Dr. Mark Cucuzella's 25th Boston Marathon

[Barefoot TJ]

He may not be barefoot here, but he's definitely a barefoot and minimalist running.

Happy finishing my 25th Boston Marathon and no I did not eat the recommended 600g of carbs a day for 3 days prior and felt fine and happy. I gave a couple talks at the expo and sports med conf on how and why not to carbo load unless you are a super insulin sensitive and high performing athlete (the minority of Boston runners) . Here is a pic at the finish of this amazing event celebrating health and humanity. It is a blessing to be healthy and able to wake up and go for a run.

 

[trevize1138]

I'm really glad I started cutting way back on my own carb and sugar intake. My long-distance performance has really improved as a result. The last marathon I did I took in maybe 100-200 calories total throughout the race in the form of small gulps of sports drink and a handfull of grapes. For breakfast just three fried eggs and coffee with cream. Didn't do any carb loading beforehand. It's amazing how well the body can learn to fuel itself from fat stores if you let it.

 

[Barefoot TJ]

I'm really glad I started cutting way back on my own carb and sugar intake. My long-distance performance has really improved as a result. The last marathon I did I took in maybe 100-200 calories total throughout the race in the form of small gulps of sports drink and a handfull of grapes. For breakfast just three fried eggs and coffee with cream. Didn't do any carb loading beforehand. It's amazing how well the body can learn to fuel itself from fat stores if you let it.

Have you lost any weight?

 

[trevize1138]

I've never really been that heavy and I did lose weight but that also coincided with training for a 50k and the two marathons last summer. I do think I'm able to keep the usual winter weight gain mitigated better, though. Looking back I was always fairly moderate in terms of carb intake but now I'm just a lot more mindful about it and don't just blindly tink "carb load" just because I'm exercising.

I did find out something I didn't expect, though. I had thought I was "bonking" on runs longer than 2-3 hours and that was the big push for me to try becoming fat adapted. I didn't think I was able to take in enough calories on a run with gels or bars or that kind of thing. I made a real bad mistake, though, by guzzling too much water which is something I've been doing for a long time but the big difference was I was trying to do significantly longer runs.

Turns out I was very likely suffering hyponatremia because I was drinking way too much straight water and diluting my electrolytes. To test that I started doing longer and longer runs without any water and for runs of 10-15 miles only a 16oz bottle of Tailwind which has something like 3x more sodium than Gatoraide. That's really worked quite well. I only drink when I'm thirsty and I don't get the horrible, overwhelming feeling of death after the 2-3hr mark.

The body can sustain itself even while running quite nicely. Yes, dehydration can become a problem but it's not as rampant as people think. Only drink when you're thirsty because even too much water is too much.

 

[Barefoot TJ]

Only drink when you're thirsty because even too much water is too much.

Good advice. Hyponatremia can be very dangerous.

 

[Norma Coto]

I “work” on cutting carbs, but it is so hard as a vegetarian (sometimes pescatarian). Any others struggle with this balance?

 

[trevize1138]

Wish I had an answer for you on that one! I tend to eat a lot more meats when cutting down on carbs because I don't personally object to it. And I try to get meats with more fat in them to help with fat adaption.

As far as I know the most important thing to do is avoid processed carbs like breads. If you're eating a lot of green and leafy veggies and not a lot of grains you'll be taking in significantly fewer carbs than someone consuming a lot of breads.

That's another interesting thing I'm trying to nail down a rhyme-and-reason for: my GI tract doesn't do as well with a lot of wheat products. I started noticing when I got lax about carbs and had a feast of pizza one night with donuts or pancakes the next morning I'd be really gassy. And that negatively affected long runs because for the first 2-3 miles I needed to be close to a bathroom, sometimes needing to make a couple stops before feeling cleared out enough to continue.

Not really sure it's exactly gluten sensitivity, though. Maybe something to do with yeast? I can have a couple beers one night and not experience the same effects (whew! ) but anything with some form of bread doesn't entirely agree with me.