HopperSportsPerform

@zbitter @MountainRoche @JWLevitt @ProfTimNoakes Zac, I think this is possibly one of the most powerful responses to Tim and a like I’ve seen, not only because it’s incredibly factual, its also coming from someone with the experience of yourself

You are too kind David. Tim is just illustrating how far gone online low carb discourse has fallen. Imagine waking up and thinking to yourself, “you know what f*** it, I’m going to spin a narrative that a group of people who are known for diets with some of the highest percentage of carbohydrate in them, are actually low carb. Lol

This observation made me ask another: Is the belief that one must ingest 90-120g carbohydrate/hour during racing and training a uniquely Western/North American/European idea? If it is so important, what do the elite Kenyan runners do when they run their long training runs in places like Iten and Eldoret. In his book goodreads.com/book/show/1314… Adharanand Finn describes a final 38km training run in Iten for athletes preparing for the international marathon racing season. He noted that the athletes started after an overnight fast without breakfast and were provided with drinks every 5km or so. Only after the run did they drink sugar-loaded tea. I asked Grok what were they likely drinking during the 38km training run. Here is her answer: "Primarily water (often ad libitum or sparingly during runs), with milky sugary tea (chai) as a key recovery/hydration drink afterward; Gatorade or similar commercial sugary sports drinks are rare or nonexistent in traditional training. "Elite Kenyan runners in high-altitude training hubs like Iten and Eldoret (the Rift Valley) follow simple, traditional hydration practices focused on water and tea rather than engineered sports drinks. Scientific studies and observations from training camps confirm this: "During long training runs: They typically drink little or nothing while running, or just small sips of plain water if needed. Previous research notes that elite Kenyan endurance runners 'did not consume liquids before or during training' in many cases, or did so infrequently and modestly. Long runs (often 20-40 km or more) are frequently done fasted or with minimal intake, relying on their high-carb diet for fuel. They train in groups on dirt roads with no aid stations, so carrying bottles isn't the norm—some may have small water bottles available at camps, but it's not Gatorade-style drinks". My note: Typically the athletes are accompanied on these runs by coaches who follow in a car and provide drinks every 5km or so. Also sports drinks are expensive and perhaps hard to come by in rural Kenya although Coca-Cola is likely more widely available. So if these athletes wanted a sugar-laden drink during training, Coca-Cola would suffice. Thus it looks like the "Kenyan secret" is definitely not because they ingest 90-120g carbohydrate per hour during their long distance training runs. And if they are not doing it in training, it's highly improbable that they are doing it in racing - according to the advice that one does not do something in racing that has not been tested in training. (Also because of the need for what Westerners call "gut training" (ie minimise the adverse gastrointestinal consequences of repeated ingestion of high carbohydrate drinks whilst racing). This raised many other additional interesting questions. For example, when eating a high carbohydrate diet (unquestionably true), why do elite Kenyan marathon runners do their long training runs in a fasted state with minimal carbohydrate ingestion? What are the rates of fat oxidation that they reach in marathon races run this way? Etc Etc. So it seems that the advice to "do as the Kenyans do" is not adhered to when it comes to (minimal) carbohydrate ingestion during exercise and training and starting long runs in a fasted state. @PhilipPrins11 @AKoutnik @PaulBLaursen @DrPhilMaffetone @sweatscience @theplews1 @Brady_H @MountainRoche @LoreofRunning1

@hjluks @debs_terrior Yep I have this issue and when I was 9 was advised to avoid surgery until an absolute last resort. Now I do have some issues today from time to time but that has been able to be addressed with strength work. The worst thing about that gait I find? Thigh chafing at the knees

@Sportnutrient @MaurtenOfficial A great read Paul, thanks once again for some great insights. It highlights how beneficial it can be to applying scientific knowledge and more importantly scientific process to help find individualized solutions for an athlete.

Fuelling UTMB: How We Designed Tom Evans Winning Race Plan. @MaurtenOfficial asked me to write an article on how I developed Tom's race plan - from preparation to race day. It is published at the link below. Hope it opens up some interest and debate 😀 strava.com/clubs/675301/p…

@Sportnutrient @kilianj I was just thinking is it time we start using terms like high carb fueling less and work more around the term/concept “appropriate carb fueling”?

Once we better understand the athlete’s physiology and metabolism, then we can better prescribe a fuelling plan, whether this is 80, 100, 120, or 140. There is a place for them all, and correct selection will significantly affect performance. @kilianj

120 g/h Carbs in Trail Running is Dead (maybe?). Lessons from winning UTMB. This weekend 2 of my nutrition clients, @TomEvansUltra and @ruthcrofty, won UTMB. We developeda different strategy, and it worked. Often high carb, but never 120 g/h, even going down to 80 g/h at times.

@Sportnutrient @kilianj Great post and thank you for the insights. Always informative when this kind of insight is provided. It still amazes me how many people forget the nuance needed with this kind of thing and just go for blanket assumptions instead of individualizing things the best they can.

@inside_exercise it’s something I’ve thought about a lot especially when looking at current Aussie times. Some of today’s coaches probably make him slower. The other stuff’s easily worth a couple of min. Honestly I think Andy is the only male in the ballpark of where Clayton, Deeks and Mona are.

Given 56 years ago he ran 2:08:33, what time do you think he’d run today if he: had todays shoes, drank sufficient fluids including CHO during his races, wasn’t working full time, had a coach, massages etc. Make sure you check out my podcast episode with Derek + top researchers

@andrewwoodroffe @IRONMANtri @247_endurance You would hope so. If I was a professional athlete and someone beat me using illegal equipment I’m protesting straight away.

@Hopper_SP @IRONMANtri @247_endurance True but I dont see them enforcing it at all. Like would they really DQ Lange after an ironman win for example?

Interesting one here! List of shoes "banned" by @IRONMANtri this season, no idea how they will police this especially for age groupers.. Also I think thats Patrick Lange's Adidas banned?! @247_endurance tri247.com/triathlon-news…

@Timboreed @jayprasuhn From memory as well, that particular brand has very limited to potentially no options for larger chain rings in a 2x set up as well, forcing athletes into the 1x group even more

I know first hand that a lot of pros would prefer 2x for the majority of courses but at least for one particular brand that the front derailleur shifting is so unreliable that they go the 1 x simply to avoid dropping their chain or worse. I can totally understand it for off-road technical riding but for road where athletes budgets are limited to one set up, definitely makes zero sense unless they're also living in fear of the time lost with drop chain syndrome.

The irony of road cycling drive train progression has been the supposed technological leaps forward from Shimano, Sram, Campag moving from 2x 9 /18 speed to 2 x 10 / 20 speed to 2 x 11/21 speed to 2 x 12/24 speed to suddenly lopping off a front chain ring and reducing to only 1 x 12 potential gear options.

@Timboreed I agree to a point, especially that they should be looking to be doing some lower impact aerobic activity as well. At the same time if I was to take your advice, I shouldn’t have been running for the last 10 years or so.

When my overweight friends ask me how they should get into running.. “Don’t run. Find a low impact aerobic activity, eat better and get under approx 18% body fat for men, 28% for women. When you get there then let’s talk running.” The key to enjoying running is to be able to consistently run and not get injured.

@andrewwoodroffe I think it’s a great answer for 99.9% of athletes, especially on the age group side of things. Most athletes aren’t maximizing the use of the data they are already collecting for one reason or another let alone add something as complex as lactate into the mix.

I love this reply on instagram from Leon Chevalier. Many might disagree and that’s fine but his 4th place In Kona shows whatever they are doing works for him.

@andrewwoodroffe The coaching ability question might be answered with UnoX and what’s happening with Gustav. He’s good with the science, but I also feel like he likes to play games with it. Arild’s been forgotten about but looking at coaching record you can make a strong argument he’s better.

@JacobTipper @jem_arnold The worrying part is that his/their training was always described as more pyramidal. It was pretty clear with how both Olav and Arild talked about the training yet the people writing the articles chose to ignore it completely 🤦‍♂️😂

Kristian Blummenfelt's approximate lactate threshold numbers on one particular day in 2021 3.9 W/kg LT1, 4.7 W/kg LT2 @ 79.2 kg 3:39/km LT1, 3:09/km LT2

@jem_arnold @Jamie_langley1 These are questions going through my own head. First do we know the actual distance of the Tokyo course? Was this data from one test or a season average of test data? If it was an early season test, which shoes were used? He did change from Nike to Asics around April/May.

@Jamie_langley1 Thanks. Yeah that makes sense to me. I would think even a bit higher into severe domain at world level 10km times

@HilkkaKontro @KittyJohne @Jamie_langley1 @baronbiosys And here is a screenshot of the 20min effort in question from xert

@HilkkaKontro @KittyJohne @Jamie_langley1 I haven’t been able to go back & evaluate TP v xert fully yet, but I did replicate the above in xert. I also recently just happened to do a 20min non even paced effort at around 106% FTP so compared the scores. After this I Need to look more into the @baronbiosys stuff now.

TSS is a poor training load metric to quantify load in the severe domain. It considers intensity (i.e., distance from FTP), but not the duration the intensity is sustained for. TSS rewards you for taking breaks within your bout of severe exercise. Example: 20min at 105% FTP.

Heat training is starting to become a major intervention for athletes. Here’s my experiences with heat training as someone who suffers a lot when it comes to dealing with the heat. open.substack.com/pub/hopperspor…

@HilkkaKontro @KittyJohne @Jamie_langley1 I also decided to put the 20min work into a real world work matched situation. 20min @ 105% 40min @ 55%. The total workout TSS ends up slightly higher for the 20min straight session (68 v 64).

@HilkkaKontro @KittyJohne @Jamie_langley1 It’s demonstrates a bit of both for me. Coaches have known for a long time theres many flaws with it (well all load measurements) & have learnt that you can’t use a singular metric/tool to monitor load. Now with something like AI, we might get closer to a single metric solution.