One month on AIP, then ran a 50k. Here's what happened. (Wow, I should write clickbait headlines!)

I ran Trail Racing Over Texas' Wildflower 50k yesterday.  It seemed like a good experiment, because the race took place after exactly once month of being on the AIP diet.  Here's my experience of what went well and what didn't -- you know, for science.

The good

• Maybe because my body hadn't been exposed to added sugar for a month, I felt especially energized by chews and gels.  I didn't follow a strict nutrition regimen during the race; I think I consumed around 600 calories of chews and gels, plus several bottle-fulls of Coke from aid stations.  According to Strava (this phrase is generally accepted to be the equivalent to saying, "indisputable fact"), the run burned 4,000 calories.  I can't say that means I'm "fat-adapted," where I'm burning fat versus protein, and I don't know what might have happened in a longer ultra, but this was a good enough experience to convince me to continue avoiding added sugar in my daily diet.

• It felt so good to have energy throughout the race, and to be able to push myself each loop, rather than deteriorating with every mile, like I did in my last couple races.  I kept fairly even splits -- 1:07, 1:06, 1:08, 1:10, 1:06, and moved up through the field from 6th female after the first loop, to 1st female, 14th overall by the end.  Ah, the feeling of not being over-raced.  I might actually try to avoid over-racing in the future to preserve that good feeling.  Well, at least I'll try to try.

The bad

• Maybe because my body hadn't been exposed to added sugar for a month, it freaked the f- out when I consumed all that sugar.  My GI system was like, "Holy hell, Julie; wtf?!"  

• After giving my all to win that race, I came back to San Antonio only to have my butt handed to me in Connect 4 by a wily 9-year-old.  It was kind of like that scene in Scrubs:

We aren't competitive at all.