Long Form

How To Become Antifragile: Embrace Chaos, Run Better, Get Stronger, Avoid Injury

Published on November 23, 2020 By Thomas Watson

The book Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb (@nntaleb) and it’s ideas have spent the last six months rattling around in my head, and influenced how I think about running, exercise, what to eat, how to live . . . In fact, it’s one of the best health and fitness books I’ve read – even though its subject is risk and probability.

The central premise of the book is a simple idea, best explained by answering the following question:

“What is the opposite of fragile?”

Most people would answer something like robust, resilient, or strong. But these words don’t quite go far enough.

If fragile means something that is prone to breaking or gets weaker with stress, then the opposite is something that gains from stress or disorder, which Taleb calls antifragile.

Once this idea takes hold, it can be applied to a broad range of areas – including fitness, diet, and mindset.

In this article, I’m going to explore how we can apply antifragility to running. To summarize what lays ahead, here’s how I’d differentiate between a fragile and antifragile runner:

A fragile distance runner is one that has developed an ability to run for long periods of time, but little else. Their training has neglected several muscle groups, and as a result, their range of actual abilities is narrow, they suffer from various imbalances and are injury-prone.

An antifragile distance runner can run far, and also burst into a sprint at a moment’s notice. They can jump and lift and race their cyclist friends to the top of a hill. They spend time doing strength training and other functional fitness pursuits outwith running. They embrace interesting challenges and extreme training loads, followed by generous rest periods.

What Is Antifragile?

To further define the term antifragile . . .

Fragile: something that is fragile is going to get weaker or break when it’s subject to stressors. Think of an egg – you’ve got to keep that egg pretty well protected to prevent it from breaking. Any unexpected bumps or drops, and it’s game over for your little egg-shell.

Robust: something that’s robust can be beaten around quite a lot without showing much damage. Things that are robust are often designed for some wear-and-tear, and will be around for a long time…but will eventually degrade. The more stress applied, the faster it will degrade. Most high-quality products we buy are usually robust – they resist wear-and-tear, but aren’t indestructable.

Antifragile: something that is antifragile actually gains from being thrown around or put under load. The classic example is the Hydra from Greek mythology – each time you cut off one head, two grew in its place…making it a stronger and fiercer opponent.

N.B. Antifragility often has a limit – stress up to a certain point is beneficial, but extreme loads can cause failure – as we’ll see.

So you’re saying we can benefit from some stress in our lives?

Yes, precisely. Here, ‘stress’ means some hardship or struggle to work against.

Without stress, our muscles, abilities, and willpower would all atrophy.

Think of a bodybuilder who suddenly stops lifting weight, or those humans of the future from the Pixar movie WALL-E: their bodies atrophied due to a lack of stress.

Examples of Antifragility

The concept of antifragility might initially sound quite theoretical and abstract until you realize just how many realms it can be applied to.

Most physical objects fall into the fragile or robust category, whereas organisms and systems (that are successful) are more likely to be antifragile.

While the book goes into depth about how everything from ethics, to financial markets, to business models can be antifragile, for the purposes of this post I’m going to focus on aspects that relate to running – whether that’s your workouts, diet, or mindset.

Antifragile Illustration: Human Muscles

Probably the best place to illustrate antifragility is in your muscles.

Let’s take a regular, healthy person who likes to do push-ups.

Every time she does a set of push-ups, she’s applying load onto her upper body muscles – she’s putting them under stress.

When she finishes her workout, she goes away and takes some time to recover, eats food which helps repair the muscles. And what is the final result?

The muscles end up stronger.

If our bodies were fragile, then every single push-up would be doing irreversible damage to her muscles.

Remember the definition, antifragile means things that gain from stress or disorder?

Our muscular system is antifragile – it benefits from applied stress (to a point).

The Immune System

Our immune systems, when functioning correctly, are antifragile.

When we’re exposed to a virus, our body might take a hit for a few days as it fights the bug. But eventually, it (usually) figures out how to eradicate the virus, and then becomes immune to that viral strain in the future.

This is the whole idea behind vaccinations – expose our immune system to a small quantity of a disease, so it adapts and learns how to fight it, thus becoming stronger.

Let’s consider another example from the world of physical exercise…

Running vs. Walking

Let’s take an example from the book:

In this example, Taleb uses the example of walking vs. running a mile to show why stress is good. Of the two brothers in the example, they both arrive at their destination at the same time, but the runner (as well as having more free time) puts more stress on his body by going at a fast speed, so will likely benefit from better gains in fitness and strength than the walker.

(N.B.: As someone who walks 10 – 15km every day, I’m a big believer that there are many benefits that you don’t get from running. The above is to illustrate that the more acute the stressor (or speed), the bigger the health or strength benefit. It seems Taleb is an ardent walker too).

Antifragility Means Introducing Random Chaos: A Tale Of Two Sisters

The whole principle of antifragility is that stress, or chaos, is introduced to a system in an uneven or unpredictable way.

For example, let’s say there are two sisters who each run 30 miles a week.

Sister A runs exactly 4.28 miles every day, without fail, at a comfortable pace, to make up her 30 miles over the 7 days.

Sister B on the other hand only runs only 3 days per week, but varies her workouts a lot – she does a speed session on Monday, a hill training run with minimalist shoes on Wednesday, then an 18 mile run at the weekend.

Which sister is the antifragile runner?

It’s obviously sister B: she mixes up her training with a variety of different stressors (speed, hills, distance) which will leave her faster, fitter, and less injury-prone (plus she’s likely to enjoy herself more).

Sister A, on the other hand, has very likely plateaued in her fitness and would struggle to run much further or faster than on her daily performance. She’s ‘stuck in the groove‘ of her daily (chronic) workout – which her body will have determined is her baseline – and she’ll be more prone to injury and loss of enthusiasm.

Runners Can Be Fragile!

If you’ve read up to this point, as a runner – or athlete – you’re probably thinking that this is all awesome. All that exercise and miles you’re doing in training is automatically making you more and more antifragile.

That’s not the full picture, unfortunately.

Sister A is a prime example of how runners can get their training plan wrong

In fact, distance runners can be especially fragile.

There’s a stereotype amongst observers that distance runners are only strong in one area, and suck at everything else. And unfortunately, there’s a lot of truth in that.

Before we get into the weeds of how to become an antifragile runner, let’s address the reasons why runners get such a bad rap.

Why Runners Tend Towards Fragility

1.Runners Tend to Embrace Steady-State Activity

Distance running is steady-state: it’s a constant, unidirectional movement at a low-medium rate of exertion that lasts for hours.

Perhaps the biggest downside to distance running is that it is a pretty steady-state activity.

Once you get into distances over say 15km, you’re locked into running at a constant, comfortable speed. This means your body is subjected to a pretty even, unchanging load across the whole workout.

There’s usually no sprints, no breaks, no big hills – just a constant load.

And while this has a bunch of benefits in terms of boosting your endurance (i.e. your ability to run even further next time), there are downsides to consider.

The primary issue is a distinct lack of big stressors – distance runners tend to keep their exertion levels to around 50-70% of their maximum.

Antifragility needs a bit more variety than this – some runs should be performed at 50-70%, others (shorter interval-style runs) at 80-90%.

Distance running strengthens some muscles while neglecting others. It means you end up with strong quads, and weak hamstrings for example – you create and imbalance in your kinetic chain.

And as you keep running, this imbalance becomes more pronounced – some muscles end up doing more than their fair share of the work, while other stop engaging at all. What happens next?

90% of the time, this ends in a knee or hip injury. Most runners’ knee injuries are actually alignment issues caused by kinetic chain imbalances originating in the hip/pelvis area, which are usually the result of running too much without doing anything to correct these imbalances.

2. Runners Tend to Only Run (Neglecting All Other Activities)

It’s a sad fact and is especially true amongst rookie distance runners who get hooked on running far and consequently do it as their only form of workout.

But when you run, and only run, you are neglecting some essential body parts which not only can improve your running performance, but are simply part of the tapestry of a well-rounded, injury-resistant human.

To know if a distance runner is antifragile or not, ask them what their cross-training routine is.

If they look at you with a bewildered look – or worse, make some joke about there being no benefit to them – you can chalk them up as fragile, and know that they’re likely to spend a decent percentage of their future running career at home recovering from injuries rather than outside enjoying their lives.

N.B.: our definition of cross-training is any form of exercise that complements your primary activity, which is running in this case.

Cross-training is a fundamental part of an antifragile runner’s repertoire – in fact, you’ll often find good distance runners have just as many gym sessions as running sessions in their weekly calendar.

Runners who don’t cross train end up with chronically tight or weak muscles (hips and hamstrings being the common culprits) and parts of their body which they completely neglect – the upper body being a prime example.

A strong upper body (core, chest, shoulders, back, and arms) plays a big part in a distance runners’ endurance ability.

So, how does a runner embrace cross-training and antifragility? I’ll get to that in a second.

The Antifragility of Distance Running

Many exercise practitioners (i.e. gym rats, short distance sprinters) look upon distance running with some aloofness – they see the skinnier builds and weird eating habits and decide that marathon runners are weirdos that are torturing their bodies for little practical gain.

But ask anyone who has participated in a Spartan race or similar event which includes a mixture of strength work and endurance, and they’ll tell you that it’s the endurance runners that cross-train who perform the best.

A weightlifter is fragile to endurance – they’ll usually manage to go 20-30 minutes of sustained effort before they’re spent and need to take a break (and usually look in a mirror).

Sure, they might be able to bench press four times their body weight, but they could probably be outrun by their children.

And whether it’s the persistence hunters we are descendants of, or the heroes of ancient wars, myths, or more recent times (see Chris McDougall’s Natural Born Heroes), we can find examples throughout history of endurance (and particularly running) being a notable ability of our species.

As I’ve mentioned above, the steady-state nature of distance running could be classified as somewhat fragile in the long run – if it’s the only form of exercise you do.

But each time you go for a long-distance run, you’re applying acute stress to several systems – which, as long as you don’t overdo it, can strengthen these systems, so you can go longer next time.

In fact, there are several antifragile benefits to distance runs:

Low-to-mid intensity running uses a higher % of stored fat as fuel (whereas high-intensity workouts use more carbohydrates) – so distance running improves your body’s ability to used fat as an effective fuel source (see my Adventures in Keto and Running article for much more on this topic).

The thresholds of your muscular exhaustion and aerobic ability increase, allowing you to go longer next time.

Sustained cardiovascular efforts have been shown to strengthen the heart and improve your body’s efficiency at delivering oxygen, via the blood, to the muscles.

There is a myriad of further, lesser-recognized effects (some positive, some neutral) that occur when you apply a point-load of a 20-mile run to your weekly calendar. But the point I wanted to focus on here is that long-distance runs can act as an acute stressor to many systems within your body, which can serve up antifragile benefits.

How To Become An Antifragile Runner

There are 3 steps to becoming an antifragile runner:

i) strength train by lifting weights (heavier ones are generally better),

ii) perform short, fast interval-style runs,

iii) introduce chaos and other stressors to your training.

A well-balanced, antifragile runner should be strong in several areas:

endurance strength, developed through their long runs,

muscular strength, which makes us injury-proof and stronger runners, developed through strength training,

speed and adaptiveness, developed through speed training and other forms of resistance training (which also complements endurance and muscular strength).

Step 1: Strength Training for Antifragile Runners

Runners already get plenty of cardiovascular exercise, so when it’s time to hit the gym it’s not necessary to worry too much about getting your heart rate up.

And remember, this isn’t about getting a gym bod – it’s about becoming a injury-proof, tough-as-nuts strong runner with bulletproof legs.

We want to focus on improving our strength – so focus on heavier loads, rather than higher reps.

Compound Exercises for Runner’s Strength

If you’re looking for strength training exercises which give the biggest results for the effort expended, then focus on compound exercises.

These are strength training exercises which work a multitude of muscles and joints simultaneously for maximum benefit.

That guy performing single-arm curls with a heavy dumbbell? Sure, his bicep will grow a little. But that’s it. He’s not engaging any more muscles, or working on anything that could be beneficial in other arenas.

That’s why compound exercises are so effective – they work a bunch of muscles groups at once, and usually target the fundamental ones.

Compound exercises worth your time include:

Deadlift

Squat

Lunges

Kettlebell swings (and most other kettlebell exercises)

Pull-ups

Push-ups.

One-Rep Max Lifting Exercises

In fact, you ideally want to focus on exercises where you can work towards a one-rep max (find the maximum weight that you can complete only a single repetition); this is actually endorsed by Taleb, who has taken to weightlifting after exploring the concepts of Antifragility in the strength training arena.

The classic heavy lifting exercises which suit a one-rep max philosophy are deadlifts, squats, and bench press.

It’s important to note that each of these requires a good understanding of technique, takes time to practice before working towards a one-rep-max, and can cause injury if done incorrectly. So if you’re not familiar with them, incorporate them at lower weights and higher reps before gradually increasing your weight as you get comfortable.

Step 2: Interval / Speed Training

The other cardinal sin many distance runners commit is neglecting speed work.

Instead, they get into the routine of going for a comfortable long run.

This is heading down a fragility cul-de-sac: the runner’s body gets accustomed to the slow pace, and after months or years can’t snap out of it. They develop chronic tightness or weakness in various muscles, and soon find that the only thing they can actually do is their comfortable long runs.

This is the opposite of an antifragile runner, who should be capable of a myriad of workouts at the drop of a hat – whether it’s the comfortable long run, the challenging hill session, or hitting the gym to work on their squats.

Short, fast interval-style runs train you anaerobically, push your fast-twitch muscles, lactate threshold, running economy, strength, base speed, endurance strength….I could go on.

Step 3: Introduce Chaos To Your Runs

Remember the example of the two sisters I gave at the beginning?

Sister B’s training schedule had a good degree of chaos – instead of repeating the same humdrum route every day, she mixed things up. She had speed sessions, hill sessions, and long runs.

An antifragile runner appreciates the value in switching up their training, and choosing to add in new elements.

Here are a few of my favorite ways to introduce chaos into a run:

Hit The Hills – Hill running is becoming less popular, especially as everyone is trying to book fast paces on Strava. But if you want to build strength, endurance, and have some fun, go run up and down a few hills on a trail (and forget about your pace for a while).

Run On Tired Legs – A conventional training plan will ensure that you have ample time to recover between workouts, but sometimes it pays to be a contrarian. Go for a hard run when your legs are still recovering – whether from a dead lift session or from an interval training session. Getting used to running on tired legs will actually boost your endurance and serve you well in long-distance events (ultras, etc.)

Run In Minimalist Shoes Occasionally – It’s not until you try out minimalist barefoot-style shoes that you realise the amount of support and performance benefit we gain from our cushioned, bouncey trainers. Minimalist shoes take away all that bonus support and force us to run only on our own steam. Minimalist running engages your calves more and can have a positive impact on your running gait. It’s also harder work.

Run With A Pack or Weighted Vest – Glutton for punishment? Try running with a weighted vest to add to the load you’re under. Your body will have to work harder to shift the extra pounds, meaning increased stress to your muscles and cardiovascular system.

Run When It’s Uncomfortably Hot – In summer, most runners either run in the early mornings or evenings to avoid the heat of the day. If you’re looking to make things interesting, wait until just after noon on a hot day and throw your running shoes on. You’ll find it harder to breathe at your regular pace and be forced to slow down as your body adapts and figures out how to thermoregulate in hot climates. But if you can get accustomed to running in hot weather, you’ll feel the gains in winter. (Same can be said of humid weather, where it’s harder to breathe – as someone who spent years training in Mumbai, I can attest to the performance benefits of regular sauna-style training conditions).

Run On An Empty Stomach (Or Better, In Ketosis) – Many experts will tell you that to run well, you need fuel, and fuel means carbohydrates. I’m generally in that boat, and recommend to most runners (especially those following a marathon training plan) that they need to get plenty carbs. However, I’ve also spent a lot of time running in ketosis, and am a big advocate of using ketosis to boost fat adaptation (something that many elite ultramarathon runners already know well). Why should you consider going for occasional runs on an empty stomach, or in ketosis? Because otherwise, your body is going to be accustomed to getting its standard packet of carbs before a run, and start to expect that sports nutrition and gels are simply a way of life – and over time, their effectiveness could wane. It’s why I only take energy gels when I want to perform. Introduce some stress by going for a run when there’s no fuel in the tank.

Do Something That Stretches The Limits Of What You Thought You Were Capable Of – Running can get tedious for some of us once you hit a certain level. If you’ve ticked off a few of the standard distance events like 10k and half marathon, it’s easy to regress in your training as you feel you’ve done it. That’s when it’s time to do something bold and ambitious – set a new goal that motivates you to stay engaged in your training for the next several months or more. For me, it was running self-supported multi-day races in weird countries (which essentially become a test of your antifragility). Maybe for you, it’s run a sub-20-minute 5k, or tick off a bucket list marathon. Whatever it is, make your goal audacious – you’ll stretch yourself to achieve it.

How To Become Antifragile: Embrace Chaos, Run Better, Get Stronger, Avoid Injury 1 — Me at mile 110 of a 155-mile self-supported race across the Namibian desert – multi-day races have a very high attrition rate, and it’s often the most dedicated ‘distance runners’ who fall to pieces after a few days as they have a narrow approach to training and preparation *(i.e. fragile). These long, extreme events are a measure of your antifragility.*

In short, if you want to be an antifragile runner, it’s time to embrace:

uncertainty,

a variety of running and functional training workouts,

running under various constraints or stressors,

strength training,

generous rest periods (when the mood hits you),

and a sense of adventure in their approach to running events.

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Adventures in Distance Running and Keto: How To Run Far on an LCHF Diet

Last updated on Feb 17, 2021 By Thomas Watson

In this post, I’m going to share my experience and advice in adopting the keto diet for 10-14 day cycles as a distance runner. We’ll explore the background of ketosis, explain the potential benefits, and address the nay-sayers. Interested in keto and running? Let’s jump in!

The principle behind the ‘keto’ diet is that you eat a lot of fats and very few carbs (LCHF = Low Carb, High Fat) in order to starve your body of readily-available carbohydrate energy and force it to use fat as its primary fuel source.

Mentioning the keto diet to a group of runners is likely to raise a few eyebrows. After all, carbohydrates are our primary fuel source! It’s why we eat a carb-rich meal the night before a long run.

In my half marathon and marathon training programmes, I’m a big advocate of using carbs as your primary fuel source – and explain the quantities and timing of how to maximise their effectiveness.

That banana you grab before your early morning run? Carbs.

Those gels and sports drinks you rely on to power you through a hard session? Carbs.

So why would any runner choose to cut carbs out of their diet altogether? Needless to say, there’s plenty of skepticism on the idea.

I’ve now done several cycles of reaching ketosis – the state of when your body is producing ketones to burn fat due to lack of glycogen from carb sources – and wanted to share my findings and the potential benefits and drawbacks of going keto and running.

Let’s jump in! (warning: long post ahead…)

The Ketogenic Diet – The Basics

The idea behind the Ketogenic Diet, or ‘going keto’, is that by cutting out carbs your body starts to turn to fats for fuel. You begin to produce ketones for energy (derived from fat) as opposed to glycogen which mainly comes from carbohydrates.

When you reach the state of ketone production, you’re officially in ketosis – you’re using fat as your primary fuel source. You can check whether you’re in ketosis using a couple of methods I’ll explain later.

Going keto has similar effects to fasting, with a couple of differences:

You can still eat, you’ve just got to consume very few carbs and more fat.

Once you’re in ketosis, you can stay there as long as you’re willing…unlike fasting, where you’ll eventually need to break your fast if you want to live!

At this point, you’re probably thinking that keto is going to screw up your energy levels – and you’re right, but only while you transition to becoming a fat burner. Then they actually improve – let me explain why…

The Benefits of Keto and Running- Why I Do Keto Cycles:

Every 3-4 months I go through a cycle of 7-10 days of ketosis, following a LCHF diet – I’ll get into the nuts and bolts of how to do it effectively later in this article, but for now…let’s address the reasons why I do it:

(quick note: I’m not a doctor, the following is for informational purposes only, experiment at your own risk!)

Improved fat adaptation

Anyone reading this who has ever Hit The Wall in a distance running event knows what it’s like to run out of fuel. When we’re pushing it hard in a longer run, our body is getting the majority of its energy from glycogen reserves – which come from eating carbohydrates. Hitting the wall means you’ve burned through all that readily-available glycogen and your body has to turn to another fuel source: fat.

If you’re a short-distance runner or usually consume a lot of energy gels as you run, your body probably isn’t accustomed to using fat as fuel source – so when it tries to suddenly switch to using fat to fuel your hard performance, it struggles.

That’s what ‘The Wall’ or bonking essentially is; your body has exhausted all readily-available fuel, and is now struggling to meet the demand.

If you’re somewhat fat-adapted, then The Wall can essentially disappear.

My experience has been that by performing regular keto cycles, those fat adaptation benefits have carried themselves over to my regular, non-keto life. In other words, I can go for steady-state long runs that last for hours (fuelled by carbs first, fat second) without getting fatigued.

This is what I attribute my improved performance in multi-day stage racing to: it’s actually been shown that in self-supported stage races, runners end up in ketosis whether they like it or not. It certainly explains why I felt so terrible on days 3 and 4 of my first-ever stage race.

And it’s probably why now I am so much better at them; by day 4 of a week-long event, I can steadily conquer a 70-80km run while the other front-runners start dropping like flies (see my Namibia Race Report).

namibia keto for runners — 200k into a 250k self-supported stage race, and in 3rd place: is it as much a ‘fat adaptation’ competition as a running event?

Improved sleep and energy levels

The first few days of keto adaptation are a drag as you starve your body of carbs – I cover this more later – but once you come out the other side, you can expect your day-to-day energy levels to be much smoother. I describe it as less peaks and troughs, more of a steady-state flow.

When I’m in ketosis, I fall asleep quickly every night and wake up feeling good, immediately ready to start the day. It’s easy to go for an early morning gym session or run without feeling pangs of hunger or low energy.

That mid-afternoon slump you experience in front of your computer? Gone.

While you still get tired and will always need down time to relax and recover, keto can bring you levels of mental clarity and energy.

Fat loss / Body Recomposition

Yep, if you go keto then you’re going to start burning any excess fat fairly quickly. You get a nice lean feeling once you get keto-adapted.

Worried about muscle loss? Don’t be. Studies have shown that as long as you eat protein with your fats and don’t just fast, you’ll maintain strength and muscle (and can hit the gym).

Potential wider benefits: anti-cancer effects, aiding in heart and brain health

There’s a glut of studies which suggest much wider potential benefits of adopting a LCHF diet, including suggestions that 1-3 fasts per year could purge pre-cancerous cells.

More on the wide-ranging potential benefits here (I’ll leave this to the experts).

It’s in our blood

While it’s easy to dismiss Keto as the latest in a long line of fashionable diets, the state of ketosis is something that was a big part of our ancestors lives (as Nassim Taleb explains in Antifragile).

As hunter-gatherers, it’s been shown that we had irregular eating patterns – meaning we could go for days without a real meal, then gorge on a huge feast when an animal was captured or a new source of food was found.

And cultures across the world have included fasts of one type or another in their calendars for millennia: without worrying about about the potential origins or reasons for fasting, the health benefits are well-documented – it’s clear it’s something that has worked and had a purpose in society.

The Downsides of Keto and Running

Diminished Performance

If you’ve read this far and are officially keto-curious, then a warning:

When you’re in ketosis, your athletic performance will likely suffer.

Don’t expect to jump into ketosis and set new PRs, or run your longest distance ever.

In fact, expect the opposite.

Carbohydrates are still the best source of fuel for high-intensity cardiovascular running, and without them you simply won’t be as fast.

What ketosis is good for is training your body to become a steady-state machine, able to go at a comfortable pace for hours without getting fatigued.

Endurance researchers have likened ketosis to removing your top gear; you can go for hours in an endurance state, but when you try to kick into a sprint you’ll find your abilities are restricted.

No Guaranteed Endurance Benefits

In other words, the sports science community are far from reaching consensus on the effects of a LCHF diet.

Many of the studies done to date are relatively small scale and inconclusive, or simply highlight the diminished performance capabilities of an athlete in ketosis.

Much like the benefits of cold showers or the footstrike debate, there’s strong anecdotal evidence for both sides of the keto argument.

The non-performance-related benefits of ketosis are better researched and documented; I can recommend Dominic D’Agostino’s blog as a good source of information.

Keto Adaptation Takes Time

Getting into ketosis takes a few days, especially the first time you do it. And those days tend to suck. Prepare to be moping around with low energy and enthusiasm and restless sleep as you starve your body of the easily-available fuel sources and force it to begin converting fat to fuel.

Note: it can take weeks after you enter ketosis to become properly fat-adapted, wherein your body starts burning fat more effectively than it does carbs (source).

The good news is that there are steps you can take to speed up the process to get into ketosis, which I get into below!

What Do Other Runners Say About The Keto Diet?

When getting into something as complex as the keto world, I find it helpful to look around and see what other runners are saying about it. Needless to say, there’s a mix of attitudes towards combining keto and running

1. The Marathon Training Legend – Hal Higdon On The Keto Diet

Hal is not only a legend, but has served as an ongoing inspiration to me as a marathon training coach.

His thoughts on the keto diet are pretty black-and-white: he sees no benefit to it.

Hal’s comments echo those of many distance runners and coaches – that there’s no advantage to starving ourselves of carbs when they’re our primary fuel source for runs.

However, it’s clear that Hal is talking about applying the keto diet to periods of intense training (i.e. marathon training), and in this case I’m in agreement.

When you’re in training for a big event, the last thing you need is to layer on the hardships of embracing keto. It would be like a boxer training for a big fight and choosing to tie one hand behind his back.

For me, my keto cycles are an off-season activity, which then serve to help my on-season training.

2. The Sports Science Guru – Alex Hutchinson On The Keto Diet

Alex Hutchinson is the Malcolm Gladwell of physical performance, especially when it comes to endurance sports (@sweatscience on twitter, check my notes on his book Endure here).

He’s my go-to guy to understand the latest sports science research, as he consumes the latest research papers and literature, then presents them in a way that runners can easily understand.

If you’re looking for an impartial, evidence-based take on ketosis and running, you’ll get it from Alex.

And his latest take is that, well, the evidence is shaky – and there’s still a lot of work to be done:

“Those who race all out for four hours or less and care about every second, it’s getting harder and harder to escape the conclusion that an LCHF diet is (at best) not an improvement on conventional mixed diets.” (Outside Online)

“It’s been nearly a decade since I started reading (and writing) articles about the theoretical endurance benefits of LCHF diets. During that time, I’ve certainly spoken to lots of people who swear by this approach. I think it’s a cool idea and theoretically plausible. And I understand that studying these things properly is a huge endeavor.” (Outside Online)

Alex seems intrigued by LCHF / Keto diets, and while he is skeptical that there are any potential benefits for anyone performing high-intensity or short-medium distance events, he acknowledges that things change once you get into longer endurance events.

3. The World Champion Ulta-runner – Zach Bitter

Zach Bitter holds the World Records for both the fastest 100 miler and farthest distance run in 12 hours (104.8 miles). He’s also followed a keto-style LCHF diet since 2011.

“Whether or not I’m training, the piece that stays consistent in my diet is using fat as a primary micronutrient,” says Bitter.

“I fell in love with the sport but started noticing it was getting harder to recover. Big energy swings left my energy crashing.”

Zach now moderates his carb intake based on his training intensity, dipping in and out of ketosis as he needs. On high mileage weeks, Zach increases his carb intake with low-GI foods like sweet potatoes, melons, and berries.

How To Go Keto If You’re a Runner

Intrigued enough to try ketosis and see how it feels?

Before I explain how I get into ketosis quickly, let me just prime you by saying you should be prepared for about a week of low-energy, low-performance output. You may not even be able to muster the energy to work out some days – the keto transition is a big mood dampener.

So ensure you schedule your first ketosis cycle during a block of time during which you don’t mind if your running suffers a little.

How long should you go keto for?

Some people live a full LCHF lifestyle and stay in, or close to, ketosis all the time – Zach Bitter being a great example.

For many people, including myself, it’s difficult to commit to a full-time diet of high fats and low carbs. Plus, I like carbs – they fuel my faster runs. And when you add in social commitments and family, it can get tricky to stick to a restrictive diet all the time.

When I first started out experimenting with LCHF, I did an initial longer keto cycle of 5 weeks to get fat-adapted, and nowadays my cycles are much shorter.

That’s why I do keto cycles every 3-4 months. Each cycle lasts about 14 days, I try to transition into ketosis as quickly as possible, then maintain it for about a week so I can spend some time working out and experimenting with output levels while in ketosis.

The secondary benefits (mental clarity, reported flushing of pre-cancerous cells, purported improved brain health, and longevity) are all associated with the fasting state you create by starving your body of carbs, and can be achieved with a short keto cycle.

How To Get Into Ketosis (Quickly)

So transitioning into ketosis kinda sucks.

You’re basically starving yourself of carbs to force your body to make the switch over to burning fat, and that leaves you feeling pretty low energy and perhaps a tinge grumpy. Some call this phase the “keto flu”, which I think is probably overstating it. You might get headaches, be hungry, have energy swings, and sleep poorly…but if you start to feel actual flu-like symptoms (body aching, significant fatigue, sweats) then that’s something else.

When you’re in this transition, you start to question whether or not keto is actually worth it, and that packet of cookies on your shelf start to look very attractive.

The good news is that the more frequently you do keto cycles, the faster you get at it. During my last cycle, I took <36 hours to start producing a mild amount of ketones (the body’s fuel for burning fat) and get my energy levels into equilibrium.

The fastest way to get into ketosis is simply to fast, and add in some moderate exercise.

This way you don’t give your body anything to ‘chew on’, and it quickly diminishes it’s glycogen reserves. I usually try to fast but often end up eating something high fat to combat restlessness.

My Schedule For Getting Into Ketosis:

Here’s my 3-4 day schedule for getting into ketosis efficiently, and minimising the length of the painful transition.

Day 0 (the day before I begin)

On this day I’ll either have a large lunch and skip dinner, or have a light, low carb dinner. I’ll drink good amounts of water and get to bed early.

Days 1 – 4

I wake up early, make coffee with added MCT oil, and then go for a low-intensity run or long walk. Depending on what my schedule is like, I’ll try to be out for 1-3 hours. (note: if you’re not accustomed to distance running, then walking for a few hours has a similar effect). Drink plenty of water.

I try to eat little, but at times either I get either listless or frankly hungry – then I’ll dip into something high fat low-carbs like some eggs with guacamole or a spoonful of peanut butter.

Throughout these days, I keep up my MCT oil intake and will typically take protein powder after exercise.

Some keto practitioners recommend exogenous ketones; these are supplements that contain lab-produced ketones which can be useful for kick-starting the process. They’re not something I’ve played with, but many keto cyclers rely on them. Just remember that they should be taken in conjunction with the other practices noted here (cut out carbs, do low-intensity cardio); relying on exogenous ketones alone will probably not be enough.

Remember, the idea is to starve yourself of carbs essentially – you don’t have to go to net carbs zero, but the less you eat the faster you’ll make the jump!

How To Know If You’re In Ketosis

There are a couple of methods of easily measuring your ketone levels – which indicate whether or not you’re in ketosis.

The best method is via a blood sample tester (here are a few on Amazon) which work by measuring the ketones in a tiny sample of your blood, retrieved by pricking your finger. The results are pretty accurate.

Another quick and dirty method is to use keto test strips – they’re a simple strip of paper that you pee onto, and they change color based on the % of ketones in your urine. The problem with these strips is that your hydration level seems to affect the result; the more water you drink, the more diluted those ketones are, which will give you a lower reading. Still, they are a good quick and easy way to see if you are producing ketones, without worrying too much about the actual concentration.

You’ll also notice a few physiological changes when you reach ketosis:

Your energy levels will improve, as will your mood
Any hunger pangs will disappear
Better sleep
Better mental clarity.

How To Maintain Ketosis

Once you’ve navigated the minefield of the keto transition, here are my tips for staying on-course:

Minimise carb intake. You want to keep your carb intake down to 20-30g per day. I tend to find it’s easiest to avoid carby food altogether than try to count the grams and stay within a certain limit. If you stay in ketosis for a few weeks, you’ll become fat-adapted and can introduce more carbs back into your diet when you want to fuel.

Eat fats. The second part of the equation is to eat a lot of fats; your diet should be 55-60% fats. In other words, it’s not enough to simply cut our carbs – you’ve also got to focus on fats. Eating too much lean protein and not enough fat can actually kick you out of ketosis, so stock up on butter!

No need to be greasy. ‘Eat fats’ might sound like every meal should be bacon cooked in butter, but the secret to sticking with ketosis is finding a meal plan that you find sustainable. Leafy greens are low-carb, so I’ll try to have a side salad of kale and spinach with some feta and olive oil with meals.

MCT oil helps pack in some fat. MCT oil comes from coconuts and is a great source of fat – I throw a few tablespoons in my coffee to add fats between meals. Note: I have a big coffee in the morning, then usually a decaf around lunchtime.

Stick to the same stuff. Keto is a pretty restrictive diet, and the best way to ensure compliance is to make it simple for yourself. Try to identify the foods that work for you early on, and eat them regularly. Meal prepping suits keto. Sounds boring at first, but if you can dial this in you’ll find it easy to stick to the system.

Mind your electrolytes. When you cut out carbs, you’re often also cutting down on sodium intake. That’s why it’s important to be mindful of your electrolyte levels. A couple of times during keto transitioning I’ve felt terrible mid-afternoon, and remedied it with a stock cube dissolved in hot water.

If you reach the stage of fat adaptation after a few weeks, you can actually reintroduce more and more carbs – much like Zach Bitter does – and your body will use them as fuel, but still have fat as it’s prefered fuel source.

My Keto Food Plan

Nowadays, I’ve got my keto plan fairly well mapped out- I’ve figured out what works for me and now it takes almost no effort to stick to keto. Here’s roughly what my day looks like:

Upon Waking: Water with electrolytes and coffee with MCT oil.

Breakfast (3-4 hours after waking): Scrambled eggs with chorizo mixed through, with added guacamole and hot sauce.

Lunch: Meat with a leafy green salad on the side, add feta and infused olive oil for flavour

Dinner: Low carb soup or leftovers. I usually find I’m not particularly hungry at dinner time while in keto.

For snacking, I rely on peanut butter (100% natural) a lot. I take a teaspoon of that regularly. Dark chocolate is another good once-a-day treat. I also take protein shakes after runs or workouts, and MCT oil in my coffees.

I tend to be wary of any snacks branded as Keto, or restaurant menu items claiming to be Keto – it’s always worth looking at what else is in there, they’ve often got more carbs than you’d expect and other junk in there to fill them out.

How To Work Your Keto Diet Around Your Family

Keto gets tricky when you share a household with family members who aren’t following the same restrictive diet as you.

In order to maintain a happy household, I’ve found two things that work well:

1. Be responsible for all food preparation.

Living with someone who is following a weird diet is much easier to do when that person prepares all your food too. In other words, as well as preparing your keto meals, you should try to prepare the non-keto food for all the other household members.

This way, you’re actually doing them a favor and making their lives easier. It’s a lot of work, but if it keeps the house harmonious and means they support your keto efforts, it’s worth it.

2. Find Middle-Ground Foods

There are a few dishes you can prepare that satisfy both keto and non-keto palates, though they require some planning. Our household favorites include low-carb spicy chicken broth (I add noodles for the non-keto people) and Thai green curry (I prepare cauliflower rice for myself, and regular rice for the non-keto members of the house).

Keto and Running – My Findings

1. Keto boosts my fat adaptation – and hence endurance

On my last keto cycle, I woke up at 0600hrs on a Saturday morning and headed out the door for a 20k run, fuelled only by a cup of coffee. Two hours later I was back home and felt great – throughout the run I’d kept my exertion levels to around 60%, and experienced steady energy that made me feel I could’ve kept going.

If I’d tried the same workout in a non-keto state, I know my energy would’ve bombed about 40-60 minutes in, once I’d burned through whatever fuel was in my tanks.

I like to think of my keto cycles as exercising that fat adaptation muscle – it primes my body to burn fat more easily, and this pays off when it comes to several-hour-long runs, or – even more importantly – ultramarathons and stage races.

(For the avoidance of doubt, I still fuel my long races with carbs, but that fat adaptation mechanism helps drive me forward when others start to drop off).

2. Keto = Awesome levels of general energy

In daily life, I’m often in a battle against my energy levels, trying to map workouts and important work around periods where I know I’ll have plenty of energy. I usually end up experiencing highs and lows – driven by caffeine and carbs, typically – which creates a bit of imbalance in terms of productivity and mood.

When I’m in ketosis, this problem basically goes away. No hunger pangs, no post-lunch ‘carb crash’, just a consistent, comfortable level of sustainable energy throughout the day.

I often work out early in the mornings – when I’m in ketosis, I find that I can wake up at 5am and head to the gym, and work out without feeling sleepy or low energy.

3. Ketosis limits your athletic performance

There’s no getting around this one; being in ketosis means your anaerobic capability is throttled back.

It’s why I’d never try to set a new PR (like run a 5k in 20 minutes) while following keto – when you try to find that top gear, it’s simply not there.

4. Ketosis is an off-season activity

Unless you’re Zach Bitter, it’s probably not a good idea to attempt keto adaptation while you’re ramping up your weekly mileage or preparing for a running event.

Instead, keto cycles are something I recommend trying out in the off-season when you know demands on your body are low and you’re willing to try out something new.

I do several of these a year, and always do one during Sober October – when I typically do a month-long keto cycle.

I get why most coaches are not a fan of keto – it limits your performance, and it doesn’t necessarily benefit your running game directly. Those runners who get the most out of keto are definitely ultrarunners. Plus, keto takes a lot of compliance – there’s a lot of discipline and education required.

But for me, ketosis is another string in my training bow – I see it as another form of resistance training, much like running with minimalist shoes or with a weighted pack. It has benefits that cascade into several areas of life, and helps my distance running endurance.

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How Long Is A Marathon? 4 Methods of Measuring Marathon Length

Last updated on Feb 25, 2021 By Thomas Watson

How Long Is A Marathon – The Metric Answer

The official, globally recognised marathon length is 26.219 miles or 42.195 kilometers.

That’s the standard, objective metric measurement.

(and if you’re wondering How Long is a Half Marathon, the official half marathon length is 13.11 miles or 21.0975 kilometers).

If you’ve just googled ‘How Long Is A Marathon?’, then well done, you should be pretty satisfied.

But wait!

There are other, more interesting ways to describe the length of a marathon . . . let’s look at how to measure a marathon comparatively, subjectively, and emotionally…

(Ever wondered why a marathon is such a weird, seemingly random length? The story behind the explanation of 26 miles and 385 yards starts in ancient Greece, makes a turn at the first Olympic marathon, and ends in front of the royal Queen Alexandra in 1908. Here’s my summary of it.)

The Length of a Marathon – Objective Comparisons

Alright, so we’ve established a marathon to be 26.2-ish miles or 42.2 kilometers.

That’s a pretty long distance, but how else might we describe it in terms that are easier to understand?

Hmm, something that is long in real-life, that everyone knows about.

I’ll avoid all the clichés and go straight for the Golden Gate Bridge.

golden gate bridge how long is a marathon

The Golden Gate Bridge – everyone’s favorite disaster movie prop – is 2,747m long, end to end.

How many times would you have to cross the Golden Gate Bridge to cover a marathon?

A full marathon is equivalent to running across the Golden Gate Bridge 15.3 times.

Ooft.

That’s pretty far.

Never been to San Francisco?

Alright, how about if we think about a football pitch (I’m favoring Europeans and referring to soccer, for you Americans).

The official size of a football pitch can actually vary, so I took the average measurements here.

The perimeter of your average football (soccer) pitch is 368m, so that means that in order to cover a full marathon, you’d have to run around a soccer pitch 114.7 times.

Not much more comforting than the bridge calculation, is it?

How about we start to look at the distance of a marathon in slightly more abstract terms?

Marathon Distance vs. Level of Exertion

We can start by looking at one of the most important variables you’re aware of when you run a marathon; your level of exertion.

It’s an interesting way to consider the length of a marathon subjectively…

A typical, well-prepared marathon runner’s level of exertion will look something like the graph below.

The first half of a marathon should be relatively smooth; you’ve trained well, you’ve tapered, you’ve fuelled. Your legs are poised, ready to carry you through the race. Awesome.

Somewhere around the halfway point, something funny starts to happen. You begin to notice that you’re not cruising quite like you were earlier.

You’re maybe noticing slight signs of fatigue.

In order to maintain a good pace, you’ve got to push yourself a bit more.

As the race continues, your energy levels continue to drop off, and you have to dig deeper – exert yourself more, that is – to keep running.

What is actually happening here (at least for most of us) is that the energy stored in your muscles – called glycogen – is being used up, and your body has to start burning fat as a source of energy.

This is much less efficient as using glycogen for fuel, so it tends to leave us feeling terrible.

This is what happens when we hit The Wall (see my more long-winded summary here).

On the graph below, I’ve plotted glycogen level against exertion levels over time. As you can see, from the moment you begin running you are depleting your glycogen levels.

It is only when running long distance, once these reserves are beginning to run dry that you will feel real fatigue and The Wall approaching.

The 26.2 Mile Marathon – The Perceived Distance

Alright, this one is a bit more Inception-ish and kinda hard to quantify.

It’s also much easier to understand if you have actually run a marathon.

Although we can say as a scientific fact that a marathon is 26.2 miles, anyone who has run one can tell you that this is both true and totally false.

26.2 miles is a distance you can drive in your car without really thinking about it. You can probably cycle 26.2 miles without getting too out-of-shape about things, too.

26.2 miles is equal to two half-marathons.

But running a marathon is not just like running two half marathons.

Let me explain a little bit more.

Going back to the exertion graph, here’s roughly what a half marathon looks like (to someone who has prepared for a marathon):

HALF MARATHON length how long is a marathon

Now here’s what two of those, back-to-back, look like, in terms of exertion:

HALF MARATHON 2 length how long is a marathon

Now let’s overlay the exertion level of an actual marathon, and you’ll see what I’m getting at:

OK so now the picture is getting a little busier – but hopefully, the message is clear. Running a marathon is completely different to the experience of running a half-marathon, doubled.

(If you’re wondering why the exertion level climbs faster during half marathons, its because a runner will typically push herself harder when she knows she is getting closer to the end. Same goes for why the starting exertion level is a little lower for a full marathon – runners will generally try and keep a little bit more fuel in the tank).

So, how could we portray a marathon in terms of perceived distance?

Hmm, let’s see…

The perceived distance graph shows how the first half of the marathon really is a piece of cake (at least, relative to the second half).

The first 10-15 miles will slide past pretty quickly; it is the second half that really seems to go on forever.

This isn’t just a trick of the brain – time really is relative. Scientists will tell you time will go faster if you run faster (here’s a link).

But really, what happens during a long distance run like a marathon is more of a psychological effect. The more significant an event, or the harder something is, the slower and meatier it feels in your brain – in terms of time dedicated to it.

This is why when you reflect on your daily commute, it may seem to pass by without you really being aware of it.

But if one day you are in a car accident, suddenly that event becomes a significant part of your time – and in hindsight, you remember it much more richly than you would a typical day.

So you are more likely to perceive the second half of a marathon as much longer and more time-consuming, simply because it is going to be tougher and more involving than the first half.

The 26.2 Mile Marathon – measured in Emotional Stages

Any marathon runner can tell you that running 26.2 miles is as much of a mental journey as it is a physical one.

In fact, I figured out recently that there are a total of 15 emotional stages to marathon running –check out the full blog here for a stage-by-stage psychological breakdown.

Here’s a summary of what to expect:

Anticipation: “Should I have gone to the toilet one more time?” “Did I take enough gels?” “Do my legs feel a bit weird?”
Sudden Euphoria: “This is awesome! I’m flying!”
Adrenaline: “Hey, this is easier than I thought”
Fortitude: “There’s still a long way to go, but things are good”
Boredom: “Did I leave the bathroom light on this morning?”
Doubt: “Am I beginning to feel a little tired?”
Denial: “This is just a minor setback . . . ”
Anger: “Who made these things so long?”
Bargaining: “Maybe if I can just stop for a second, I’ll be fine…”
Depression: “Take me home”
Acceptance: “This hurts, but I guess I’ll continue”
Fortitude (again): “I’m going to finish this, come hell or high water”
Adrenaline (again): “Hey, I’m getting close to the finish line . . . I’m actually going to finish this thing!”
Euphoria (again): “woohoo!”
The Afterglow: “that was awesome, I feel awesome…hey, maybe I could do another one of those sometime.”

Because I love graphs so much, to finish with here is the 15 emotional stages of marathon running in a nice wave, showing you how your mood is probably going to go during your marathon:

Another article you might enjoy: When Was Running Invented?

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