Running on fat

(Tamela Robinette) #21

I certainly will! I’m feeling strong and fast!

(Alec) #22

@Amanda1 @Robinette71

Good luck to both of you in your races… let us know how you go running on fat and what you ended up doing fuel wise on the run. Would love to learn from what worked (or didn’t work!) for you.

(Scott) #23

Watching and waiting, good luck!

#24

Day 1 completed
Breakfast 2 scrambled eggs and half an avocado. Coffee with HWC
Run took just over 5 hours. This is quicker than I wanted as another 9 to go and also harder than day 1 should have been. Drank water only. Had half a nakd bar at about 22 miles. Not sure I was actually hungry. Took 2 salt tablets. Maybe should have taken more. It was the legs that were aching. I don’t think that had anything to do with lack of energy. No carb up in preceding week.
Let’s see what day 2 brings.

How was your half Tamela?

(Tamela Robinette) #25

It was 70 degrees and 100% humidity at the the start of my half and it sucked the life out of me! I had an upset tummy right up until go time but was fine once I started running. Ran fasted with salt stick chews. My hands started swelling about halfway and were huge by the time I crossed the finish line. 9 minutes slower than my PR, overall a horrible race. To top it all off my husband, who is a Desert Storm veteran became worried when I didn’t cross the finish line when he thought I should. He has coronary artery disease and has had a couple of heart attacks and for some reason has developed severe anxiety in the past couple of years. He started panicking because he thought I maybe was injured and had a full blown panic attack. His BP shot up to 205/95 and he became dizzy and was having chest pains. So once I crossed the finish line we took an ambulance ride. Nitroglycerin and 5 hours at the hospital and he’s fine but what a scary day. We have to find a way to get his anxiety under control. I should of turned on my tracking app so he could track me but who knew he was gonna spiral like that? He’s always been a strong man and a very positive person. I hate seeing him like this :disappointed:

#26

Tamela - really sorry to hear your run didn’t go well. Do you know why your hands were swelling? Sorry also to hear about your husband. Hope he’s ok. All very worrying for you. Not a good end to the day. Hope you can sort it all.

Have just finished day 3 of 10 marathons. Boy is it hard. Right now I feel exhausted and not hungry and just a little sickish but know I need to eat something. I’ll think of something in the next hour. I have still been totally keto throughout and the lack of food whilst running isn’t a problem. I have definitely proved to myself that you don’t need carbs to run, but a new set of legs wouldn’t go amiss!!!

(Tamela Robinette) #27

I think I overdid the salt but I’m not sure what happened? It was really warm and I read that this sometimes happens to athletes in warm weather? Either way it went away after an hour or so. Hubby is fine, he is at a therapist appointment right now. Hopefully she can give him some pointers to get him through next time.
Wow 10 marathons? That is bad a**! Please get the nutrition and rest you need and keep us posted!

#28

How much salt did you take? Difficult trying to work it out!

(Tamela Robinette) #29

I believe I had 6 salt stick chews but I had taken some keto electrolytes prior to the race as well. Tbh I had quite a bit of alcohol and a non keto meal the day before which could of contributed to the whole ugly episode lol

#30

:slight_smile: Yes maybe it was all too much!!!

I’ve been taking a couple of salt stick tablets during the run and have gone through 2 naked bars in 3 days. Keto lunch when finished.

(Jeremy Wheatley) #31

As crazy as it sounds you might not need to fuel during the marathon… obviously that’s something you’ll wanna try before hand though. I just had a 50k on the 30th of March and I did it “fasted” (depending on your meaning of fasted). I didn’t have anything to eat since 6:00 pm the night before. Granted I’m not very fast but I did manage to squeeze out a 4th place overall and 1st in my age group (40-49) with a time of 4:25:16…

#32

Jeremy - well done and 4th place too

I’m eating scrambled eggs for breakfast which I didn’t do in training but more because I’m concerned that I’m not getting enough food otherwise. It’s 5/6 hours every day for 10 days. I haven’t carbed up at any point either before or during the runs. Just completed day 4. All I had was a nut butter and water.
I did have a sneaky small glass of wine last night!!!

(Scott) #33

Sounds like carb loading to me.:laughing:

(Tamela Robinette) #34

:joy::joy::joy:

#35

So… to conclude

Running on fat most certainly can be done. I decided to eat breakfast everyday before running 10 consecutive marathons. This was purely a matter of getting enough food in over the course of the event. It’s all very well to hear about elites doing x, y and z but I’m just an average person who was going to be running between 5 and 6 hours a day. I chose to take no carbs such as sweet potatoes or anything like that, whereas I believe Zach Bitter would have done a small carb load or some small amount of carbs whilst running. The only thing I had were “nakd” bars which I wouldn’t normally eat. Breakfast lunch and dinner were all keto. I never had a lack of energy while running although I could have used a new set of legs!!
The main thing was that I didn’t suffer stomach issues which I had been concerned about.
It really is quite amazing what people eat and the amount of sweets consumed. Because I didn’t need anything I saved a lot of time not stopping to fill my face. Just occasionally got the water bottle filled up.

So to anyone wondering if they can do it, then yes, go for it. It’s a much better experience

KCKO everyone

(Scott) #36

Thanks for the update. I have been running almost daily and trying to build on my miles to get back to HM distance. Ultimate goal is to do my first full marathon…fasted of course.

#37

A little update - Ran a half marathon this morning. Got a shiny new PB (PR). Amazing as previous one was from 6 years ago and I’m in my mid 50’s. I had an avocado for breakfast and didn’t take on any fuel or water during the run. I did have some stomach issues during the run which is why I started keto to stop all that, so that was a nuisance. I also ran 5 miles home but had such dreadful cramp in my legs that I had to stop and walk the rest of the way from mile 4. Got a full marathon in 4 weeks.

(Tobias Månsson) #38

So cool to see the stories shared here, so I thought I’d share mine.

Been keto for a bit over 2 years, while training to regain the fitness I had 15 years ago. The first year with keto and running was a real struggle and I could barely do a 6:30 min/km over a longer distance, and my heart rate was much higher than before.

But I kept at it since the keto lifestyle suits me well, and 2019’s been great. I’ve been focusing on distance this year, and really putting the effort into my running form and efficiency.

The result has been that I’m now able to run fasted at a 4:30 min/km pace over 10k, and two weeks ago I ran a totally fasted trail marathon at 4:40 hours. I’m also now running with low heart rate and perceived effort, even at faster pace.

I’m so amazed about what my body can do, and I feel that there is a lot more yet!

(Kathryn) #39

Hello Keto friends. I am asking for some help. I have been eating keto for just over 3 years and have added IF into my routines. My daughter and her husband just jumped on the Keto Wagon. My daughter loves to run and is in great shape. She is looking to run 6-10 miles a couple times a week, but to lower her time. So she is finding the last couple times she ran, it was really hard and slow! This concerns her. She wonders if keto is the way for her to go, she does not want to see her running times go out the window. They are in their fourth week of keto, and I just want to make sure that she gets the support she needs.
Heather does not want to do marathons, more the mid distance runs, fast. What do you all think would help her? I would love to pass on your advice. Keto has been so helpful for me, I would love to see them find it helpful too.

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #40

It will take longer, several months for her strength and stamina to return to pre keto performance. Google “Volek Faster Study”. The good news is that if she sticks with it long enough her performance will not only return to pre keto levels but improve. If she resorts to ‘carbing up’ she will disrupt the process and prolong time to full adaptation.