From what distance onwards is it useful to carbo load several days in advance? Olympic, HIM, …?
And for running events; 10 miles, half marathon, or only longer?
As far as I know, most of us average, non-“enhanced” Joe’s will never store more than 1200-1400 kcal of glycogen. At threshold, that is about 50 minutes to 1hour 30 minutes worth of calories depending on your size, metabolism, heart rate, etc.
So I’d say unless you haven’t been eating much at all over the past few days, you really only need to carbo load for olympic and up, but it’s not like it would hurt you in a sprint (barring over-eating, indigestion, etc)
Running, I wouldn’t carbo-load at all for anything 10k and under. Running on its own is swayed too much by body-weight and how your core feels (in terms of bloatedness, tightness, and so on). At least for this guy(points to self).
We used to carbo-load before cross-country meets. In hindsight, I hope the coaches just did this for camaraderie.
From what distance onwards is it useful to carbo load several days in advance? Olympic, HIM, …?
And for running events; 10 miles, half marathon, or only longer?
I don’t think it has been clearly demonstrated that it is ever useful
Carbo loading is an excuse for eating at cheap italian restaurans before the race with our friends. There is a big change most of the triathletes are suffering from protein deficiency rather than carbohydrates.
From what distance onwards is it useful to carbo load several days in advance? Olympic, HIM, …?
And for running events; 10 miles, half marathon, or only longer?
I don’t think it has been clearly demonstrated that it is ever useful
I agree
It has been clearly demonstrated that it dramatically fills up your glycogen stores. Whether you feel that glycogen is useful is up to you.
Agree.
It will leave you sluggish. Eat normally. I dont even carbload for ultras.
If you already eat a healthy diet it won’t make a difference.
If you already eat a healthy diet it won’t make a difference.
To your performance? Well it certainly does in my experience but that’s obviously not worthy of debate.
To your glycogen stores? Yes it absolutely will.
So some research out there suggests that carbohydrate loading will increase performance and some research suggest that it doesn’t. It’s honestly about 50/50 but none of the papers are conclusive. There’s much more evidence that eating a lot of carbs after a prolonged exercise helps recover. If you’re already training for long distances, it’s likely that your eating enough carbohydrates. For aerobic exercise you hardly use carbohydrates, it’s mostly fats that get consumed. But in time the glycogen stores will go down during aerobic exercise. I think it’s much more important to eat/drink carbs during your prolonged exercise than before your workout assuming you already eat healthy.
I’m talking about for racing. Long course triathlon racing, marathon racing etc. Not merely for working out. Tim Noakes covers a number of the studies out there on the topic.
A race is still a workout. And Tim Noake doesn’t appear to have much published on carbohydrate loading and prolonged exercise. He does have a lot on prolonged exercise, fluid replacement and muscle recruitment.
Yep, the higher the intensity the more carbohydrate (glycogen stores) is used for fuel. So racing is going to use more carb than a zone 2-3 training day.
There’s also a finite amount of glycogen your body can store (based on muscle mass iirc). Any carbs taken in beyond that will be converted to fat for further storage. If you’re already near the top of your glycogen stores, I’m not sure the pre race pasta is going to be as effective as one might think (which is what I think the healthy diet comment was getting at).
Possibly why studies seem to be split on the effectiveness of carbo loading?
I also don’t know what kind of digestion / absorption rates we’re looking at here. If the pasta dinner is timed right, would it be possible to flood your blood with glucose just in time for the race, thereby being of value even if your glycogen stores were previously topped off?
“For aerobic exercise you hardly use carbohydrates”
You’re going to have to provide something to support that statement.
jaretj
A race is still a workout. And Tim Noake doesn’t appear to have much published on carbohydrate loading and prolonged exercise. He does have a lot on prolonged exercise, fluid replacement and muscle recruitment.
I’m talking of the list of studies he reviewed in his book, not ones he performed much himself.
The link between glycogen stores and endurance performance is reasonably well established, I think. It’s not like I’m advancing some new theory here. But I don’t really have anything invested in whether you believe that fact or not.
But what is undeniably clear is that carbohydrate loading has a direct effect upon the glycogen stores themselves. Those who eat a higher percentage of carbohydrates in the last few days before a marathon have significantly more stored glycogen in their muscles.
Carbo loading is an excuse for eating at cheap italian restaurans before the race with our friends. There is a big change most of the triathletes are suffering from protein deficiency rather than carbohydrates.
crazy how eneko llanos manages to do so well as a near vegan ain’t it?
hmm
crazy how eneko llanos manages to do so well as a near vegan ain’t it?
hmm…NO!
I’m sure it increases there glycogen stores but does that help performance. No clear evidence that it increases performance.