Episode 459: High Carb & Training Recap
This episode outlines how my high carb experiment has been going after 14-weeks, and as I transitioned into my 100 mile specific peaking phase of training.
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Timestamps/Topics:
00:00 Welcome & How to Support the Show
01:04 Sponsor Shout-Outs & Discounts
01:47 Today's Solo Episode Overview
02:54 High-Carb Experiment Update
03:48 Blood Panel & Optimization Plans
04:58 Training Structure Shift
06:18 Peak Training for 100 Miles
07:00 Race-Specific Fueling Practice
08:44 Carb Types and Digestion Insights
10:57 Managing Digestive Issues on Long Runs
12:18 Comparing High-Carb & Low-Carb Performance
17:20 Sleep Changes With High-Carb Diet
20:23 Low-Carb vs High-Carb: Main Differences
22:24 Recent Big Run Volume & Removing Cross-Training
25:16 Plans for Upcoming Training & Racing
26:43 Looking Forward: Blood Work & Next Steps
27:57 Racing Plans & Measuring Progress
28:13 Listener Questions & Community Interaction
Episode Transcript:
Alright, everyone, welcome back. So today I have a solo episode for you. With this episode, I'm going to dive into a couple things. One is gonna be an update on my high carbohydrate experiment and how that's been going. I'm now 14 weeks into it. So the last time I talked about this on the podcast was after the first eight weeks.
So if you're curious about how that all took place and began. I would suggest checking that episode out. It's episode 4 52, if you haven't listened to that one, as I will be kinda adding to that or referencing back to it a bit. So this will be more or less a standalone though, so you don't necessarily need it.
But if you're just maybe a little more curious about some specifics within the deeper dive to that, I would. Suggest checking that one out. The other will just be a bit of a training recap 'cause I'm right in the middle of a peaking phase for my next hundred mile race, or it's technically a 12 hour race.
My hope is it's a hundred mile race. I guess if things go well, I should be able to hit a hundred miles before I get to 12 hours and then it'll be a double dip with the 12 hour timed event as well as a hundred mile effort as well. And that's coming up quite soon. I am actually about to start tapering for it.
By the time this episode's out, I'll be heading into the following week, being the first week of the two week taper for that one. So one of the reasons why I wanted to do a high carb update along with a training recap together is one of the missing pieces to the puzzle on the first one was just a little bit more time spent and then also.
How am I able to respond to it during this more unique phase of training where I'm skewing things more towards ultra long run development and the specifics that go into what I do during training around peaking for the hundred miles versus what I do in the weeks and months leading into that phase of training.
So I think it'll offer a little bit of a different look into it, with that kind of context in place. So the first thing. I'll share with you about it too if I did get a blood panel done right at 12 weeks, which was the timeframe in which I wanted to get the first look at, see what was going on inside.
I thought 12 weeks would probably be enough time. On high carbohydrates to at least begin to look at maybe what is going well, what is maybe in need of some improvement with that, I am still waiting for the results for that. I've been working with a company called Eternal and once they get the Blood Pal results in, they'll, they're pairing me up with a dietician to take a look at it and.
Dive into maybe some adjustments that I could make to better optimize this approach, because my goal here is hopefully to put together the best possible. High carbohydrate approach for me so that I can give it the best possible test on race day and tease out maybe where some of the differences are, or benefits or trade-offs could possibly be between trying a high carbohydrate approach for a hundred miles versus what I'd been doing the prior 14 years with all of my other a hundred mile races, which was more lower carbohydrate approach to the training and racing inputs.
So I'll start off with. A little bit about how the training has shifted. So prior to this, on that last episode, I was in what I would call a little more of a traditional endurance training program where I was doing quite a bit of variety along the aerobic intensity spectrum with structured short intervals, structured long intervals, the short intervals I tend to pair to close to my VO two max, or my pace at VO O2 max.
Long intervals. I'm usually spending more time close to my lactate threshold. And then a more traditional long run, which is usually between two to three hours, probably a little closer to two, especially when I'm really fit. I'm usually easily getting into the 20 mile range in the early stages of two hours for those types of runs.
So those are the framework workouts that I'm building around now that I shift away from that towards more. A hundred mile specific peaking. I start pulling back a little bit on the loading that I would do at some of those higher intensities, along the aerobic intensity spectrum to make room for more volume spent closer to what we would likely call zone one, zone two, and zone three.
This means I'm doing more long runs in general, and I'm stretching some of them out too by both distance and total duration and working on hitting a lot of that volume close to what I would like to be able to do on race day. So targeting a hundred mile race day intensity. So an example would be last week, I actually had my highest volume training week of the year where I hit right about 140 miles.
It was 16 hours, 20 minutes of running. I spent a really big chunk of that, in the like six 20 to six 40 range of pacing, and I had three sessions. Two 20 milers and one 30 miler in there that were solo sessions, that were all in that pace range. So I start to try to move as much volume as I can tolerate into that compartment to be able to just really start fine tuning what I'll actually be doing on race day.
That has also given me the ability to practice more race day specific fueling strategies. So with a lot of those runs, I've been targeting around 80 to a hundred grams of carbohydrate per hour. That has been one of the things I've been the most interested in is just how is my body gonna respond to that?
Both from just how I feel, the performance and digestion wise. Is that something that seems like it's gonna be sustainable? Because inevitably, even with my longest run of 30 miles, which I did in about three hours and 20 minutes, I'm still gonna have to do three, four x starts on race day. So if I'm noticing like that, it is not.
It's reasonably tolerating the nutrition input at that point, then I have to be concerned with how that's gonna play out by adding all the race day elements as well as pushing that total volume out much further. So far it's gone quite well and I've been gravitating more towards a two to one ratio for carbohydrate types, so two to one glucose to fructose.
I'm finding that since I'm not really pushing past a hundred grams yet, or I may never, we'll see how this all plays out. I just haven't found that I really need to move up to a one to 0.8 ratio, which is what we're typically seeing now when endurance athletes are trying to hit these really high carbohydrates.
Numbers. I talked to David Roche about this on the episode that he was on recently for those interested that haven't listened to that, and that was episode 4 57. He likes one to 0.8, but that makes sense to me because I think what we're seeing now with cyclists and ultra marathon runners pushing these higher numbers, when you get up to those numbers, like David's hitting 150 grams per hour.
Especially as you get into the race, like a few hours into the race, it seems that digestively that may be a little bit more tolerable, but for me, I tend to feel better when I'm at two to one and since I'm still sitting at that 80 to a hundred gram spot, I haven't seen a real big need to start structuring it at that one to 0.8.
At least not yet. Obviously, I'll have a way more. Close look at it after my next race at the Equalizer Endurance run in a couple of weeks here, and perhaps that will make me change my approach, but right now, two to one's been working quite well. I wouldn't say I have any real fears of it not being sustainable.
I haven't really noticed any DI Digestive discomfort changes from say hour one to hour two to hour three or anything like that. I did have one long run that I did on the track that I had some digestive issues, but it wasn't anything crazy and I'm almost certain it was something that I did. The day prior versus the fueling because it started right out the gate.
Like I hadn't even really begun my intra workout fueling strategy and it really just resulted in me stopping to use the bathroom a few times. Whereas normally I would like to be able to do that in a workout maybe once. And then on race day, hopefully I'll have most of that taken care of. Prior to the races, I'll be getting up a little bit earlier than I normally would for a typical long run and get myself sorted with enough time before the start of the race.
But from a historical standpoint, most of my highest performing a hundred milers have been met with. Two or three stops along the way to use the bathroom. So that's not something that I assume is gonna go away. In fact, I usually build that into my pacing plan so that I know, alright, I'm gonna probably require at least three, maybe up to five minutes of non-moving time during one of these a hundred milers for stops like that.
So that is built into some degree to be able to tolerate a little bit of that on race day. Obviously I don't want that to. Start to unravel to the point where now I'm stopping like say 10 times and wasting 20 minutes or something like that because the digestion is becoming intolerable. I think that would end up being a scenario where the performance benefit that I may get from higher carbohydrate would likely be washed out by just making it less of a usable tool for me at the current state I'm in, in terms of just keep keeping moving is probably the best way to maybe just look at that in general.
So right now I'm pretty confident that at a baseline of 80 grams I should be able to do that, and I think there will be moments or hours in that race where things are going down real smooth that I can push up to a hundred. But my goal right now is to continue in that 80 to a hundred gram framework.
And then on the race stage, just try to make sure I'm getting at least 80. And then when things feel good, maybe push up to a hundred on a few spots if I can tolerate it. So that's where that is at. In terms of the performance side of that I would say I haven't necessarily felt like it's noticeably better than the best I got to with low carb.
So there's a lot of moving parts in that I'm training in Austin now. When I had my best builds for a hundred mile races, historically, those were all in Phoenix, so there's some variance there when it comes to just the weather patterns in Phoenix versus Austin. The terrain here in Austin and Phoenix is a little bit different, so I've tried to look more closely at more controlled settings like track long runs.
Right now I only have two track long runs, and really the only reason why I'm doing track long runs right now versus. The other long run spot I've been using, which is basically a two to two and a half mile loop that I'll do on the roads, is because I plan to also do desert solstice in December. So I'm starting to lay some of the groundwork for being able to tolerate being out on a track for very long periods of time and doing some of my.
Workouts there, but in terms of terrain from Phoenix to Austin, that tends to be the best spot to do it because it's just more controlled than, say, the canal path. I used to be able to run in Phoenix for non track surface flat long runs and the spots I got here in Austin. So I would say like when I was doing those long runs leading into my fastest hundred miler, they're looking pretty similar in terms of just like the pacing, the effort.
If anything, I might notice that it's a little bit easier to feel like I'm pushing down at the end of a long run. Now when I'm hitting those higher carbon takes during it, not to the degree where I would be like saying it's like knocking it outta the park different. So that is worth noting. I think there's likely some reason to maybe just think about it through the lens of there's gonna be some variances too with like footwear choices and things like that, where these prior.
Blocks that I'm comparing to were also, before I was wearing any sort of premium foam shoe, in fact my fastest a hundred mile race actually came in a pretty traditional, what you'd maybe look at as a kinda a marathon racing flat versus some of the new plated foam premium foam shoes that I'll be wearing going forward in these races.
So to some degree, that may cloud the results a little bit from a performance standpoint. But generally speaking, I would say if I'm noticing anything, it's likely that. I maybe have a little more urge to run faster during the last part of the run, but not to the degree where I feel like I'm. It was being forced comparatively.
Now that's all being compared to the best experience I had on low carb. So if I just compare that to my prior training cycles here in Austin, it's been noticeably better. I'm definitely in the best shape I've been since moving to Austin. And the data's basically very objectively pointing that direction in the long run, the workouts pretty much across the board.
So depending on how you view that from a. A performance standpoint, it may be something where some people are like, Hey, we'd rather you compare that to the most recent 'cause that's more likely to be your current state, versus branching back to a few years to where I was back in Phoenix and at my heights on the racing side of things and training side of things while on low carb there.
So just worth noting. The other thing that I've been paying close attention to that I mentioned in that first episode is just sleeping. So one thing I noticed really soon when I switched to high carb was I was sleeping less. But continuously still. So one of the benefits I found personally when I switched to low carb is it seemed to help me with sleep consistency, meaning I was better able to go to bed at night, stay in bed, and just wake up roughly eight and a half, eight and a half hours later, which is historically about what my body would usually require when I'm given it, the opportunity to have it.
Whereas prior to that, I was. Getting in a situation where I would need say, 10 hours to be able to get eight hours of sleep I haven't had that experience for the most part yet. When I switched to high carbs, my sleep duration dropped by maybe 30 to 60 minutes, but I didn't notice any.
Downstream negative effects from that. I still felt like I was waking up with, if anything, better energy requiring less caffeine and feeling like I didn't have any fatigue during the day or sleep pressure that was causing me concerns as to thinking, okay, I'm just not getting enough sleep. So that was just kinda an interesting thing that I wasn't sure if that was gonna continue or if it was maybe the new normal for me on high carb versus low carb for whatever reason.
Maybe I was just requiring a little bit less. The interesting thing to me was. I hit a stretch of maybe two weeks where that all shifted and then I was getting like, not every night, but a few nights a week, I would just have really disrupted sleep where I would wake up a bunch and have a hard time falling back asleep and it didn't feel sustainable at all.
So I was getting a little nervous that I was starting to trend back towards kinda my experience on high carb when I first got into ultra marathon running before switching to low carb. Ironically, I just pushed through for the most part and just said, okay, let's just give this some more time and see maybe there's still just some transition phase abnormality going on here that I need to work through.
And after about that couple of weeks, that all corrected and it also corrected to the degree where now I'm sleeping closer to my traditional timeframe of eight, eight and a half hours. So now for the last two weeks, I've been really consistent. Straight through the night's sleep closer to the old markers I had.
So it seems to have almost normalized back to where it was when it was at its best, and I'm no longer getting that benefit of an extra 30 to 60 minutes per day by not having to sleep as long. Perhaps that's good in the long term in the sense that maybe that is really what I do need and I should be.
Trying to get that when I can. And if the dietary inputs allow me to do that, then that's gonna be a notch in that side of things as being a good a good thing from a dietary standpoint in terms of how it's impacting kind of the sleep side of things. So I'm gonna keep monitoring that obviously, and see if or how that changes over the coming weeks and months and however long I end up running this for.
But right now it's in a great spot. So I'm really happy with where that has all ended up and where hopefully it'll continue to go. The other thing I'll say too is just generally speaking, the questions that I've gotten a lot since that first episode is just generally speaking, what are some main differences I'm seeing and the way I've been describing it is.
Low carb is a very durable approach in my opinion. Like when I get that pinned down and consistent, I find that things are very predictable and there's a little less moving logistically. So for example, if I go out for a base run that's like maybe the high end is zone two, once I get that dialed up and going, very little changes, as long as I stay hydrated, I'm able to just get into that.
And there's very little variance between perceived effort at the goal target pace within those sorts of runs. Or the other way to maybe look at it is like the perceived effort I produce is a pretty precise pace that gets turned out from it with high carb, I tend to feel like that's just way more volatile where.
If I'm out there for a run, I might have a pretty sudden drop in pace at a given effort or feel like I'm working noticeably harder to produce a pace, or I might feel like I'm almost fighting to not go too fast where I have a specific training. Training goal in mind, and I don't necessarily do myself a favor by deviating from that on the fast end either.
So it does take a little bit more attention, I would say, to just make sure that I'm hitting the right spots. A lot of the lower end stuff where I feel like I'm working harder for the pace I'm trying to produce is cleared up when I'm just consistently hitting fuel. So to the degree that really matters is just probably a logistical preference for the most part, in terms of if I want to be fueling during some of these runs that tend to be a little bit longer, like beyond 90 minutes, then it's just way more imperative for me to make sure I'm hitting those fueling targets if I wanna stay in that spot where I'm feeling really good during the run and that perceived effort is matching at the pace that I want it to.
So that's worth noting. The other thing I'll add about that too is. I've been doing a really big volume towards running these last couple weeks where I shifted away from the bike entirely the last two weeks, and now I am midway through week three of doing that. My goal there really is just I want to try to make sure that I'm getting enough of the mechanical loading that is just gonna be a factor in terms of how sustainable I'm able to maintain pace for a hundred miles.
I think the bike has been a huge asset for me. Staying healthy and staying strong in different areas that I otherwise would maybe get a little bit weaker on from going through some of these training cycles that were just. Primarily or entirely run based, but I do think there's probably still some reason for me to take periods of time when I'm peaking, say, two to three weeks to try to move that volume entirely to running so that I'm able to hit some of those higher volume running weeks, get that mechanical durability to be able to tolerate the specifics and not necessarily drive fatigue from a non-specific.
Input that could take away from me being able to maximize the amount of time I'm able to spend at a hundred mile pace or intensity for as much of the volume during the week as I can tolerate. So the way that sort of played out is I did a week of 127 miles. I think that one was like in the low 15 hour range, and then last week was 140, was 1620.
This week will be similar to this last one and maybe a little bit more, and. That has been the biggest training shift. I've been maintaining some speed work where I'll do some threshold work maybe once per week. And then on a couple of my longer sessions I'll do a fast finish where I'm pushing down into the kind of high five minute range, just so I'm not entirely neglecting that.
I'll do some like pickups or strides and things like that, or 200 meter wraps at the end of a run from time to time too, just to try to touch some of those faster paced runs so I'm not completely neglecting that either, but also not generating. Too much training fatigue from that to the degree where I can't get up the next day and put in a ton of volume, more along the lines of that kind of zone one through three framework that are gonna be the more important intensities or specific intensities, I should say come race day.
So that's been the way I've been structuring these weeks and my body's been responding really well to it, to the degree where I would've been. I'm probably surprised, I would say if you had asked me three or four weeks ago if I was gonna be able to get in a couple weeks as big as these this last week and this next one is gonna be and feel as good as I have, so to whatever degree that the fueling is helping with that, those aren't historically high markers.
I've done training cycles and builds with a peaking phase at those numbers or higher even in the past, while on low carb too. But it is by far the most productive and highest volume. From a running volume standpoint that I've been able to do since being here in Austin. So that's all promising and heading in the right direction.
But my goal with that is that I will be bringing the bike back in. I'll bring it back in during the taper to remove some of the mechanical loading as I definitely wanna recover from that heading into the race day. And then as I kind of transition in, transition out of the equalizer. Back into training and then eventually repeating again for Desert Solstice at the end of December.
I'll be doing some biking in that interim there as I'm bouncing back from that first a hundred miler and putting that, getting that mileage back to where I want it for Desert Solstice too. So that bike component is definitely gonna remain a key component to my training. But if I, if I.
Have it the way I want it. It's gonna be a spot where I can do these, like maybe three week blocks where I'm peaking for the a hundred mile and getting a little more, more exclusive with the running and building in some of that mechanical loading and really focusing a lot of my training load and energies towards the specifics that'll be doing for that.
So other than that, I would say I'm really interested in getting the blood panel back. 'cause I think there's probably something I can optimize on, there's probably something where it. I don't think it'll be where I'd be like, oh, now I need to go back to low carb. I think it might be something there.
There's probably something in there where it's here's the food groups you're using to hit the macronutrients you're looking for, which. Right now we're usually around like 75% carb, about 10% protein and 15% fat. It could just be, alright, those inputs you're using to arrive at that, let's switch these things around.
Let's move this in and that out so that I'm getting what I need and the markers are showing that I'm heading in the right direction there. That is the next episode I'll do that is similar to this one, and that first one will be hopefully also including some of that blood work and going over some of that and maybe some changes that I'm making based on what information I get from that.
But that's kinda the basic training update right now. I'm getting really excited to get back into doing some racing and can really test some of this stuff out, both from the training side of things, the new shoe side of things, the nutrition side of things, and. Hoping for all of it to work out great.
But inevitably we often learn from these experiences and race day can be something where you learn some lessons and carry them forward. So with the equalizer Endurance Run, originally that was gonna be a test run where I was gonna run a bunch of new things that I haven't done before between the shoes and the nutrition.
And my thought is the likelihood of that going perfect is low. So I'll be able to take some learning from that. Carrying it over into the training and then racing at Desert Solstice and Solstice would be the one where it just had a potential for me to be hitting on all cylinders, so to speak. But based on where fitness is at, I don't wanna rule out an opportunity to run really fast historically compared to what I've done in the past at the Equalizers, if things play out that way.
So I'm gonna go into that race with the mindset that. If things are going smoothly, I won't be afraid to push the paces to where I think they could be from a historic standpoint down towards those like mid sixes at times. And hopefully maybe come with a PR if things go really well.
So that's kinda where I got things at right now. If you've got any questions as it pertains to this stuff, whether it's the nutrition side of things, the training side of things, definitely shoot me a note. DM me on social media or reach out on my website@zachbidder.com. Or if you wanna shoot me an email too, you can just go to HPO podcast@gmail.com as well, and I will get back to you and then take note of those.
'cause I think those would be fun things to touch on if you're curious about anything on some of these future episodes. But until then, if you don't mind, if you like this episode or any of the things on the podcast, please consider sharing it with your friends. Checking out the YouTube or the audio, leaving a review, subscribing, sharing, all that stuff would be great.
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