Carbohydrate loading

Yep.

And then I took, um, some gummy candy that I use both in carb loading and in training, some fruit snacks, uh, and some dried, uh, baby bananas, which is another, like, high-carb food that's pretty easy for me to get down.

So mostly carb-focused things.

I did take a couple packets of protein powder, and then, um, I think we talked about this on the Chattanooga podcast, but I will use cold brew race morning.

Yeah.

I wish they'd gone one level higher.

No, I think, I think everyone does, and I mean, especially with the controversy about whether carb loading works.

I'm like, [laughs] yeah, you go into a world championship race and, uh, you wanna chance that, good luck to you.

So I do think Tech is worse than they were last year.

But with that being said, I'm gonna get into my Carb-Load's refreshing take of the week.

They just won their toughest game on the schedule.

[laughs]

I think if you're doing the marathon, yeah, it'd be exciting, but... pretty boring as well yeah

all right now one thing Berlin and Germany in general is fantastic for is carb loading am I right the options in pastries bread pretzels yeah beer and that amazing German cuisine Tony can you give us your tips for carb loading and pre-race prep

Yeah, I'm going to rely on a little bit of general tips here because ultimately when we travel, we travel through Travelling Fit.

We had a magnificent carb loading dinner that was arranged for all the runners in our hotel.

So we didn't have to go through a lot of the pain that others have to go through.

So I guess just think about booking as early as you can because you Because a lot of the restaurants will book out.

But if your normal breakfast is to maybe have some oats or some porridge, grab that from Aldi and just make sure you've got it ready.

So stay with foods that you can trust.

So today, I have a very special guest with me, Brooke Sarnacki, registered dietitian, nutritionist, endurance sports nutrition expert, and host of the Actively Fueled podcast.

She works specifically with runners, and today she's gonna break down everything you need to know about carb loading, what to eat, when to start, and the biggest mistakes she sees runners making all of the time.

If you've got a marathon or a half-marathon coming up, you're gonna wanna stay until the very end because Brooke is going to give her exact emergency protocol for runners who have never properly carb loaded before.

So let's get into it, Brooke.

You're always bringing, bringing the heat, bringing the goodness, um, and bringing the knowledge.

So kinda getting right into it, like, we hear hitting the wall at mile 20 constantly.

Like, how much of that is actually nutrition failure versus training failure? And could proper carb loading prevent this type of thing?

Yeah.

Yeah, and especially because for most cyclists, we want to perform at high intensities, right? You know, when we're racing, we want to perform at those race...

there's decision points in the race where it's really important to follow a move for example um and i think faster training it does improve fat oxidation or yeah you train your to use your to use fat as fuel um but you're like hurting your uh upper end or a high intensity performance so um yeah i think the trade-off is not worth it for me at least it isn't One other topic before riding, and it's maybe more event-specific, is carb loading.

Good to mention, I think, that before a big event, it makes sense to carb load or eat extra carbs in the 48 hours leading up to the event.

And typically, you want to steer for, I looked it up, for 8 to 12 grams of carbs per kilogram of body weight per 24 hours.

So that's quite a lot of carbs.

Let's make a distinction there because there, I've, let's see, as amateur athletes, we always talked about carb loading.

Hey, let's have a big pasta dinner the night before.

Yes, you're getting more carbs, but then there is the much more scientific carb loading where in the preceding days, right, somewhere, and I don't know the timing of this, right, where you're almost carb fasted.

The night before I am very good about drinking a lot of extra water and electrolytes, but Yeah, I don't really hydrate immediately before the run outside of a coffee.

And as far as carb loading before the long run, I don't focus on it, but I probably should.

I certainly know you should do like a mini carb load the night before a long run.

And I'm going to practice that and see if I feel any different.

So I need... 390 to 470 grams a day of carbs, which is I think interesting.

And then from Thursday to Saturday, which is the carb loading phase, it says I need, this is unbelievable, 625 to 700 a day Which is a lot.

Now, it's suggesting that you whack that over across meals and snacks rather than like just huge dumps of it, because otherwise you're going to have some major, major problems.

And obviously your protein, the fact you drop proportionally as the carbs go up.