety and efficacy to treat insulin resistance and for weightloss. Here, Noakes gives clarifying fundamentals, followed by an Idiot’s Guide to his LCHF diet.

Cape Town sports scientist Prof Tim Noakes is in great shape. At 65, after four years on his low-carb, high-fat (LCHF) diet, his energy levels are stratospheric; his running has improved spectacularly.

“I don’t run as fast as I ran in my 20s, but I’m running faster and further in training, and with more enjoyment than I did 20 years ago,” he says.

He hasn’t gained a gram of the 20kg he lost in the first two years on the diet, and his health has improved. Noakes has type 2 diabetes (it’s in his family history) and developed it despite religiously eating the recommended high-carb, low-fat diet for 33 years that experts told him would prevent diabetes. He could probably do without medication to control it, but prefers to have “perfect blood glucose control’’.

He sleeps like a baby and no longer snores – for which wife Marilyn is deeply grateful – and no longer falls asleep in front of the TV. All other ailments – recurring bronchitis, rhinitis, migraine, irritable bowel syndrome, and gastric reflux for which he was considering surgery – have disappeared.

Controversy still peppers his diet, with some saying it’s unscientific and dangerous – and so is Noakes. The science for and against LCHF and Noakes was scrutinised by an international gathering of top LCHF scientists and researchers at the low-carb, high-fat summit in Cape Town from February 19 to 22. Noakes hosted the event with Karen Thomson, granddaughter of the late pioneering cardiac surgeon Prof Chris Barnard, and the cream of international LCHF medical and scientific experts on the speakers’ panel.

Here he clarifies terminology of his LCHF diet, and gives an Idiot’s Guide to getting started:

Is your diet Atkins?

No, Atkins is higher protein than ours. Ours is high-fat, moderate-protein.

Is it Paleo?

No. Paleo is low in carbs, but not as low as we go. It excludes cereals and dairy, but includes fruit, which we don’t, except for some berries that are high in nutrition and low in carbs.

Is it Banting?

It’s probably more correct to call it Ebstein – after German physician Dr Wilhelm Ebstein who first made it high-fat. That was the diet Sir William Osler promoted in his monumental textbook: The Principles and Practices of Medicine, published in the US in 1892. Anyone who claims Banting or Ebstein diets are fads simply knows nothing about medical nutrition history. Nutrition did not begin in 1977 as our students seem to be taught.

Any weighing of food on your diet?

No. That’s a joke. You can’t predict accurately the absolute calorie content of foods when eaten by humans. You don’t know how many calories each person needs. The only way to work that out is by weighing yourself. If your weight stays stable, you’re eating the same number of calories you are expending. If you are lean, that’ll probably be the correct number of calories for your body and activity level. There’s no other way remotely accurate enough to measure your calorie needs.

Is your diet extreme?

Only in that it’s extremely low in carbohydrate – the one nutrient for which humans have absolutely no essential requirement. In 1977, when we were told to eat diets extremely high in carbohydrates, human health started to fail on a global scale. Moderation is a smug, puritanical word. No mammal eats in moderation. In nature all diets are extreme – lions eat only meat, polar bears mainly fat, panda bears only bamboo shoots, giraffes only acacia leaves. Balance is what has worked for each of these species for millions of years.

Is it right for everyone?

No diet is right for everyone. LCHF is best for people who are insulin resistant.

Critics say the Tim Noakes diet is dangerous because of high saturated fat. Is saturated fat ever a health threat?

It can be, in the presence of a high carbohydrate/sugar diet that causes elevated insulin concentrations due to the excessive carb intake. Insulin directs an altered metabolism, with the formation of the damaging oxidised (LDL) cholesterol that is probably a key component in heart disease.

So what’s the key?

To eat a diet that keeps blood insulin and glucose concentrations low, because elevated insulin concentrations especially are linked to long-term health problems. We say: eat what your appetite directs you to. Once you cut the carbs we think your brain will tell you if you need more fat or protein. It’s about finding the balance that works for you.

On to the fundamentals when starting on your diet – what to cut out?

Bread, potatoes, rice, pasta, pizza, sugar, all grains and cereals, processed, packaged, boxed, adulterated foods, cakes, sweets, biscuits, fizzy drinks, all the addictive things. Anything sweet and starchy has to go – and low-fat foods.

What to keep in?

Fat and protein. You can eat fat in relatively unlimited amounts, but only moderate protein. A healthy high-protein diet for humans doesn’t exist. If your diet was 100% protein, you’d quickly get sick and die. You can’t really overdose on fat; it reduces appetite, and it’s the best way to get over sugar addiction.

What are good protein sources?

Start with eggs, full-fat dairy, cheese, yoghurt – good fallback foods. Fish and chicken – with the skin, not battery fed – and some meat, preferably organic, or at least pasture-raised, not from animals raised in feed lots and fed grains, because that destroys the meat’s quality. Meat’s not a main focus, but we like lamb because it’s fatty and pasture fed. Boerwors is fine, but without cereal in it, and bacon, preferably not very smoked.

And good fat sources?

Butter, cream – ladle meat and veg with butter; put cream in tea or coffee. Coconut oil, very healthy, everyone should have two tablespoons of it daily. Avocados. Nuts – almonds, walnuts, pecan nuts, especially macadamia nuts, they are like drops of fat – all tree nuts. Not peanuts or cashews. They’re legumes, not nuts.

Dairy can be problematic?

Only for people with diarrhoea, lactose intolerance, or who battle to lose weight – that happens mostly to women. It may well be that fat increases their hunger rather than satisfies it. We don’t know if it’s just an effect of saturated fat in some people. The easiest way to cut fat in that case is to cut dairy, and eat other sources of fat, such as oily fish, and avocado.

What about vegetables?

All vegetables have carbohydrates, but we recommend those with lowest carb, highest Tim Noakes Real Meal Revolutionnutrient content: leafy greens such as kale, it’s one of the most nutritious vegetables; also cauliflower, broccoli, they’re on our green list – (in The Real Meal Revolution, co-authored by Jonno Proudfoot, Sally-Ann Creed and David Grier).

Can you be a vegetarian on your diet?

Yes, if you eat dairy products, but we advise adding eggs and fish. Vegetarians who cheat can be incredibly healthy.

You can’t be a vegan on your diet?

Well, I know a vegan athlete, a former professional cyclist who eats 80% fat in his diet – lots of coconut oil and avos. It’s an extreme diet, but it works for him. Clearly his gut flora can handle it. I met someonewho eats only raw meat. We don’t know what the bacteria in their guts are doing, and how those bacteria might compensate for what we might perceive as intake “deficiencies”.

What carb-fat-protein ratio is best?

Depends on how sick you are. If you’re diabetic, we say 20% to 30% protein, 60% to 70% fat, 5% carbs. The sicker you are, the more fat you need, because fat is insulin neutral. The more insulin resistant you are, the more fat you can eat, because even when the pancreas fails, fat is the only fuel you can metabolise safely without requiring insulin. It’s perfect for blood sugar control. We don’t tell people how many grams to eat, except for carbs – around 25g if you are really sick.

What about alcohol?

It’s a toxin, and slows weight loss on our diet significantly. We say: first lose the weight, and reintroduce alcohol in small amounts if you must. The diet is a fine line. If you don’t fall on the right side of the fat, protein, carb ratio, just one apple, a beer or two glasses of wine will put you on the wrong side, and you will not enjoy the benefits you should from cutting carbs.

No sweet ‘cheat’ treats at all?

A small piece of dark chocolate is fine, but many people can’t eat just one small piece – like smokers who can’t have one cigarette. The key is to get sugar out the diet. People don’t understand how addictive sugar is, or what it actually is – not just sucrose, the white stuff, also high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in processed foods. That’s what I classify as sugar, the really addictive one. If you can get people down to 25g of carbs a day for a few months with no added sugar, the brain no longer searches for sugar. That’s what makes our diet so successful.

And best snacks?

Nuts, biltong, cheese, coconut – I love coconut chips best of all. And fullcream yoghurt.

How often should you eat?

Depends on how sick or obese you are. I’m diabetic, so in my opinion the less frequently I eat the better. I eat a big breakfast, snack a little at two in the afternoon and eat dinner at seven.

Friend or Foe.
Friend or Foe.