How to maintain performance skating

(angie) #1

Hi, I am 48 yrs old, on Keto for 5 weeks and skating for 2 years now. I began keto as a recomendation from my doctor to lose weight. I lost 4 kgs already and have no problema doing the diet. Since I began with keto I noticed that I cannot maintain the speed in some trainings that are moderate to high, like I used to do. When pushing the limits, I feel really without energy in my body but also like if my heart is going out of my chest.
Also, I have a 10km race in November which I expect to end in less than 30 minutes, but I am not sure that I will if I cannot regain my performance. So, my questions are: is it recommended to eat some carbs when I know the training is going to be hard? For the race, should I eat carbs at least one day before to increase performance? Is this a matter of training or time to return to previous performance? what is your advice? thanks a lot.
angie

(Victor Y Woo) #2

Hi @angie1970, I am not a coach but I have tried to to train and race as cross country skier on a keto diet for the last three seasons. I do about 90% skate and 10% classical skiing. I had a big skiing performance drop by going keto. This season I am going to add more carbs on the evening before a race, carb after the race and more carbs in the evening meal. For regular training days and non-training days I’ll eat keto.

You should have started keto at the end of the last skiing season. It takes a long time build additional mitochondria to burn primarily fat. Although keto didn’t work for my skiing, two of my skiing friends excelled at skiing on a keto diet. So I know it can be done.

You have to experiment to find what works for you. Best of luck.

(Allan Misner) #3

Most people get their performance back after they’ve keto-adapted, but that can take months. A 10km race shouldn’t be depleting your glycogen stores (muscle and liver), but you might also be a bit depleted because you haven’t fully adapted to keto.

I’d experiment with your carb timing and carb volume to see what you can tolerate. If you’re not insulin resistant and you’re training hard, you likely can tolerate more carbs.

I would look to have carbs before a training session (and the race). And then experiment to see how much you can take in the evening without pushing yourself out of ketosis.

(angie) #4

Thanks Alan. My diet consist only of meat, fish, chicken, cheese and eggs right now, so I asume that is almost zero carbs right now. I Will try to increase carbs a little before the race and see how it goes.
angie

(angie) #5

Hi Alan, Iast weekend I did the following test: saturday I went skating at a good pace, felt that chest sensation almost.since the beggining and had to stop at.8 km due to.exhaustion.
Saturday night I ate half a.sweet potato and some strawberries. Sunday morning I ate 1 cup of Nestum with milk (baby cereal was the only thing I had available) and 2 big spoons of fig jam. With that, I skated 15.km at a good pace and I could have continued if I wanted to.

So, regarding the sport it was fine, but I dont.know if I have ruined my diet!!! No noticeable weight increase as of today yet…
Regards!
Angie

(Allan Misner) #6

Angie1970,

My apologies for not responding. For one reason or another, I didn’t get the notification.

From what you’ve said, I don’t think you’ve become keto-adapted and that is why your performance is so poor. By doing a carb refeed, you replenished your liver and muscle glycogen and you’re performance resumed.

Short of measuring ketones (blood or breath) around your training, I cannot say whether you ruined anything. That might have been just enough to refeed and you were back into ketosis shortly after training.