Recovery of muscle glycogen concentrations in sled dogs during prolonged exercise.

Purpose: To determine the depletion of muscle glycogen during five consecutive days of endurance exercise in Alaskan sled dogs consuming a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet.

Methods: Forty-two fit Alaskan sled dogs were used in the study, of which six dogs served as nonexercising control animals. The remaining 36 dogs ran 160 km x d(-1) for up to 5 d while consuming a diet providing approximately 50% of calories as fat and 15% as carbohydrate.