Diddlee's Journal, 18 August 2019

Pretty view. I'm confused about 'bringing glucose'. Explain? 

have you tried taking any sausages with you...protein...just a thought 

Glucose helps to avoid hitting a wall when going long distances. Marathon bikers use little drug(I mean sugar, doh!) gel packs to keep them going. "glucose is the only energy source that fuels the brain and sustains motivation to keep going. "Hitting the wall," the common term used among athletes who realize that they can go no further, is a result of the brain having no more glucose to draw upon."  

https://www.acsh.org/news/2017/05/08/altering-runners-glucose-levels-avoid-hitting-wall-11243 

Looks very nice!!! 

If your looking at gels...here is a review on them....http://foldingbikesonline.com/best-energy-gels-for-cycling/ ....best energy gels. I use the sis...if and when i need something... 

You should have been able to power through it on the beer, might try two next time? 

Diddlee, skip the glucose, bring electrolytes! Have a decent breakfast before your ride. 

Ketones also fuel the brain. 

ya bring electrolytes! a balance of sodium potassium etc. if you are drinking only water in that heat it will mess ya up. today I forgot my electrolytes and I was woozy. you probably already know but unit need to take before your depleted, a little at a time and you should be able to go on ketones 

Diddlee, how far did you go in 3 hours? Great pic! 

I've read that long distance endurance athletes are switching to fat burning/ketones to avoid 'hitting the wall'.  

Where? Seems that the keto dieters keep bringing it up but I have never read that anywhere. Pretty sure a keto dieter like Diddlee who is also an endurance biker would know. 

"Ketosis doesn’t IMPROVE endurance performance If you do everything right, you may be able to achieve similar performance levels during steady state endurance exercise following a high-carb (50-65%CHO) diet or a high-fat, low-carb (HFLC) diet (70-80% Fat, <5% CHO). This means you may be able to sustain a submaximal pace equally well using either strategy. The HFLC strategy has been shown to increase the utilization of fat for energy, especially in long-term (20 months) fat-adapted athletes (Volek, 2015). However, the oxygen cost of locomotion increases while exercising on a HFLC strategy (Burke, 2016). It takes approximately 20% more oxygen to liberate energy from fat compared to carbohydrate, which means relying primarily on fat reduces economy. This isn’t necessarily a problem, since you have a large supply of energy to burn, but these findings don’t indicate an IMPROVEMENT in endurance performance. Athletes don’t go faster on HFLC, which is why we see elite athletes utilize HFLC at specific times of the year and then complete high-intensity training and competitions with high carbohydrate availability." 

There are other drawbacks on this page to running on ketones for athletes. There is a reason bodybuilders use cyclical keto if they do keto at all, and elite endurance athletes will only do it for part of the year, relying on carbs when they need to perform. https://trainright.com/should-endurance-athletes-go-keto-ketosis-ketogenic-diets-for-endurance-athletes/ 

"Ketosis is physiologically limiting Without stored and exogenous carbohydrate during competition, you have very little fuel available for anaerobic glycolysis, the metabolic shortcut that rapidly produces energy by partially burning carbohydrate to meet elevated energy demands during short, high-intensity efforts. Ketones can be converted to acetyl-coA and metabolized aerobically in mitochondria, but you miss out on the turbocharged boost from anaerobic glycolysis. You also miss out on the lactate produced from anaerobic glycolysis, but lactate isn’t the enemy it was once thought to be. It is partially-burned carbohydrate that gets broken down to usable energy." 

Read "The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance", instead of Internet blurbs. After about six months, the keto - adapted liver is able to replenish muscle glycogen similar to non-keto levels. The only cells that cannot run on ketones are those that lack mitochondria; and the liver is able to produce sufficient glucose to supply those cells. 

What are books besides blurbs in written form? I'll wait for some actual studies on atheletes and when Olympic athletes start winning while running on ketones. Until then it's just wishful thinking and ketoers trying to validate their diets. 

I have shown this recovery of muscle glygogen myself: My typical afternoon blood glucose readings are 75 to 90. If I test immediately after exercise, I will read 120 - with no food intake to create that spike. The higher reading is due to my body drawing on my muscle glycogen stores, moving glucose into my bloodstream.  

Thank you for that anecdote. You should share it with marathon biking/running coaches.