OK to fast today?

[Michelle Lowry]

My ward has designated Sept. 30th as fast Sunday.  For those of you who are not LDS, we generally fast the first Sunday of the month to give us an opportunity to fast and pray for things we or others need, or to contemplate our spiritual well-being.  Anyway, so I am nervous about fasting today, about it messing up my system, but we are 6 days out.  I always drink water even when I am fasting, because I just think purposely dehydrating my body is not a good idea.

So any advice?

[Tom]

Michelle I'm not sure about the answer here but my first impression is that with 6 days until race time and since you are in taper mode and not burning the calories like usual I would think you would be fine fasting today. I'm certainly no expert on this however so I would be interested in the hearing opinions from those with more expertise on the subject.

I can say in my experience recalling  my workouts during the week after I've fasted I think I do notice it on Monday a little and that's about it.

[Sasha Pachev]

I've fasted a day before a 10 K on a couple of occasions - one time it was the Freedom Run that fell on a Monday, another time it was Payson Labor Day 10 K, and in both instances had great results to my surprise - the performance did not suffer at all from the fast, those ended up being my best 10 Ks of the season in both occasions. I did make sure to do proper carboloading and rehydration during Sunday dinner, though. I also never feel much different the day after a fast Sunday, but I always make sure to limit active movement to the minimum during the fast, take a longer nap, and to properly carbo-load and hydrate before and after. I do not fast, however, when I have a cold.

You should however note that everybody is different. Listen to your body and the promptings of the Spirit.