Sacramento Running News

Local runner Bruce LaBelle sent me this really interesting article from the New York Times about how merely the taste of carbohydrates can improve your performance.  According to the article, “Exercise scientists say they have stumbled on an amazing discovery. Athletes can improve their performance in intense bouts of exercise, lasting an hour or so, if they merely rinse their mouths with a carbohydrate solution. They don’t even have to swallow it.”

These findings seem to help explain earlier research that showed significant performance improvement (in cyclists) from drinking carbohydrate beverages during short bouts of exercise.  The short duration of exertion would not allow the absorption of usable fuel–but somehow athletes benefited.  It seems that even the taste of carbohydrates (not sweet) was enough to “trick the brain.”

This study appears to be reinforce the idea that your brain is really the limiting factor in your running performance.  “Think of a runner who is bonking, takes in some gel or soda, and perks up immediately.  How many calories really could have gone into their stomach and intestines, get adsorbed into the bloodstream, and then transferred into the muscles or the brain in the time it took for them to feel better?” asks LaBelle.  “Note that the observed effect of carbohydrate-specific receptors affecting the brain has interesting parallels with the hypotheses by Noakes and his colleagues on the Central Governor Model of exercise in which the brain dictates to a surprising extent how hard we can run.  It helps explain how we can be reduced to a plod for hours, then see the “One Mile to Go” sign and perk up and be able to run again.”

Next time you are near the end of a marathon, and your stomach has gone all wobbly, try just a taste of some energy gel and maybe that’s all you’ll need to get you across that finish line.