"Ignoramus19552" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:My feeling, which I am planning on verifying, is that my endurance is
now better (and my knees also). Given that, I am entertaining the idea
of running a half marathon, which should be about 2+ hours of running
lightly, which is not a terrible leap from where I am.
Ig:
If your primary purpose is experimental, you might try just building up over
the course of about several weeks to a 13 mile run. Add 1-2 extra miles each
week to *one* run a week, and keep your other runs each week short (30-45
minutes). When you build up one long run a week, do it one week on your
paleo diet, and repeat a couple weeks later (do just shortish, easy runs in
between) at the same time and pace, having reincorporated carbs into your
diet for 24 hrs beforehand and consuming the typical high-carb fuels that
runners consume during long runs (sports drink or fuel gels).
My guess is that somewhere around the 1:45 or 2 hr mark, you will begin to
feel distinctly crappier on the no-carb plan than with some carbs
before/during.
You might want to doctor your water to replace electrolytes once you start
running 2+ hours. A cheap homemade solution can be made with 1/4 tsp regular
salt (sodium) and 1/4 tsp salt substitute (potassium) per liter of water.
You could mask the taste with Crystal Lite or unflavored Kool Aid, I
imagine.
Quoted message said:
My question is, I am not wanting to win that half marathon, just run
through it. Would it be sufficient to try to run for, say, 1-1.5 hours
and see if I am too tired by the end? Is it possible to do on a low
carb diet, given that I am in a reasonable average condition? Or, is
there a radical difference betwene running for 1 hour vs. two hours?
In my experience, yes--there's a significant difference between running for
1 hour vs. running for 2 hours, and depending on your conditioning and
strategies, it's possible to feel pretty good after a 1 hr run, while
feeling like you got hit by a Mac truck if you try to double that. I think a
couple factors play into that: (1) it becomes increasingly difficult to
manage your lactate levels at longer distances (i.e., I find it's not too
hard to run a "comfortable, moderate" pace for an hour, but doing so does
build up some lactic acid in the muscles. If you then tack on another
hour--ugh. Lactic acid buildup causes your muscles to burn or feel really
sore--if you walk for a bit, it often helps. The sort of pace you have to
stick to keep lactic acid levels low for 2+ hours often feels uncomfortably
slow; and (b) you start flirting with glycogen and/or electrolyte depletion.
That sort of "ugh" is not the burning soreness of lactic acid, but an
insanely heavy leaden feeling. Walking for a couple minutes doesn't help
much. If you experience muscle cramps, it *may* be an electrolyte
imbalance.
Anyhow, if you're smart about it, I don't think there's anything inherently
dangerous about attempting to run 13 miles on your paleo diet, although you
might find it gets unpleasant after 2 hrs. If you have any lingering
soreness in your joints or tendons as you build up, take some time to rest
up. And run slow to minimize lactic acid--you'll still burn the same # of
calories for a given distance and will still be able to compare the energy
utilization efficiency of the two different diets.