You are reading a single comment by @Sainsburys_Ed and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
London Fixed Gear and Single-Speed is a community of predominantly fixed gear and single-speed cyclists in and around London, UK.
This site is supported almost exclusively by donations. Please consider donating a small amount regularly.
@Sainsburys_Ed
not sure about that....
for a half marathon its entirely possible to get away with nothing, or give the old mouth swilling thing a go, but as the time increases you'll eventually deplete your glycogen stores and start metabolizing other stuff, taking on board energy gels pushes this point further out, and training improves your bodies ability to cope with the transition.
I would have thought that trying to get away with mouth swilling for a whole marathon could result in an epic fail where you trick your body into depleting glycogen completely and its then left with fat and muscle to burn resulting in one of those awesome collapses like the woman at the end of the 1997 Kona Ironman or the guys in that Aussie Marathon who had to crawl across the line..