Rob Bradlee wrote:

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?

Another question: Do we care about optimizing fat utilization if we
are able to consume carbs during races? If we had to race without
carbs then we might want to train without carbs. But we're able to
have the same sugary drinks and snacks during a race, maybe it's okay
to consume them in training. Or even beneficial because we train the
body to absorb the carbs while racing?

Saltin had a discussion about this in a seminar that i have on my server
(in Swedish), he says that the amount of energy directly derived from the
digested food/sportsdrinks by it self can't sustain the bodys needs for more
than around 40-50% of Vo2Max. It was a nice thoght Rob but it seams that
we aren't equipped with that fast digestive system to support this to any
larger extent. The only thing we can do is to "blend" the storaged carbos
with digested carbos to some extent.

To make things worse, when approaching the Lactate Threshold (LT) the blood
starts to diverge from the digestive system to the working muscles to support
the high workload and this also lowers the output from it.

--

Forward in all directions

Janne G