Fueling with Fat: Follow-up

So after all the number crunching and theorizing, I’d have to say that my fueling plan at the Mad City 100k actually worked just as I had hoped -

Before the race I pre-mixed single scoops of Orange-Vanilla Perpetuem into small plastic bottles and added about a ¼ cup of water.    Each of these “servings” provided 137 calories each.   I started drinking one between each 10k loop after completing the first two loops.  Water was my only hydration and the only additional calories came from a Dixie-cup of coke at 75k.   I also took one s-cap at the 50k mark.

This amounted to: 137 calories x 8 servings = 1,096 calories, plus another 150 calories for the coke, for a total of 1,246 calories over a 62 mile race.

No bonking – just a typical slow down as the miles on asphalt added up.  I don’t think it gave me any specific advantage besides not having the disadvantage of having any stomach troubles at all. 

Below is the race plan I had for the race and the actual splits:

Race Plan

Race Splits

I will likely use the same strategy at the Ice Age 50 mile since the distance, time and intensity will be similar.

The real interesting experiment will be the Kettle 100.  Here I feel like I can really back off the calories because the pace is so much slower.  Based on the fat oxidation rates I showed during the FASTER study, I am burning little to no carbs at 65% of max VO2.    I will eat if I feel hungry, but I won’t preemptively eat as I normally do.  This has caused stomach problems for me in the past, especially with how hot the temperatures are in the first half of the race. 

Again – we will see what happens when theories and reality collide… So far so good!