Torsten Heycke wrote:

Funny, I just yesterday sent an email to an exercise physiologist
about this very topic. Several years ago a coach at Silverstar
admonished me for drinking Gatorade on an LSD ski, saying that it
predisposed me to using carbohydrate as fuel rather than fat. Everyone
I subsequently asked about this gave me a blank stare.

Whether that is true or not, I have another question: do we care about
using fat for energy for races at which we are almost immediately
racing at lactate threshold or higher?

From the energy storage point of view it doesn't matter if your
race is under 1hour long (normal persons). But don't use fast carbos just
before a race so you alters the insulin balance, if not, then you start with
low bloodsugar (carbos in the blood) and have a hard time of doing anything
more strenuous for a while. When you are away and up to speed then you
can start using fast carbos because then your body regulates the bloodsugar
level due to the fact that it is consumed as energy by the working muscles
and is not stored.

Obviously, for some folks racing 30-50km races, the research might be
very relevant since you might be racing at lower than LT and your
carbohydrate stores will presumably not last the entire race: you want
your body predisposed to using fat whenever it can.

Precisely, but how many in this group just do 15k and shorter races and
have theire ultimate goal to make this short race the best of the seasoon?

For me, the shortest race is 40k, but i maybe do one 15k race a year.

--

Forward in all directions

Janne G