341–350 of 363 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> could absorb and burn 100 calories per hour burning a hundred calories an hour is trivial. Most people will burn 100 calories per mile when walking or running, and more if moving as fast as these athletes, and many, many humans can do this for far, far longer than 2 hours. It's the absorbtion that's the challenge. Maurten is not somehow alone in the particular stuff they've developed - ultra runners are generally s…
The last few years, cycling and triathlon have been experimenting with upto 120g carbs intake per hour. Last year, Cameron Wurf ate 200g carbs per hour when he broke the world record for fastest bike split ever in a triathlon (which was broken again a few months later).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Then why replace one imprecise term with another? Fiber is a carbohydrate. Humans use close to nothing from its energy. (Though it plays another important role in the digesive system.) Try eating 100g of grass per hour during a marathon and you will see. That's the metabolic edge horses have over humans.
Horses don't eat during races (and aren't evolutionarily disposed to marathons, anyway). No edge there; it takes quite a while for their symbiotic gut flora to downconvert fodder to glucose.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> probably a metric tonne of PEDs (performance enhancing drugs) Note that Sawe funded extra testing drug testing for himself for the 2 months before winning the Berlin marathon. The testing followed Athletics Integrity Unit protocols (so surprise testing etc): https://www.letsrun.com/news/2026/04/how-sabastian-sawe-conv...
Drug testing has its loopholes: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetorch/2016/07/19/486595080/r...
Pretty hard to use the in-competition avoidance strategy like that in this out of competition case though.
WHAT???? NO. WAY. That's not me being sarcastic. I never, ever thought this would happen
Earlier quoted context omitted.
A 1:59 half marathon time is achievable for pretty much anyone who doesn't have a serious physical disability and is willing to put in the necessary training. I've done it a few times and have no particular talent for running.
That's a 9m10sec per mile for 2 hours. While I'd agree that there are millions or even billions of people who could train to do that, I think it's wrong to suggest that "pretty much anyone" could do that.
Now hitting a 1:30 HM is something different and will be forever out of reach for many people.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Where does discussion on gut training occur? All I know is you need a 5:4 ratio of glucose to fructose? Then when you train, you use the gels and the more you do it, the more capable your gut gets at absorbing without distress. Is that all the science to it?
AFAIK 5:4 is just the lowest ratio they've tested. Personally I use table sugar (1:1) and can sustain rates above 100g/h. Haven't hit the ceiling yet, don't really feel the need to explore where that is yet because exceeding the absorption rate comes with the risk of diarrhoea which is bad at any time but especially when you're in the middle of a training session and who knows where the nearest toilet is. Gut trainin…
However, for many people eating so much of a very sweet food becomes very unpleasant.
It is very easy and cheap to make at home a gel by boiling in water corn starch mixed with fructose in a microwave oven, for a few minutes. Swallowing such a gel should feel much less sweet than the same amount of a sugar solution.
As far as I know, the only difference between such a gel made at home and the commercial gels for athletes is that in the latter the starch is pre-digested with some bacterial enzyme, so that the long starch molecules are broken into short molecules of dextrine and maltose.
This processing shortens the time until the absorption in the gut, but I am not sure if this is really an advantage in all cases. A slower absorption will maintain an elevated blood glucose level for a longer time after ingestion, which may be preferable if you feed periodically, because it avoids wide fluctuations in the glucose level, while a faster absorption might be useful for an immediate recovery when the glucose level has been severely depleted by not feeding for a long time.
Stunning results at the top of the field. Some interesting takeaways on both fuelling and shoes. Maurten spent months working with Sawe and other runners getting their gut capacity trained so they could absorb and burn 100 carbs per hour[0][1] > The Maurten research team was embedded with Sawe’s team in Kenya for 32 days across six trips between last and this April. They were training his gut to absorb that load by m…
> The Maurten research team was embedded with Sawe’s team in Kenya for 32 days across six trips between last and this April. They were training his gut to absorb that load by mimicking race-day protocol in training. The hydrogel technology they have developed over the past 10 years now allows athletes to absorb 90–120 grams of carbs per hour without GI distress. That common knowledge, nothing revolutionary here. Ther…
You can make easily and cheaply at home a gel by boiling in water a mixture of corn starch with fructose. The best way is to do this for a few minutes in a microwave oven, because it is fast and reproducible.
This has the advantage that it does not feel so sweet as a sugar solution, which becomes unpleasant in too great quantities.
I am not aware of any other difference in the commercial gels, except that those use pre-digested starch, whose long molecules are broken in shorter molecules, for a decreased time until absorption. I doubt that this short absorption time is always an advantage, because it leads to wider fluctuations in the blood glucose level during periodic feeding.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
His comment is more of a general commentary that east African countries are notorious for doping. Like, if we find out the top two finishers here doped very few would be surprised. That said - it's still an amazing accomplishment.
I’d be surprised, given how outspoken Sawe is about doping. He invited the AIU to test him before Berlin and Adidas also paid. > Determined to prove he is competing clean, Adidas provided $50,000 (£36,900) to the Athletics Integrity Unit, the sport's anti-doping body, to frequently test Sawe over a 12-month period. > That began with a reported 25 out-of-competition tests in the lead-up to Berlin in September, continu…
This proves nothing, absolutely nothing at all. It's just a PR move by adidas and actually it seems to be working on you.