I just signed up to run a half marathon in July and I'm wondering if I need to adjust my low carb diet? Will I have to eat more carbs all week or just before a long run and the actual race? Thanks for the advice

My guess is you don't need to change your daily intake. For a run longer than 2 hours you might need to add carbs the night before and have something available during the run. Or stay in ketosis and load up on carbs a few days before the race. You should try a long run in ketosis and one with carbs on board to see whether the carbs make a difference. For me carbs help a lot when racing. Others will claim no effect. It's up to you to decide.

Google the forum and you'll find a post from a guy who ran a marathon who didn't bother with eating carbs before his run and did just fine!

I just remember seeing it somewhere - hope you find it!

I think you'd be better off just having some high-fat food the night before. That will surely keep you going longer than carbs.

amanda

Hi, i just joined the forum again (I used to post regularly) due to this very question. I took time off from being obsessive about my 15 carb maximum to start running and swimming. i started in December running just one mile and made a 5K pretty quickly. I accidentally found out that high carbs really improves my running before a race when I did a five miler the day after my daughter's cake party (um, I mean birthday party. I am thinking my body just needs more time to adjust to low carb but even the little carbs that I am eating (well below average, maybe in the 30 - 50 g/day range) triggers cravings and hunger. I've gained some weight back. Don't tell me it's muscle because some of my clothes don't fit and my measurements are the same as last July before I hit the gym at the same exact weight. So, essentially running has done nothing for my physique nor allowed me to increase the percentage of carbs in my diet and maintain. I have merely become more fit. My training intensity has not been that high, but I did complete a ten-miler last Sunday and felt I could make a half marathon if i wanted. I wouldl like to be able to do these things at the same time as losing weight. Any suggestions? Herbal supplements to control cravings? Going slower with mileage increases?

Janine

I would think about HIIT. For a runner that might be 60 seconds running at 95% of max heart rate over and over til you puke. :-) McDonald recently posted that although he doesn't like interval training, he admits there is significant fat loss as a result. Plus it will make your racing pace feel much easier.
What McDonald says is most people aren't willing to give themselves that much pain. They'd rather train at 70%, the so-called fat burning zone.

I will give it a try. I'm ready for pain, haha. I did almost zip training for my ten miler and it showed in my speed, but it did convince me that merely running longer distances is really pleasant for me and I won't have to push myself very hard to increase my mileage. I kind of felt like a cheat actually, but I did find out that running really slow for 2 hours is just not that difficult. My goal is to build up to 25 miles a week and then add speed work. I can make some of that HIIT.

Janine

I love HIIT. You get a great workout in a short time. After doing HIIT, running at a slwo-moderate speed seems effortless.

Can it be combined with longer runs? I am thinking of the Rocky steps which would be a part of my new planned route (I'm in Philly), but they come at mile four in a roughly five mile run. Any sense to taking a few turns up them or would that just defeat the pupose since a lot of my energy will already have been used? On the other hand, it's just too cool...

If you're doing the four miles at a slow jog, you'll get to the rocky steps all warmed up for hill repeats. I think the biggest problem with HIIT is not warming up enough first. When they're done you get the experience of running back home when you're dog-tired, the way it should be in the final miles of any long race.
:-) The steps should be a good HIIT workout. After 20+ years as a long distance runner, I have no fast twitch fibers anywhere in my body. For that reason at the track I can't run fast enough to get into the HIIT mode. But on hills I do great.

That's perfect, then. I am still recovering from my 10 mile run last Sunday and crosstraining and running in the pool (I had some ankle stiffness and didn't want to risk an injury). I'll try doing this run tomorrow to work and see how it goes. I won't be running home but rather another 1/2 mile to work so it might not be as great a workout, but I might be dog tired anyway. I am systematically working through the book Run Fast as well and trying to eat very clean carb. I've dropped a couple pounds this week - we'll see if I can keep it up.

http://www.runnersworld.com/0,7904,,00.html

You can get training advice from here. But don't mention the low carb business. They really hate that. :-)

Yes, that's why I asked here instead

I think that sounds like a great workout.

Thanks for the advice. I've been doing some running both with and without carbs. Though I love eating carbs, I really do feel worse when I do. They give me a little more energy, but at the same time I feel sluggish and bloated. I think I need to focus on running very low for long distances. Hopefully that will help train my body to rely more on fat for fuel and less on glycogen.

Are your carbs coming from grains and high carb veggies or plain old sugar? I find I do better with the plain old sugar. The other things make me bloated and yucky feeling and craving more carbs.