The Need for Substinance

One of the things I admire most about my wonderful wife is her ability to make up words. One of my favorites is 'substinance' as in, "I need some substinance, right now."  I believe the word is some aggregation of:

• 'subsistence' (the means by which one maintains life)

• 'sustenance' (means of sustaining health or life; nourishment)

• 'substance' (the tangible matter of which a thing consists)

When I pointed this out, her comeback was, "you know what I meant." Indeed I did; end of discussion.
I needed some substinance during this morning's run, and when I didn't get it, I bonked. I generally associate bonking with longer runs, but today it happened just seven miles into my eleven miler. Up until that time, I'd been thinking of doing something on the order of 23 miles. But 11 would have to do today.
It shouldn't have been a surprise; there's been a whole lot of bonking going on lately - ever since I began the fast diet a week ago. Here's the problem: I fast on Monday and Wednesday. My Monday runs have been bad because I'm usually still recovering from the weekend's running, and also because I don't take the usual fruit or other carbs just prior to the run. My Tuesday runs have been bad due to lack of substinance the prior fast day. My Wednesday runs have been bad for some of the same reasons that my Monday runs were, and my Thursday runs have been bad for some of the same reasons the Tuesday runs were.
Now then, I did have a good run this past Sunday where I did about 22 on the towpath with some MCRR friends. That was fairly encouraging after an otherwise so-so week. And I'm still very much sold on the general concept of the fast diet. But I do recognize that contrary to statements by the authors, the lack of calories on those fast days does indeed have an deleterious effect on my exercise performance.
Yesterday was my third fast day since I began, and it was the easiest yet. I'm losing some weight. All I really need to do is figure out this running thing.