Today’s run: 3 miles, 30:17 minutes. Like a comic book character consumed with diabolical revenge plots, all I could think about today was how much I hated my stupid, no-good, lying Nike Plus (mileage here is adjusted to account for its stupidity). But the weather was nice and I saw my favorite Mastiff, on my first run ever wearing glasses. Bring out the gimp!
I know that the conventional wisdom around distance running is that you need to “Carb-o-nate”: load up on carbs and not much else before a race. As someone who’s carb-shy – I’m all about protein and veggies, occasional whole grains and very occasional sweets – this made me wonder if my body isn’t made to run a marathon. (Actually there are a bunch of things that make me wonder about that….my stubborn fatness and a desire to avoid things that are uncomfortable being among them…)
Anyway, point here is, eating nothing but carbs for a couple of days would send me down the rabbit hole. But I did some searching and was glad to find that there are, in fact, low-carb marathoners, as well as a bi debate about whether you can burn fat to fuel long runs. (People get so vicious over the topic of carbohydrates; it’s like the South Park episode where the atheists take over and “God” becomes “Science.”. Good one, btw.)
I do most of my runs on a nearly-empty stomach and do just fine. I don’t get hungry and the thought that I might be burning away some fat? Balloons, bells, and whistles!! But as I increase the length of my runs, I’m curious to see whether I’ll hit a wall.
What about you: carb-happy or carb-wary? Has this changed since you became a runner?
I’ve found that I am comfortable running between 3-4 miles in the morning without eating beforehand. Any more mileage than that though and I need to have eaten 30-60 minutes beforehand, even if its just a banana or kashi bar.
I think the most I’ve gone on an empty stomach is 8. I will say that the fact that I’m slowed is probably related….
I usually go straight from bed to run, so rarely eat before. But on weekend long runs I might sleep in a bit and feel hungry by the time I’m ready to go, so I’ll grab a Clif bar beforehand.
I have quite a few running friends who can run 18 – 20 miles on nothing but water. A few have even run a whole marathon that way, but they all say it’s more comfortable to take a gel.
It may come down to how much pain you’re willing to endure. It’s definitely possible to run a marathon without fuel, but it will take longer to adapt your body to it than if you were using more conventional methods. Your brain gets stupid at the drop in sugar too, and makes you feel pain that isn’t really there.
I am curious about this too. I always had chipotle or something with rice or pasta for the long runs (for me that’s anything over 3-4 miles) because the difference was just so substantial between that type of lunch and anything else. but I was talking with a friend the other day who’s also a trainer and he insists the carb thing is mental and the body will be just fine once it gets used to cutting them out.
The way I’ve started thinking about it is this: Running with carbs is a lot more fun, and it makes it a lot easier to get the pep for a fast run. But slow running without carbs is hopefully burning some fat… so I’ll endure the pain. And then when I do an occasional run with something in my stomach, it’s really amazingly easy!!