A Double 6-er. Ouch!

I completed a mega-workout-weekend on a totally vegetarian diet and it was amazing.  Two days of 6-hour workouts, back-to-back, and that's after doing a 5,000 meter swim and 6 mile run the day before (Friday).

I had to stop halfway through Saturday and pile on lots more calories than normal.  There's day-to-day caloric intake and then there's caloric intake for crazy workout mode.  I get grumpy and sleepy when I'm not taking in enough.  I ate a pile of starchy salty goodies and took a short nap, then felt amazing and was back out the door.

Having stacked 6 hour days, I'm now in complete awe of how people like John Hirsch and Chrissie Wellington can do so ad nausem.  The strategy is to stay in Zone 2 as much as possible, not overexerting, but you certainly feel it by the end of day two.

I thought for sure that I'd have plenty of time to do other stuff, but the time it takes to support a 6 hour workout day is far more than you'd think.  There's the food, fixing flats, changing clothes, wretching...  

On the leanness front, eating super healthy foods instead of bad ones continues to pay off.  There's not much more fat to lose around here.  I need to dig up a picture of me quite a few years ago where I look like the Pillsbury Dough Boy on roller blades and compare that to one I took this weekend.  I weighed around 48 more lbs. then.  

If you asked me to strap on a 40+ lb. weight belt and do this weekend's workouts, I'd have said no thanks.  I'd have done it anyway, but I'd still be cursing no thanks as I went thudding down the street.

Eating healthy and not overeating is a habit that takes time.  You see a little bit of payoff and that motivates you.  You also begin to find and crave decent replacements for bad food splurges.  Eventually, those become the norm and you lose the interest in the bad stuff.  It's a great day worth celebrating when you actually prefer a salad over a milk shake.  

2 Weeks Vegan Diet = 5000 Meter Swim

I felt a little like our good friend Rich Roll this morning while cranking out a 5,000 meter swim.  But then I had to come back to reality when I remember that the Ultraman swim is double that at 10,000 meters. Nonetheless, I had my green smoothie (green = fruit and veggie blend) in a sports bottle on the deck and felt like I could keep going and going.  I only stopped because I had to go to work.

Vegans skip a few more items than vegetarians - no animal products whatsoever, including dairy and eggs.  I've been eating vegan for two weeks and haven't noticed any problems.  If anything, I'm more healthy and energetic because I eat more of the stuff that's really good for you - fruits, veggies, and nuts.

I wouldn't classify myself as a vegan per se.  I'm more of a paleo diet guy without the meat part. I'm a little apprehensive of taking a stand on this position because being for something puts you against everything else.  I don't mind if you eat meat and I don't have much interest in arguing with people about it.  I'd have to eat vegan for more than two weeks to identify myself with it strongly!

Back to performance.  Two weeks of veganism is definitely enough time to see if it has an impact on performance.  Yep, no problems.  In fact, I'm learning some interesting tools to pass on to you guys:

• Protein is built from amino acids.  Your body assembles them as needed from a collective "pool".  Non-meat items have all the amino acids that you need and your body puts them in the pool to be used when needed.  Where this pool is actually located and how much chlorine is in it, I still don't know. Maybe somebody can fill us in with some comments below.
• Nuts and healthy oils provide a huge amount of workout punch.  There's twice the ATP (energy) in these guys (fats) than in straight carbs, but it takes a few weeks of eating them for your body to start using them as a serious energy source instead of preferring carbs.
• Nuts taste like meat and cheese after a while.  Meat and dairy craving problem solved.
• Just when you think you know what healthy is, you discover a whole next level, like this guy.  At some point you have to take a mix of ideas from all levels and formulate what works best for you.

It helps me to not avoid certain foods as much as to look for really healthy ones.  I go as much raw fruit and veggies as possible, then fill in the blank spots as needed.  

I have to say, I feel great.  I've carried around an extra 20 lbs. for many years and it's melting away.  Eating a truly "clean" and healthy diet eliminates one more mystery variable from the triathlon success formula.  If you can change your bad habits to good and get lean, your workouts, races, self image, and much more clean up and become more effective.  It's nice!

20 Miles in Vibram 5 Fingers

I've been running in these bad boys for almost a week and definitely have some observations. How could you not, with such a different running platform than the norm?

First off, you better have some barefooting or low heel running background or these babies will shred your calves. I used to run barefoot a lot and that certainly helps.

I mention the above because the shoes are ADDICTIVE. You want to keep wearing them because they feel so strange and fun. They are like soft gloves for your feet with a thin layer of the world's finest rubber on the contact patches. You feel like your feet have been injected with monkey steroids and you can do ANYTHING.

They are light and you can go super fast. For me, the faster I go in them, the better my form gets. It's like you can't go fast in them with bad form. There is so much biofeedback, and it amplifies as you go faster, it makes bad form impossible to do.

I've been alternating runs between them and my old shoes so I can get used to them. Tonight's run may have been the breaking point where I can run in them full time.

Thumbs up so far!

Sugars as Energy

If it ends in "ose", it's a sugar. The problem is, your body handles each kind of sugar differently.  Maltose, dextrose, sucrose... there's a bunch.  

For example, fructose is fruit sugar, and glucose is another one that is the end result of carbohydrate digestion.  Excess glucose is converted to glycogen and is stored in the liver and muscles as energy ready to use.

I'm not a nutritionist, but I've learned to be observant of the different types of sugars in my fuels.  Everybody is different, and people digest the different sugars as endurance fuels with a lot of variation.  When you start using a fuel, it's important to look at the sugar source and be aware of how it's different than what you're used to.

As an example, I showed in the last video that I was using agave nectar as a sugar source.  People demonize high fructose corn syrup (55% fructose) as bad for you when agave nectar is 90% fructose itself. What?  So is agave nectar good for you or the worst thing ever made?

I'm not going to tell you which sugars to use, but just wanted to encourage you to do your research.  Look up the different "ose"es you use on the internet and read about how they work.  Some are notorious for being harder to digest when exercising than others, causing stomach distress.  I experience the "Gatorade Gut Bomb" if I drink only gatorade as fuel for long events.  Some people are fine with it.

If you are looking to optimize and improve your long distance performance, know the types of sugars you are taking in and start looking at some other options.  One of my favorite sugars to use as an example is honey. It has a wide array of different types of "ose" in it:  

Levulose(%)	38.19
Dextrose(%)	31.28
Sucrose(%)	1.31
Maltose(%)	7.31

Levulose?  What is that? Levulose is the raw sugar from fruit before being stripped of enzymes and minerals and turned into fructose by man.  Wow, this gets weirder by the minute!

If you'd like to really geek out on this topic, here is an interesting read.  

Some people have strong opinions on sugars and I encourage you to share them in the comments.  Enjoy, and be sweet!

"How To" Secrets of Training with Heart Rate, Power, and Nutrition

This is a video showing how to use software to train for endurance events.  Watch closely and you can see the magic mix of nutrition, effort level, and time all at work.

Summary: My energy levels fade after about two hours.  You can see where I supplement calories and energy levels come back up.

The Good: You can see how workouts in a controlled environment allow for great analysis of what you need to go long.  I'm fueling every 15 minutes and staying at an even effort level that I can sustain for a long time.

The Bad: Even though my fuel intake was precise, I never bothered to see how many calories it was before I even started.  Post analysis showed it to be 200 calories per hour.  Bumping it up to 300 calories per hour mid-ride allowed for me to get back to performing at a nice level.

Other Notes: Heart rate is a great reflector of how you're doing. If you can't sustain a given HR, you're either bonking or dehydrated.  If your speed (indoors) or power (indoors or out) falls off and at the same HR or both of those fade, you're in trouble.

How to Use This Data: This type of software exists so you can analyze what went right or wrong during a workout so you can fix it on the next one.  For me, I'm using this dataset to ride the next ride at 300 calories per hour the whole time and see if that slump goes away.  The effort level was in my Zone 2, which tells me I should be able to sustain this for 112 miles (an Ironman bike distance).  A little later in the season, I will extend this ride to 5 hours and then run afterwards to ensure that the fueling pattern is sustainable for a full Ironman.  In the meantime, I'll also start adding electrolyte sources into the fuel for cramp reduction in hotter conditions.  It's also important to notice how I am able to calculate exactly how many calories were involved.  Many athletes train long and have no idea what's happening and then can't replicate great training results during a race.  The longer the event, the more important it is to remove any guessing.