Perhaps one of the most understated and overlooked topics that endurance athletes need to focus on is fat metabolism (it’s a value stock, invest early and invest with confidence). Much time and money is devoted to carb fueling options. Sports drinks and gels dominate the market and make us think you need them for optimal performance. If you listen to representatives at Gatorade, they’d have you drinking it non stop starting from mile one. Really? Is that even at all necessary? Actually, it can result in over hydration called hyponatremia. As some unbiased sports nutritionists have already pointed out that drinking by thirst is way better than drinking “early in the race” just because you think it will help down the road.
Here’s an interesting fact. While being a little dehydrated at the end of a long race is uncomfortable, it’s not deadly. On the flip side there are plenty of examples of people dying from over hydrating. One such example is this one. Tragic really. And a great reminder for all athletes that you need to consume things with a clear purpose and understanding about what it’s going to do to your body. Relying on a multi billion dollar industry to tell you what to eat or drink is a huge mistake. Remember, they just want to make money. They don’t care about your desire to be healthy and to perform your best. They need to convince you that without their magic “electrolyte” drink you would surely collapse after running a few miles (que in a multitude of “Idiocracy” memes). This one is my fave.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3boy_tLWeqA
Gatorade even went as far as to suggest that they are better than water in a recent video game aimed at teens. For this they got into some pretty hot legal water (no pun intended).
But the hydration craze persists. No matter which distance I run, I am always amazed at how soon into the race people start eating and drinking. I just don’t get it. You can’t run for 20-30 minutes without consuming something? Maybe racing isn’t your thing. Where does this come from? Sure most of it comes from companies that are trying to sell you their products but also from well wishing athletes who just got so used to this, they are not capable of thinking outside the box. I saw runners with like half a dozen gels and hydration belts on one of my 5k races. Truly not necessary and even harmful. Each gel has about 20-25 grams of sugar (equivalent to 4-5 tsp) and consuming all that in a 5k race is a huge mistake.
If you are serious about your health and serious about your sport as an endurance athlete then you need to explore other areas of proper nutrition than this chemically laden, lab engineered and glycemic index sky rocketing, oh-let’s-just-loosely-say “fuel”. Your body is designed for survival, and survive it can, if the demand is placed upon it.
The rule of Adaptation:
The body will not, WILL NOT adapt to something if it does not see the need to adapt to. In other words, you need to place the demand and the body will figure out how to adapt.
And the rule of Specificity:
Specificity is the principle of training that states that sports training should be relevant and appropriate to the sport for which the individual is training in order to produce a training effect. You must perform the skill in order to get better at it.
Specificity plays a role in each adaptation as you place different types of demands on the body. Each specific adaptation will require a different training method and a different approach. Work on one at a time. Let me give you a few examples. Heat training feels absolutely horrendous at first. If you avoid it altogether, your body will be extremely intolerant to it and you will just chalk it up to not being able to run in the heat. And then one day, your race occurs during hot conditions. The result is, you suffer and bonk, blame the heat and call it a day. It doesn’t have to be that way. Work on heat adaptation by running a few miles during hot days. Of course take precautions like going slower than your normal pace, wearing a hat, etc . Keep on trying no matter how hard it is at first. The more you persevere the less it will bother you.
At the same time, if you have a hard time tolerating cold conditions, then bundle up (you can always shed as needed) and go out for just a little bit at first. Increase the miles a few at a time. Staying warm in cold conditions is important since you don’t want to waste energy on keeping your body warm that could otherwise be spent on your activity of choice.
Same with fat adaptation. If you don’t place the demand on your body to burn fat for fuel, it will not do that. By constantly fueling with sports drinks and gels you are sabotaging your body’s ability to tap into your fat reserves because the body prefers to burn carbs. To train yourself for this specific adaptation it is not necessary to forgo carbs. As a matter of fact don’t forgo carbs! You need them and without them you will have no energy, will experience dehydration, muscle spasms, and kidney problems.
So, how do you tap into your fat reserves? Remember, the body does not want to burn fat. It needs some very specific conditions. Activity needs to be at a low intensity and there needs to be oxygen present (aerobic) which doesn’t happen for the first 30-40 minutes of continuous exercise. Fat burning activities are biking, hiking, swimming, walking, jogging, and running but not sprinting (which is anaerobic). To force your body to burn fat, it needs to think it ran out of all other options as fuel. The best way to do that is to start an aerobic exercise in a low glycogen state. It could be mid day after at least three hours of not eating or the best, in my opinion, is first thing in the morning.
I’m not going to tell you it will be easy right away. Just like that first time you went out running in a 90 degree weather, it will be tough and you’ll feel like you’re dragging but remember, the body will eventually adapt. And when that happens you will be able to utilize it for fuel during your endurance activities without relying on constant reloading of carbs. Our fat supply is just about unlimited and so you won’t run out even if you are running a marathon.