Suger Training

The Unseen Effects of High Carb Training:

I'm starting to feel like I trained my stomach to expect 200g + of sugar a day and the gut biome found balance with that. I trained my gut for racing and now it wants that food all of the time. I spend much more of my life not racing than I do racing.

This resonates. You spend months teaching your gut to expect constant sugar, and then the race is over. Back to normal life, but your stomach hasn't got the memo.

The massive consumption of energy gels is a fairly modern thing. Capitalism probably. I see people pounding them on 10k runs. No shaming intended, but it's not good for your stomach or the environment.

When I was training for Manchester, I loaded up with gels for long runs. Felt ridiculous, pockets stuffed with sticky packets, plodding along at recovery pace. But you do it because that's what you're supposed to do.

The problem is you've trained your gut for racing, and racing is maybe a handful of days a year. The rest of the time you're living with a stomach that wants 200g of sugar daily. That's the bit nobody talks about.

People ran marathons before gels existed. They managed fine. Now we've created this system where your gut needs constant feeding just to get through a long run, and you carry that dependency into normal life.

For me, running slower meant I needed less fuel overall. My body adapted, got more efficient, stopped demanding constant sugar.

I'm not against fuelling properly. But training your gut to expect that much sugar for the sake of a few races a year seems like a trade-off worth questioning.