mr_tidbit said:
bboytommy said: i just wish 24 hours had some bumpers for power cleans. sounds like a neat gym though.
tidbit: i trained and did a marathon so i can only share some general advice. sounds like you're in great shape this far away from the event though. I would reccommend doing a long run 13.2+ miles just so you are mentally prepared race day. schedule your long runs at the same time you will be running the half, and treat it like the actual event. meaning waking up at the same time, eating (if you choose it), go to sleep two nights before. so on days leading up to race day and the event itself, nothing is changed.
as far as you hitting the wall, you might want to consider a gel, chew, or some type of simple carb to consume about halfway through. the runner's wall is caused by total depletion of muscle glycogen and your body is trying to convert fat stores for fuels (a very slow process).
definitely run the first half slower, and remind yourself of this. many runners die out because the hype on race day will get you blasting out the gate.
sounds like you know what you're doing so you should be great. keep up the hard work.
Thanks, I'm def. going to look into some kind of Gel/carb for half way through and slowing down the first half of the run next time.
I ate an hour before the run, I had a 1/2 cup of steel cut oats and a fruit smoothie (Banana, Frozen papaya/mango/pineapple/strawberry, 3oz of trop 50 orange juice). This has actually been my regular breakfast for about a month now and I've considered adding a protein supplement to the smoothie. But after reading quite a bit in this thread, I think it might be overkill as I make a point to eat a lot of lean protein for dinner each night (93/7 Ground Beef, Turkey & Chicken). But I'm still wondering if I should add the supplement?
You may actually want to consider ditching the carbohydrates altogether and replace them with protein. You may actually want to consider ditching food altogether, and getting your protein supplementation through BCAAs instead of whey/casein/egg albumen/soy/whatever).
This study examines the increased metabolic response of protein vs. carbohydrate consumption prior to resistance training. There is evidence that this is also the case with endurance training, which is good news if you're trying to achieve better body composition as well.
This study shows that carbohydrate consumption prior to endurance training may not be as beneficial as people once thought, given that the placebo group outperformed the glucose-fed group in nearly every measured category. I think the most interesting part of that is that the placebo group had increased retention of muscle glycogen during exercise, which is important if you plan on exerting yourself for 2+ hours since energy efficiency is more or less the name of the game.
This study further supports the last one in showing that training in a fasted state may offer more benefits than training in a carbohydrate-fed state due to muscular/metabolic adaptations.
...evidence is also increasing to indicate that exercise in a carbohydrate-depleted state can contribute to promoting training adaptations.
As indicated above, training in a carbohydrate-deficient state due to glycogen depletion or fasting may be useful to promote adaptations to endurance training.
Furthermore, although training in the fasted state did not result in increased rate of fat oxidation during exercise with carbohydrate intake, glycogen breakdown was lower when compared with CHO.
It even provides evidence that altering your training routine may be beneficial...
For instance, there are recent data to indicate that training twice daily every second day is more effective to induce muscular adaptations and enhance endurance performance than training once daily
...but similar benefits can be achieved through correct nutrient timing.
Still, in most individuals, high-intensity training twice daily is not a practicable time schedule to facilitate training adaptations. Training in the fasted state, i.e., decreasing exogenous carbohydrate supply, could provide a valid adjuvant stimulus to enhance training adaptations.
All that being said, it is still important to nourish yourself with carbohydrates appropriately, but perhaps not before exercise.
