What is the threshold for carb loading? I have an 80-90 minute, fairly high intensity race coming up. A big climb. Is this something that carb loading makes sense for or is it too short?
Don’t think you need a load per se. Assuming it’s a morning race a carb forward lunch and dinner the day before should be sufficient
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No need, just don’t run a caloric deficit the few days before and don’t do anything that will burn your glycogen stores the day before. Otherwise just your normal diet should be fine.
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In contrast to what other people say, I think it could be worth it. Since the effort is relatively short, your body will prefer endogenous carbs (glycogen) over exogenous carbs. Glycogen delivers the energy that is needed much quicker.
On the other hand, since your race is a hill climb, the extra weight could be unwanted. Since 1 gram of carbs also holds approximately 3 grams of water, so an 100 extra grams of carbs would make you 400 grams heavier.
If you are a heavier rider, the extra weight would make less of a difference, because the added weight is a smaller percentage of your total weight. This is the same reason why lighter riders benefit more from lightweight bikes and heavier riders benefit more from more aero (and thus heavier) bikes.
(p.s. excuse me if my English sucks)
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Why would you want to be in a deficit before your race?! The negative impact would be much greater than the positive impact from (very little) weight loss.
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@Lukas1
They said “don’t” not do.
oops, sorry
Hey there,
As other athletes here are saying, you probably don’t need to carb load for a 90-minute race. A “normal” carb-centric endurance diet should provide you with plenty of carbs to get through a race of that duration. A good dinner and breakfast leading into the race should have you feeling fueled up!
Keeping up with carbs during the race might be helpful (via gels/drink mix) – but it may not be 100% necessary for an 80-90 minute race. Test out your nutrition strategy during your training leading into it – some athletes find they perform better with some carbs during 90-minute crits, for example, while others may not find as much benefit.
All that said, as a reminder, if your events are longer than 90 minutes, carb loading can be much more helpful and bringing nutrition onboard to stay topped off is essential.
Hope this helps – feel free to let me know if you have any other questions!
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I eat extra carbs before any event I want to perform well at regardless of duration. I want to perform my best and I want to reduce any possibility of going in underfed to nearly zero. The downsides are really small (extremely minimal weight gain?) and its pretty effortless to eat some extra carbs.
Also, the biology of what replete glycogen stores does to your body is complex and goes beyond exercise duration.
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