Go for morning runs if you have the luxury to do so. For myself, I am just going to stick to evening runs on weekdays because it's significantly more practical for me.
The problem for weekday morning runs is that it doesn't work well with pfitz plan. For example, you run 19km long run on weekday which takes 1hr 50 minutes for me. I wake up at 5.40am (which I tried to do today), start the run at 6am. By the time I reach back, it's 8am assuming I don't slow down or traffic light, etc. It's too much rush especially if I have to go to work.
I have to take 40 minutes to travel to work by 9am. That's why I don't do morning runs on weekdays.
But I do morning runs on weekends or holidays like today. I woke up at 5.40am, went for long run, I can take my time because I don't need to go work. I can also nap after my run and get in the recovery I need. And I can clock 30-40% of my weekly mileage on weekends because I can do 3 runs on weekdays and 2 runs on weekends.
Regardless whether I run morning or evening, I still get at least 7 hours+ consistently and a lot more on weekends with the naps included (9-10 hours).
Just today, I already slept 7.5 hours (main) + 1 hour (nap), I am going to nap again after lunch.
I think carb intake is subjective for runners. For myself, I tried this today and it caused GI failure. So, I will tell you what didn't worked for me (today) and what worked for me.
Pre-run: Eat one slice of bread + banana (20 minutes before)
During run: Gel (36g carb) 8km in + 7 sips of water from water cooler, did the same at 13km in.
Average pace: High 5.3x - Low 5.4x
What happened: Bloatedness, sticky stomach, a lot of phlegm, nausea. I managed to run 21km, but was struggling 15-16km in.
Now, to what worked for me.
Pre-run: Didn't eat anything
During run: Gel (36g carb) 10km in + hydrate 5 sips of water 8km, 13km, 19km in.
Average pace: 5.11 min/km, with 16km at 4.58 min/km
What happened: Finished the run strong and ran 26km, with no issues.
What I will do next.
Pre-run: Don't eat anything
During run: Gel (36g carb) 10-12km in + hydrate 4 sips of water 8km, 13km, 19km (every 5-6km). Get in another gel 10-12km in.
I have GERD (gastro-esophageal reflux disorder) so that's why my stomach is lot more sensitive. And from testing out my runs, I learnt that.
@xllms Maybe something for you to consider as well.
Wow.......good sharing and good testing. That's the spirit, need to actively test and get the info.
I dont suffer from chronic GERD, but i suspect some days i do reflux a bit esp when i eat too full. Then at night when i sleep, i would taste the dinner. Then end up i need to take activated charcoal, if not stomach really bloated, maciam like food poisoning feeling like that. Cannot sleep one, like wanna vomit if i dont take activated charcoal. This happens like once every month frequency. Sometimes it stretches for 2-3 days a stretch.
Yeah if cannot work then LL bo bian, see if wanna train for it or not. If not then stick with the current and see what paces you can do and if it works.
If 36g of gel and with zero breakfast, then stick with it with the intensity.
The intensity really is also one key factor, of coz as you get closer to LT1/LT2 paces it would be more terok.
For some, i guess maybe even easy pace might be jialat.
Share with you since this morning i also burned a fair bit.
Last afternoon and evening carb loaded as much as i could with 3 meals all with carbs....at night 2 bananas. This morning before i went out i ate 70g of instant noodles (for sodium as well) which has 53g of carbs as per label, and 1 banana. From Tg Pagar to Kovan along Serangoon road, 12km in @ Kovan i ate 2 bananas. Then hit punggol before Punggol Nth Ave i drank my 250ml packet of season iced lemon tea (now all the drinks healthier, i think 4.5g per 100ml so that is just 11g). All this is zone 2.
Then i went to round Seletar Aerospace one round there at tempo/LT2 effort, started to sip my Kang Shi Fu honey green tea (7.4g/100ml). Reached Yishun ave 1 and continued to eat my Xiao ding dang jap snacks but also minimal carbs lah, i think those 2pcs max 10g.
Continued to sip and finished Kang Shi Bo honey green tea at Sembawang Rd junction before Mandai Rd.
All these beverages is basically HFCS-55, 55% fructose and 40-45% glucose. Glucose is high GI "instant energy" kinda kick that can be used by our muscles cells by conversion into ATP immediately or for latter use. Fructose is lower GI, needs to be metabolized by the liver to become glucose, which then becomes the "instant energy" as mentioned above, but this takes approx 90 mins.
Anyway, enough waffling too much science, basically we just look at g/hr lah, or at least how many grams you can tahan for the whole course / how many hours of duration.
For me just now the ride was not a race, but i need the calories. According to the Magene bike computer algo, i burned 2.2k calories. A HM at my weight of 72kg male according to AI is around 1.55k, a FM around 3.1k. Not sure if the AI figure can be directly compared to my Magene bike computer, but just a very rough ballpark for comparison is can lah.
I think the algo compares the speed and elevation also, and also how frequent is the start-stop nature which you cannot avoid on some bike routes. It's like a vehicles start-stop city traffic flow vs highway non-stop, the gas mileage different one.
So basically adding all up, including the BF of 53g carbs from indomie, 3 bananas = 80g, ice lemon tea 11g, kang shi bo 37g, xiao ding dang snack 10g. Can say for this morning, i consumed total of 191g carbs. Round it up to 200g, coz i drank some F&N Zapple as well.
Assume yesterday i carb loaded as much as i could (most probably not lah, but it was decent) and this morning i started with breakfast as first consumption of carbs. But after consuming, i started the ride like immediately from my house, this is not a run or marathon. No need warm up for me. Reached Eu Tong Sen, i hoot Z2/LT1 RPE liao.
Higher RPE of around LT2, was 1 round at Seletar Aerospace (i think 2km length) including the lead up to SA from Seletar North road, and then whole of Mandai, iirc that one is like 7.8km length.
In fact latter part of Mandai after BKE, i was like VO2max/anaerobic/neuromuscular effort.......that's how i hit new top speed PB.
Also, when i nearly reached home, i hit the stretch of West Coast Highway before Keppel Rd and started to wind up after Kampong Bahru junction after Sentosa Gateway. So for that WCH stretch all the way to Keppel Rd just before Cantonment Link i usually would cheong one. Able to maintain no lower than 40kmh and i peaked 46 kmh for this 1.6km stretch.
But most important thing is this, i went to MBS for final cool down (Anson Rd/Robinson Rd to MBS promnitory already started cooling down, relac 20-25kmh pace already) and i know that time i hit the bonk limit already. Coz i wanted to accelerate and did not find the power to even get above 30kmh and even before i reached 1 Marina Boulevard i started to have serious hunger pangs (Grehlin/Leptin hunger hormones? The signal by the brain already started). Tried to hoot again at BEG, no way.....i never really got above 33kmh and the bonk + low energy feeling really started to present itself.
Guai guai U-turn and returned home at BEG Sheares Bridge. I wanted to top off with 100km by going to Guillemard just after Sports Hub but i could not.
After u-turn i hit Marina Barrage and sheet feeling really came, i could only limp at 20-25kmh.