Last week I tried Maurtens Bicarb for the first time. I’d bought some to try out pre Paddock Wood half and training runs leading up to that. Hearing about the integration into longer distance events I was curious, seemingly it making a noticeable difference at any distance where you are working hard enough to allow the sodium bicarbonate to help buffer the hydrogen ions.
Having listened to Dr Andy Sparks talking on the Physiology of Running podcast it made sense to me how it worked and what it would do. So I tried it out on the above bike ride. Knowing I’d be in the zone of needing to buffer hydrogen I wanted to see how it would work – and it was really effective. I felt far more in control, heat rate seemed lower, post ride I felt less fatigued and sleep came a lot easier than it normally would.
This then led me to design below:
I picked up a niggle / knee injury early Feb, which pretty much put paid to any proper running until last week. Which threw a spanner in the works for running the London marathon. I’m pretty sure that I’ve resolved the knee issue (weak hip) and am gradually coming back to running, whilst strengthening the hip & maintaining a solid aerobic base via Zwift on my bike.
I had a similar experience in 2023 and worked on getting to a marathon purely off mainly a lot of cycling / lifting weight and a very small amount of running in the month leading up to Boston.
This time will be slightly different – due to:
- Being more able to run more regularly
- Bicarb (or so I think)
One of the challenges I have is keeping myself really aerobically fit, whilst ramping up the running sensibly in a way my body can handle to get me to marathon day & then manage the run in both physical, mechanical & physiological terms.
Based on my recent experience using Bicarb this week – I have devised once a week protocol to see how I get on, if it is sustainable (physically) and if I can recover effectively to train after my rest day.
This week I tried Bicarb for a hard 90 minute effort on the bike. I found the ride was a lot more sustainable and post ride I felt far less fatigued and sleep came a lot easier that night (which isn’t the case after a similar hard effort). Part of this I’m postulating isn’t only the buffering of hydrogen, but the ability to utilise the fuel I took on during the ride and so effectively enable my body to fuel the work it had to do.
Looking at Maurten’s Digital calculator, it gives the Bicarb a 4h 30m window of working, so that in turn gives me a window to get in a run / cycle ride.
My plan is to do the following:
My normal week of training – not including Sunday’s session would be:
Mon – rest day
3 x Hip strength sessions around each 35-40m long (Weds, Thurs, Sat)
2 x S&C around each 35-40m long (Tues, Fri)
1 x Bike hardish session 1hr (Fri)
4 x Runs, 1 with strides, 1 @ tempoish efforts, 2 easy (Tues, Weds, Thurs, Sat) ranging from 1h to 90mins each. This will vary a little over the 3 weeks of the Sunday sessions below, but not a great deal
Each Sunday do a run followed immediately by a hard bike ride.
The run follows the same structure, getting longer each week
Week 1 (Mar 23) – either 4 x 3k or 4 x 4k with each KM block being 10 secs/km faster than the previous. Starting at 4:30/km and dropping down to 4:00/km by the end, which for me starts at around LT1 (around 150bpm) and will be pretty close to my LT2 by the end (around 165-168bpm). I’m basing these around where I believe I am at the moment (as opposed to testing) based on how I feel and the running I’ve done & how my knee feels during the run.
Time – 1h 18m
This followed by a bike ride for 1h 25m that will be in a similar zone for me, with intervals of work that are above / below / at my Zwift FTP (whilst I’m not a cycling coach, in terms of how I feel, HR and effort this makes sense to me)
Total time – 2h 53m
Week 2 (Mar 30) As above, run now 4 x 5k cutdowns off same pacing roughly 1h 30m
Bike ride – 1h 45m at same intensities
Total time – 3h 15m
Week 3 (Apr 6th) As above, run now 4 x 6k cutdowns off same pacing roughly 1h 52m
Bike ride – 1h 45m at same intensities
Total time – 3h 37m
Bicarb always taken to ensure that suggested effective window is open when first running rep at 4:30/km starts.
I’ll aim to fuel 90g of carbs /hour throughout run / bike. Gels on run, gels + drink on bike
The week 3 session is 3 weeks out from London, so gives me time to assess how things have gone and what to do going forwards.
I’m hoping that the bicarb enables my body to both buffer the hydrogen & absorb the fuel more effectively, allowing the run to be easy enough to then sit in on the bike and work hard. I’m also curious if the time window that Maurten suggests does exist – as I’m confident I’ll be working at a high enough intensity to ensure that the bicarb is being called upon.
I’ll record my feel / pace / HR for each part of the run / ride to compare.
I’ll also use Suunto Zone Sense as I’ve found this an accurate barometer of how I am working.
This could fall apart this Sunday, or in 2 weeks time. Or it could prove to show a solid practical use of bicarb in ramping up training in combination with cycling for a long endurance event.
Either way I’m curious how this works.
