The past 2 years, BSF’s college/pg summer program, which runs in conjunction with the BSF Pro Team from June until August, has ended with a 100 km rollerski. This year was no different, with our volume week culminating in a ski from Threeforks, MT back to Bozeman, totaling 100 km. It’s not often that the duration of our workouts exceed 4 hours, and so I find these types of distance sessions very satisfying. It gives me an opportunity to put a stress and test on my body it doesn’t usually receive, and ultimately develop a better understanding of how my body reacts to such conditions, and hopefully a better understanding and perhaps discovery of how I can maximize its performance over such efforts and even other efforts of shorter duration/higher intensity. In addition, I made it a goal this year to work on my fueling. Just as we train muscles to contract and produce certain forces, motor neurons to coordinate these contractions in order to optimize the forces into our poles and skis and into propelling us forward, we train metabolic systems through specific sessions. L3/sub threshold sessions are meant to target our aerobic system, and the ability of our cells to convert sugars to ATP and energy for these motor units, in the presence of oxygen, and similarly L4/above threshold sessions to do the same but without oxygen. As we perform efforts that specifically elicit the operation of these systems, we enhance these metabolic processes, converting sugars faster and more efficiently into atp and heightening our cells ability to harness this atp into muscle contraction and power.
However, these processes, and subsequently any adaptations we make to them, are fed, quite literally, by an optimal amount and blend of macronutrients, specifically in our case as our efforts are generally under two hours, carbohydrates. And you guessed it, the digestion and cellular activities that catabolize these carbohydrates in our food into forms that are functional in cellular respiration can be trained and made more efficient as well. With exercise of cellular respiration, with any aerobic and anaerobic training, the body not only is able to increase the amount of glycogen it can store, but also the speed and efficiency at which enzymes convert this glycogen into usable glucose.
Since the Spring, I have made an effort to train these systems, fueling with carbohydrate drinks, gels, and bars during every workout. I’ve noticed myself not only having higher energy and being able to maintain better quality of training during each session but perhaps more surprising, much better recovery and subsequent form for the following workout. This makes sense, as assuming proper nutrition and thus the presence of glucose at the site of storage inside the muscle, uptake and the synthesis of glycogen from this glucose into storage is enabled by both insulin, which is triggered after you eat, and exercise itself. So, during exercise and the window immediately following exercise, when glucose transporter enzymes are still present in the muscles, glucose uptake is the highest. Fueling optimally during this time gives the best chance of fully replenishing glycogen stores, and as I have been experiencing better energy for the next workout.
During the 100k I drank .75 L of carbohydrate drink containing 40g of carbohydrate, and consumed another 20g of carbs through bars and gels, per hour. 60g of carbohydrate/hour is actually on the low end of what's recommended, but for a 5 hour+ workout where I will be taking in upwards of 300g of carbohydrate in total, my gut can sometimes become distressed after working continuously for an extended period of time if I consume any more. However, now that I work at REI, I have had a wide selection of fueling products to experiment with (for a relatively low cost), and am confident I can up my intake in the future to 70g/hour while avoiding gastrointestinal distress, by consuming a higher concentration of carbohydrate drink and as I continue this type of training and my body adapts to processing and storing high quantities of carbohydrate. I’ve also come to the realization that these products are quite simple, and can be made and personally optimized at home for much cheaper. Experimenting with different blends and ratios of carbohydrate drink mixes is something I definitely see myself doing in the near future. Regardless, during the workout, my only moment of concern came at about 65 km, midway into the skating portion, when I began to feel slightly dissociated from my body. I didn’t panic, supplemented about .2 L of coca cola, and trusted that my fueling from the previous hours was sufficient and my body was just taking longer than expected to digest it. Sure enough, a couple of kilometers later I felt back to normal, and continued with the regular nutrition protocol. During workouts such as this I expect to have difficult moments. I focus on observing them and how my body is responding, from a distance, staying separated from my emotion, while reminding myself that these signals are simply my brain's response to my body making necessary changes and adaptations to continue the work it is doing. By mentally observing these feelings from a distance, I can actually rationalize them, and make the decision whether they are truly changes in the systems and chain of energy conversion my body is conducting, that I should be aware of, and perhaps respond to, as I did in the 100k when I sensed my carbohydrates stores running low, or just feelings and emotion from my brain, as they most often are, and truly meaningless and that which I ignore.
From 80km to the end, my energy was stable and I was able to maintain strong technique and focus as I bumped up the pace slightly to make it home in time to get to work at REI. Overall, I was pleased with the workout and my ability to maintain my energy and mental focus over the duration. The length of these types of workouts really tests these mental and physical attributes. I really enjoy and am proud of the work I've done to develop the skills and literally adaptations both in my head and physiologically, in order to maintain control and overcome the challenges inherent to these sessions. I look forward to optimizing these abilities further, and uncovering what I am capable of in the future.
Until next time,
Simon
