![]() ![]() Glycogen supercompensationĮxercising at low glycogen stores sends the signal to the body to adapt to use whatever is left as efficiently as possible. It will not make athletes faster, but will ensure their energy levels are topped up and they can race to their full potential.īesides carb loading, it’s also possible to influence the level of glycogen stores and increase time to exhaustion through a glycogen supercompensation effect. For endurance races lasting longer than 1.5 – 2 hours (like triathlon) carb loading helps to increase time to exhaustion.Ĭarb loading before a race means consuming an increased amount of carbs to replenish glycogen reserves. Ideally, athletes would want to pace the race so that depletion comes around the finish line. Hitting the wall essentially means that an athlete burned through glycogen reserves too quickly. Fatigue will start to develop until the body gets too exhausted to continue – that’s when they say athletes hit the wall. That’s compared to 50,000+ calories of fat storage that even the skinniest of athletes has.Īs the athlete approaches the limit of his glycogen reserves, it will get increasingly harder to keep up. Normally, they total to ~2,000 calories worth of energy, which is enough for ~2 hours of intense exercise. The problem is that our stores of carbohydrates – called glycogen – are quite low. That’s where endurance racing gets strategic. However, on harder sections (hills, surges) and towards the end of the race it will need energy quicker and will prioritize carbs. At the beginning of the race – when the intensity is relatively low – body will mainly use fats. What’s the purpose of carb loading before a raceĮndurance races are powered by a mix of carbs and fat. Why should athletes carb load? What to eat and when to eat it? Scroll down to learn about it. An effective carb loading diet actually takes a full week and implies restricting carbs before fuelling for the race. There is a lot of details and science to the process and it’s not that straightforward. In reality, it’s a bit more complicated than that. ![]()
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