This past weekend, I was able to drive up to Millecnocket and watch some of my teammates run the half-marathon. Although I didn’t run it this year, it reminded me of my half-marathon that I ran while abroad and of our class on Gluconeogenesis where we talked about the Millinocket Half-marathon.While taking biochemistry, I’ve gained a much stronger understanding of why I’m supposed to be doing certain things in life but especially in terms of athletics. I’ve known for a while that you are supposed to fuel during longer distance workouts, but I didn’t necessarily understand the concrete details.<\/p>\n
Recently, I’ve started to understand the biochemical details of energy breakdown. At the beginning of a race (if we’re thinking about log distances) readily available glycogen is used as the main source of fuel for muscles undergoing glycolysis. As the time goes on glycogen stores to deplete and drops causing the liver to flip a switch. This is when gluconeogenesis begins. To maintain vital blood glucose for the brain, your body has to synthesize new glucose from non-carbohydrate precursors like lactate.<\/p>\n
Gluconeogenesis would activate the bypass enzymes (like FBPase-1) and regulate the key allosteric modulator, Fructose 2,6-bisphosphate (F2,6BP). When F2,6BP drops, the liver turns off the glucose-consuming glycolysis pathway (by inhibiting PFK-1) and turns on the glucose-producing GNG pathway (by activating FBPase-1). It’s fascinating that the human body is able to identify its needs and alter how its processing depended on the different stimuli.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This past weekend, I was able to drive up to Millecnocket and watch some of my teammates run the half-marathon. Although I didn’t run it this year, it reminded me of my half-marathon that I ran while abroad and of … Continue reading