carb loading

I've never tried the carb loading routine before a marathon. Decided a week or so ago, that I'd experiment before a marathon to see if I could gain any benefit. I'm not going the new school direction of only loading, but the old school method of depletion and then loading. One of the blogs I follow, Fast Master used a 10 day depletion cycle and then a 3 day loading phase. His approach is to extreme for me. I'm going with 3 days of depletion and 2 days of loading. Today is day one of the depletion, all proteins and minimal carbs. Basically an extreme Atkins diet.

I'm not expecting to lose much weight, perhaps a pound or two. I'm still at 155 pounds, which would be the lightest I've ever run a marathon. Usually weigh in at around 160 on marathon day. Whatever weight is lost, should be replaced in the carb loading phase. Ideally, I'll hit the starting line at 155, with my glycogen stores packed to the hilt. That's the primary goal of the depletion and then the loading. The body is tricked into loading more glycogen than normal. That's the theory, I'll see how true it is for me.

Only real negatives I can see from this experiment is the moodiness, loss of energy and general fatigue from the depletion phase. I've seen that effect before, but hopefully I won't experience but 2 days of that. Don't expect any of that today, probably just the urge for some carbs. The bigger concern is porking up to much in the carb loading phase. I'll just need to make sure and eat sensibly with moderate portions and not splurge or gorge myself.

Still need to get my marathon excuse list ready. I'm still adjusting this last week of training on the fly. This mornings workout was 6 miles, with a one mile warm up and cool down. The middle four miles were supposed to be at marathon pace of 7:15, but came in alittle hotter, not much though, averaged 7:10 pace. Monday was a complete rest day from running, but did do a weight workout to keep the metabolism brewing. Saturday did a super easy 8 miles at 9:00 pace, followed by 10 miles on Sunday at 7:45 pace. Workouts are feeling easy, which they should.