Carbo Loading for Endurance Athletes
BY: Steve Born
The Real Way to Carbo Load
In my opinion, the best — and really the only — way to properly carbo load is to do it gradually.
Think about your training. When you start a new season, you don't immediately jump into very long runs or rides, hill repeats or hard speed sessions. Instead, you build a solid training base and gradually increase the length and intensity of your workouts.
This allows your body to adapt to the workload and become fitter over time.
You also don't wait until the week before an important race or endurance event to start training.
The same principle applies to carbo loading.
A better way to describe carbo loading is maximising your muscle glycogen stores.
What Is Muscle Glycogen?
Muscle glycogen is the stored form of carbohydrate your muscles can use as an important source of energy during endurance exercise.
When you begin a workout, race or event, your body relies heavily on muscle glycogen, particularly during the first 60–90 minutes of exercise.
Muscle glycogen is made up of thousands of glucose units linked together and stored within your muscles.
As glycogen stores begin to decline during prolonged endurance exercise, your body increasingly relies on a combination of available glycogen, fat reserves and the carbohydrates and other nutrients you consume during exercise.
Your muscle glycogen stores are limited, but they are extremely important.
Research has repeatedly demonstrated the importance of starting prolonged exercise with adequate muscle glycogen availability.
In simple terms, if you want to give yourself the best opportunity to perform well, you want to begin your event with your glycogen stores appropriately topped up.
How to Maximise Muscle Glycogen Stores
Fortunately, the basic principles are very simple.
1. Train Consistently and Sensibly
Follow a structured training programme and build your fitness gradually over time.
Consistent endurance training allows your body to adapt not only from a fitness perspective, but also in the way it stores and uses energy.
2. Refill the Tank After Every Workout
Consume quality carbohydrates and protein as soon as practical after demanding training sessions.
That's it.True carbo loading is not simply about what you eat during the week before an event.
It's not about having an enormous pasta meal the night before a marathon, sportive, triathlon or endurance race.
Real carbo loading starts with consistently replacing carbohydrate and protein after training and supporting recovery throughout the weeks and months leading into your event.
Just as fitness is built gradually, your ability to replenish and maintain muscle glycogen stores is supported through consistent training and recovery nutrition.
It isn't something that should be ignored throughout training and then suddenly addressed during the final week before a race.
How Glycogen Replenishment Works
An enzyme called glycogen synthase plays an important role in converting carbohydrate into glycogen and helping store it within your muscles.
After exercise, the body enters a period when it is particularly receptive to replacing the glycogen that has been used during training.
Taking advantage of this post-exercise recovery period by consuming carbohydrate soon after demanding exercise can help support glycogen replenishment.
This is particularly important for endurance athletes training frequently or completing another demanding session within a relatively short recovery period.
The principle is straightforward:
Train.
Recover.
Refuel.
Then prepare your body for the next training session.
Why Protein Matters Too
Protein is important for repairing and maintaining muscle tissue and supporting the wider recovery process after exercise.
Combining protein with carbohydrate can also form an effective part of post-exercise recovery nutrition.
Research has investigated the effect of combining carbohydrate and protein on glycogen replenishment, particularly when recovery time is limited.
One study reported that adding protein to a carbohydrate recovery drink increased glycogen storage by approximately 38% during the first four hours of recovery.
Reference:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3905295/
The saying "strike while the iron is hot" applies perfectly here.
Before you get changed, have a shower, stretch or relax after a demanding training session, start putting fuel back into your body.
Taking care of your recovery nutrition promptly helps begin the process of replenishing carbohydrate stores and providing your body with the nutrients it needs for recovery.
Athletes who consistently pay attention to recovery nutrition can put themselves in a better position to recover between training sessions than those who routinely finish training and then neglect nutrition for hours afterwards.
Carbo Loading Is More Than the Night Before a Race
One of the biggest misunderstandings about carbo loading is the belief that it begins a day or two before an endurance event.
That approach overlooks everything that happens during training.
Every demanding workout uses some of your stored muscle glycogen.
Every recovery period therefore provides another opportunity to replenish those stores and prepare your body for the next training session.
This repeated cycle takes place throughout your training programme:
Training uses energy stores.
Recovery replenishes them.
The next training session creates another stimulus.
The body adapts.
This is why effective endurance nutrition should be viewed as part of the entire training programme rather than something that suddenly becomes important during race week.
What About the Week Before an Event?
The final days before an important endurance event still matter.
Appropriate carbohydrate intake leading into longer endurance competition can help ensure that you arrive at the start with good glycogen availability.
But this should complement the recovery habits you've developed throughout training rather than replace them.
Carbo loading should not mean dramatically overeating or consuming an enormous meal the night before your event.
The objective is to arrive at the start well rested, appropriately fuelled and with your muscle glycogen stores ready for the demands ahead.
Summary
Training creates physical stress and uses energy stores.
Recovery is when your body adapts to that stress.
During recovery, muscles repair, glycogen stores are replenished and your body prepares itself for the next training challenge.
After a tough training session, your body is effectively preparing itself for whatever comes next.
By consuming quality recovery nutrition soon after demanding workouts and maintaining good nutritional habits throughout your training programme, you can support recovery, prepare for future training sessions and give yourself the best opportunity to begin your important endurance events with well-stocked glycogen stores.
A high-quality carbohydrate and protein recovery drink such as Hammer Nutrition Recoverite can provide a convenient way to begin replenishing carbohydrate while supplying high-quality protein after demanding exercise:
A nutritious recovery meal containing quality carbohydrate and protein can also achieve the same fundamental goal.
Hammer's plant protein range can be found here:
https://hammernutrition.co.uk/collections/plant-protein-vegan
The important point is consistency.
Don't think of carbo loading as something that starts with a huge bowl of pasta the night before your race.
Think of it as part of the training and recovery process you practise throughout your preparation.
That, in my opinion, is the true meaning of carbo loading.
And the best time to start is now.
Your body will thank you for it, and the quality of your training sessions, events and races will prove it.