The nerves are gone, the memories are incredible, and the soreness is receding...so now you can apply some new information in a meaningful way to tweak your training. Many have asked me for information about nutrition so I think I came up with something simple enough for application: Here is the short piece on nutrition, but I am really simplifying something complex so there is SO much more to it than this... The body gets energy from three primary places: Carbs, stored fat, protein (our muscles, not the protein we eat). Carbs- The first place the body accesses it. If this is the first place, you can see why a low carb diet makes people drop a boatload of weight on a low carb diet...no carbs? Body uses stored fat for energy, BOOM, weight loss. If you READ THE LABEL (I stress this because we should be reading the labels of everything we put in our bodies) you will see Carbohydrates listed with a number...underneath, as a sub-category of carbs, you will see Sugars and that is because it is sugar that is the primary source of carbohydrates in sports drinks (while not an ingredient in sports drinks, fiber is also a sub-category of carbohydrates). The other thing you MIGHT see listed under Carbohydrates is maltodexterine which is a non-sugar carb source. It sounds unhealthy, but it is actually a complex carbohydrate that has a molecular chain longer than sugar but shorter than other complex carbohydrates (which means that it doesnt create gastric distress like sugar can, but it is fast energy like sugar). Fat- If your body burned the carbs, it uses stored fat. But fat doesnt convert to energy very quickly--think of it like cold butter on toast...takes a minute for it to soften and spread in a usable fashion... but you CAN train the body to utilize fat more efficiently as an energy source. This would be done in training though, by working out in a glucose-deprived state (dont consume carbs before or during your training). Sucks to train this way because your body, when it doesnt have the carbs is screaming that its tired and doesnt want to go anymore and you just have to push through... Protein- this is muscle burn. Hurts like hell. Your body went through the carbs, couldnt convert fat fast enough, so it started to break down your muscles to use as fuel. Good for sprint workouts, not good for endurance workouts. The by-product is of protein breakdown is lactic acid, which is what ends up left in your body and keeps you sore for a few days. Walking (or a light spin on your bike) will help push that out of your body faster for better healing. As your body breaks down the muscle, that lactic acid has to be processed by the kidneys. The reason why taking NSAIDs like Advil is so dangerous in a marathon is because the kidneys are working so hard to process that lactic acid that the additional strain of processing the NSAID can lead to kidney failure. Good training and slower pacing and proper carbing can help keep the body from turning to muscle for fuel.
Posted on: Thu, 23 Oct 2014 12:10:48 +0000
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