Since you can lose 5-7lbs being depleted of carbs. Why not be less than optimally repleted for a shorter duration race? What is a good way to do this ?
If I were to do a race that I expected to be working for less than 30min I would take a couple of sips of Gatorade a half hour before the race. There will be plenty of time to replenish carbs when the pain of racing that short of a time is over.
I think the OP is wondering if he can DEPLETE his carb load by 5lbs to be lighter for a short race.
to the OP I think any method of doing this would require a hard workout the morning of the race, or starvation the day before
which would likely slow you down =)
The majority of the weight lost from carb depletion is water. This would mean an attempt to shed weight before the race would result in you racing dehydrated- not good for even just a 30min race.
I forgot to add, I wrestled for almost ten years and I can say from experience that last minute carb cutting significantly impairs athletic performance, even in events lasting seven minutes.
The kind of workout it would take to deplete that much carbs would leave you unrecovered for the race.
All in all I don’t think it will work to improve your race results.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe as the body depletes its glycogen store, it becomes harder to draw on the store, so even if you don’t fully deplete it during an event you’re better off running from a full tank than from a just-full-enough tank. It’s not like a race car :).
On the bike side, I think only for a pure hillclimb would the weight savings be sufficiently tempting, as only then is weight enough of a factor, and even then you’re talking on order 10 seconds per pound, significant but not justifying even a few watts lost.