Discussion: Legal doping

Following on from that article I'll give you my ideas on taking your training/ recovery/ results to another dimension!

Basically these ideas stem from when I was involved with those top Kenyan athletes. My experience of them when they stayed with me was they trained a shit load but they barely ate anything, including pre+post race! On race day they'd get up early churn out 40-45mins at a decent pace, come back drink a cup of tea and eat a couple of spoons of ugali, rest,then warm up for the race would be a nice 30min steady just before the gun, race a half-mara at 60-61mins, jog warm down 20mins +, eat a chocolate bar/can of coke, then one small slice of piece pizza in the evening. no problem.
My theory is that their fat burning capabilities are far superior to us, and thús why they have no need to bulk up with carbs. This superior fat burning ability is probably in my belief something they've devloped from growing up in a situation where theres never been much food on the table - the body has to adapt right?
So whats going on in the body when perhaps your body is being deprived of food, well thats the interesting bit it's basically legal doping because when your body is not being fed with food your blood sugar level stays at a low and stabile level which is optimal for the production of human growth hormone (hGH). hgh has a massive impact on recovery, muscle growth/repair and of course the metabolism. Without getting too technical hGH forces the body into using fat stores as an energy source before glucose, thus in my mind totally brilliant for an endurance athlete to have their body pumped up with hGH - legally! hGH is released during sleep + after very instense strength training or sprints as well as in a state of not eating (fasting). If you're interested in trying it out I've got an idea of using all 3 ways to totally pump your body with hGH over a single 24 period, that if you did it regularly with a slight change in diet could really improve your use of body fat in training / racing + recovery and make you take the next step up! sounds mad but you never know eh!

Hey Dids thanks for this. Sounds interesting and we tried to get our heads around this on the run today. Will have to some reading on this myself but always interested to try to understand new training ideas and concepts.

One thing though - the fact that they were eating only a small amount of food might have been based on what they were eating (ie western high calorie food) which they might not have been used to.

Heard about a link between hGH and max strength work but not fasting before. Sounds like a high risk / reward strategy.

Its not something I would advise trying before this years marathon, as associated with this you will need to change your diet. The body is amazing, there is so much we don't know, and what works for me might not work for you. I've made significant changes to the type of foods I eat since the end of January, lost 4kgs + not lost any muscle mass. Problem is when you go researching these ideas there is so much negativity out there with doctors/nutritionists etc piping out the same old stuff the've always done, but who's right? For what its worth Swedens best endurance athlete uses the fasting technique, and like you was very sceptical before he tried it.

Perhaps true to some extent about western foods and the africans. Though they did often make a point of telling me they didn't need to eat much, even telling me a story about a famous Kenyan that would only eat a lemon and drink a cup of tea on the day of a marathon! They also taught me how to drink water properly on the day of a race, the idea is to drink the water swash it round in your mouth then spit it out again and not swallow it. It was 30c and the sun was blazing! haha

I'll give you a call at some point to talk this through. There was an interesting (but short sighted) debate on fasting here

Based on the ideas of Frank Horwill. I can't find his article to hand but maybe googleable.

Talking about training sessions - remember you talked about combining a couple of hard sessions back to back to lead to super compensation (I think influenced by some Japanese runners) - well it still appears to be in vogue. .

Haha that Frank Horwill he's a funny guy! His ideas on fasting are pretty much the oppposite of mine because he's concentrating on the weight factor (gets a bashing from the anorexics doesn't he!) , the fasting I'm talking about (24-32hrs) is for performance - e.g better recoveries, better immune system, + a more efficient use of fat as an energy source. If I did the fasting in basic terms I'd eat an evening meal (loads of fat/protein), really good sleep, skip breakfast, easy run, skip lunch, early evening beast a short brutal strength exercise especially using your major muscles (gluts etc), small snack of carbs, then eat Dinner (protein/fat based)+ drink water/tea/coffee throughout the fast
I've not tried the fasting myself yet, but I will when my body is in good enough shape that I can see the difference - remember I was nearly always struggling at the end of those really long races so it would probably be pretty easy to see if there is an impact/benefit on my body. I have changed my diet lately though, dramatically decreased my intake of carbs in general - esp. pasta, bread, carbs, and sugars, BUT increased intake of vegetables + fruit. In addition added a significant amount of more fat to my diet through eggs, quality red meat, elk/reindeer, fish, nuts, quality non-sugar diary products. Since I did that I've lost 4kg of fat (long way to go yet to race weight!), not been ill/sick, + feel like I've got loads more energy during + after work - which with my type of work and the 2 kids at home is golden. A Swedish guy switched to this diet a year before last years Olympics, he kept it pretty secret as knocking out almost all carbs out of his diet was pretty much against a x-country skiers basic "rules" - the guy won an individual gold medal! With carbs (especially sugars + refined products) the idea for someone in your position would be train on a diet low in them, but race with a high level of them for maximum benefit of both energy sources - Train Low - Race High.
BUT you're doing amazing as you are, remember you and only the winner of London last year had a negative split! so don't try anything now, but maybe something to test summer/autumn see how the body reacts.....

Interesting stuff this Dids.

need to consider cause and effect though.
hGH has multiple activities and effects in the body,
most are anabolic (build tissue)
a couple are metabolic ( energy systems related)
these metabolic activities are:
Lypolysis - breakdown of fats, which can then be used as an energy source
Gloconeogenesis - creation of glocose, which can then be used as an energy source.

So, building tissue and making energy available through fats and sugars.
Why might a tissue building hormone act to make fat and sugar available for energy ?
One reason may be to protect the very tissue it is trying to build. Because tissue protein can be used as an energy source.
In a starved body protein can be broken down an burnt for energy, so it makes sense for a protein building hormone to make alternative energy sources available so that proteins are not broken down.

So what?
Well you need to be careful trying to stimulate hGH through fasting because the very fact that hGH production has been stimulated probably means that your body proteins are being broken down for energy (because you are starving).

But then all training is about challenging the body, doing a little damage to stimulate overcompensatory growth.
As with all training its a delivcate balance, be careful with it as a technique.

Also don't be fooled by them Kenyans barely eating anything.
They cannot do that long term. They are athletes, they have to need maybe 3000 calories a day, ON AVERAGE.
They are athletes to make a living. When they are in your house in Sweden, or some other western country they are not going to spend a week's worth of money (in Kenyan terms) on one meal if they can get away with it for a while. They are being tight (understandably so) and when they get home they'll stuff their faces with rice for a week.

They probably do have superior fat burning capabilities, but to be the fastest, then they will burn carbs, you know that. Carbs are the most efficient use of oxygen for energy release.


Note: production of hGH after intense sprints or weight training will assist in gloconeogenesis - converting the lactate generated by the intense effort back into glucose.

Note: not sure hGH forces use of fat ahead of glucose. The only way it could do that would be by actively blocking glycolysis (burning of glucose) That would be pretty debilitating. I.ve not seen anything that says hGH does that. The only mechanisms that do block glycolysis are considered "poisinous" - Bad for you.
By making fats available it can help spare the use of glucose and protein (as mentioned), but that is passive not active or forced.

Good points Kitch

At what point do you think that the body starts breaking down proteins for energy after being deprived of food? less than 24hrs?

.
Its going to depend on volume and intensity of activity.
Its not a primary energy source.
The main trigger is probably going to be when you run out of glucose to burn, with protein kicking in along side fat burning.
The protein is actually broken down to provide glucose.
Heart and brain tissue burn exclusively glucose so they have to get it from somewhere. When carb supplies are gone the body turns to protein to provide them with glucose.

I've just done a quick scan and found a couple of refs saying endurance athletes exercising for over 2 hours will derive 10 - 15 % of energy from protein. 2 hours will be about where you run out of sugars (if you don't eat on the run).