Hi I am also a marathoner on Low Carb, but I just started Low Carb so don't have any experience yet.

Have you guys heard of "Maffetone Training"? It's getting VERY popular now. Basically Maffetone states that Aerobic Conditioning is the primary factor in running performance for distance races. Pretty much everyone agrees on that, but Maffetone's approach to training is very hardcore easy running, claiming that most people do not have proper Aerobic Conditioning before going into speedwork, and speedwork actually diminishes aerobic conditioning.

He's coached many champion athletes such as Mark Allen. This training approach is starting to take on seriously in the marathon and ultra bases.

He preaches running at 75% or less intensity and running high mileage. This will optimize the bodies ability to burn fat as fuel. His science says that if the body is more efficient at burning fat, it will use less carb at higher intensities, making you faster at higher intensities even though you only trained at low intensities.

His book has a dietary plan to complement training called "The Two Week test". Guess what kind of diet he recommends to get the most out of training? Very low carb for 2 weeks, afterwards introduce 1 daily serving of a good carb food per week and increase until the critical point. Sound familiar?


Here's the original article: http://www.rrca.org/resources/articles/slowdown.html

His diet info isn't in that article but it is in his book "The Maffetone Method." Here is a PDF summary of it: http://users.bandzoogle.com/cippian...s/2weektest.pdf