Glycogen depletion during race week as per Aleksandr Sorokin

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Aleksandr Sorokin recently shared in an Instagram post that from T-6 to T-4 prior to race day, he goes in glycogen depletion mode by consuming as little carbs as possible and then goes into carb loading from T-3 to T-1 days. What is the opinion on this for relatively much slower recreational athletes for both marathon and ultramarathon distances?

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This is the traditional way of “carb loading” prior to races stems from decades ago. We would do a hard session on Tuesday (for Saturday race) and the increase carb intake few days before the race.

There are quite a lot of talk right now that speaks to not needing to carb load at all - Check for example Prof’s podcast with Prof Tim Noakes and Dr. Phil Maffetone on Training Science Podcast and recently Matt Carpenter and a little older one with Killian Jornet. The key? Fat adaptation and metabolic flexibility.

You’ll find all those Training Science Podcast - Podcast - Apple Podcasts

Best, MJ

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Hey MJ,

I was actually focusing more on the glycogen depletion (by going Low-carb) part at the beginning of the race week. Carb load is something that I have done several times in the past. I am a regular listener of your Podcasts. All my runs/ cycle sessions during the training are fasted, with the exception of last couple of runs where I practise eating a pre-race meal.

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What distances do you run? What races do you run? Do you have a low-carb approach even during classic training?

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I have run upto 100kms. Later this December, I will be attempting a road 100 miler. I do not do low carb during the training, but not too high carb either. It’s mostly 40:35:25 between Carb:Fat:Protein. But, as already stated above, all my runs are fasted.

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I did eventually try the above approach. It did not trouble me at all, and I lost about 1.5 kgs of weight during this 3 day keto and gained the approx. same amount of weight during 3 day carb loading. HRV and RHR numbers infact improved during the 3 days Keto, and HRV and RHR numbers were bad during the 3 day carb loading. I will be trying this again during training and racing.

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