Today I'm gonna be talking about running long distances and how to train for
running long distances, with a very special guest, starting now. Hey guys,
welcome to A.D. Keto. My name is Aaron. This is the channel where I talk about
the ketogenic diet. I do some keto food vlogs, I do some keto recipes, and I talk
long-distance running. If this is your first time here, please consider
subscribing, and if you do, be sure to click the bell icon so you get a
notification whenever I upload new content. So guys, today I wanted to talk
about training for long runs. Now, I've been a runner for a while. I've run
long distances before. I did a marathon back in 2012. I was on the Standard
American Diet at the time, and had a really, really bad time with it. Felt just
awful. But I have signed up for a race in October. It is the same marathon that I
ran back in 2012. It's the Mohawk-Hudson Marathon, here in
the Albany, New York area. But I'm gonna do it this time fat-adapted, and I'm
very excited. So I wanted to get the perspective of someone who has done
long, long runs, and ultras. There's a buddy of mine on Instagram and YouTube.
His name is Dave Basile, also known as the Phat Phuelled Phenom, also known as
@AntiGravityGains. You can check out his YouTube channel, right up there. Super-
awesome dude. I first heard him on Keto for Normies. He
was on one of the first few episodes there, and we connected on Instagram, and
hit it off. He's actually a really super cool guy, and we share a love of the band
Ween, so major points to AGG. But I asked him if he would come on the channel and
talk a little bit about his experiences -- how he prepares for runs, how he did
prepare for runs when he was on the Standard American Diet, and how that
differs to how he's preparing for his Ultra, now that he's fat-adapted.
Nutrition is a really curious thing when you're fat-adapted, and running -- I go out
on the weekends, and I can rip off of 13 miler, a half marathon, without any fuel.
I can go out fasted, go 13.1 miles, and be fine. But beyond that, I haven't really
experienced any longer runs than that. I will be ramping up my my distance as I
train for this marathon, but I'm curious as to what Dave has to say about
nutrition, and how he goes about fueling himself for those longer distances. So I
asked him if he would come on the channel. He said , "Sure dude!" So here is.
Here's AGG! [AGG] Buenos...Tardes...A.D. Keto. Hola, my good keto friends. What's up everybody? It's
Dave here, AKA P3 - the Phat Phuelled Phenom! Reporting to you with Aaron at A.D. Keto.
Man, Aaron, I got to tell you, I'm so happy. When you invited me to be on your
YouTube channel for this episode, and this topic, how to prepare for a
long-distance race, running race, you know, before keto and after keto, you just like
opened this door. Those two things go together so well,
in my experience, at least, anyway, and many ultra runners out there that use a
very low-carb type of meal plan. They're a perfect match. You know, a low-carb way of
eating, and living, and endurance athletics. I just... they're meant to be, in
my opinion. So here's some of the misconceptions. Here's some of the things,
my experience before using the ketogenic diet as a road runner. You know,
especially because I was into mainly road-type races. I got into... I've been
kind of, you know -- active my whole life, on and off. Although a lot of my 20s and 30s
were very slack in that regard, but you know, definitely since the year 2007, I've
been really consistent with running. Long distance running. I just love it. I really
rediscovered my passion for endurance... you know, running, and it's just been that
way ever since. Now I didn't get into the ketogenic diet until like, July of 2016.
So it's been nearly two years for me, but... So there's a lot of things I experienced
before the ketogenic diet, as far as running, and some of the things, you know,
I'll go over. Like one: there's these carb-ups. You know, even in the sugar-burning, carb-
centric community, they still have something called carb-ups. You may or
may not know. A lot of runners tell you, "Man, make sure you get a bunch of pasta in,
you know, the day before the race, or two days... for two days in a row, before
the race." So there's that. A lot of them will tell you, "Make sure you eat
breakfast before the race. Man, you got to wake up, GOTTA eat breakfast." Okay.
And then the other thing that's common is, "Make sure you have these GU packets.
Make sure you... you know, stop at the aid stations, and you indulge, and you eat... you
know, whatever they got there. Whatever works best for you -- bananas, GU packets,
M&Ms, whatever!" Those are some of the main things, and how they prepare before the
race. Now for myself, I'll tell you, you know, personally, I followed some of those
things, but I felt like I did it because I was compelled. Because the consensus
was such that I was supposed to do that, you know? But I discovered intermittent
fasting, back in... I want to say around 2011, and I was kind of doing self-
auditing and that... for that aspect of things, and I discovered, you know, I just
don't like eating all the time before my workouts, even with weight training I
didn't like it. And it's... I just didn't find it necessary, but you know, fifty
percent of the time, I probably take in a banana, or half banana, and a half a
granola bar, just because I felt like I better hedge my bets, here. Because the
community says this is what I should do, so... I mean, I was rebellious enough to not
do it all the time, but just really confused and conflicted about it, so
there was that. And I will say, I wasn't one of these people that had to stop at
every port-a-potty, but I did...it was a gamble. There were times I had some
really bad experiences with my gut, out on my longer training runs, or even
during a race. But I've known people that... I mean, it's like chronic. It is a
gastrointestinal freakin' nightmare out there for them, and it's not a good thing.
I mean, there's a lot of runners that fight this thing that are carb burners,
and if they just get off the carb-centric diet, they probably... they... they'd love the
ketogenic diet, just from that aspect, regardless of running, okay? But you know,
so that's gone for me, and I will talk a little bit about after. Now how do I
prepare for...you know, something like a 50k, or a marathon, right? Part of the
benefits of a ketogenic lifestyle is that you have a lot more energy
stability, and with it goes mental clarity. You don't have afternoon crashes.
Your focus can be a lot better, and things like that. I've found that is the
same thing for me during the middle of a long four-hour training run, or a long
six-and-a-half hour race. I'm able to really hone in, stay focused. "What's my mission,
here?" and stay focused. So you know, after getting into the ketogenic type of
eating plan, you know, carb-ups are just not needed. They're just not needed.
I mean, they're not needed at ALL, in my opinion. I'm not saying that... you know, you
shouldn't do them, because I actually have experimented with them, and found
them useful. But I don't think they're needed. You can maintain a low-intensity,
steady state... you know, heart rate, and that Maffetone Zone, where it's like, 180
beats per minute, minus your age. And that would supposedly keep me in that aerobic
heart rate zone, to where I'm not like, dying to get to glucose. You know, to use
this energy. I'm able to use... you know, fat stores pretty effectively, and I found
that to definitely be the case on the ketogenic diet. So you don't have to use
carb-ups at all the day before the race, or even at all. Second, you know, using a
fasted start, just like I said, it worked for me, even before the ketogenic diet.
And it definitely works for me... you know, after being into this ketogenic diet you
know, I I go out and work fasted, workout fasted all the time, I go out, I lift
weights fasted at all time, I go out and run...you know, four-hour runs fasted, even
without any calories, you know, without any food during that four-hour training
run. I've done many two, three, four hours, even on up to five hours, training
without taking in any calories, other than some incidental calories from the
electrolytes, from my Nuun tablets. No food on many long-distance training runs and
races, you know? Electrolytes are very, very important on the ketogenic diet. You
probably know this already, whether you're exercising or not, even more
so in my experience, I've discovered that electrolytes is a game... it's a game in
and of itself. You want to really pay attention to your body. I highly
recommend you get into salt sticks. They're like salt pill tablets, or salt
tablets. I take 'em with me in my my vest, you know, when I go on long-distance, very
long runs. If I'm going something for more than like... you know, like four hours,
I'm going to take those and my electrolyte tablets, and keep on top of
that. But I will say, as far as preparing for like... a race, one thing I do, or even
preparing for like, a four-hour training run, what I've been doing here in the
last few months is a couple days before, I'm like, "Okay, I'm going to take a little
bit more electrolytes than I normally do anyway." You know, with all the foods I eat
on the ketogenic diet, I get a lot of salt anyway, but I'll take some of those
Nuun tablets, you know, at least once or twice a day, starting a couple days
before my very long training run, or my my race that I'm doing, I find that that
really helps a lot. It's kind of like, 'prevention is the best medicine'-type of
mindset, you know? And again, I don't have any real science to back that up. I
just have my n=1 experience to share with you, and I find that helpful.
You can over-hydrate, too, though, you know, whether you're a carb burner or a
fat burner. I mean you can over-hydrate, so you just want to kind of drink to
thirst, basically, during your runs. But electrolytes on the ketogenic diet, we
don't retain all that water and along with it, salt, like you would on a carb-
centric-type diet, so I think as far as the ketogenic lifestyle goes, you
definitely want to be on your electrolytes game. After being in the
ketogenic diet, you know, I've noticed with my running, the energy stability and
reliability is just it is awesome. It is great.
I cannot preach enough about how much I love it, how predictable things are
compared to how they were before the ketogenic diet, and that's the other
thing I want to say is: If you're brand new to the ketogenic diet, and you're active,
please take note, and as a takeaway, know that your workout intensity and amount
of time that you're able to workout and things like that -- it's probably going to
take a hit, at least a few notches. I'm not saying you should not work out at
all -- that's up to you, but just please, be cognizant that you're not going to be
bringing your A-game for probably the first week or two, or even three. At least
I noticed, especially with the weight training for me, I noticed that with
running, too, but for the first couple of weeks, but not as much as the weight
training intensity. So know that with energy stability going, you know, some of
your energy level going down in the beginning is not... you know, a hallmark-
type of characteristic of the ketogenic diet, because it's quite the opposite.
Once you get through those initial stages of adaptation, your energy is
going to be so freakin' awesome. You're going to love it. And especially for your...
your... your race day, if, you know, if the stars line up right, you've prepared,
you've got your nutrition game going, you've stayed keto, you're fat-adapted many
months... you know, ahead of time, you know, you're not out there trying to sprint
this whole freakin' race, you know, your energy stability is gonna be great, in my
opinion. That's probably what's gonna happen. Now that doesn't
mean there's gonna be days where that doesn't happen. I've had a couple
training runs where, for whatever reason, maybe I'm... my electrolytes are off,
or i think sleep is a huge thing. That's something I'm really trying to hack this
year, to try to correct and improve upon, because I think sleep is probably more
important than anything, honestly. But that's another topic. But something like
poor sleep for days leading up to a heavy training run, you know, a race, can
really negatively affect your outcome on race day. Keep experimenting with things you
know, and hopefully that helps, but um... I will say afterwards, though, that you know
you can... you know, ketosis isn't something that you have to be in all the time. I
think the idea with being fat-adapted is that it's to know... your body knows how to
use fat has its primary energy source, but also, our bodies know how to use
glucose. You know, unless we have metabolic damage and other things we're
fighting medically, you know. I'm saying aside from something like that, our
bodies know how to use glucose, and they know how to use fats. After we get fat-
adapted, we now know how to use fat. That's the primary energy source. But it
remembers how to use glucose, so when you get into high gear, it's gonna know how
to use...you know, glucose. So if you want, you can experiment with something like a
targeted ketogenic diet. There are ultra runners out there that use a very low-
carb, fat-adapted way of eating, but they also sneak in some carbs, you know, on
those very, very long runs under... these people are running 50 miles, and hundred
miles, but you know, if you're getting out there for a very, very long, multi-hour
run, you might want to experiment. Hey I'm not gonna have, you know... fifty carbs today,
25 net carbs today ,I think I'm gonna have like 75 or 100, and see how that
affects me on my long training run, two days down the road, you know? But I would
not suggest you do some carb up with terrible carbs like donuts, or anything
like that. You might try different carbs that maybe you perceive you might be a
little bit more tolerant of, you know? Something like brown rice, or sweet
potatoes, or something like that. And I would not go real heavy on it the night
before. I would do it two days before, and then just kind of take it easy, and go
moderate, or little carb again, very low carb the day before, because your... your
energy stores will be, and your... your... you'll have the glycogen two days before,
and it's not like it's all going to empty out, you know, in 24 hours, you know?
Just kind of maintain, you know, what... 30 carbs again, you know, the day before. And
then you still have this from two days before, and then on your long training
run day, you can see how that...you know, works for you, and don't be afraid to put
it in high gear, and you know, blast those downhills and get your heart rate
up, and see if...see what that does for you. You know, I also think says you know, do your
own experimentation with that, and I have found that I've been able to do that
kind of thing, and get back into ketosis, you know, set up parameters to where, hey
Dave, you know, you're gonna do this, but then right after that training run, or
that race, you're going to get back into strict keto and you're going to recover.
And that's the other thing I'll say about this -- I can't.. I know I'm all body
language here, but one of the greatest benefits about being a fat-adapted
athlete is recovery. Recovery. I mean, I've had... I'll tell you what, here's an example.
On my 50k, about a month ago, it was muddy. It was miserable. But I did great, and I did
target in some carbs. That's a whole... another thing. You can check out my
YouTube on that, but the amazing part about it was it was one of the easiest
recoveries. That doesn't mean I wasn't sore at all, but I was fine.
I ran the next day. I did a nice, long, one- hour session on my treadmill. I kept it
very low-intensity, but it was active recovery. I had a little bit of tightness
in my muscles. I mean I ran for six and a half... six hours and 45 minutes, you know,
for 31 miles in the mud, okay? But it was one of the easiest recoveries I've done
on an ultra distance marathon, so experiment around with things. Just know
that if you get fat-adapted, the greatest benefit, and the takeaway is that you're
probably a lot more metabolically flexible. Sure, lose the weight, that's
a bi-product of the ketogenic way of eating, but your energy stability and
your your cleaner form of energy to use as its primary energy source of fat,
that it's just so much better than recoveries. Just... it's everything for me. I
love it, especially as you get older. So I hope that helps. I wish you all the best
luck in your goals, and also be forgiving to yourself if you slip up with your
way of eating. That's okay. Just hop back on. The same thing goes with your training
calendar. We have busy lives. If you don't get that 18-mile run in on Saturday, and
you only do a 16-mile run on the following Sunday
instead, it's okay. You're going to be okay.
Get the time in on your feet. Do some training, get some elevation training on
the treadmills and Stairmaster, especially if you got a very hilly race
coming up, and be kind to yourself. And whatever you do, no matter what, somehow,
someway, go out there and make some anti-gravity gains! Guys, check out Dave's
channel over here, it's Anti-Gravity Gains. Check him out on Instagram. He's
awesome . We have a blast over there, and dude -- looking forward to continuing
hanging out with you on Instagram and YouTube. You are definitely an
inspiration. So thanks again for coming on! And that's gonna wrap it up for this
video, guys. I really hope you enjoyed it. I hope you have a fantastic day, and I'll
catch you next time!
Antee-gravity gains or anti-gravity gains? Hmmm. Antes or anti? Not quite sure. I think
I'm an anti-gravity... antee? No. It came out Antee. I think I'm an antee-gravity
gains. Anti-gravity gains. Antee-gravity gains? Anti-gravity gains. Should I keep
talking about it?