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Thursday, November 17, 2011

A Well-Balanced Diet Is Optimal

On to Section 3 of that very long article - nutrition for marathon training. I'm going to leave "Part A" alone for now because I'm not sure I completely agree with starting a long run with nothing in the tank (aka I need to do additional research to figure out (1) how long a run they're talking about and (2) if there are any contradictory studies).

After years of research it's been conclusively proven that a diet containing a blend of carbohydrates, protein, and fat is best for endurance athletes. For a while, many believed that athletes should eat a high-carb diet in order to build up their glycogen stores. Unfortunately, eating a whole bunch of carbs often comes at the expense of eating adequate amounts of fat and protein, which reduces fat metabolism and increases fatigue (lots of sugar spikes insulin levels for 8+ hrs). So, in order to increase fat metabolism and draw on a more sustained energy source, you should eat a diet high in fat... right? While eating a high fat (60+ % of calories from fat) does increase fat-metabolism and endurance at low-intensity efforts, these benefits did not carry over to race-pace. Basically, at higher effort levels, you can never eliminate the need for carbohydrates... you will need to draw on your glycogen stores to sustain a "pace" for an extended period of time (i.e., the difference between running a marathon vs. surviving 26.2 miles). So, most sports nutritionists still recommend the standard 50:30:20 diet, with slightly more carbohydrates after longer/harder training sessions (or when carbo-loading).

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