51. How I Ran a 50k on Zero Calories

My name is Patrick McGilvray. And I’m an experienced marathoner, ultra runner, Master Life Coach, and weight loss coach for runners. I’ve learned that running more and eating less does not work for weight loss, and that there’s a better way. Now I help runners like you to get leaner and get stronger, so you can run faster and run longer than you ever thought possible. This is Running Lean.

Hey there, and welcome to episode 51 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, the weight loss coach for runners. And today I’m going to be talking about how I ran a 50k recently on zero calories. So last weekend, I ran the sloppy hog 50k. This wasn’t an organized event. You know, since most of the ultras have been canceled this year, almost all races have been canceled, right? I just decided I’m going to do this on my own.

So I picked a date, I mapped out a course on some local trails, and bam, the sloppy hog 50k was born. So what makes this particular event unique, though, is not just the amazing name that I chose for it. It is an amazing name, right? It’s that I did the whole thing without using any fuel at all. I took in zero calories before or during my roughly eight hours-ish of running.

So in this episode of the podcast, I’m going to break it all down for you, I want to tell you exactly how I did it. But maybe even more importantly, why I did it. That is all coming up. In the meantime, if you haven’t already, come check us out on Facebook, we have this awesome group in Facebook called the Running Lean community, you can find us by just going to Facebook and searching for Running Lean community.

It’s a bunch of runners like you who are interested in nutrition, and weight loss and achieving big goals. And we all support each other and encourage each other and motivate each other. We’re in the middle of this running challenge. Right now it’s the running through the holidays challenge. The challenge is to run a mile every day, at least a mile every day between Thanksgiving Day and New Year’s Day. And we are well into this and it is so much fun.

People are finding all kinds of motivation, and really enjoying it. So come check us out on Facebook. The other thing I wanted to mention is that beginning January 3, I’m going to open my monthly coaching group. This is my signature program, which here’s what I’m doing.

I’m combining the monthly coaching group, which I had started recently, and the online weight loss training course for runners that I created. So I’m taking those two things, because here’s the thing. If you want these amazing results, you want to learn exactly how to transform yourself into an efficient fat burning machine, you need the knowledge, right, you need that training course that’ll tell you exactly how to do all of that. Okay.

The other part, though, that is so important, I think is missing from a lot of programs like this is the accountability piece, the showing up. And you know, talking to people that are going through the same thing with you getting help from me. And that’s what the coaching group is. So I’ve got the online training course and the monthly coaching group, I’ve just kind of combined it into one thing.

So when you join the monthly coaching group, you get access to the online weight loss training course for runners. And this is the combination that will get you the results that you’re looking for. I promise you, it’s gonna be awesome. So just check it out, it’s going to launch January 3 of 2021.

In the meantime, if you want to get on the waitlist, you can go to runningleanpodcast.com/join. I want you to make 2021 your year, let’s put 2020 behind us, shall we? I want you to become the badass runner that you’ve always always wanted to be. And joining the monthly coaching group is gonna get you there. Cool.

So just go to runningleanpodcast.com/join. Okay, so how did I run a 50k on zero calories? And why did I do this crazy thing? So let’s talk about the why first, because I think it’s important to let you guys know why I decided to do this. Okay, it wasn’t just a whim. This is something I’ve been planning for some time.

I did it for a bunch of different reasons. But mainly, you know, I talk about this all the time. I want to be an example of what’s possible. And so I want to show you that when you become I’m a fat adapted runner, which means you can burn fat very efficiently. That you can do, you’re capable of running much longer than you ever thought you could.

I want to just show you that you can do something like a marathon or a 50k. And you don’t have to use fuel. If you don’t want to, you can still use fuel if you want to. But I’m just saying, when you’re an efficient fat burner, you don’t need it. You got plenty of fuel on board, which is super cool. I did it because I wanted to be an example. But also because I wanted to prove to myself that this stuff really works.

You know, I wanted to test the limits of my own fat adaptation, I wanted to see how far I could go and still feel good. How far can I go? How far can I run without any fuel and still feel good? Well, the answer is at least 32 miles at this point, probably further.

But you know, I really wanted to do something that was that was going to challenge me that was going to push me outside of my comfort zone, I talk a lot about getting out of your comfort zone, I talk a lot about embracing discomfort and how when you embrace discomfort, and you get out of your comfort zone, that’s where all the good stuff is. Right?

Everything you have already is what you have, it’s in your comfort zone, it’s comfortable, it’s the known. But when you push yourself outside of the known into the unknown, that’s where the growth happens. That’s where the cool stuff happens. That’s where you, you change, and you can transform yourself physically, mentally, emotionally.

And so I wanted to push myself, I wanted to get out of my comfort zone, this was out of my comfort zone. I’ve never done a 50k I’ve done a bunch of them before, but I’ve never done one with zero calories, you know, not taking any fuel and during. So this is something that was like, I don’t know if I can do this or not, I don’t know if this is going to work.

But it did. And I’ll tell you all about that in just a second here. But the main reason why I did this is to show you what is possible, right? You don’t have to want to do this. But just knowing that that is possible, is is something I wanted to share with you.

And I want you to see that fat adaptation is is a pretty remarkable thing. And that you can do some pretty amazing things, you know, running off of your own body fat. Cool. So how did I do this? Like, what was the process I went through?

So first of all, you have to understand that I started my journey to fat adaptation this year, earlier this year, let’s just call it like, you know, January, February of 2020. And I’ve done this before, a few years back, I did the same thing. I didn’t quite do it, right. I didn’t know then what I knew now. And I had some good results in the past, but it wasn’t sustainable the way I was doing it. And let’s just leave it at that.

Like, you know, it doesn’t matter what I did wrong in the past, I just I didn’t know what I know now, especially the mental piece, right? It’s such a big part of this. So I started my fat adaptation journey again this year earlier this year. And I’ve trained for many months, you know, to become fat adapted, it was a challenge when you get off of sugar as your primary source of fuel.

So you’re a sugar burner. Most of us are sugar burners, our body’s like burning sugar for fuel, it’s very efficient, right? It’s a very easy fuel to get to and it’s very abundant. We eat a lot of sugar and carbs. And so that stuff is really available for our bodies to use as fuel. The problem with that is that, you know, you’re most of us, as runners tend to overdo it with the sugar and we tend to be storing a lot of that energy as fat instead of using it as fuel.

So we’re just constantly shoving sugar into us, and it’s being stuffed into our fat cells instead of being burned. Right. So, you know, when I got off to sugar, and started this process of becoming fat adapted, it was a challenge. It was, you know, six to eight weeks of me, you know, kind of struggling to run like running was a bit of a challenge for me.

I didn’t enjoy running very much it was it was hard because your body has to shift from having this one source of fuel that it’s used to using to switching over to fat, which is what it’s really not used to using typically as fuel because we just don’t ever allow that to happen. We don’t allow our bodies a chance to eliminate all the glycogen from our, from our cells from our muscles.

And we don’t just we just don’t get into the fat burning zone, the way we we do when you get off of sugar. So that process is a challenge and it’s uncomfortable and it doesn’t feel good. And I talk about this a lot. Like you just have to get through that part. Right.

So I got through that part. And then for the rest of this year, I made a commitment to really doing all my runs in a fasted state, meaning really not getting any fuel before I run, I drink coffee in the morning, that’s it. And then I do my workout, whether it’s a strength training, workout speed work, long runs, whatever it is, I just do it all without fuel. And I do that because when you do that, it makes you a more efficient fat burner.

Okay, so I kind of prepared for this for many months, and became a very efficient fat burner. So that’s kind of step one is you got to get good at burning your own fat and using your own fat for fuel. Once you get to that place, though, it feels so good. Because you really do feel like you can run forever.

And then I decided since I was feeling so good in the summer, I decided I was going to run a marathon in October. And so at the end of October I trained for and ran a marathon with some friends. And we had a lot of fun. It was a success, I did that unfueled as well. And that got me thinking that I was going to I wanted to do this 50k. And I wanted to do it unfueled.

And I had originally planned on doing this next spring like spring of 21. And I felt so good after that marathon, I was like, hmm, maybe I can just push this up and do it now like train for five more weeks, and then use that momentum to carry me into this 50k in December rather than waiting till, like April or whatever. And so I made that decision. And once I made that decision, I was like, I’m just going to do it, I feel good. I feel trained up to increase my mileage at that point wasn’t going to be that big of a deal.

Once I made that decision, I was like all in. I was like 100% committed, you know, I wrote out a five week training plan. And then I just worked the plan. I stuck to my plan. I did some, some long runs. On the weekends, I increased my long runs, you know after the marathon, usually I would take some time off after a marathon few weeks or something like that. But I got right back into the long runs the following weekend.

You know, I think I did something like 16 on Saturday, and then Sunday, I would do like 10. And then my peak week I ended up doing something like 45 miles or something like that. But the weekend, I did 18 on Saturday and 12 on Sunday. So over the two days, you know, we’re talking 30 miles, instead of doing a super long run one day, I decided to split it up into two.

And that was a good training plan for me like that worked really well that kept me from getting injured after a marathon, you know, you do have to kind of be careful of that kind of thing happening. But instead, I kind of broke up that that long run over two days. And you’re still running on tired legs the next day, like 18 miles on Saturday and 12 miles on Sunday is still a lot of running. Okay.

But that kept me from like doing like a 24-25 mile or something like that, and kept me from getting injured. So I felt good about my strategy. And I kind of use the same strategy for other Ultras I’ve done, like my 50 mile 100 mile, you know, you don’t really run 80 miles on one day or whatever.

But you know, over the course of a week, you might do 80 or 85 miles. On the weekends. I remember training for my 100 I would do like 30 miles on Saturday and 20 miles on Sunday. So you’re running 50 miles in a 24 hour period, you’re totally running on tired legs, it does really build your aerobic base without the risk of injury. So at least that reduces the risk of injury. So that’s a good good plan that I kind of have adopted in the past. It’s worked well for me in the past and I thought I’m just going to do this again.

So that worked really well and I just stuck to this plan for the last five weeks or so. And really here’s the thing, there’s three parts to a successful event like this. Really there’s three parts to successful running, right? There’s the training, there’s the nutrition, and then there’s the mindset.

The training, we understand, you know, do your long runs, do a few shorter runs during the week, do some strength training, all that stuff, we all kind of get that the nutrition part, you know, I trained very low carb, and, you know, I might do 50 grams of carbs a day or less, most days, I don’t really count carbs and stuff, I don’t count macros, I don’t enter food into an app or anything.

Like, I just, I’m at the point right now where I stay away from sugar and flour and other refined carbs. And I just eat real food. And I have put my food, entered it into apps just to see kind of where I was. And I’m usually somewhere around 30 or 40 grams of carbs. And that’s mostly in the form of vegetables, maybe some full fat, Greek yogurt, some strawberries and stuff like that. So I do train very low carb.

And then the mindset piece is so important. Like you, you have to be all in on something like this, you know, you have to have that mindset of like, I’m going to make this work, I’m going to figure it out and make it work. And you have to be committed, you have to be motivated, you have to be self motivated, you have to have a certain amount of confidence to do this.

Okay, so we got the training, the nutrition and the mindset, and they’re like three legs of the stool, they all have to work together. So after that marathon, I decided I was going to, you know, kick these things into high gear, I did a few weeks of some longer runs, and then tapered, you know, so I did a couple of weeks of tapering, and ended up doing one run on trails in that period. So I haven’t been running on trails a whole lot.

I kind of went out one weekend, I scouted the course, you know, I typically would do a lot more running on trails before an event like this. Because the 50k that I did was all trail. And normally I I really adhere to this principle, that specificity of training is very important. So if you’re going to do a trail 50k, you should be running a lot of trails, I did not do that.

So this is like a lesson learned for me is like do more trail running leading up to a big event like this. So I’ll tell you why in a minute. But just understand that you always want to do you keep your training specific to the event that you’re going to be doing.

And another thing to keep in mind here is that we’re doing this running challenge right now is running through the holidays. And I decided I was going to run not just a mile every day, but I was going to do at least a 5k every single day between Thanksgiving Day and New Year’s Day. And so I’ve been keeping up with that. The problem I was worried about was that this was adding to my weekly mileage and that I was worried I was going to burn myself out before this event, I was worried I was going to be like overdoing it overtraining, you know, especially in the day or two before an event like this.

Normally, I would take the day off, I wouldn’t do anything. But I was running a 5k every single day. I was also worried about the day after my 50k like, can I go out there and run a 5k? Is this even a good idea or not? How am I gonna feel. So we’ll talk about that in a minute. But I ended up you know, running and keeping up my 5k every single day.

But that was something that was like definitely different than I would normally do in training for something like this. So this is all like leading up to the week of the event, right? I was like, you know, I had become fat adapted. I had, you know, run a marathon at the end of October, which is perfect for something like this. You know, you want to have an event like that as part of your training plan. And then I increased my mileage and then dipped it back down again. And I felt ready.

So the week of the event I took it easy. I still did my 5k every day, but I was getting a little bit more rest. I was getting some good nights’ sleep. And especially in the couple of days before the event I was eating more food like I was just getting more calories. Right and a few more carbs. Right.

So I wasn’t as concerned about like keeping carbs super low in the day before especially. I probably got I probably doubled my carbs. Like for the day before like maybe around 100 grams. Again, I don’t really count this stuff. But I was just giving myself a little bit of extra in the tank, you know.

And so that’s something that you can definitely do leading up to something like this is increase your carbs, and that those carbohydrates when you eat them, if you’re not eating a lot of them, they become readily available to your muscles. So instead of like being processed by the liver and being stored as fat, you know, some of that energy being stored as fat, most of the energy from eating those carbohydrates, almost all of it, in fact, will go directly to your muscles to be used as energy.

So when you’re an efficient fat burner, and you do add some carbs, it actually will not throw you off, you know, it will give you the glycogen that you need to, you know, just have a little bit of extra energy for a big event like this. So I adopted that strategy. And again, I don’t eat a lot of carbs. So like doing this the day before, it gave me a little bit of extra gas in the tank, so you know, why not do it.

And then, the day of the event, I started it, just like I do, every other day, I got up early, I made some coffee. And that’s all I did. I drink coffee in the morning. And that’s it, I headed out to the trails, got out there, met a couple friends out there. They were setting up a camp, they were setting up a – we had a trailer and a fire pit and all this stuff. So they were like we’re gonna set up this camp, you can go to your first loop on your own, I was like, cool headed out into the woods, it was still dark.

And I got my first loop done, you know, in 40 minutes or so. So the course I had set up was a looped course, there was actually two parts to the loop, there was a three mile section and a five mile section. So add those two together, and that’s eight miles. And that would be one full loop. And so I did that full loop four times to give me 32 miles. So it was actually farther than a 50k little bit about a mile further.

And that first loop was fine. You know, I felt good. It was cool. It was supposed to rain all day. Supposed to rain, like super hard all day, it really didn’t rain off and on. But the the weather was really cooperating. It was awesome. wasn’t super cold, it wasn’t warm, it was like mid 60s, cloudy, everything was just perfect, right.

And so, as the day went on, I just settled into this all day pace like, my typical kind of trail pace, slow and easy. Listen, I am not trying to break any records, I really don’t care how fast I run, I don’t even look at my watch, other than just to see like, how far I’ve gone. It doesn’t matter to me, I took a lot of breaks, you know, we had this camp set up.

And so I would come back, maybe change my shirt, you know, have something to drink, get some coffee, you know, one of my friends was making coffee. For me, I was like this is amazing. So I was not in any hurry to get this thing done. All in all, it took me around eight hours to finish this thing.

And I could have done it faster, I could have taken fewer breaks or shorter breaks. But I was feeling so good. I was just having fun. The whole thing was just about having fun out there. So I don’t know about halfway through my watch died. So I use an Apple Watch for all my training. And I love it for a lot of reasons. It just doesn’t last very long.

And so here’s a good lesson that I learned. Next time, bring the Garmin just use my Garmin watch next time, it lasts forever. So that was a good lesson to learn right there. But I had these friends that came out to support me and run with me.

And I have to tell you, this made the day so much more fun. Leslie, Brandon, Jake, all amazing, good friends. We were cracking up out there running on the trails, laughing, smiling. I was just beaming all day. It was really just so much but it made the whole event so much more meaningful for me.

So I have to tell you, if you have friends that will run with you and help you and support you in something like this. They didn’t run the whole thing with me. But they they ran a loop. You know, each of them ran a loop with me. And I only ended up doing, I didn’t have to do that much on my own. And it just made it so much more fun. And Brandon kept telling me he’s like we got a surprise for you at the finish and he wouldn’t tell me what it was.

And I was like, huh, I’m very excited about this. So he just kept teasing me with this surprise. I was like I wonder what it is. I hope it has something to do with like bacon but we’ll see. And then. But anyway and just, it was so much fun. So much fun. It was actually the most fun I’ve ever had doing any any kind of race, I don’t really want to call it a race, it was an event, you know, because it was just me. I mean, I won, right?

But I just had so much fun. The way I look at it is like this, the training is the hard part. You know, you train for something like this, and you put in weeks and weeks, sometimes months of work, that’s the hard part. The actual event is like your victory lap, just go out there and have fun, smile, laugh, enjoy it.

And that’s what I tried to do. That’s my attitude around all kinds of all the events that I do like this. So I just felt really good. So here’s the thing, I was feeling so good, I had so much energy. And this is one of the benefits of being a very efficient fat burner, you have a lot of energy, your body uses the your own body fat and your produce ketones and stuff like that, too.

But your body can use your own body fat for fuel, and it is a very efficient source of fuel. This fuel will last you all day long. And I remember coming in after one of the loops, and it was like mile 27. I came in and these guys were sitting around and I was like bouncing off the walls. I was like, I had so much energy.

And they’re like what is wrong with you? What is the matter with you? Why are you so full of energy, you should be tired, and I was like, I am not tired? I feel so good. And that last loop that I did last five miles loop that I did, it was I felt just as good as the first loop, honestly, which was really weird for me, normally I’d be dying. At that time, I still had gas in the tank. When I was finished, I came in finished, I felt so good still I could have kept going.

I could easily see doing a longer than than 50k I could easily see doing like a 50 miler unfueled. And maybe I’ll try that I’m not going to commit to that at this point. But 50k, man, easy, easy to do if you’re an efficient fat burner. So I finished very strong, I felt really good. At the end, I had tons of energy still. And I would call this whole thing a huge success.

Now, again, I don’t really care about the time, this thing took me roughly eight hours, right? And it doesn’t matter. If I wanted to run it faster, I could, if I did that, or if this is like something that you’re interested in, if you’re interested in becoming a fat adapted runner, and you want to, you know, smash a PR and like you know, try to win something or whatever, then just add more carbs in during your event, you don’t have to do it unfueled.

But when you’re an efficient fat burner, and you add more carbs, you’re gonna get that extra gear, you know, you’re gonna get the, you’re going to be in your anaerobic zone for longer periods of time. And so you will want the carbohydrates to help you get there. So you can definitely do that. That can definitely be part of your plan. It’s a tool that you can use, if you want to, you know, even run faster or have even more energy.

For me, though, I feel like I really don’t even need to do that. Because I’m not running fast, first of all, but I also I feel so amazing running in this fasted state. I feel so amazing running on fueled, why would I change that? You know, I’ve done all my long runs this year, including a marathon and a 50k unfueled, you know, I drink water and I take electrolytes, that’s it, you gotta have the electrolytes, especially for long events like this.

So I wouldn’t change that for myself. But if I wanted to crush a PR, I would just add some carbs. You know, but some of the things that I experienced was, which were surprising to me was, number one, no GI issues. I did not have any stomach issues at all.

And normally, on a long endurance event like this, I would not feel like my stomach would be bugging me. No problems at all. I felt great the whole time. No bonking I never lost energy not even close. I was feeling amazing and energized. The whole time. I had tons of gas in the tank at the end, right? This is like the most fun I’ve ever had running an ultra tons of energy.

And I just felt so good. So after the after I finished I get back to the camp area. These guys have got a fire going and then they break out the surprise for me which was ribeyes so they were grilling some ribeyes. And so we sat around for a few hours and ate some food. And I felt so good.

And the funny thing is, is normally, if I were to just finish a race like this and sit around for a few hours, getting up would be miserable I could be so my legs be all tight and sore, and they really weren’t. One of the benefits of training in a fasted state is that your body produces more growth hormone, which helps your muscles to repair faster, you know, cells will regenerate faster. So your recovery time is a lot faster.

So, you know, I wasn’t as sore afterwards. And, you know, went to bed that night, feeling pretty good, still woke up the next day, when I woke up the next day, the only thing that was really a concern was my feet hurt.

And this is what I was kind of alluding to earlier, when I said I should do more specificity of training on the trails, because my feet hurt from all the undulation of the trails, you know, jumping over rocks, and roots and logs and stuff like that juking back and forth for eight hours out there on the trails, like my feet were sore, the bottoms of my feet, especially, were getting pretty sore.

And that was about the only thing that I really noticed the next day, I could still, you know, when I got up the next morning, normally, I would just be the wreck, but I wasn’t, you know, my feet hurt. But I could still like do an air squat, you know, I could still squat standing up.

In fact, I was like, well, I gotta run a 5k today. And so I laced up my running shoes, and I headed outside, and I started running, and I was slow. But I felt fine. I mean, I was tired. But I felt fine.
And, you know, by the end of that day, by the end of the next day, I really felt a lot, lot better, my feet had stopped hurting and stuff like that.

And then so that was Sunday, and then Monday morning, I got up to do another 5k. And then I felt amazing. And I almost felt like I was back to 100%. Like my recovery time is just so much faster. And I have you know, I know that that’s has a lot to do with the fasting and the in the low carb way that I eat.

Also, my fitness level has increased, you know, I’m definitely more fit now than I was at the beginning of 2020. You know, because I’ve, you know, consistently trained for events. I’ve trained smart, and I’ve kept up with my strength training. I think that’s a big part of this, too. So the bottom line is that I wanted to do something hard. I wanted to be an example of what’s possible, I wanted to prove to myself that I’m capable of doing something like this, I wanted to push myself beyond the limits of my comfort zone.

You know, I wanted to show you that this is possible that if I can do it, so can you, you know, I wanted to show you and show myself and prove to us all, without any shadow of a doubt that being fat adapted is a real thing. And it is pretty dang incredible. It feels so good. It makes running so amazing. Honestly, you feel like you could run literally all day. Prove that, without a shadow of a doubt.

This is a very powerful way to live your life. Also, there’s this very cool side benefit of being an efficient fat burner, you lose weight. Becoming an efficient fat burner is what got me to where I am today. I’m basically at my goal weight, and I have no problem staying here. You know, I’m very lean, but I still have enough body fat on me to power me through a full day of running, you know, at least a 50k a lot more I’m sure.

So just know that when you change your, your nutrition plan when you change what you’re eating, you can become such an efficient fat burner is so amazing. It really makes running a dream. And it can help you to get to your natural weight, whatever that is for you. So what’s next for me? People have been asking me like, what’s your next goal? What are you going to do? And seriously, I have no idea.

But I know that for me, I like to have something on the calendar. I like to feel like I’m training for something I have something out in the future that I’m working towards. It gets me motivated. You know, I don’t know if you guys feel that way or not. But for me, the having something out there helps me to get get motivated.

So I don’t know what that’s going to be yet. I’m not ready to commit to anything just yet. But I’d like to do another ultra sometime in the spring. So probably a spring marathon and probably some kind of an ultra sometime after that. So I’ll let you know. I’ll keep you posted on that.

Okay, so that’s my recap, I hope this has inspired you to consider becoming a fat adapted runner, I think it’s an amazing way to live your life. Remember that the Running Lean monthly coaching group is going to open on January 3, make 2021 your year become the badass fat adapted runner you’ve always wanted to be. Just go to runningleanpodcast.com/join, get on that list. And I’ll see you in the coaching group. Starting January. You guys are awesome. Lots and lots of love to each and every one of you. Keep on Running Lean, and I’ll talk to you soon.

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