Six days from today, I’m running the San Francisco Marathon. I’ll need all the energy I can to run the best 26.2 miles I possibly can. So, I haven’t had any carbs since Friday night and I won’t have any until Thursday morning. If you think that’s a typo, it’s not. Before a goal race, which is what Sunday is for me, I carb deplete for five days. Five long days. Five long, miserable days. Five long, miserable, terrible days.
I’m not a scientist or a doctor and in a lot of ways, I feel like I don’t really know what I’m doing. But I’ve done this carb-depletion thing several times and unfortunately, it works. I say unfortunately because I hate it! For five days, I don’t eat carbs, which is absolutely miserable. I’ll explain why.
But first, a quick plug. I’m running the San Francisco Marathon as a Charity Chaser. I’m starting dead last and collecting pledges for each person I pass. I’m raising money for two cancer charities in memory of my friend Sue Dailey, who died from cancer on January 30. I’m also doing it in honor of my dad, who has fought off five separate bouts of bladder cancer in the past seven years, including two this year. I have a promotion that will net you a $50 gift card in exchange for what is approximately a $40 donation (or a $25 gift card for what is probably a $20 donation). Even if all you can afford is one Starbucks coffee, your $5 will help! Click here to make a pledge!
If you can’t afford a pledge, can you do me a HUGE favor and post this blog on Facebook, Twitter or Google+? That’s a lot easier than what I’m doing on Sunday! There are easy-to-use links at the bottom of this post!
OK, back to the carb depletion.
Several years ago, I heard about carb depletion, which is depriving yourself of carbs for 3-5 days before you carb load. The theory, I think, is that it helps you store carbs better when you load, it helps you lose a little bit of weight, and I would assume that the protein helps with last-minute muscle repairs. I’m on day three now (of five) and I’ve probably done this six or eight times, most recently for the Boston Marathon in April.
I continue to exercise on my taper schedule and walk around feeling pretty lethargic and hungry. It’s pretty miserable. I hate it. But it works for me. The payoff is not running out of steam during my race. A lot of that depends on my carb loading and my fueling during the race, of course, but I seem to not bonk when I deplete before loading. In Boston, my fastest five miles were 21, 22, 23, 24 and 26. I think it’s fair to say I stayed strong. So here I am again, getting by on chicken, cheese, eggs and protein shakes. No ice cream. No bread. No donuts. None of my staples. I smell all the good stuff getting cooked around the house and it’s a killer! But I have a job to do on Sunday, and I want to go in as well-prepared as possible.
On Thursday morning, I’ll do an easy six-miler when I wake up. I’ll be more than five days into depletion at that point, but it will be before breakfast. As soon as I’m done, I’ll immediately (within five minutes of the time I stop running) have a drink called UltraFuel, which is 100g of carbs. Again, I’m not a scientist, but I know it’s a good mix of carbs that stores well. I’m hoping to be able to go to Denny’s for all-you-can-eat pancakes and then I’ll continue with my carb loading. The key is to eat roughly the same number of calories I typically do — I’ll probably aim a touch low and go for about 3,500 a day — with 80% being from carbs. Scarfing down 7,000 calories a day just to pig out and stuff myself with carbs because “I can” is a good way to gain weight and run heavy.
I’ll mix it up — it’s not going to be exclusively spaghetti — and I’ll aim for more whole grains and brown rice and less white pasta or white rice. I’ll also throw in plenty of fruits vegetables. Those certainly count. Oh, and I’ll hydrate like crazy. What I do three days out is more critical than what I do two days out, which is more critical than what I do the day before. My pre-race dinner is usually something fairly light, because I don’t want a big meal weighing me down during the race. By the time I reach dinner the night before the race, what’s done is done for the most part.
After a while, carb loading gets tedious, too. I didn’t deplete last year, but I loaded every single week. And I got tired of it! But when you hit mile 20 of a marathon and you don’t run out of gas, those eight difficult days (five days of depletion, three days of loading) are worth it. That finish time lasts forever. And in my case on Sunday, since I’m collecting pledges for each person I pass, the faster I run, the more money gets raised for cancer charities, plain and simple. Plus, like I always say, the faster you run, the sooner you’re done. The sooner I’m done, the sooner I get a cheeseburger and an ice cream!
So, if you hear me grumbling this week about carb depletion, now you know what I’m doing and why I’m doing it. Thanks for reading and thanks for supporting my fight against cancer!
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