Ian

The Captains of Chaos

@Alan_Couzens When I look at my HR data for my marathon run last week, I guess that the decoupling in HR after ~32km was me starting to move to less efficient fibers as glycogen wore down. (I maintained pace all the way to the end).

Let me dump some carbs on you... Someone said yesterday that thinking about CHO intake in terms of stores, output and "bonking" is the "old way" of looking at carbs in sport. That pissed me off. So, let's start with... Only those with a bullet-proof basic understanding can have an advanced understanding. Put another way, he couldn't tell me why this is the case. So, let me tell you why this is that case... The error in thinking of a carbohydrate/glycogen "reservoir" comes largely in the sense that the reservoir isn't one tank. We have... Tank 1: Liver Glycogen Tank 2-2,000,000 Muscle Glycogen That is, every muscle fiber has its own little tank. So, in terms of glycogen depletion, while a significant drop in liver glycogen is obvious - the typical "bonk"... Drops is muscle glycogen are far more subtle... They manifest as progressive transition from more economical fibers to less economical. So, over the course of the race, pace for a given O2 uptake progressively decreases. *Assuming CHO makes it across the gut wall to the blood*... High levels of exogenous intake can offset this progressive depletion of more economical fibers & keep the pace high for a give O2 uptake over longer periods of time. This is why, again, assuming good levels of clearance from the gut, high CHO intake can have a small, but meaningful impact on the pace that can be held late in a race. TLDR... - A liver glycogen bonk is obvious. - Muscle glycogen depletion is subtle. - Exogenous CHO can offset glycogen depletion (to an extent) & help to maintain pace for longer. But.... 1/ The size of the engine determines fuel needs. 2/ You can only use what you can clear (& if you can't clear it, there's a timebomb jostling around in your gut - just waiting to go off)

@renewablesmiffy Someone needs to tell him about the design life of an oil rig.

My first onshore sites designed for 20 years are still running at 30+ years. My first Offshore site Scroby Sands running quite happily at 22 years will no decommissioning plans. Every decommissioned site I worked on was re-powered with significantly larger capacities.

@Alan_Couzens 8-10 mins to do a mile would be quite difficult if you only ever ran for a mile, so I suppose the only way to achieve that is to run more miles. My goal is to get to 8min/mile, whilst BLa is closer to LT1 rather than LT2.

The 8-10 min mi is very soft too. That amounts to a very problematic VO2max at age 40! 8 min/mi for 6.2mi i.e. a sub 50min 10K would be a better marker.

You mean 30-50 miles, right?.... Right? 😊 Honestly, the thought of a functional radius of 3-5 mi is pretty dang depressing.

@LambdaStrength @Alan_Couzens The *real* bottleneck, which keeps training volume low, is doomscrolling social media...

@Alan_Couzens For busy execs the sprinkles are usually sleep and Sunday meal prep. Training volume rarely turns out to be the bottleneck.

This is largely true but the proportion is more like Coldstone mixin's. Sure the white chocolate raspberry ice cream is the star of the show, but you don't get to 100% without the Nestle Crunch Bar bits mixed in.

@Efried97 @Hybridathlete I remember when I started doing the whole 'REALLY slow' thing, and I was shocked by just how quickly I was cooked - like 30 minutes or something. But that time started increasing very quickly, and then I was able to up the pace for the same lower heart rate.

@Efried97 @Hybridathlete I find my sense of accomplishment in being able to run for a long time, but I guess people have different goals. But I also have a point where the effort to go slower starts increasing (I guess you start directing the power up rather than forwards).

22:00 5k runners: "But I can't run that slow, it feels unnatural!"

@MattMelcherPA @Alan_Couzens Personally I don't like Z0/Z1 - instead I prefer 'well below AeT' and 'extremely well below AeT'.

@MattMelcherPA @Alan_Couzens For me, Z1 effort is sufficiently below AeT that I'm not occasionally spiking above AeT if the wind picks up a little or the ground starts climbling slightly, and accounts for daily variation in AeT. So, maybe 7-10bpm below AeT.

Great question from Neil... Is my zone 1 pace too fast for my easy miles? As athletes get fitter, it can be! World Class triathletes have an LT1 approaching 3:30/k (~5:30/mi)! Running all of their "easy" training close to this would be metabolically prohibitive, i.e just too energy costly! So, a general order of priorities... 1. Hit the mileage/work target. 2. With as much z1 as possible. 3. But don't be afraid of a large chunk coming from zone 0 (<15bpm below LT1). Especially for a fit athlete... Time/miles in zone 0 are still very beneficial!

@EatTheCrayon_ @Hybridathlete Slow down. The long run should be at a slower pace than the easy run. The goal is to add a bit more time to the long run each week, not more pace.

@Hybridathlete If I'm working my way up to a half marathon (farthest so far was 9 miles) and I'm exhausted like this every time I do my long run, what should I change?

If, after an easy run: -You are tired the rest of the day -You are very hungry -You crave sweets Your easy run was not easy.

@Efried97 @Hybridathlete What is it that makes it 'boring' though? Instead of ticking off the mileage, why not change the metric and tick off the time?

@Hybridathlete Honestly slow running and doing walk runs is hard. Takes longer to tick off more mileage etc. it’s important to do but can be boring and it’s a lot easier to just run everything at a tempo pace

Suella Braverman’s parents emigrated (those horrible economic migrants not from a war zone she hates). She went to Cambridge for free and didn’t collect £27k debt like everyone else. Scrounger. She used the Erasmus scheme to study in France. Which she has blocked. Horrible.

@Brady_H Last year just before I ran a marathon, my watch said VO2Max = 51. (Was measured at 48 on a treadmill a few weeks earlier). This year, my watch says 49, but yet I can run further, faster and with a lower HR. Garmin penalises genuine zone 1 efforts.

And this is why the VO2 max estimation from your watch is bullshit. If the estimation changes based on a single run because it is more humid out, it’s useless. That is not how VO2 max works.

@Alan_Couzens ✅ 6km walk ✅ 10km Z1 jog (including some strides thrown in for good measure). Burning through a thousand calories in a couple of hours.

1,000 kcal of low-intensity exercise every day keeps the Doctor away. 2,000 kcal of low-intensity exercise every day keeps the competition at bay.

@Alan_Couzens Pilots like to hand fly the plane when they can, because the instruments don't need the practice...

I'm traveling internationally later this week. If my pilot gets on the intercom and says... "I'm done with gadgets, I'm gonna fly by feel today" I'll be getting off that plane.

@Alan_Couzens Are we talking like once or twice a week to do this? Asking for someone who would like to do an anabolic reset with Easter eggs this weekend.

When you train a lot, energy availability becomes the limiter. Not just chronically (RED-S)… but acutely. Day to day. Periods where you’re under-fueled = periods where your body is tearing down rather than building up. Over a season, these add up. That’s why you need regular “anabolic resets” - deliberate periods of lifting coupled with a sustained energy surplus.

@DrNeilStone Yes. Why wouldn't I be?

Anyone here completely happy with their decision to take an mRNA Covid vaccine? ✋

@rec777777 I have an ICE courtesy car whilst my EV is in for repair. The ICE is an absolute piece of shit and is costing an absolute fortune in fuel to run. Weird why you fossil fuel lobbyists want to be poor.

We did warn them Nobody wants EVs I had one last week. It was sh!t

@modernheroestv Brake lights don't even come on just because the foot is lifted off the accelerator, they come on when deceleration exceeds a certain threshold. And so you only lift the foot off completely when you want to decelerate.

Adaptive cruise is the biggest cause of this, but don’t let facts get in the way eh

@SimonMcCoyTV Do people who drive those outdated ICE cars not use brakes to slow down?

Have noticed a lot more random braking on motorways lately. It’s dangerous and causes others to brake. Is it because drivers of electric vehicles using regenerative braking don’t realise their brakes lights come on when they take their foot off the accelerator? Just a thought….

Oh no, but all the right wing free speech people moved there because the UK is a ‘police state’ or something. 😭