Surging #08
Carbs on Carbs on Carbs
Welcome back to Surging. I hit 70M this past week for the first time, crossing a threshold I’ve been working towards over the past two training blocks. What previously felt like an insurmountable barrier will (hopefully) become somewhat of a baseline moving forward. When you set out to reset your standards, the goalposts never stay put.
With that, let’s jump into it.
The Work
The Future is High-Carb
Over the past few training blocks, one of my biggest breakthroughs has been adopting high-carb fueling. Alongside super shoes, it’s been the biggest driver of the crazy fast time we’re seeing across long-distance events in the endurance world. The old accepted wisdom was that athletes only needed on the order of ~60g of carbs per hour. That has been completely flipped on its head, and we’re now seeing athletes routinely hit over 100g per hour, and in outlier cases, upwards of 150g per hour.
My introduction to the high-carb revolution came through the Some Work All Play podcast, which I found in early 2025. As I continued tuning in and became a devoted listener, David and Megan Roche convinced me that high-carb fueling is the next frontier. They’ve been preaching it consistently for the past two years, and after hearing about the results, both David and the athletes he coaches were having, I started making a concerted effort to fuel properly. It started to have an impact almost immediately.
In an excellent new video breaking down his own fueling approach (linked below), the older low-fuel endurance paradigm optimized for fat oxidation—but at the cost of recovery, endocrine health, adaptation, and long-term durability. Carbs support higher-intensity work better than fat alone, and the benefits compound beyond same-day performance: better adaptation, less exercise-induced muscle damage, improved running economy, and—critically—improved training quality across days and weeks. That last point is, in my opinion, the key difference maker.
The practical framework for high-carb that David shares is relatively straightforward. Easy runs under an hour generally don’t need carbs. Easy runs between one and two hours, roughly 40–60g per hour is enough for most athletes. Past two hours, you’re looking at 60–75g+ per hour for easy runs, with 75g per hour being the start of high-carb territory. For moderate-to-hard sessions over 90 minutes, that climbs to 75–90 g+ per hour. Going above 90g per hour becomes highly individual, depending on body size, output, gut tolerance, and practice.
While conventional wisdom is that harder sessions or races under 90 minutes don’t need to be fueled, we’re seeing evidence in the real world that athlestes are benefiing from 60g per hour for these efforts. This is partly because carbs help the brain with perceived fatigue, not just muscle glycogen.
I first started experimenting with high-carb as I trained to break 1:30 at Project 13.1 last March, and I saw the biggest jump in progress over a training block to date. I followed that up in the fall with a 1:28 in a tune-up half-marathon in October, then 3:05 at the NYC Marathon, fueling at ~90g per hour.
These gains have continued to compound, leading to the progression that’s driving my current sub-3 build for Copenhagen. I’ve worked my way up to 100–105g per hour for my biggest workouts, and that’s what I’ll be targeting for race day on May 10th.
Building up to >100g/hr took deliberate practice and required building gut tolerance over time. But the payoff has been worth it. At this point, I now fuel every run over an hour, and all of my workouts. Regardless of whether it’s a short <90 min track workout, or a 20+ mile long run, I’m taking a high-carb approach. The goal across these sessions is to both enhance the session itself and accelerate recovery.
Overall, the biggest impact for me has been the ability to absorb increased mileage and training intensity over time. When I’m fueling properly, I’m not just performing better in my workouts—I’m recovering faster and showing up ready to go again the next day.
The future of fueling has arrived, and it’s powered by maltodextrin and fructose.
The Miles
Week at a Glance
Highlights
3/24: 4M @6:54 / 3M @6:42 / 2M @6:25 / 1M @6:15
3/28: 10K @6:45, 1M jog recovery, 10X 1K @6:32 / 1 min jog recovery
Upcoming Races
Asbury Park Half Marathon (4/11) [B race]
Copenhagen Marathon (5/10) [A race]
Strides
The 8 Rules For High-Carb Fueling
Fun video from David Roche outlining his high-carb guidelines
Just got a fresh pair of these, and they remain my favorite all-around shoe on the market
That’s all for this week. Until next time, be about it.
- CM
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