Thanks for the informative journal. How was your sexual performance during your fast? I noticed a significant drop in libido if my calorie count went below a certain threshold.

Cheers
Alex

Cheers
Alex

Cheers Magdalena, glad you found it useful

Hi Ryan,
I would train in the mornings, running up to 3 hours, always on an empty stomach. Race day, I would try to have a super early (at least 3hrs before start time) breakfast with eggs etc and during the run just water and eat whatever I felt like at the aid stations (fruit, energy bar or whatever was on offer)
I did run a half marathon just after going low carb on an empty stomach and water only, I think when you are properly fat adapted, you can pretty much do the same for a marathon.

As you may have seen in my blogpost, I quit serious running about 6-7 months after going low carb, but have continued with the diet which now helps me to perform in my current work. Here’s link to a presentation I did a month ago, talking about my current situation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YgEzF-FsqM&t=60s

Best of luck, let me know if I can be of any further help.

Olaf

I came upon yo via https://www.drperlmutter.com/long-distance-running-low-carb-high-fat-diet/

I was wondering, what was your fuelling strategy when you were doing distance running such as ultras, etc?

I’m low carb and sometimes keto and training for a marathon.

The plan I’m formulating now consists of going very low carb for my training and then introducing strategic carbs on race day – just as a “back up.

Anyway, your feedback would be most appreciated. 🙂

Thanks John, glad you like it.

Hi Damien, thanks for your comments on my post, much appreciated. I agree with you regarding my training in early 2014, does not seem to be over training for a marathon, especially (as you also point out) the relatively slow pace it was done at. The point I was trying to make in my post, was that it was probably over training for me specifically. I’m in the process of generating another presentation for the end of this month, where I reveal some my latest body composition results since that time (almost 5 years) – showing, that I’ve remained leaner than when I was running and put on a bit of muscle again. This tells me (in my opinion) that my particular body type probably is not suited for long distance running and the high volume of training. So I think your hypothesis that some people may not be genetically suited for endurance running is correct.

There is one little thing I’d like to point out though. Since you have– or had– the ability to run a 42km marathon within 3 hours, the training table you show here (30 Jan. 2014– 8 Feb. 2014) is by no means “over-training”, especially if you take into account the pace you had for those runnings (around 6min/km), which is reasonably relaxing. I know people (some are ultra-runners) who run 15 km or so everyday at a faster pace, not to mention those professional marathoners or ultra runners, their trainings are way up above that level. So how could that amount of running lead to your muscle degradation? Just doesn’t make much sense to me. Could it be that some people are simply not fit for endurance-running, which is a genetic thing?