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Paleo Plan and Marathon Training
Hello!
I am training for a marathon and am wondering if the paleo diet will give me enough fuel for my training sessions? I tried a running session over the weekend and didn't feel as much "oomph" like I have in the past- maybe it's because I'm running further? What would you suggest I add into the paleo diet to give me more energy during training sessions? I really don't want to go back to grains for fuel- I feel 100% better without them! :) Any help will be appreciated!
Sincerely,
Crystal M.
1 Agent Answer
Hi Crystal,
This warrants more than just an email, but in short, you'll need to add more fat and more carbs. Your body will get used to burning fat as fuel faster than it did before it always had a constant supply of glycogen/glucose to burn. You'll need a few weeks to adjust to being a better fat burner. I hope you don't have any races coming up super soon.
Some endurance athletes get so good at burning fat that they can bring coconut oil and almond butter on their long runs and races rather than gu or other glucose supplements. If you want to go that route, I'd look into CrossFit Endurance online. They have trainers that tell you exactly how to do that, and it's not my specialty. However, if you're NOT into being that extreme, you will just need to start adding more Paleo carbs into your diet. If you're training most days of the week, or even 3 hard days, you'll want to add carbs every day. Sweet potatoes, squash, fruit, tapioca flour or root, and LOTS of veggies. Those are the go-to foods. I explain this further (grams of carbs necessary, etc.) in our ebook, which you can purchase here if you want to:
http://www.paleoplan.com/resources/quickstart-guide-and-paleo-challenge/
Otherwise, here's a blog post I wrote on this topic that goes into some basics:
http://www.paleoplan.com/2011/06-07/paleo-for-the-active-person/
Let me know if you have any other questions.
Good luck,
Neely
1 Community Answer
Tony / Matt This stuff rlaely is a game changer for me. One of my buddies did a similar thing and dropped 17lbs and is still going. For a person coming from a standard American diet, there is great potential in not only weight loss, but also in overall health. For me, I became convinced by reading The Paleo Solution by Robb Wolf. Excellent book that outlines science nerd stuff and also keeps it practical and light. If you're rlaely itching to dive in, I'd take a look at that book. Of course Sisson's book on Primal is an excellent source of info as well. The only thing I struggle with is eating enough carbs..Lots of veggies and a bit more fruit than Wolf would recommend, but I'm noticeably tired if I don't eat enough carbs. Shakeology has helped this as well since switching to a more Primal approach.
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