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How do your fuel and taper for your race?

By: Debbie Potts
Date: March 28, 2022

How do your fuel and taper for your race?

Training & Fueling for the Low Carb Athlete

This past Sunday I ran another half marathon …not “raced” it but ran it or “finished it”! There is a difference when you are an ex-competitive, ambitious, driven athlete!

Back “pre-adrenal exhaustion” in 2013, I used to strive to run a 1:35 half marathon or sub 1:40 time but now I am finally settling with the goal of running sub 2:00 hours. I do NOT blame the aging process for my struggles I experience running but rather the damage I created at a cellular level with my “adrenal exhaustion” and “METABOLIC CHAOS”. Especially since my husband achieved his race goals today -setting PR on the hilly course of San Diego half marathon and experiencing one of his best races today even though he is turning 53 in two days!

Fueling & Training is an N = 1 Experiment

We did this race last year on a hot day, so we knew the course and change the way we trained for this race …more hill repeats and long runs with a mile long hill in the second half (thank you Torrey Pines for being such a great training course on both sides of you!).

Life is not a race... it is a journey book cover — Life is not a race… it is a journey book cover

My race today was not as strong as I thought it would be for me – even with my long run Sundays on a similar course profile, speed work intervals on Tuesdays and hills on Thursdays. My body was out of alignment the past week with my left side of my sacrum and below all out of whack. During the first mile, I thought I should pull out and not continue as I didn’t want to be injured for six plus weeks from ignoring my body’s red flag telling me I was out of sync and left hamstring was going to be inflamed as well as my low back if I continues. The conversations in my head decided what to do lasted about three to four miles then I had to stop (never happens) to go potty (#1 pee!) and then I felt a little bit better with the quick break. I decided I better continue and ignore the pace groups and other runners going past me as I needed to focus on finishing instead of punishing myself for my sluggish pace. In the back of my head, I had my old mindset that I would see these runners after mile 8 up the long hill to Hillcrest and my old Ironman mantra song “I am strong, I am powerful….”!

Since January 2022 this year, my husband and I have been picking our “word of the day” – a word you see, hear or feel that morning. Today on the morning news they said my word of the day… “PERSERVEANCE”!

Are you paying attention to your RED FLAGS?

The definition of perseverance is “persistence in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success”.

Synonyms: persistence, tenacity, determination, resolve, resolution, resoluteness, staying power, purposefulness, firmness of purpose, patience and more. endurance, steadfastness, tirelessness, and stamina.

How appropriate was my “word of the day” on a race morning when I was struggling to get my body to work physically in the first five miles? Do I listen to my body or my heart…when do you decide to turn around, stop and quit- or continue to the finish line no matter what price you pay (or your body?)?

In yoga, I often hear the instructor say…

“Let go of what is no longer serving you in a positive manner”

Learn to listen to red flags- is the chatter in your head or coming from your body? When do you listen to your red flags…when it is physical harm you could be creating and result in six weeks of not being able to run at all!

Long story short…I felt a little better after mile five and continued to run all the way to the finish line, ignoring my splits or who was passing me, without stopping (even up the long one-mile hill climb).

The other details I am sure you want to know about is the how did I eat and train the week before the race and the day of the race?

Here is our basic half marathon taper plan for a Sunday race:

Monday- active recovery day weekly; morning power yoga, walk, noon masters swim workout (me), evening upper body and mobility at the gym

Tuesday – morning 5-mile run (3 miles tempo), ocean walk, noon masters swim workout, evening mobility yard work!

Wednesday- “rest day” = gentle morning yoga, moving/walking throughout the day, and upper body strength workout at gym with mobility drills and core

Thursday- tempo run 5 miles (3 miles race pace or 3 x 1 mile race pace), noon masters swim workout, evening yoga stretching

Friday- “rest day” = gentle morning yoga, morning walk, swim workout (me), stretching before bed.

Saturday- morning fasted 20–30-minute run with 5 x 1 minute pick ups in middle; walking (race packet pick up) and mobility drills plus “Norm” Normatech boots at home. Early to bed.

Sunday- race day warm up mobility drills, 30-second pick ups and mobility drills. Start slower and build up pace- negative split. Ocean recovery beach walk and yard work in afternoon (mobility!). Normatech “Norm” and Bio Mat “Mat” in the evening. Early to bed (extra Kion Omega and BiOptimizers Magnesium).

My hill 20-second Fletcher Cove Hill repeats are here on Tuesdays!

Nutrition for the Low Carb Athlete:

Fueling the day before the race: not the time to do extended fasting as it was easy to not eat until a late afternoon lunch since we were busy after our morning pre-race run, coffee and beach walk. We forced ourselves to go eat something at Whole Foods hot bar around 11AM – or else we wouldn’t be eating until 1pm that afternoon (not ideal when racing the next day) and we were planning on eating early dinner at 5pm that night. At Whole Foods, I got some eggs, turkey, beets, olives, fermented onions and bacon -topped with olive oil and sea salt for my brunch.

My husband Neal made us dinner around 5pm – turkey meat mix with red sauce and chopped vegetables with broccoli (broiled in bacon fat), diced sweet potatoes roasted with garlic and ghee plus of course sea salt and “everything bagel” seasoning!

Intuitive Fueling. Intuitive Training. Intuitive Racing.

What works best for you is going to be different for me. Learn how to listen to your body, when to adapt and when to adjust and course correct.

MY Fueling race day:

The morning of the race, I took my Kion Aminos caps, Hammer Nutrition Race Caps and Endurolytes plus ENERGYbits and HVMN Ketone IQ.

Then I sip on throughout the morning and car ride to the race- water with Kion Aminos, Glycine and Re Lyte plain (unsweetened) electrolytes in water/ice plus my coffee (French Press- Bird Rock Coffee) with a tablespoon of organic heavy cream or PICNIC Keto Creamer plus cinnamon and sea salt. I don’t like to eat anything before a half marathon or less as we don’t eat on our training runs so we are fat adapted for many years. I get my calories in my coffee- just enough to get started.

During the race, I usually don’t need anything for a half marathon, but I grabbed a gel to have “just in case” I was able to speed up to the next gear and “race” anaerobic pack the last five miles. Sometimes sugar and caffeine can be rocket fuel at the end of the race plus this gel had chia seeds that didn’t sound too bad (https://humagel.com/products/huma-gel-caffeine). Around mile 10, I had about half of the chocolate HUMA chia seed gel to test out if I needed extra fuel to pick up my speed the last mile as anaerobic heart rate racing is going to deplete my muscle glycogen and not be burning primarily fat anymore! I was going so easy in the first part of the race that I was most likely burning fat but usually I would have been a little more near my anaerobic threshold (less fat burning) and building my pace up earlier that I did in this race due to my low back/hamstring pain.

**When should you do fasted exercise and not?**

Post race, I had some water and kept walking.

I can’t eat or want to eat for a few hours, but mineral water works for me. We went out to brunch with friends, and I took home my breakfast- eggs, bacon, turkey sausage and potatoes to eat when I was ready (as your body needs to be in parasympathetic nervous system- rest and digest to eat!). I finally got hungry the later afternoon after our beach walk and then worked in the yard.

I made my Recovery Superfoods Protein shake with gut repair ingredients that I absolutely love and crave right now…prioritize protein and take care of your gut!

Kion Vanilla Whey Protein
Kion Colostrum
Kion Aminos
Leaky Gut Repair mix (Fullscript account) or Glutamine
Re Lyte, LMNT or Sea Salt
Sunflower nut butter (1 tablespoon)
OM or Four Sigmatic 10 mushroom mix blend or their protein power includes the 10-mushroom blend with adaptogens
Mix in blender with filtered water and ice

Before bed, I used the Bio mat and Normatech plus took my RECOVERYbits, BiOptimizers Magnesium (2 caps, 2x day), Kion Omegas (3 tabs) and Kion Flex to help with recovery plus a little Dragon Balm CBD on my hamstring (tight!!).

Monday morning, the day after the race, I used my red light therapy mask from HIGHER DOSE and then did power yoga (slower pace video on Inner Dimensions), morning sunrise walk and then napped in the afternoon (bad sleep last night with hamstring pain) and missed my scheduled recovery swim workout (remember to listen to the red flags and your own body’s innate intelligence).

Rest up but keep moving.

Monday night we went to the gym to do upper body focused strength workout with core and mobility drills. Early night to bed as I am tired as I write this blog!