Training Overview #41 – A Good Time to Work on Metabolic Flexibility - Week of March 23 thru 29, 2020

Great roads to ride on here in South-Central Ky

Training Thoughts:  
In thinking about what to write about I thought I would touch on diet - or specifically why it is a good time to try being fat adapted, I did write on this, LCHF, some in Training Overview #24 and here  Now when I say “diet” I use the word as it was originally used in that it refers to how we, or a group, eat and not as it is used today to refer to some eating plan or protocol.  I bring up this subject realizing there are many that will greatly disagree with me and in the cycling community even more disagree with it but that is fine as I now it has worked for me.  The subject I will touch on is working to be “fat adapted” or maybe a better term is working to have “metabolic flexibility”.  I say “metabolic flexibility” as the goal is not simply to be able to use fat as fuel efficiently, that is part of it, but also to use carbs when needed and then be able to move back to fat, thus the flexibility.

One reason to bring this up now is that one of the usual arguments against working to be fat adapted is that people do not want to take the time (it does take time), effort and possible drop in performance while transitioning.  That said, with pretty much no racing for the next few months, or more, for most people that argument becomes less of an issue. Now is a great opportunity to give it a try.  As I talk about being fat adapted I am not going to get into all the nuances and things you can do but give you an overview, benefits and resources you can look into.  The bottom line is that now is a good time to give it a try and if it does not work for you at least you will know from experience rather than an assumption and if it works you are at a good place to move forward to fine tune how you eat to enhance being fat adapted.

First, some may wonder why does one even need to be fat adapted when for years we all have relied on carbs.  Actually that is a pretty easy answer and that is we have far more fat storage than we have carb storage – which is why when you rely on carbs you have to replenish so often - and while carbs may burn easier they are limited.  If your body seeks to use carbs it will in general have a tough time moving to use fats when carbs are used up - again forcing the carb burner to continually seek to replenish the carbs by downing gels, chews and other carb sources.  However, if you can move to being a fat burner and gain metabolic flexibility you can rely on an almost endless supply of energy in fat and then in times when carbs are needed do so and then move back to fats.  This leads to needing far fewer calories to be ingested and that not only makes things easier it can also greatly help with what many endurance athletes suffer from – gastric distress.

Another reason to move to working to gain metabolic flexibility is that you can use the fuel source that best aligns with your effort.  For running ultras fat adaption is great as for most running ultras largely entails steady state running with very few surges.  Now there are those that race and may need a surge and at those times, or maybe if you have a particularly hard section of a race, you can ingest carbs as required and after that section, or effort, is completed go back to fat burning.  This, as already stated, leads to far less caloric intake than when one relies solely on carbs.  I know from experience that this is so having run for many years and starting running in a carb centric world.  I want to interject that for cycling there may be some nuances that require more carbs than say an ultra runner but still metabolic flexibility is very helpful.  In cycling if you do triathlons or ride fondos or centuries but do them at a constant steady pace you may not need as many carbs.  However, if you race you will find that if you are metabolically flexible your carb intake will be higher but I would say much less than if all you rely on are carbs alone.  In cycling races there are often surges and then back to constant steady pace so there may  be a need to intake more carbs than you would on a steady ride but again much less than if are not metabolically flexible since when you go back to the steady state ride after a surge you can go back to fat burning.  I will admit this change in pace can make figuring out the quantity and form of carbs to intake a little more difficult it can be done and now is the time to do it.

One last reason, am sure there are more for the sake of this post this is the last one, to work for this change is that a lower carb diet can be great to reduce inflammation and control weight as well as often dealing with ones health especially if there is any possibility of being pre-diabetic.  When I speak here of Lower Carb I try make sure to use the word “Lower” on purpose as I am not speaking of Keto or a very low carb diet.  Often many confuse LCHF (Lower Carb. High Fat) with Keto but while LCHF may include Keto it is not restricted to Keto.  Speaking from experience we all have to find what level of carbs work best for each individual to supply the needed energy for how we train and race as well as maintaining our health.  Also, in this is to realize not all carbs are created equally so we need to not only work to eat the right foods – which we should do even on a carb centric diet – but also figure out at what level of carbs we function the best.  This level may change during the year with one’s training, racing and rest but will still be lower than before being fat adapted.

All of the above are simply things to think about and I can tell you from experience it works.  In my training overviews I share my fueling for long rides and runs to simply show what can be done.  I think I have my fueling figured out for running ultras but am still tweaking my fueling on rides.  For longer steady rides I am pretty well set as they are not much different than running Ultras but for racing I am still figuring it out but am getting there.  The other aspect I am working on is for longer rides of up to 200 miles as I know I am good for the first 100 and even if I finish a little depleted but strong I am good but when needing to go farther I have to make sure I do not get depleted.  As with many things this is all a work in progress but one that is well worth it.

So back to where I started, take this time we are in and give being metabolically flexible a try - if it is not for you at least you will know after trying.  The change can take time to work to its fullest so use what is probably a long break in racing to see what works for you.  Below are some good resources on the subject:
- SFuels Quick Start Guide
- Zach Bitter on What is Low Carb?
- Zach Bitter's Periodized Low Carb YouTube Play list
- Jeff Browning on The Road to Fat Adpation
- My friend Tim Barnes website M360 Clinical Fitness and his book M360 Clinical Fitness
- What is OFM
- Success with OFM
- Metabolic Efficiency Training (MET) by Bob Seebohar
- Metabolic Efficiency – Becoming a “Better-Butter-Burner” by Sunny Blende, Sports Nutritionist
- Bob Seebohar and Dina Griffin: Metabolic Efficiency (Not Just ‘Low Carb’) for Optimal Sports

- Performance, What the Research Really Says, and More
- Tim Noakes and the Case for Low Carb
- Dr. Peter Brukner and LCHF
- The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance by Volek and Phinney

Overview of Weeks Runs and Rides:
Plan early in the week was to ride about 200 miles this week with a mix of Zwift rides early in the week and a long ride outside Saturday Saturday  The Zwift part worked out as planned with the Saturday ride outside with the guys being short of the planned 100 but was a hardish 60 miles with 4300 feet of climbing.  When it came to running ran twice and about 5.2 miles for each at an easy pace as that was what worked the best for my foot.

The rides this week were an easy low HR ride on Tuesday and then for Monday and Thursday rode the Tour of Watopia Rides, well they call them rides but they are fast as if they were races.  As usual I did some miles first to warmup then did both rides and a good pace.  For the first ride finished in the first third or so and the second one in the first quarter.  For Saturdays ride got together with a few other guys to ride a good 60 miler.  I had done this ride once before and it is a good ride as it has plenty of hills of all kinds from short rises as well as up to a 2 mile climb.  Add to the terrain a stiff headwind coming back and it made for a hard ride that we still did at a good pace.

As I stated above I got in 2 runs this week of about 5.2 miles each.  Ran them easy and had soreness in my ankle but not too bad.  Need to work at getting is all better but for the moment it seems to be heading in the correct direction.  On Sunday’s run I for sure felt Saturday ride but just ran an easy perceived effort (PE) run as forgot to put on my HRM but like to do these runs by feel as they work to get me to better really on know how I feel.  For at least the next month the goal is to keep the runs as they were this week – at or about 5 miles and easy.  This seems to be the distance where I. an get in a run with minimal discomfort.

Monday: Ride – 3.4 Miles Warmup  & 31.18 Miles TofW W/Cool Down - (Ttl – 34.58)
Tuesday: Ride – 35.21 Miles
Wednesday: Run –  5.21 Miles
Thursday: Ride – 6.84 Miles Warmup & 28.31 Miles for TofW W/Cool Down - (Ttl-  35.15)
Friday: Rest
Saturday: Ride – 60.18 Miles
Sunday:  Run – 5.24 Miles

Totals:
- Running Miles – 10. 4 Miles.
- Riding Miles – 165.1 Miles.
- Total Miles –  175.5 Miles
- Total Time –  9:31 Hours

Saturday’s Ride Fueling
Pre-Ride Fueling:

- Coffee with Coconut Oil and Butter, Collagen, Heavy Cream, Chocolate Primal Fuel (1 Scoop) & 1 Scoop SFuels-Life

- Vespa
- ½ Cup of Oatmeal and Raisins
- 1 Altred (Beetroot Extract)


- Also use the AMPHuman PR Lotion
- Total:  810.9 Cals & 48.6 gr Carbs

Ride Fueling;

- 1 24oz bottle with 2 scoops of SFuels Train and 1 24oz bottle of SFuels Race+
- 1 Altred at 1.5 hours
- 2  S!Caps at 2 hours
- 1 NutButter
- Totals: 410 Calories - Carbs- 21 g

The Week Ahead:
For the coming week will ride Monday and Tuesday indoors and look for about 35 miles each.  I may do a couple of the makeup Tour of Watopia rides but sort of depends how I feel.  The plan right now if for an afternoon gravel ride Thursday and hope the weather and work play along as will be good to get outside on some dirt as has been a while since I have ridden any gravel.  Then for the weekend I want a long ride in, from 60 – 100 miles, but where that will take place depends on the weather as right now, a week out, it is showing rain but that can change.

As far as running I will be running as I did this week with about 10 miles total in 2 days.  Will probably run Wednesday and then depending on how I feel will run Friday or Sunday.  The goal for running this month is simply to keep the legs moving so they are ready to run in May/June when I start working more towards Boston and some summer and fall races.

Last Week's Overview #40

Training Overview #24 – LCHF and My Training - Week of Nov 18 thru 24, 2019

Fog Over Lake Coeur d'Alene

Running Thoughts:
For this week’s thoughts I want to talk about diet, my diet specifically.  Truth is I hate the word diet as it has been co-opted from its original meaning of “how one eats” to be more equated with some eating, or not eating, plan or program.  I want to use the word, “diet,” in it’s original sense and talk about my change over from a more carb-centric way of easting to a Lower Carb-Higher Fat (LCHF) diet.  In doing this I also want to share some misconceptions and misinformation on being LCHF.

To being with when I talk about LCHF and my thought’s on it I am speaking from the perspective of one that is not insulin resistant or has any other medical condition like TY2 diabetes or being Pre-diabetic that necessitates a change in how I eat.  The reason I preface things this way is that if you have one of the conditions I mentioned I would be more firm in saying LCHF is the way you should go as I am convinced that it can deal with, and even reverse, things like TY2 diabetes and other medical conditions.  When it comes to sports, athletics and performance there may be some room for modifications and direction even though I am also personally convinced an LCHF diet of some form is ideal for endurance sports.  I also believe as you get older ones physiology is better dealt with by eating a more LCHF diet.

First let me deal with some misconceptions I often seen put out either as a consequence of what is put forth or is just stated incorrectly.  I often hear people speak of Keto and LCHF synonymously but in truth while for some LCHF may indeed be Keto – Keto is not necessary LCHF.  Keto is generally 50 grams of carbs a day or less while LCHF had a range that may be as low as Keto but often is higher, for me it is in the 100-150 range on average.  Also, for those that hold to a LCHF diet that number may change based on training and what sort of cycle of training I may be in.  Thus, if I am in a period of training where a majority of my training is at MAF, see previous post, my carb intake will be lower as my training is such that I use mostly fat for my training.  However, when I filter in harder training days I may up my carb intake some to replenish what may have been used on harder training session.  Also, when racing the type of race I will be running or riding may also influence my carb intake up to a race and after.   From this I hope you see that the idea of a LCHF way of eating has a fairly large range and is not so easily put in a box as many that put forth a more carb-centric diet tend to portray it as.

This leads me to my next thought and that is many times I hear people speak about eating carbs in such a way as to give the idea that those who are LCHF have no stores of carbs to use.  But this cannot be further from the truth.  Since the body can only store a certain amount of carbs if training, as mine is, uses mostly fat for energy then the use of those stores is minimal and take less to replenish.  Thus, on a LCHF diet where you are fat adapted the need to consume large amounts of carbs is not required and while you may need a larger than normal intake, based on races or training, it is still much lower than most put forth.  This is one reason I also do most of my morning workouts fasted as it further trains my body to burn fat for energy and thus also for me the flexibility to use carbs as required but keep them in reserve.  After a longer fasted ride or run I may need to eat a few more carbs during the day to top up the quantity again is less than my very carb-centric eating days.  I realize running fasted in the morning can be controversial but so far all the evidence I have read that is put forth to deny the benefits of fasted running or riding is put forth by those that see no benefit to being fat adapted and using a LCHF approach to begin with so their presuppositions are such as to lead to their conclusions in see running fasted as being detrimental.

Another aspect that is also often not dealt with much is the idea of training low and racing high.  This speaks to training with less carbs and when racing using carbs strategically as required by ones event.  When I say race high it might be better put as race “higher” as those who train and race LCHF still use less carbs, in general, than most athletes who are on a HCLF diet.   This lower than normal use of carbs in racing works great to also lower gut issues by taking in less carbs.  The ability to train-low and race-high, check out this resource from SFuels, depends on fine tuning your fat adaption so you have what is referred to as metabolic flexibility.  By flexibility this refers to the ability to train and race at a level that relies mostly on fat but when a hard effort is required you can switchover to carbs and if need be take in some carbs to aid this harder effort then as you settle back into a fat burning zone so goes your ability to burn fat kicks back in.  What this also does is reserve the limited carbs you can store while relying on the almost unlimited fat stores.

I do need to add here that the process of becoming fat adapted does not happen overnight,  It can take time to become metabolically flexible so that you can train at a higher level using more fat for fuel.  I think it is this time to transition that is different for everyone that gets in the way for many to move over to being fat adapted.  Many of the studies I see refer to people transition to LCHF over the course of 3 – 6 weeks and maybe as high as 3 months when even 6 months for some may not be enough.  I think this is also a large part of the reason many elite athletes have not taken this course as in the time it takes to get fat adapted one may have a drop in performance and when you make a living in your sport based on performance this is hard to sustain or justify.  Then there is the fact that many athletes, especially in endurance sports, have sponsors from sports fueling companies that rely greatly on carbs and to turn from that while ones performance may drop is also hard to justify.

For me I really try to stay at about 100-150 grans of carbs a day and do morning workouts, when I can do them, fasted all to work on my fat adaptation.  While I mention how many carbs I eat I do not really count them too often any more as I just sort of have an idea where I need to be.  I also know the carbs to avoid, for me pasta is a no-no as it does a number on me internally but things like potatoes do not appear to trouble me.  As far as total calories I never count them but have found over the years as I watch my carbs the total intake is less of an issue and in doing it tis way I rarely seem y weight vary too much.  I also admit, often due to travel, that I do not eat as I should but U do not stress about it and work to get back on track as soon as I can.

Lastly, while I have not done any testing to see what my fat burning efficiency is I can tell based on a number of longer rides and runs that I am relying largely on fat for fuel.  For example if you look at my fuel intake in my R2R2R report at the Grand Canyon you will see that for a 50 mile 16+ hour run I took in very little fuel but never bonked.  Sure I did not run fast and if I had I may have taken in a few more carbs but then again that is the joy of being fat adapted.  By the way I have seen this same fueling scenario work on my longer rides as well.

That was simply a smattering of thoughts on how I fuel and eat and hope it gives you some “food” for thought – pun intended.  While everyone is different, hence why my carb intake is higher than many on a LCHF diet, the principles are there and if you are in an endurance sport it is definitely something that you need to look into.  In doing so the goal is not simply "lower carb intake" as that is a means to the end but metabolic flexibility and being able to best utilize fats and carbs to get your best performance as well as leading a healthy lifestyle.  As an aside when you read how "elite" athletes train and eat make sure you realize they are "elite" and by that fact lead different lifestyles and train differently than most of us do and often can get by on a diet that may be less than optimal.  For the general public who simply wants to be their best but also be healthy make sure to do your due diligence to investigate both sides understand everyones biases and presuppositions - we all have them - Enjoy the journey to find out how your body works best.

Relive 'Nice Road Run W/ a Little Trail Section'

Weekly Running Overview:
This week went pretty much as planned in that I got 30 miles in over 4 days of running.  It was a pretty cool, OK cold, week here in Coeur d’Alene ID where I am for another week.  At least for this week it was nice i that while it was cold it was not wet so made running more pleasurable.  The runs this week for the most part were easy but each had a section I ran a little harder just to work on moving faster.

My right ankle is still sore but does seem to be getting better slowly.  I do find that 9-10miles is my limit as the closer I get to that distance more often it is sore.  I do find that when my ankle gets sore if I focus on form more it does begin to feel better – which tells me that that is what I need to work on – form and the strength to keep that form

Overview of Weeks Runs and Rides:
- Monday: Run – 9.5 Miles
- Tuesday:  Run –  5.7 Miles
- Wednesday: Rest Day
- Thursday:  Run  -  9.8  Miles
- Friday: Run -  5.75 Miles
- Saturday:  Rest Day
- Sunday:  Rest Day

Totals:
- Running Miles –  30.7 Miles
- Riding Miles – 0 Miles
- Total Time –  4:17 Hours

Weekly Diet Notes;
Nothing in particular but then again the main part of today’s post was about how I eat.

Conclusions and the Week Ahead:
The plan for the coming week is to pretty much a duplicate of this week’s running in looking to get about 30 miles in 4 days.  I will be in Coeur d’Alene ID one more week then I will back to So. Cal and be able to get in some good rides – hopefully.


As always if you have questions let me know in the comments below.


Last Week's Overview #23