I had listened to an interview with the legendary Ron Hill & he reckoned ideal preparation was to deplete the body of carbohydrates so that when you reached the last few days and start to carboload it becomes more effective. He said that this concept originated in Scandinavia and is called the Sultin (I assumed this came from the Scandinavian word sultan meaning "hungry" but it turns out it was from the doctor who developed it!) Whilst I had heard of this concept before while reading about carb loading the general consensus is that it is unnecessary and just the carb loading portion is required. I have read though that it does no harm so my second reason kicks in - not to put on weight.
As my mileage has dropped & due to knowing that I'll pile on a few pounds when I do start carb loading I said it was no harm for a few days to cut down my overall calorie intake and by cutting down on carbs this makes it a lot easier. I haven't had to make any huge changes though. I normally have porridge for breakfast so have been having an omelette instead. I don't normally eat a lot of potatoes, pasta, bread (unless I'm racing or doing a session) so just swapped some of my vegetable intake, spinach instead of carrots for example. The other change is I haven't had any fruit except for an orange yesterday.
The results have been quite stark, it's been much harder than I thought! I haven't been hungry (due to the extra protein) but my energy levels are way down. As I was a little sore monday from my fall I only ran 2 miles and yesterday struggled through 6, there's no way I could have done speedwork! But this means it's working I suppose. On the plus side I have had 2 of the best nights sleep in ages as I'm totally zonked come 8pm.
I will try keep it up until tomorrow evening or friday morning & then comes the best bit of the entire marathon process - CARBO LOADING :)!!!
Monday: 2 miles @7.43 HR 117
Tuesday:6 miles @7.29 HR 132
No comments:
Post a Comment