Carbo loading

I thought I'd give this a try - I'll let you know around kilometer 30 if it has any effect or not...

I've chosen to try the less extreme version of carbo loading, which doesn't have a carbohydrate depletion phase involving running on an empty petrol tank and which is quite unpleasant from what I have heard. The "light" version sounds great, doesn't it? Being able to stuff yourself with pasta and sugary drinks all day long. Now that I have seen what it involves, I'm not so sure. I've just carted a box of gels and magic powders into work that I am supposed to take on top of my usual diet, over the next 3 days - it weighs a kilo for goodness sake! I'll probably be so sick of gels by the time I get to the Marathon on Sunday, that I won't be able to force any down during the race!

A little twist to the carbo loading that I am also going to try is to do a short sprint before taking in the carbs, to get the lactate flowing in the blood. The sprint should be short enough not to tire me out or cause any muscle damage, but just long enough to get that burning feeling in your legs. Apparently, if you run below your Aerobic Threshold you burn more fat than at higher intensities, but your body also tends to store fat more easily than carbohydrate as a result. I've been playing around with finishing my workouts with a short sprint to see if I can trick my body into burning fat but storing carbohydrates. I haven't really seen much scientific evidence to support this so, for now, this is more of a superstitious ritual of mine. At some point I'll dig around to see if I can find anything more on the subject.

OK, enough procrastination. Now for those gels.... YUCK