Expending energy before the big run

In an article I read about marathon training there was a suggestion that a few days before a marathon you should run a long “glycogen depletion” run. The purpose of this run is to use up all of the glycogen currently stored in your muscles. The theory is that if you’ve reduced all your glycogen, you’ll be able to store up more over the next few days.

I found this article on beginning running that talks about the glycogen depletion run and how it can benefit you. To tell you the truth, I’m not sure I buy the whole theory. I really don’t see how reducing glycogen to nothing will automatically make it easier to store more. However, I’ve tried this run a few times in my joggling career. It turns out that in 2 marathons in which I’ve done this run, I’ve set PRs. In another one, I would’ve set a PR if the marathon distance hadn’t been measured wrong (more on that in a future post). In the other, I missed a PR by only 2 minutes.

So, while I may not believe in the theory, I can’t argue with the results. Thus, I’m off to do a 10 mile run home from work at a slower-than-normal pace (8:00 – 8:15 / mile). I will be joggling of course and I’m quite looking forward to it. My wife was kind enough to let me borrow her IPod Nano so I’ll be able to listen to the stored episode of the Penn Radio program.

Tonight, I’ll try to figure out all my stats going into the race weekend.

Incidentally, I received my official number for the Toronto Marathon. Here’s part of the email they sent…

Dear Perry,

Your bib number is: 3061

Event: Marathon

On-line registration for the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon is closed but your friends can still sign up at the race expo, this Friday and Saturday.

NO race day registration, and NO race kit/packet pickup on race day, so you MUST go to the expo!

Expo hours are:
Friday 11am to 8pm
Saturday 10am to 6pm
at Metro Toronto Convention Centre