jacked on carbs!
Yeeeee-owza! I’ve just come off of a 7-day fat loading diet and I’m enjoying my first day of a 2-day carb loading period prior to my 24 hour ultramarathon in San Fransisco on Saturday. After my waffles with maple syrup breakfast with a fresh pineapple and toasted bagel with jam for lunch, I can feel the carbs coursing through my veins endowing me with unimaginable super powers! It’s a good feeling.
I’ve been using the fat loading diet for many years prior to important races. The diet consists of mainly fat for 7 days, then a 2-day carb load, then you turn into a super star and race. The reason it works is during the 7-day fat load period, your body gets used to burning fat and conserving carbohydrates. Then when you feast on carbohydrates, your body ‘super compensates’, thinking that you may face another carb starvation period, and it stores MORE glycogen in your muscles cells than normal. This is your rocket fuel on race day. On race day, not only do you have access more more glycogen stores, your body is slightly more efficient in burning the carbs because it has learned to use fat instead. And we all have plenty of fat. The average lean athlete has enough energy stored as fat to complete 7 Ironman triathlons back to back. Fat is plentiful, but carbohydrates are finite. Your body burns fat in a carbohydrate flame – meaning that even though you might have plenty of fat to burn, your body needs to stoke the fire with carbs and they are in limited supply.
Fat loading diet studies have shown a slightly significant 5% increase in performance. I’ve had good luck in the past, and since this race is important to me, I’m really hoping that it will provide me with the edge I need to accomplish one of my long term goals – to run 100 miles.
The race is called The San Fransisco One Day and it takes place on Saturday October 23 at Crissy Field in San Fransisco. The course is a ONE MILE loop. Ya – that’s what I said. One mile. The objective is to complete as many laps as you can in exactly 24 hours. The winner is the one with the most miles. My goal is 100 miles.
The weather forecast is calling for rain all day which could be a drag – but I’ll deal with it. It should be cool which might be good. A big advantage to a 1 mile loop is I can stow tons of gear at the aid station – change of clothes, rain gear, food, snacks, spare shoes – I’m even going to set up a small tent.
Follow my progress on race day at the web site’s “Live Runner Updates” page: http://www.pctrailruns.com/event.aspx?dtid=5446
I will also be posting FaceBook updates throughout the race at my Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/greg.kolodziejzyk
