Glycogen stores are running low…
…not yet, but our first very long run is coming up this weekend – 30km it will be!
A lot of people are very worried about whether to eat on long runs, as you are most likely to exhaust your glycogen stores in your muscles. Well, so far, neither Paulo nor I have eaten anything on long runs. I think, just to be safe and not to collapse in the middle of nowhere, I will probably take some energy gels with me, but I probably won’t eat them using any specific schedule. There has never been a problem on any previous runs (our longest run being about 23km so far)… so what’s gonna happen during the next 7km after that?? Well, I know I know… it will get hard after 28km – but 2km are not much longer than 10 minutes… so it should be doable…. let’s see. I am sure an aftermath post will follow this one.
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related resources:
[1]The first publication that discussed the importance of muscle glycogen and endurance training.
Bergstroem J. et al (1967). Diet, muscle glycogen and physical performance. Acta Physiologica Scandinavia 71, 140-150.
[2] An interesting article about (Ultra)Marathons and glycogen stores from the website Marathon and Beyond.
Sara Latta (2003). Hitting “The Wall”. available from http://www.marathonandbeyond.com/choices/latta.htm.
