The Plan

Over the last few days I've been talking a lot with friends Kyndra and Christina about run nutrition in the context of low carb eating and it's potential effects on metabolism.

Bob Seebohar, a Sport Dietician, Author, Coach and Athlete who has done many Ironmans and Ultramarathons, is a bit of an expert in the area of Metabolic Efficiency Training. After listening to Kyndra, Christina, a few podcasts and having read some of Seebohar's stuff, I decided to explore this topic myself.

So the whole point of this in simple terms is to increase the speed at which the crossover between fat burning and sugar burning occurs. My friend Jeff pointed out that Metabolic Efficiency is really just another term for "general fitness" and that any well put together training program with a solid base building phase will have the same desired effect. Of course that has got me questioning my whole motivation for this.

Although I enjoyed eating vegan for most of the last year, I found it very time consuming to keep the meals interesting, difficult to eat when I'm at family dinner and my digestive system wasn't always happy. It might sound ironic, but I really miss how I felt when I tried the Atkins diet years ago. When I started doing longer distances back in 2005, the literature all pointed to the fact that runners need to consume carbs to keep going, and so I gave up low carb eating in favour of a more traditional nutrition plan.

For this experiment I specifically want to explore running while in Lipolysis and I will use Ketosis testing (i.e. peeing on Ketostix/KetoStrips) throughout.

Here are some of the key concepts I want to test
  - Precondition: will test for being in Ketosis before every run experiment
    1. How long can I run at a slow pace without taking in sugars before I bonk.
    2. How long can I run at 10k pace without taking in sugars before I bonk.
    3. Can I PR at the 10k distance.
    4. How many gels can I consume (while not running) before being knocked out of Ketosis.
    5. How many gels can I take during a long run, without being knocked out of Ketosis.
    6. If a run with gels knocks me out of Ketosis, how long before I go back into Ketosis following the run.
    7. Keeping total caloric input equal, can I consume more low glycemic gels than regular gels before being knocked out of Ketosis.
    8. Can 8 weeks of training change the results from all the above.
    9. What effects will this training have on my Marathon time (to be tested at CIM).

And there you have it - the makings of an experiment. Details and results to follow in the coming weeks..... and months if I can stand it.