My first 100 mi bike race after 3.5 months of fat adaption

(mark whittaker) #1

Here are my strava results: strava results link

So I had been strict keto for 3.5 months leading up to this race. I think I was fairly fat adapted.

So the race was on Saturday and since it was going to be 100 miles with 8k ft of climb I did not want to do it with little to no muscle glycogen. So on Wed and Thurs I had about 150g of carbs each day. Carbs were in the form of sweet potato and oatmeal. when eating carbs I ate low fat.

On Friday I ate keto and on Saturday morning before the race I had 3 eggs and an avocado. I did not eat anything until mile 50. at which point I was feeling like my muscles were starting to strain on the climbs. (strong until this point). So I had half a green banana and a honey stinger waffle.

around mile 75 I had a 6oz Coca-Cola.

I finished the race strong and even though I ate some carbs I definitely feel that like I benefitted from the fat adaption. when no on steep climbs I could feel the difference between burning mostly carbs vs mostly fat. I had enough in the tank to finish the last two miles with a sprint and I could have kept going.

The one issue that I had was leg cramps. Starting around mile 45 until the end my legs were cramping really bad. Not on the climbs but on the flats. I had plenty of strength just lots of pain! I did take electrolytes but perhaps not enough. I have never had this issue in the past and I have had it in the event and a 70 mile training ride last weekend. so not sure if it is related to diet or not.

Anyway I plan to continue this ketogenic diet and over the winter I will try to be loyal to the mafatone method like Ian R. suggests. Hopefully next season when I do this race again I will see a huge increase in my MAF power and a huge improvement on my time.

(ianrobo) #2

good stuff and no need to worry about the carbs for an event, carb cycling is more than accepted by the likes of even Tim Noakes but certainly Peter Defty …

that ride was great and the journey continues Mark !!

(John) #3

Sorry, just seeing this, good work on the century! I am just getting into longer rides and finding similar results. I don’t take any carbs leading up but I felt like I needed some on climbing days and in an interview with Dr Volek about the FASTER study Zach Bitter said he takes like 20-30 grams per hour during exercise and Volek said that was a good idea. I had done some testing before and found that taking 30 during a ride had 0 affect on BG, it all got absorbed. I feel much better adding it to my drink during a ride by the best thing I have done yet to feel better is really increase my electrolytes.
My last ride was really hot and I kept track of water, 250 ounces with no bathroom breaks, my jersey was white with salt. It has been mentioned that we lose way more salt than a non-keto person and this showed I certainly was not keeping up. I am still experimenting but I keep a lot of electrolytes on board now and it seems to work so much better. I had the same cramp problem on the flats, calf and feet mostly and the relief came pretty fast.
I need to do more reading so I can get closer to the amount I need to take, I really don’t want to overdo potassium.