Hi all,
Would love some insight or tweaks to my current plan. I’m planning on training for a half marathon while lifting and fasting.
Going to keep it simple, wanting to run in the morning, nothing too extensive initially as I am a running novice. I will run maybe 20-40 mins in the morning while fasted Monday, Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday. On the weekdays, I’ll continue to fast till about 6pm then break the fast.
On tuesdays, Thursdays, fridays I will lift. However will not be fasting till 6pm (don’t need any advice for this portion).
What I’m asking is, are there any repercussions to running, then continue to be fasted for around 12 hours post-run? Any advice from people who have done something similar?
Are you saying you’re fasting until 6pm on specific days? Like OMAD? And you want to know about running in the morning while doing this?
I’ve done this (more or less) before. I didn’t have any problems either with running or with fasting.
When I ate normally (pre-fasting days), I’d get ravenously hungry about an hour after a run, but that stopped when I learned about fasting.
If you’re new to fasting, I’d suggest doing it for a week or two before adding running. When I started fasting, I had a couple days where I couldn’t do anything but sit on the couch. I don’t want to even imagine trying to run while getting used to fasting.
I never noticed slower recovery or slower progress when I waited hours after a run before eating. Probably a professional athlete would, though. I run for fun and fast for weight loss, so I’m not worried about the minimal difference waiting probably makes. Physically, I felt on top of the world.
I don’t think this will be sustainable long term for training purposes. When you’re training for a half, you want to start off with 10 miles/week, but as you get into the middle and last leg of your training the goal is to be hitting 1-2 long run days (8-12 milers) a week. That’s not even taking into account working on shorter mile times or your lifting days. What will end up happening is you’ll end up “bonking” to where you literally might not be able to finish your runs. It happens to a lot of long distance runners if they’re not properly fueled and can be pretty dangerous because you can get dizzy/pass out if it’s severe enough. I’ve only had it happen once when backpacking and I wasn’t fasted, but had burned through my energy stores.
Anyway, for the first half of your training I think it’ll be fine but I would switch to OMAD when you start doing the longer runs.