Quote:
<<<<

I completed my long run on Saturday morning. 18 miles, 2:42. Same run I did 3 weeks ago, but this time I felt much stronger at the end, did not have to walk the last part, and had very little residual pain in my legs. I ran 10, walked 1 all the way. I had 2 eggs, cheese, and some sausage for breaky about 20 mins. before leaving on the run. I drank only water for the entire run.

>>>>

I'm curious, what's your body fat percentage? At 175 pounds, probably 25% body fat, I doubt I could run that far on that little nutrition.

KPO,
When you low carb, what do you eat during long runs and ultras?
I think that you need nourishment during extended activity; but is it carbs, protein/carb mix, fat or what?


Phil
There is also another product called VAAM which is something to do with the juice from a hornet's stomach. I was an ad for it on the ultrarunning website. I'd probably give it a try if it weren't so expensive!

Not sure re: body fat, I'm using a caliper using only one measurement above the hip. It shows I've reduced BF%, can't remember the exact %. I'll see what it says. I did feel a bit low in the last 1/2 hour.

I just saw an ad for VAAM when trying to find info on Vespa. I'm hoping to talk to someone with actual experience using it. Vespa is $5.97C for 4oz pouch.

I'll give it a try when I win the lottery...

as for supplements, last week I added potassium magnesium and calcium supplements, as well as green tea extract.

If you look at my post about VAAM, I typed I WAS instead of I SAW . I teach remedial reading and I hear was all day instead of saw, it must be wearing me down.

<<<<
KPO,
When you low carb, what do you eat during long runs and ultras?
I think that you need nourishment during extended activity; but is it carbs, protein/carb mix, fat or what?
>>>>

I haven't done any runs longer than 10 miles since starting low carb. Also it's still winter here. I experimented with balance bars during 50 mile races and found they caused me to bonk after 30 miles.

I can't decide if I should try a race while in ketosis or if I should eat enough carb to stop ketosis for the race. My goal right now is just to drop my body fat percentage. I would run the race with Hammergel in my pockets. My understanding is you need fat to stimulate fat-burning. I've found I can run okay after eating a few brazil nuts. The fat sort of primes the system. Carbs are needed for speed. Protein is needed for recovery.

For a 50 miler I would use mainly Hammergel but keep nuts and turkey handy. Just a guess since I haven't tried it yet.

The last post was too garbled to make sense, and I wrote it.

Short term goal: Get body fat down by low-carb eating and running as much as I can.

Long term goal: If I'm running at 70% of max heart rate, I'm burning mostly fat, as evidenced by the fact I can carry on a conversation as I run. I want to get to the point I can run fast but still carry on a conversation. Once at a race I saw Ann Trason running about a 6 minute per mile pace at 10,000ft altitude while chatting with her pacer. So that's my long term goal: become Ann Trason. :-)

Low carb ultra runners! Who woulda guessed?

I'm trying to move into this thing slowly. Maybe a couple of 50k trail races (Siskyou Outback or PCT Mt. Hood ) and one of those loony 24 hour runs on a track or short loop like Pacific Rim (just to see how far you can go). Was thinking also of working in some real long training "runs" like trying to run around Mt. Hood in a day (40+ miles and a lot of it not runnable). Then maybe a 50 mile race when I'm down around 150 lbs. Assuming I can still put one foot before the other.

We could really be trendsetters here.

Anyway, I think my body is gradually adapting.
I did 7 miles on SAturday, 9 on Sunday and last night I went to the Y and did a hard 6 mile hill workout on the treadmill. It was a great run and my legs didn't hold me back as I was working pretty hard. I've actually dropped my carbs down to about 30 and I've had some great runs.


The only thing I'm worried about for the ultras is what to eat during the race. I'm not going to change my eating up to the race; but not sure about adding carbs during the race. This is something I will experiment with on my long runs.

The Atkins website featured a triathlete who had some pretty impressive times. I'd like to find out what he eats during the race and ride portions.

Several months ago, RW featured an article about a marathoner who had improved his PR considerably. He used a modified Atkins diet (which I believe RW did not support) to lose weight and get into shape.

I get RW but I must have missed that article. But Ive seen plenty of articles poo-pooing Atkins in RW.

The tri-guy on the Atkins web wrote a couple "how I lost weight and won races" articles but he doesn't say what he uses in competition. I'm guessing it's some form of carbs which isn't on the Atkins list of allowed carbs.

I RW article was based on 3 runners who had dramatically improved their marathon time. One of the runners, I think his name was Al Trager (I remembered the name because of Dr. Trager, one of the low carb guys. I thought they might be related.).

Anyway it was quite a funny article and pretty lazy journalism. One guy that they featured improved his marathon time by about 50 minutes over his previous time. Seem impressive? Well he did it by actually training! I think he said that his first marathon he had only trained for a few weeks and not run very far. I started to wonder whether this was the best, most inspiring story they could come up with. I think their writers are too busy selling advertising space or calling people to renew subscriptions.


My study group went out for dinner tonight. The 3 ladies in the group agreed on a place (without asking me). It turned out to be a very unimpressive Vietnamese/Chinese restaurant. I ordered something I thought would be like imperial chicken and wouldn't be too bad. Turned out to be very sweet, with pineapple in it. I probably had more carbs tonight than I have in a week total! Its pouring rain so I can't even go run it off. Oh well, I have 9 miles plus weights tomorrow, so maybe it will do me some good (except for all that MSG).

Ran 9 miles to work this am. 1:18. Feeling good, right after a breaky of ham and cheese. Going for my long run of 20 miles this Sunday, then taper till May 4th. I'm pumped.

I was remembering the first time I did the run to work, and how my legs felt afterwards. Absolutely fine today. What a difference all the training makes.

Oh yeah, Medical scales at work --- 189 lbs today! First time below 190 in AGES and AGES.

Been out sick again. It's not like me. This time it was some sort of flu bug. First the kids then my wife and I. Yuck!!

I am headed to the gym though and I'm ready for a work out. I guess if I'd rather lose some training time now before I start to work out "for real". Speeking of which I think I am probably a pound or two away from 200. That will be the transition to the real world!!

In Local running news I just found out that Maine will be starting a State Games program this summer. Most states have a program already. I will be competing in the track & field two mile. It was my top race in high school and it fits into my short distance training plan. It has been my goal to check off the distances as my training progresses. I'll work on the 5k's and the 2mile at the same time.