Nutrition

Does Your Gut Flora Dictate Your Easy Run Economy? The prevailing dogma among recreational runners is simple: easy runs are for fat burning, and fueling is strictly for intervals and races. This is a dangerous oversimplification that ignores the physiological reality of the gut-brain-microbiome axis. The composition of your gut microbiome does not just influence your digestion; it fundamentally dictates the rate at which your body utilizes carbohydrates during sub-maximal efforts and determines your metabolic ceiling. ...

Is Your Easy Run Wasting Glycogen and Limiting High-Intensity Performance? The dogma of the “easy run” suggests that low-intensity running is the primary driver of metabolic adaptation. The prevailing consensus among hobbyists is that running slow burns fat and spares glycogen for the hard efforts. However, a critical analysis of the physiological data reveals a dangerous flaw in this logic: if you are not sparing glycogen during your easy sessions, you are failing to signal the metabolic machinery required for high-intensity performance, potentially without realizing it. ...

Does High Osmolality Cause Your Gut to Bail on Your 5K? The stomach is a pump, not a tank. It does not fill up and stop; it empties based on the osmotic gradient of what is inside. If you consume a pre-run meal that is hypertonic-high in solute concentration-the gastric emptying rate slows down to protect the body from fluid shifts. This mechanism is the primary driver of gastrointestinal distress during the first thirty minutes of a race. ...