The Running Experiment

Marathon is 3 weeks off and there's enough time left to attempt to emulate the Department of Human Movement and Exercise Science at the University of Western Australia Carbohydrate Loading experiment.

Cut a long story short, endurance athletes taper off exercise as the event gets closer, ending with 3 days heavy on carbohydrates to put more glycogen into the muscle and avoid "hitting the wall" after glycogen stores run out.

The Department of Human Movement and Exercise Science at the University of Western Australia tested athletes as in a different way: "On the morning the one-day high-carb diet commenced, the athletes had muscle biopsies performed on their quadriceps muscles (to assess glycogen levels), carried out a five-minute warm-up on a cycle ergometer, and then blasted through a sustained 150-second sprint on the ergometer at a very high intensity of 130% VO2max. At the end of this sprint, the athletes - without a second of hesitation - embarked on an all-out 30s sprint. Lactate levels at the end of this three-minute period of intense work soared to 21.9 mM/litre!

When carbo windows are open widest:Following a cool-down, each subject began the 24-hour high-carb eating plan, during which they ingested 12g of relatively high-glycaemic-index carbs per kg of lean body mass (e.g. 5.45g per pound of lean body mass and 4.6g per pound of body weight, just above the RRN recommendation). Crucially, the ingestion of carbohydrate was initiated within 20 minutes of the end of the exercise. (Remember that your muscles' carbo ‘windows' are open widest shortly after a bout of exercise ends; by two hours-or-so after exercise, they are open just a crack.) The participants ate high-carb foods they liked, including pasta, bread and rice but they also poured in extra carbohydrate in the form of the maltodextrose-rich drink Polycose, produced by Ross Laboratories in Columbus, Ohio. Indeed, about 80% of the carbs ingested over the 24-hour period came from this drink. The energy ingested as fat and protein, by contrast, was marginal - less than 10% of the caloric total for the day."


(http://coachnelson.com/index.php?page=carbo-loading)


In my attempt to emulate this I spent the first 2 days of this week trying to keep carbs to a minimum, with a high fat, high protein diet.
NOTE: Calorie maintenance is 2200

Monday
5 hours sleep
Fasted 6AM workout: 3x5 backsquats, 50m sprints between kettle bell swings
Protein 200g
Fat 30g
Carbohydrate 130g
Calories 1720

Tuesday
8 hours sleep
Fasted 6AM workout: 3x5 pushpress, 50m sprints between burpees
Protein 170g
Fat 90g
Carbohydrate 190g
Calories 2213

On the day before the run, the diet changed to high carb and low everything else.

Wednesday
8 hours sleep
Weighed in at 76.5kg
Fasted 6AM workout: 3x5 deadlift, 30sec on 30sec off thrusters, burpees, pullups, sumo deadlift to high hangs. (in Australia they did only 3 minutes of rowing and sprinting, this was somewhat longer)

Protein 225g (ingesting this much carbohydrate you can't help protein getting in)

Fat 62g

Carbohydrate 760g

(400g of carbs come from 8 "Vitargo Carb Loader" drinks, 2 of which were taken 5 minutes after work out.)

Calories 4500

Thursday

8 hours sleep

Weighed in at 77.9kg (making previous day's carb load a total of 1.4kg)

Drink 50g of carbs and go running

4AM workout: 28km jog taking one sachet of "Shotz" every 30 minutes.

Weighed in at 76.4kg

Expected Result

Compared to the Jan 29 fasted 19km run that ended on a subway train exhausted, I am expecting to jog all the way home at 28km feeling like there's a lot left in the tank.

Actual Result
Woke up feeling hot and sweaty, that's with a temperature of zero outside and no heater on.
Serious sore muscles in the back from previous days dead-lifts but I spent all day yesterday eating carbs and this experiment had to go on.
Few back stretches and out the door.
Warmed up faster than usual, felt fine all the way through.
I was looking forward to uphill sections that I used to dread to open up the legs a bit.
Around 24km I felt the right side groin but when I would have usually been cardiovascularly spent I was fine.
Jogged all the way home, could have gone on.
Weighed in at 76.4kg meaning the 28km cost 1.5kg.
Due to the ingestion of glycogen every 30 minutes I assume that all weight lost was water.
Therefore during the marathon I should drink 42ml/km or a pet bottle every 10km.
Will stick to BCAA drinks to avoid any possible gluconeogenesis.
Experiment was a success and I will be using this technique for the marathon.
Runkeeper link.

Grass fed in japan

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

ON Platinum Hydro Whey

Optimum Nutrition Platinum Hydro Whey 

I went for "Velocity Vanilla" (also comes in "Cookies and Cream Overdrive", "Turbo Chocolate" and "Supercharged Strawberry") I'm assuming the speed in the names refers to how fast insulin is able to shuttle the protein to the muscles.

Here's the blurb:

Platinum Hydrowhey is the fastest, purest, most advanced whey protein we've ever developed. In a word: excellence. By hydrolyzing the protein in this premium formula we've created our fastest-acting whey protein yet. Hydrolyzing breaks larger proteins down into smaller pieces that are able to get into your system rapidly, enabling your muscles to start rebuilding quickly. For added effectiveness, we've also enhanced this revolutionary formula with digestive enzymes and micronized branched chain amino acids (BCAAs). In addition to being fast, Platinum Hydrowhey is also ultra-pure. That's because it's made entirely with hydrolyzed whey protein isolates. So there's no excess fat, cholesterol, or lactose to slow down your progress.

Conclusion

Mixed perfectly, a hint of grit, tasted a bit milky plasticky, but then I've never like the vanilla flavoured ones.

Taken after 5-5-5 75% of 1RM squats.

5/10

2011/05/10 Update

Tried the chocolate one. Have to be careful not to use too much water because it doesn't mix well and leaves you with a shake bottle of bits and weak tasting chocolate water. Champion Nutrition does this so much better.

switching to macadamias

I was eating a handful of walnuts and beef jerky as my mid-morning snack on rest days. (good fats and plenty of protein). Since then I've been reading that walnuts have a high Omega 6 to Omega 3 ratio. So I'm switching to Macadamias which have just as much nutritional value, but contain hardly any Omega 6.

Omega 6 per (1/4) cup

Walnuts – 9.5 g
Almonds – 4.36 g
Cashews – 2.6 g
Macadamias – 0.5 g
Brazil nuts – 7.2 g
Hazelnuts – 2.7 g
Pistachio – 4.1 g
Pine nuts – 11.6 g
Pecans – 5.8 g

(http://www.marksdailyapple.com/nuts-omega-6-fats/)

omegas

List showing Omega 6 Content of Common Foods:
http://180degreehealth.blogspot.com/2010/02/omega-6-content-of-common-foods.html

Better switch out Walnuts for Macadamias with my Jerky :-)

IDS Oatmeal & Whey Isolate Blend

The blurb

The ultimate in meal replacement convenience is finally here! Oatmeal & Whey from IDS Sports combines a synergistic blend of Isolate Blend Whey Protein with ultra-fine Premium Oatmeal powder to create the ideal meal supplement! IDS Sports Oatmeal & Whey contains 24 grams of premium isolate blend whey protein, with 16 grams of Oatmeal carbohydrates yielding an amazing 8.5 grams of complex carbs, 8 grams of soluble fiber, and less than 3 grams of sugar!

Over the years, in an effort to control sugar and fat intake many athletes have turned to the blender to make quick convenient meals. One of the most common of these food combinations is oatmeal and protein powder for a quick complex carbohydrate high protein meal. Using Oatmeal as a carbohydrate ensures a low sugar complex carbohydrate high in Vitamins and Minerals. While high quality Whey protein is a staple in every athlete's supplement arsenal.

Combining these two super foods in a blender for the ultimate clean meal sounds like a great idea, but drinking your way through the chunky bottom half of that glass of homemade brew can be a challenge. Most of the oatmeal resists breaking up in the blender and settles at the bottom of the glass, only to be chewed and choked down. Great idea, poor delivery. Until Now! Oatmeal & Whey looks and mixes like regular whey protein. It tastes great and quickly mixes in a shaker cup just like standard whey proteins! Oatmeal & Whey from IDS Sports is a quick and easy way for athletes to get the perfect meal!

Opinion

I went for Chocolate Peanut Butter.
Mixes really well, tasted nothing like Chocolate or peanut butter, horrible gritty texture with a nasty after taste. Never again.
taken after 3 sets of man-makers, 2 sets of max-rep pullups and 2 sets of max-rep dips.

1/10

Training Plan I

Overall Rules
Prerequisite of 1 month eating Paleo before start


2200 Calories a day maintenance
 = +20% 2640 on training days
 = -20% 1760 on rest days

Protein around 300-350 on all days.
Fat around 50 on lift days
Fat around 80 on rest days
Carbs around 300-350 on lift days
Carbs around 100-150 on rest days

Workout 3 times a week (Mon Wed Fri)
Drink 4 litres of water a day
Eat Paelo
Sleep 8 hours a night (will add 'in total darkness' when I get some better curtains)

Crossfit Paleo Leangains Method 1
Timeline: Jan 16th to Feb 26th (6 weeks)
8 hour eating window 7AM to 3PM
http://www.leangains.com/2010/04/leangains-guide.html
Advantages
Whey & Carbs can be ingested immediately after working out thereby taking advantage of the 45 minute window when most muscle synthesis takes place.
Disadvantages
You have to break the rules if you go out for dinner.

Crossfit Paleo Leangains Method 2
Timeline: Feb 27th to April 9th (6 weeks)

8 hour eating window 12PM to 8PM
http://www.leangains.com/2010/05/early-morning-fasted-training.html

Advantages

More time in the mornings

PostWO growth hormone synthesis

Disadvantages

Evening binge eating up to 8pm

You can't eat breakfast

Questions

Q. One of the main advantages of IF is insulin sensitivity, what do I want that for?

A. Insulin sensitivity is a term used to describe people who require relatively normal or low levels of insulin to process glucose. People with insulin resistance, on the other hand, need a lot of insulin to process glucose, and this leads to health problems.

Q. How does IF improve insulin sensitivity then?
A. 

Q. Martin Berkham wrote that muscle synthesis begins 4 hours after exercise, what is the scientific proof of this?

A. (From Leangains)
When the post-workout meal comes around is also when muscle protein synthesis is beginning to take off. Though muscle protein synthesis is acutely stimulated post-workout in response to resistance training and protein intake, studies show some latency in regards to elevation and peak. Protein synthesis starts to climb about 3-4 hours post-workout, reaches a peak at the 24-hour-mark and returns close to baseline values 36 hours post-workout (or 48 hours depending on who you ask; studies on this topic show slightly different results regarding length and peak of elevation). Even if you push back the post-workout meal a few hours, you will be in the fed state at a time when nutrient partitioning is optimized and muscle growth likely to occur.

Q. Mark of Mark's Daily Apple doesn't eat for 2 hours after working out to stimulate production of human growth hormone, what's that all about?

A. He only works out 2 times a week and will never deplete his glycogen stores enough to require 'recovery'.
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/post-workout-fasting/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC329619/pdf/jcinvest00482-0014.pdf

Q. (Pasted from leangains) 
Is there a specific reason for the carb-cycling (carb on rest days)? Or is it ok to eat a lot of carbs also on rest days, as long as it is calorie-deficit?

A well rounded diet, not too low in fat, improves diet adherence. For bulking, there might be some benefit not to keep muscle glycogen stores too close to fullness in order to prevent DNL on training days/high carb days. This is of lesser importance on a fat loss setup as mean carb intake is much lower and unlikely to refill muscle glycogen stores fully on training days.