Also, I am hitting the wall if I go past the sixty-minute mark.
This is a good example.
At what time of day? What did you eat in the hours before? At what pace? How much fasted training have you done in the past? What is the content of the rest of your training?
… do I need to push through it for the body to adapt?
It depends.
If it’s first thing in the morning, muscle glycogen stores are often topped up while liver stores are depleted. So hitting the wall at 60 minutes could mean you have some room for improvement with fasted training. If this is the case, you can extend sessions 5-10 minutes past the wall each time. Be gradual about it.
If it’s later in the day and you haven’t eaten anything for several hours, then both muscle and glycogen stores could be depleted, so hitting “a wall” makes sense. I’m fairly fat-adapted, but I’ll get a little bonky if I run late in the afternoon without eating anything since lunch. Personally, I wouldn’t push that context further.
If your pace is well over aerobic threshold (based on a reliable test, not by feel), then bonking around 60 minutes makes sense. If that’s the case, slow down.
If you’re new to fasted training and/or training in general, then your metabolism is probably more glycolytic than it should be (for long duration endurance events.) In that case, gradually extend the duration without over-reaching too much.
If the rest of your training is too high intensity, then it will reinforce a glycolytic preference. In that case, dial it back and keep high-intensity work to 5% or less of total training minutes. For example, in a 10-hour week, limit high-intensity work to 30 minutes or less.
It depends! 🙂
