4 June 2013

Paleo for long distance running

Runners, especially long distance runners, are energy mad! In all events of 10k plus you’ll see people with gels or jelly babies stuffed into their shorts / packs.

Runners need the energy that gels provide; so they tell themselves. Without the gel – “I’ll hit the wall”, “I’ll DNF”, “I’ll simply not be able to go on” they’ll say. I know because I used to say just this, and firmly believed it!

But, the truth is, your body is a fat burning machine; it’s just got lazy because of the ‘modern’ diet. This laziness means your body is burning Glucose it’s sourced from carbohydrates as its primary fuel, not glucose sourced from fats.

Your body only contains a limited amount of readily available glucose, stored in the muscles and liver as glycogen, and when it’s used up you’ll meet your nemesis – the wall. The average person has about 2,000kcal of glycogen stored ready, which will see you to a distance of 20km at a steady pace, but no further, hence the need for gels on distances longer than that.

You could complete a marathon or a 50km ultra, without the need for taking in gels, or anything other than… water. As a human that is what you evolved to do.

If the average feed station takes you 2-5mins to get through and you have 2 feed stations on your race, by not stopping you’ll reduce your overall time by up to 10mins – that could win you the race! Not to mention the fact you’ll stop spiking your blood sugar levels, which causes your Pancreas to work itself silly trying to regulate the now toxic levels of sugar.

How then, Mr Green, shall we do this?

In a just a few weeks of corrective eating, using a suitable Paleo diet plan that meets your needs, you can re-train your body (re-programming your genes that modern day farming has confused) to utilise fat as its main energy source. Even the slinkiest of elite athletes with body fat of <8%, have plenty of calories at the ready in their bodies to fuel loooong distances.

So, do you still think you need gels on a run?

I personally find I need a little more than just water, so I make Grok Balls – the perfect Paleo energy snack!