Endurance Planet

Sponsor: This episode is brought to you by Generation UCAN Superstarch, the fat-burning fuel of choice for endurance athletes and health enthusiasts. EP fans get 15% of UCAN, shop now. You can also use the code “enduranceplanet” if you’re shopping at generationucan.com for that 15% discount. Have you seen UCAN’s brand-new look? Their packaging is looking sleek and sophisticated, still with the same great SuperStarch you’ve come to know and love for steady, long-lasting energy with no spikes and no crash. Send us a note to let us know how UCAN is working for you! Intro Banter Kid-friendly strength training tips: Make sure they’re aware of technique and posture. Do lots of jumping. Be creative with the movements (especially by using a medicine ball, bands, or cables). Keep it positive (do movements they enjoy). EP mentioned on Triathlete.com (but they forgot Lucho!). Anya Low max heart rate & strength training follow-up Fist of all, I love all of your insight and efforts to look into the literature regarding the questions on strength training. I am a physical therapist and specialize in treating endurance athletes and spend much of my “free time” nerding out by reading articles specifically on this topic so I can best direct treatment and injury prevention programs. The question on episode 283 RE: body weight vs loaded strength sparked and interest because this is a topic that I have changed viewpoint in the past few years. usually, I am a fan of higher load, lower rep exercises that specifically target the muscle/tendon/joint of interest (calf, quad, glute, ham). Of course, this means the loading is much less “functional” but does elicit actual tissue adaptation and general load resilience. Since it seems like you guys get a lot of questions regarding injury prevention and strength training, I though you might appreciate this podcast with Dr. Rich Willy. He is one of the leading experts in the field of running injury prevention and rehabilitation, and happens to live here in Missoula (yep, I’m in Missoula and was stoked to hear that you came through here last year and met Julie and that she is now a part of your show!). He has become a wealth of knowledge for me and has spoken on may other podcasts. I think this interview provides a nice, simple summary that you may be able to pass along to your athletes or use in future questions. Also, I loved Lucho’s contribution about importance of lower leg strength…often so under appreciated. Ok, I apologize for the rambling, but this stuff is my true passion, so I could go on about it all day. Now for my question: I am a runner, but over the years have dealt with enough of my own injuries (mostly due to relative overtraining and under fueling…getting a handle on that and love the episodes that discuss this btw) that I mountain and road bike just as much. At the moment, I am running healthily and training for several races this summer — a few 30k’s, 14 mile trail race, and maybe a 50miler. I tend to stay away from shorter races because I have a serious problem with operating for very long at high intensities. I have gotten a HR monitor and wear it quite often. My max HR is about 163bpm, and my LTHR is about 149-151. My FTP wattage on the bike is 192 and this correlates with the LTHR mentioned above. My resting HR is about 40bpm. Ok, so my issue is, I feel like i don’t have a lot of wiggle room between my LTHR of 150ish and completely maxing out at 160. Does this seem normal to you? I also find it interesting that my MAF HR should be around 148 (I’m 32), but this is way to hard for me to sustain for a 3 hour run. I have given up on that and followed Lucho’s advice to think more as training in Zone 1-2.  I do believe that I tend to train too much in a zone 3/4/5 and rarely train in the 1-2 range, so I have been working on that (125-135bpm), but, I do continue to incorporate 1 day/week of high intensity work (hill repeats, tempo, 800s). My question is: 1) would you suggest focusing more on tempo runs in the 150bpm range on terrain that mimics the race (hilly), or shorter efforts pushing into my max HR with more complete recovery if my goal is to be more competitive in a 3-5 hour trail race but also be able to hang onto the front group when someone attacks in a bike race? As I write this, I’m thinking that I may not be able to get the best of both worlds, but would love any insight you have on the matter. What the Coaches Say: Tawnee’s notes from Dr. Willy’s podcast: Lift heavier w/ low reps; you don’t have to do a ton of reps as an endurance athlete. Cartilage, tendons, and ligaments adapt better to heavier low rep, and running is more specific to high rep. Lifting heavy can reduce risk of injury by 50%, but stretching does nothing. Heavy squats, calf raises, lunges — keep it simple. Walking can help load tolerance as an athlete. First off, your HR isn’t “bad” so don’t be stressed about that. 125-135 is reasonable if your LT is correct. If your goal is to be competitive in a 3-5 hour trail race then zone 1-2 is key. One workout of intensity per week is ok. To hang on to the front of a bike race requires intensity though. These two goals are very different! Eliminate intensity on run, but do hill repeats, tempo, and high intensity on the bike. You probably won’t excel at the sprint on the bike, but there are less factors involved in an ultra to impede your success. Overtraining and undereating can depress HR (how far out are you from that? Recovery can take years depending on how deep you were into it). It’s common for super fit athletes to not have a lot of wiggle room between LT and max HR. Rather than trying to increase max HR, focus on building zone 1 and 2 so you get faster at a HR of 125-135 Sarah Krone What is Zone 5? I have been running as an adult for about a year and half now focusing on half marathon. My last race (road) was early March and my next one is my first full marathon (trail) in November—getting married in June and maintain fitness until I start my marathon training program when I am back from my honeymoon in July. Right before my last race I got my first Garmin and am new to watching heart rate. One of the episodes I listened to, there was concern about an athlete running 12% in V4. Looking at my last race, I was 95% in V5 or 1:33. I have been looking st each of my runs and I live in V3-5 for everyone of them. Looking at easy hikes I will hit up V3 but spend most of the time in V2. Watching my Garmin today, it looked like my lowest heart rate was 36… I am questioning how accurate my watch is. If it is accurate, what does this mean for me? If it is not, what should I do? How important is it to watch my heart rate? Not sure if this is helpful regarding my heart question but my Garmin indicates my VO2 Max is 49. Other useful info: I am 29, female, 5.5 feet, 130lb and healthy body fat range. I cross train 3-6 times per week and run 3 times per week. Cross training includes rock climbing, circuit training, Olympic weightlifting, and mountain biking. I also walk my dogs, walk to get places, and go hiking regularly. My goals are: 1) To not get injured 2) Run the distance and climb the feet for my first full (5000 ft trail marathon—North Face Endurance Challenge in Marin Headlands) 3) Run a Boston Qualifier time at some point—first opportunity early March 2020 4) Run a 5:30 mile What the Coaches Say: Your watch is accurate but the zones it’s setting for you are wrong. Zone 5 is 5K effort. The coaches would guess your watch’s zone 5 is actually your low zone 3. You can technically only hold zone 4 for an hour. Do field testing to set your own zones; then reset your watch based on what you find. Two different protocols for fielding testing include: MAF test Joe Friel LT protocol In preparing for this gnarly trail marathon, Lucho recommends training at MAF, meaning that you’re going easy enough that after the first hour you’re sure you could hold the pace for another 2-3 more hours. As a new runner, don’t feel pressured to get super in depth with field testing and data. PE and basic HR can be a great approach. Also for the NF 50K you want to practice descending! Annie Duncan “Flossing the nerves” in your ankle + other questions I’m an avid listener and so enjoy your podcasts. Quick backstory on myself: 37YO female that lives in the glorious PNW. Grew up an avid swimmer and cyclist, picked up running in college. Played football in college (quarterback and free safety) for a women’s team. When I comment more on this, my husband calls me “Uncle Ricky.”   Post-college I got into tris (sprint and Olympic distances). About five years ago, I got into CrossFit and LOVED the competitive nature of it, and for five years have gained a lot of strength, but my running has suffered (just gotten a lot slower, which is frustrating). I recently got into IM70.3. While training for them, I still did CF 4-5 times per week.  Mostly because I’m competitive and I didn’t want my gym friends to be stronger than me. Haha.  But…Now that I’ve completed two 70.3, I want to be a bit more competitive in them. This fall, i made the hard decision to leave my CrossFit gym to concentrate more on running (my weakest leg in IM). I’ve ran the better part of 1/2 my life, but never with a lot of structure or strategy. For three months, I’ve been trying to put into practice a lot that I’ve learned from y’all. My week now consists of shorter runs (3-4miles 3+ times per week) followed by simple strength WODs, 8×400 once per week, and then a tempo run (6 miles) and long run (8-10miles depending on how I feel). My pace per mile has dropped 1 min (was running at a 9:30 pace, now under 8:30) for my tempo runs. I love that improvement and it confirms my decision to leave my CF gym. Two questions that I have regarding all that I’ve learned from listening (and I know I still have a lot to learn, so If anything in my description above sounds off, LMK!): 1) when doing strength wods, is it okay to up the intensity (like I would for CF?)? Or is it better to keep it at a lower intensity and more reps. Does upping my intensity on these shorter wods give more risk to injury in running? 2) my left ankle is constantly giving me problems. I’ve learned that I need to “floss the nerves” in my ankle often to prevent this. Am I the only one that struggles a lot with this? Is it from running? Any advice? I wear Altra shoes and try never to wear high heels. Is the increase in pain due to the more miles I’m running (or the fact I’m getting older?)? What the Coaches Say: Increasing intensity always increases risk of injury. Why do you want to do it? It doesn’t seem like it will help you achieve your goals, but you do enjoy it. If you can be happy with lower intensity workouts (i.e. no CrossFit WODs) then do that! Some circuits are ok, but if you want to be a better runner then focus on your runs. That said, it seems like the Simple Strength workouts are working for you, since you’ve already seen an increase in your run pace. You might have to redefine intensity given your history as a college athlete. If a workout impedes your ability to run the next day then you need to reduce that workout’s intensity. There’s no downside to flossing, but it probably isn’t getting to the root cause. Ankles are generally a reflection of an upstream problem: posterior tibial tendon, shins, calves, glutes, hams, etc. Possibly consider changing shoes (even though Altras are awesome!) It’s unclear if this pain is bone, tendon, ligament or nerve. If it’s arthritis then it won’t go away. Nerves don’t stretch or contract. But they can get caught on scar tissue causing pain. In that case, do some ART with a specialist or even a chiro. Nerve flossing can also prevent scar tissue build up. Floss nerves through different channels and muscles. Ex. lay on back, lift leg and dorsiflex/plantar flex your toe – you can use a band for this as well. Try some exercises on that side to see what the basic movement patterns are like. Do an overhead squat to assess imbalances: if arms/torso fall forward then there’s an issue with your ankle mobility, if knees cave in that’s related to ankle dorsiflexion, if toes point out that’s also a lack of dorsiflexion. Kicking in the pool might also be indicative of an ankle mobility issue. Some exercises to consider: Lucho recommends isometric dorsiflexion to strengthen anterior tibialis. Tawnee recommend barefoot stability (work on soft surface doing 1-leg exercises), bent knee calf raises, and SL step down. Do these 10-15 min a day. Pick up Kelly Starrett’s Ready To Run book for more ankle mobility exercises. Lastly, you’re 37 and that’s NOT OLD!!! The post ATC 284: Nerve Flossing and Ankle Mobility ‘Tests,’ Adjustments for A Low Max HR, and Setting HR Zones the Old Fashioned Way vs. New-Age Technology first appeared on Endurance Planet.

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For athletes we like everything ranging from Glutamine and Mervia, a powerful all natural anti-inflammatory, to multivitamins, B vitamins and digestive enzymes. Dr. Phil Maffetone is back for what’s sure to be another instant classic, as we help you understand and assess your blood sugar regulation and holistic health. Topics discussed: How blood sugar was treated decades ago vs. now, and how there’s an increased acceptance to using this information. Types of diabetes — type 1, type 2, gestational Interview Tawnee did with a Type 1 diabetic Jame Stout years back. What is Type 3 diabetes and how it’s related to brain function and decline such as Alzheimer’s disease. Gray areas with blood sugar — when you’re blood sugar levels are “subclinical” thus not diagnosed as a disease, but still showing red flags and this needs to be addressed. How other subclinical health issues are sometimes ignored but still can have a huge effect on one’s wellbeing and deserve attention, such as subclinical hypothyroidism. What we need to do is 1) be holistic and 2) assign risk — what are the risks of even subclinical issues? Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune condition that is typically discovered early in life, as opposed to type 2 adult-onset diabetes. Type 1 is a condition that we can influence significantly with diet and lifestyle, to the point of getting off insulin, Phil says. It requires a great health care practitioner and getting healthy. Let’s look at people as individual humans not label them as “diabetic.” A listener asks us: I am a 34 year old Type 1 diabetic and novice endurance runner. I was wondering if you had any insight on the ability to prevent hypoglycemic events on long runs (10 to 20 miles) by using the MAF method to stay in a “fat burning” zone. I have some success with this with my own little n=1 experiment by wanted to know if you knew of any science to support this theory? The answer lies in the same principles that we often discuss with the MAF Method. The role of ketones and fatty acids. Phil likes fasting blood sugar below 90; somewhere between 80-89. How are we obtaining our blood sugar values, and how our response influences the test (i.e. are we stressed out when testing causing a shift in BS)? Continuous blood sugar monitoring — shows you how your body is not only responding to food but to life. Phil says, don’t just measure your blood sugar until you start from the beginning by getting healthier, then start adding on layers of health monitoring. Is the MAF Method important to develop metabolic efficiency to prevent hypoglycemic responses in exercises by being a better fat burner? Phil says yes. The role of diet even for endurance athletes, and especially those with blood sugar issues. KEY to find this out: How much natural carbs can be consumed without it interfering with your blood sugar? The role of body fat: You can’t have steady blood sugar if you body fat is too high. Overweight vs. overfat and our past podcast with Phil that addresses this. Phil’s book, The Overfat Pandemic. 20-40% of the non-obese population still has too much body fat, Phil has found in his research. Waist to height ratio Excess body fat associated with chronic inflammation and these blood sugar issues. We’re all an n=1, treat your diet and body that way and experiment to find what works for your wellbeing. 3-4 g protein per kg or bodyweight may be too much because protein can convert to glucose. Phil’s category for people who’ve been diagnosed with diabetes and have overcome it: “former diabetic,” “healthy diabetic,” “diabetic in remission,” etc… the point is our body remembers this condition and we have to still be cognizant. At-home monitoring and using a blood glucose meter. The problem is the technology: at-home glucose meters can have a 15% variance, which can be a huge difference. Don’t rely on glucose meters alone, and while it’s good to gather information, it’s also important to be preventative in the first place by self-monitoring your diet and health. The monitors that Tawnee has: ReliOn Premier BLU Freestyle Lite HbA1C — the 3-month snapshot of blood cells that gives you an indication on average blood sugar over that time. Stress significantly influences blood sugar — physical, biochemical, mental, emotional (exercise counts). Fit but Unhealthy by Phil and Paul Laursen. “Everyone is an athlete” we say!!! And walking counts too Study on ultraprocessed food consumption and risk of mortality. Blood sugar abnormalities when you’re already low carb or keto: If the glucose numbers are correct, something is wrong, such as something metabolic, protein levels, liver issues, gut issues, or a combo of issues that impair metabolism. Be sure to look at the blood glucose monitor’s accuracy and how you’re taking it. Don’t just rely on one number!! Always be sure to test often and frequently to watch for trends (not just one and done). Also get some lab testing to verify blood sugar levels, along with triglycerides (should be 75 or less), HDL levels (should be 80s-90s), HBA1C in a normal range, etc. Keep evaluating till you get to your “aha moment.” With ketone monitoring, be a skeptic as well. They have a value but not perfect, use as a guide among other guides. And don’t let it get to be an unhealthy obsession! Cephalic effect of food. The two meal effect. Seek help from professionals for objective feedback. The holistic approach to life, according to Phil. Oral glucose tolerance test for pregnant women and other patients: Phil says do not use this as a first assessment tool. How to look at things more comprehensive. However, the test can help us find a problem (it helped Phil find out more about his blood sugar dysregulation). You deserve to have options. The test is also a biochemical trauma on the body. Phil’s latest work: “decision making in health and fitness.“ The post Dr. Phil Maffetone 24: Maintaining Healthy Blood Sugar Levels and Understanding Abnormalities first appeared on Endurance Planet.

Sponsor: This episode is brought to you by Generation UCAN Superstarch, the fat-burning fuel of choice for endurance athletes and health enthusiasts. EP fans get 15% of UCAN, shop now. You can also use the code “enduranceplanet” if you’re shopping at generationucan.com for that 15% discount. Have you tried Tawnee’s UCAN Porridge recipe yet? Click here fo the recipe and try it in your training an racing this year for steady, long-lasting energy with no spikes and no crash. Intro Announcement: Tawnee is pregnant again (35 weeks)! Her and John are so grateful for the Endurance Planet community’s support and well wishes these past 15 months. Allison L. asks: IMLP Bike Training I am doing Ironman Lake Placid in July, as you know the bike course ends with an 11-mile uphill.  On one loop there is about 2700′ of elevation gain. My training route is 43-miles https://www.strava.com/routes/17451916 with about 3000′ of gain but I live at the bottom notthe top.  It is a low traffic route so it is great for training. I can do it twice and refuel at home.  The big climb is at mile 10-15 with a hard steep climb at mile 35. I did this route last year for another full distance https://www.strava.com/routes/17451977 that also had 3,000 of elevation per loop but it ended down not up.  I felt good on the bike. The goal was slow and steady and that is what I did (time 7 hours, 14:30 total, The next day I felt tired from going to bed late but I did not feel beat up.  I even did another full 4 weeks later just for the experience). My question for IMLP is do I need to practice more on ending with a long climb?  Or is just the overall elevation per training loop good enough? Extra question – to improve my bike times should I do lots of climbing in Zwift or should I focus on speed since I am a slow and steady slowpoke? The coaches say: Practicing a long climb before the finish is important for race execution but not necessarily for training; the main concern is mentally understanding that at mile 100 you’re going to hit a big climb. The key in training is to not push your climb, so it doesn’t waste you for the rest of the race. Consider doing one of two options to make your training more specific: Continue on after your second loop to do the big climb one more time, then easy spin down. This means your ride will be longer than 86 miles, but this will be good for your overall fitness. You could also drive to the top of the hill and start your ride from there. So that means you end your 86-mile loop at the top of the hill (and use your car as an aid station). As for the Zwift, on a trainer you’re only focused on wattage so there is no difference between a climbing interval and a speed interval. Outside you’ll actually see that difference. You could simulate climbing by lowering the cadence, but you don’t want to do this for Ironman training. You want to maintain the same cadence on hills as you do on flats so you don’t kill your legs for the run. Thoughts on training for speed: Focus on wattage and heart rate over speed. Just ride in zone 2 a lot and you will get better; you don’t have to focus on speedwork necessarily (though you shouldn’t totally neglect the higher end)  Limit your time in zone 3, and zone 4 is a plain no-no. Lucho’s classic workout recommendation: 2 hours zone 2, 5x 10sec at max wattage with cadence 90+, rest 1-2 min., 1.5 hours zone 2, repeat intervals. Trent Davidson asks: Is Bodyweight Strength Enough? My first year in triathlon, I opted for a bodyweight strength training routine instead of free weights and had reasonable success; however, I returned to weights a while back with no significant drawbacks. If my fitness goals are general health focused (as opposed to competing at any particularly advanced level), is bodyweight strength training adequate/comparable? (e.g. does it have the same benefits for cognitive function later in life; building bone density; etc.?) Separately, are there any good cardio alternatives to running that don’t require a gym and aren’t cycling or swimming? (Had surgery for hallux limitus a few months back and have been advised not to run, lest I accelerate the arthritis). The coaches say: Bodyweight strength training can be equal to or more beneficial than loaded weight training; but they’re not mutually exclusive. You can certainly make gains with both. Do what you enjoy! Bodyweight Pros Doesn’t beat up joints as much / allows body time to heal up after being beat down without stopping training. Great if you have limited equipment and no gym access. Allows for natural ROM. Good for neuromuscular training, body awareness, and proprioception. Advanced levels are incredibly intricate and require full body tension for big results. Usually high rep endurance—good for endurance athletes. The exercises that are equally or arguably even more effective than the weight equivalent include glute ham raises (vs leg curl), power wheel rollouts (vs ab machine), pistol squats vs. (assisted SL squats), pushup (vs bench press). Can help lower injury risk (functional neuromuscular training). Can even benefit bone density with the basic exercises as well as plyos/jumping-type stuff (e.g. pushups are more load bearing than easy 5lb DB curls… just look at gymnasts!) Bodyweight Cons Won’t build strength as quickly and easily. Requires better planning to make gains. Progression is not as straightforward or easily quantified as with weights. Easy to get stuck in plateau and not make gains (ultra high rep not enough). Can be very complex, technical and/or difficult, especially as you advance (patience, discipline, risk). Harder for those with less experience. Need to get more creative. Weights Pros Build strength more effectively. More bang for your buck (i.e. higher reward per rep). Load bearing for bone density. Better for targeting posterior chain muscles. Machines great for novices. Linear progression by boosting load. Easier to target & isolate specific muscle groups as needed. Machines allow you to go heavier with less risk. Free weights allow full ROM. Weights Cons Machines are not as functional and neglect stabilizing muscles. Technique is key when you’re loading up weights to prevent injury. Greater risk of injury. Easier to overdo it and increase injury risk, fatigue, soreness, breakdown. Harder on joints over time and heavier you go. Interesting Research Bodyweight exercises activated lower limb muscles that was comparable to bilateral leg press in stroke patients. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28056670 Push-up exercise with similar load to 40%1RM bench press is comparably effective for muscle hypertrophy and strength gain over an 8-week training period. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29541130 Including bodyweight neuromuscular training into warm-up routines reduced the incidence of serious lower limb injuries in elite female basketball players. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29239030 Jumping exercises (compared with stretching) conducted over a single school year during early childhood resulted in significant bone mass increases ranging between 3-8%. The benefits were maintained up to 8 years after the exercise was stopped. After 7 mo, those children that completed high‐impact jumping exercises had 3.6% more BMC at the hip than control subjects whom completed nonimpact stretching activities (p < 0.05) and 1.4% more BMC at the hip after nearly 8 yr. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1359/jbmr.071201 A 5-year program of weighted vest plus jumping exercises maintains hip BMD by preventing significant bone loss in older postmenopausal women. 3 sessions a week, series of “resistance” exercises wearing vests weighted with one to 10 pounds, including squats, lunges, stepping up and down, and getting in and out of a chair. Plus they would jump – without weighted vests – about 50 times a day, three days a week. The average woman loses bone mass at an average rate of up to 1 percent a year after menopause. Overall, the control group lost 3.8 percent of total hip bone mass during the five years of the study while the exercise group lost less than 1 percent. The control group lost 3.4 percent bone mass in the trochanter compared with 0.2 percent for the exercise group. At the femoral neck of the hip, the control group lost 4.4 percent of its bone mass, while the exercisers gained more than 1.5 percent. Furthermore, this particular program appears to promote long-term adherence and compliance, as evidenced by the commitment of the exercisers for more than 5 years. Natural alternative to estrogen and other supplements for women seeking to prevent bone loss after menopause. https://today.oregonstate.edu/archives/2008/apr/study-impact-exercise-increases-bone-mass-decreases-fracture-risk ; https://academic.oup.com/biomedgerontology/article/55/9/M489/2948038  https://today.oregonstate.edu/archives/2000/may/osu-study-finds-elderly-women-can-halt-bone-loss Josh Hayes asks: Why So Much Strength Training Emphasis? (And First-Time Ironmaner Advice) My name is Josh, I’m a stay-at-home dad and an indoor cycle instructor in Chattanooga, TN.  I’m married with a 14 yr/old step-son, 7 yr/old daughter, and 3 yr/old twin girls. I’ll be 33 in April, I’m 5’10”, and weigh 160-165lbs.  I just found your podcast a couple weeks ago and I’m completely addicted, bingeing my way back in time listening to them in the car (currently on ATC 256). First question: Why all the talk about weight lifting?  I’ve read Pete Pftzinger’s Advanced Marathoning a couple of times and I’m currently reading (1/4 through) Dr. Maffetone’s Big Book of Endurance Training.  Not sure why I haven’t read Daniels yet, but that’s definitely next on my list. Both books mention strength training, but mostly gloss over it. Maffetone seems to mostly discourage it.  I’ve never really lifted legs, and it makes sense to me that carrying around extra the bulk associated with weight lifting could be a detriment. I used to rep 225 on the bench and be able to bust out 25 perfect form pull-ups.  I’m now down to repping 185 and can probably still bust out 17 pull-ups. I’m completely ok with the loss in upper body muscle mass. I somewhat regularly (at least twice a week) go anaerobic on the bike and while running, so won’t that build any of the muscle I need? Second (and MAIN) question: Given the plethora of detail below and my constraints, what constructive criticism and guidance can you provide for me in training for my first full Ironman? The coaches say: Weight lifting for endurance athletes is primarily about injury prevention. You also don’t want to be a weak athlete (unable to squat half your body weight, or struggling to hit 100 watts on the bike). Weak athletes break when they ramp up their training. Dave Scott, Joe Friel, or Mark Allen will be much more beneficial for Ironman training. You can go to the weight room and lift a lot but not gain weight if you’re not eating to gain weight. Don’t waste muscle mass on “useless” areas (upper body); more muscular legs will certainly help you. You have a lot of fitness knowledge but you’re going to have to gain a lot more Ironman specific information and probably quadruple your current training if you want to go to Kona. (We believe in you!) Anaerobic running and biking will not build muscle, and, don’t worry, you don’t need big muscles anyway to do well! Going anaerobic isn’t what you need for Ironman anyway. It’s time to build your endurance. The post ATC 283: Happy B-Day Tawnee, Bodyweight Vs. Weight Training, Hilly Ironman Bike Training first appeared on Endurance Planet.

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[/sponsor] We’re back with episode 5 of Holistic Performance Nutrition featuring Tawnee and Julie McCloskey, a certified holistic nutrition coach who runs wildandwell.fit. On this show we take another dive into the topic of amenorrhea and female athletes, with Tawnee and Julie offering new advice that we’ve not yet shared on the show yet. Amanda asks: I am a huge fan of your podcast and have listened to nearly every one. I know you’ve addressed this topic before but I am a female triathlete with large goals in the sport. I currently podium in my age group at nearly every 70.3 distance I participate in but have hopes to turn professional in the next few years. A year ago I began working with a nutritionist as I was gaining body fat and weight even though training had increased and my diet hadn’t changed. It was really frustrating but after working with nutritionist I quickly saw results and lost 25lbs over the course of a few months. Just for reference, I am 25 years old, 5’6” and currently sit around 125lbs although was probably closer to 119lbs at the end of the 2018 season. If you haven’t guessed where this question is going here it is, I lost my period in July and it still hasn’t returned (as of March 2019). Along with that, I have noticed a significant dip in my sex-drive. In fact I would say it’s nearly absent. My partner is also a triathlete and we both notice fluctuations in sex drive but mine seems to be steadily low if not none which I know frustrates him sometimes let alone myself. My period has always been fickle even as a youth and before endurance sports were a part of my life. Beginning March last year, I have tracked my calories and macros daily and have been very diligent in making sure I nail the numbers my nutritionist has given me based on hours of exercise per day aligned with consumption. In recent weeks, I have let go of the tracking a little bit and focused on eating more carbs and protein and not restricting even when I feel like maybe I should. I am averaging 12-15 hours of training per week right now but body weight hasn’t fluctuated much in a while. Any tips on boosting sex drive and getting the period back without putting on additional pounds or body fat %? Is this nutrition based? When should I be worried? I would guess my current body fat is around 15%. I had blood work done recently to check a number of things including Sex hormone which was in normal range (globulin- 21 and testosterone-12) and Cortisol 13.2 (blood test was taken at 4:30pm). I’ve listened to the Stacy Sims podcast on here multiple times and I still don’t know what else could be causing me to lose period and have no sex drive. Any help or advice would be SO appreciated. The coaches say: Hypothalamus signaling (HPA axis, HPO axis, HPT axis) The hypothalamus is the hormone control center located in the brain that senses stress levels in the body and responds accordingly. If the hypothalamus does not “tell” the pituitary to make sex hormones, a domino effect takes place. “Endocrine and neuroendocrine experiments have found that the proximal cause of menstrual and ovarian dysfunction in these women is disruption of the pulsatile secretion of luteinizing hormone (LH) by the pituitary and that this is caused by disruption of the pulsatile secretion of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) by the hypothalamus.” https://www.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/jappl.1998.84.1.37 Bottom line: Your hypothalamus has direct control over hormone production. You have direct control over the signaling of your hypothalamus. Weight loss Significant weight loss can be a huge stress and trigger for hormones to act funky. Weight is one area where women struggle the most—in being told to eat more and actually regain weight that they don’t want to necessarily gain, but it’s crucial. Need to find our unique weight “setpoint”—that point in which biological functions reach an equilibrium. The word “restriction” was introduced to Amanda through this weight loss journey. “Normal” body fat (BF) and body weight are often not enough, periods can go absent if other variables present, even if body fat is 25%. Anecdotally we see that BF under 18% increases your risk of trouble, and this is more than the recommended 14% that you will see in literature and sports texts. Stress Everything may look “perfect” on paper but stress can overrule that (see above). Stress comes in MANY forms. Not just exercise stress. Some good news: The stress of exercise is shown to be ok AS LONG AS energy needs are met, and this definition of energy needs may vary—often more calories than you think! Energy availability (EA) Don’t rely on hunger EA = Energy intake minus energy expenditure Research shows that EA is often the biggest culprit in HA. This is why weight and BMI can be normal but you’re not having a period. Low EA results from dietary restriction or high training levels in which calorie needs aren’t met (high training should be ok if calories in abundance and HPA axis is functioning). “Low energy availability, not stress of exercise, alters LH pulsatility in exercising women” Low EA suppresses hormones—this could be from not eating enough to support exercise energy expenditure, not just outright dietary restriction. Results show reductions in T3, insulin, and IGF-I and increases in cortisol and growth hormone that would be expected under energy-deprived conditions. All these hormones affect reproductive tissues (low T3 common in eating disorders and amenorrhea). “As in our previous experiments, the exercising women in this experiment reported that they were satisfied with the amount of food they consumed during the low energy availability treatment and that they had to force themselves to consume all the food they were administered in the balanced energy availability treatment. Thus, hunger may be an insensitive indicator of the energy needs of physically active women, just as thirst is an insensitive indicator of water needs during prolonged exercise. Athletes may need to eat by discipline without hunger to prevent reproductive disorders while training, just as they drink by discipline without thirst to prevent dehydration during a long race.” “Our results suggest that prolonged exercise has no disruptive effect on LH pulsatility in women apart from the impact of its energy cost on energy availability or glucose availability, and that LH pulsatility is disturbed less by exercise energy expenditure than by dietary energy restriction.” Is dieting ever ok? Yes! You can actually be ok lowering calories but not if it’s in combo of high exercise energy expenditure, so if you’re training like you are, don’t diet. What is a safe EA for normal hormonal function? Generally, research shows the sweet spot is 45 kcal per kg LBM. Never go below 30 kcal per kg LBM. “Energy Availability, Not Body Fatness, Regulates Reproductive Function in Women” Amenorrheic athletes were estimated to habitually self-administer an energy availability of 16 kcal·kgLBM−1d−1, whereas regularly menstruating athletes habitually self-administered 30 kcal·kgLBM−1·d−1. Thus, although the precise location of the energy availability threshold between 20 and 30 kcal·kgLBM−1·d−1remains to be determined, 30 kcal·kgLBM−1·d−1 appears to be sufficient energy availability to preserve normal reproductive function and skeletal health. Because the exercise energy expenditure in this experiment was ∼840 kcal, many women may be able to maintain normal LH pulsatility while running up to 8 miles·d−1as long as they do not simultaneously reduce their dietary energy intake below 45 kcal·kgLBM−1d−1. If they do reduce their dietary energy intake, as many exercising women do, then they risk falling below the threshold of energy availability needed to maintain normal LH pulsatility. Diet & timing of eating around exercise Are you going long periods without eating or not eating enough before/during/after exercise? Underfueling is common among all endurance athletes. Carbs: 150-300g /day until things balance out, don’t shy away, and only count to make sure you’re having enough not too few Fat: There is a hug correlation between fat intake in injury risk including SF. Not only fat but healthy fats and not enough Omega 3s and PUFAs. “Fat intake and injury in female runners” “Injured runners had significantly lower intakes of total fat (63 ± 20 vs. 80 ± 50 g/d) and percentage of kilocalories from fat (27 ± 5 vs. 30 ± 8 %) compared with non-injured runners. A logistic regression analysis found that fat intake was the best dietary predictor, correctly identifying 64% of future injuries.” Also the type: Deficient intake of n-3 PUFA could theoretically contribute to an enhanced inflammatory response and increase injury severity and, in fact, injured runners did consume significantly less PUFA (13.3 ± 4.8 g/d vs. 17.2 ± 9.7 g/d, p = 0.016), although the distinction between n-6 and n-3 was not made. Actionable steps to healing DUTCH test (preferred over blood) to measure current status of sex hormones, adrenal function and downstream effects. Avoid any fasted training (fat adaptation is NOT your goal right now) Measure food for a bit only to make sure you’re meeting needs (see EA section). Supplements Work with a medical professional and/or health coach if you plan to supplement, do not start supplementing without being under supervision.  Use as a last resort and work with a health professional before taking any supplements. “Acetyl-L-carnitine (ALC) administration positively affects reproductive axis in hypogonadotropic women with functional hypothalamic amenorrhea.“ “Acetyl-l-carnitine as possible drug in the treatment of hypothalamic amenorrhea.“ ALC helps counteract the stress-induced abnormalities in hypo-LH patients affected by hypothalamic amenorrhea. Major hormonal changes after ALC administration were observed in the hypogonadotropic subjects. They showed a significant increase in baseline plasma LH levels, a significant increase in LH pulse amplitude with no changes in LH pulse frequency, and a significantly increased response of LH to the latter Gonadotropin-releasing hormone bolus during the GnRH test. Hypogonadotropic patients also showed a significant increase in both estradiol and prolactin. Vitex for hormonal balance (even after you regain period). Vitex supports the pituitary gland to produce progesterone and luteinizing hormone– needed for your body to ovulate, for regular menstrual cycles, and for you to avoid symptoms of hormonal imbalance like PMS. Vitex also keeps prolactin secretion in check and improves both estrogen and progesterone levels. Other: Progesterone, using sublingual (not topical) for more optimal absorption rates. Evening primrose oil Fish oil Zinc Rhodiola Damiana Shatavari Also mentioned on this show: Dandelion root tea as an alternative to coffee. Tawnee likes this brand. The post HPN 5: How To Get Your Period Back and the Vital Role of Energy Availability first appeared on Endurance Planet.

Sponsor: This episode is brought to you by Generation UCAN Superstarch, the fat-burning fuel of choice for endurance athletes and health enthusiasts. EP fans get 15% of UCAN, shop now. You can also use the code “enduranceplanet” if you’re shopping at generationucan.com for that 15% discount. Have you seen UCAN’s brand-new look? Their packaging is looking sleek and sophisticated, still with the same great SuperStarch you’ve come to know and love for steady, long-lasting energy with no spikes and no crash. Intro Banter Lucho geeks out about sunrisesunset.com Lucho finds a forum that confirms cycling can help a sprinter (in terms of both running mechanics and speed). His latest workout: 10x 30’’ on the bike with 3’ rest intervals; adjust seat height so you’re at full extension and reaching at the bottom of the pedal stroke. The value of NOT always stimulating yourself (with caffeine or other ways of getting amped) before a workout. Rory Using Tempo, Threshold and MAF for Ultra Training Hi guys (from Scotland). As you can tell from the subject title I have a few things to consider but Ill give you some background first. I am 47 (48 in 2 weeks!) years old, married with 3 teenage boys and in full-time work. Oh, and I play the bagpipes (I’m sure you’ve discussed piping on the pod before so just thought I would chuck that in there). I began running when I was about 40 with the whole family joining a local running club. Since then I have progressed from cross country, dabbled in a few road races (but hate the standard 5k’s and 10k’s), half marathon, marathon, triathlon and now mainly ultras. My marathon PB was 3:06 2 years ago, I managed a top-ten finish in a hilly 38miler last October (5:33) and a 3rd place finish in a night-time lapped course completing 42.7miles (6:29). I began MAF training 5 months ago mainly using an undulating road from my front door that does involve a couple of hills but I can keep track of my pace running it regularly. I have done 2 MAF tests (HR 133) on track showing improvements and getting to 8:58 pace. Not at an ideal time of day or week, though (Friday evening after a full week’s work so I know I can perform faster at that HR). I have a “good for age” entry for London marathon this year and was planning to head for sub 3 but have now scratched that in favour of a 53-mile ultra the day before. The first race this year (I have a few) is a 50km mix between trail and tarmac on March 30th, relatively flat and I would like to be coming in under the 4 hours. Since the beginning of January I have started to introduce some faster sessions, back with my local club, once/week. They involve a mix of hill reps, fartlek and tempo runs on road. There is a track session, too but I’m not doing those just now. On my regular MAF 6-10 miler route I did a threshold test a few days ago and came out with a lactate threshold of 175 at a pace of 6:26min/mile. What I’m wondering is how best to use this info in my training for the flat-ish 50k? I’m thinking: dump the club sessions just now, train mostly MAF with at least one tempo or even threshold run each week, building up my tempo runs to maybe 15miles. I think I want to look at maintaining a 7:30 pace over the 50k. I’m managing to get out 5-6 times/week. I know I should also be doing some strength training, I even have the kettle bells, but don’t get round to it regularly. I actually entered for this race late in the day after a friend suggested it, now I want to race it! Ultimate goal this year comes in September with the Transalpine Run over 8 days. The coaches say… Lucho approves of you following your personality type and doing tempo over high intensity (in the form of 5Ks and track workouts). Edging up into threshold over tempo is great to practice, especially in preparation for your transalpine race. 15-mile tempo runs are fine, but don’t limit yourself to that distance. Give yourself a range of 12-20 miles (bail even before 12 if you’re not feeling good). Avoid a typical taper with high intensity; you can keep your tempo but don’t worry about doing the highly stimulating things you don’t enjoy (like strides). Slowly reduce the duration of tempo runs during your taper: 15 miles (three weeks out), 10 miles (two weeks out), 5 miles (Tuesday of race week). After recovering from your March race, do 6-8 weeks of pure MAF base building and see where that gets you. For the transalpine, intensity might be necessary to come up the hard grades, so keep the tempo and threshold in there. If you need motivation to keep the intensity in your routine, go back to your running club for a more competitive vibe. Kevin  PTSD & Fight or Flight During MAF I have service connected PTSD which makes the MAF method difficult as it’s often next to impossible to control my stress levels. It seems to me that running is associated with the “fight or flight” response and that’s one of many reasons why running’s such a taxing activity. Does the MAF method work by de-training the “fight or flight” response associated with running and control stress levels by taking an activity that is stressful, i.e. running, and retraining the person’s response to it so it’s no longer a stressful act? I’m wondering if that is a true hypothesis and if Dr. Phil has ever done any studies on his method and how it affects persons with PTSD? The coaches say… There’s no specific research on MAF and PTSD, unfortunately. But PTSD affects 14-20 million Americans, so you’re not alone! There are surely other runners afflicted with this condition. Running itself won’t retrain your brain after experiencing the traumatic event. You need to do the mental work, ideally with a therapist who specializes in the kind of PTSD you’re dealing with. Consider looking into EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) treatment. There’s a lot of solid research behind it. Mindfulness and meditation around your run sessions can be really helpful to keep you present in your body, rather than living in your past trauma. Consider using a calming essential oil, such as lavender or orange, before your run. Do a breath focused meditation to unwind after your run. Be mindful during your runs by focusing on your breath, or do a mental checklist focusing on all the ways in which you are safe while running. Tawnee firmly believes that if you face your triggers and learn how to deal with them then you’ll slowly get better over time. You can run happily again! Lucho wonders: Why are you using the MAF method? Is it for training purposes or to cope with your PTSD? Maybe consider running into your trauma, in a sense, by running hard and using that intensity to release your suffering. Consider running on a treadmill or track, somewhere very controlled with limited visual stimuli. Make it super boring! Guy R. What the MAF?! My question, shockingly, is about MAF (not math, but also kind of math). Back in November, I decided to give exclusive MAF training a shot in preparation for a May marathon. For context, I had just come off a cycling heavy training season following TrainerRoad training plans, which are very heavy on the intensity. My first MAF test had me at a 9 minute mile. For the next three months I ran 6-7 hours per week, all at MAF, with one day of cycling, also at MAF, and “microdosing” with strength training and yoga. I felt great. I really enjoyed running at the relaxed pace. But here’s the thing: my paces gradually got slower and slower. By the beginning of February, I had gone from 9min/mile to 10:45. No other symptoms. Eating well, feeling great, just getting slower! So finally I abandoned exclusive MAF and started an 80/20 approach, following a Matt Fitzgerald marathon plan. My zone 2 happens to coincide with my MAF pace, so all it meant was sprinkling in some intensity. Almost immediately, my paces plummeted back down. I have only been doing the 80/20 training for three weeks, and my MAF pace is already down to about 8:45, two minutes faster than it was three weeks ago. WTMAF?? I am wondering if I am an unusual case, or if a lot of people do need intensity to keep the aerobic system thriving.  Am I missing something? I seem to be getting great results with this 80/20 thing, so I will be sticking with it for now. I hope that this question can bring some insights to other listeners. Thanks again! P.s. I know that MAF stands for  maximum aerobic function. Are we supposed to believe it’s just a happy accident that it is the first three letters of a certain someone’s last name? In the countless interviews I have heard with him, I have never heard that acknowledged! The coaches say… Your volume possibly wasn’t enough to make progress with MAF (even though the time you were putting in wasn’t nothing!) You plateaued because you didn’t increase stress as you improved (your aerobic system got bored) If you can’t increase volume for time reasons then intensity is the way to go 80/20 approach works well when you have a deep base like you do. 20% intensity isn’t enough to break you down. If your MAF test is improving then you know what you’re doing is working. If you do feel like you’re breaking down, then go back to MAF for a week before returning to intensity. It doesn’t have to be one or the other entirely. Frank  Where to Race Track & Field? I found the Endurance Planet podcast just about a year ago and fell in love with it, especially the Ask The Coaches episodes.  I had a quick question that isn’t really for one of the episodes but more for my own curiosity. Lucho has been talking about the track sprints he has been concentrating on and I would like to transition for a year from endurance events to the shorter (100m and 200m) track events.  Where do you find these events? I know of 10 different sites to find endurance events but the only one I’ve found so far for adult track is the USATF.org calendar which doesn’t have much on it. If you have some links to shoot out I would greatly appreciate it. I’m in the Cleveland, OH area and would travel around the great lakes region to find events. The coaches say… These things are regional, so events are contingent on where you live (move to Boulder!) Go to your local master’s track clubs and network with folks to see where they are racing. Don’t look for “events” look for “track results.” Look for “open” in the meet title… you can go to ANY collegiate track meet marked as “open.” But these aren’t generally advertised to the public, so you’ll have to go to the college’s website and ask the coach. If it’s a regular low-key meet the college will probably just let you jump right in! The post ATC 282: Tools to Help PTSD & ‘Fight or Flight’ Responses, When MAF Plateaus, and Using Tempo/LT for Ultra Training first appeared on Endurance Planet.

Sponsor: Inside Tracker is an awesome service to use for convenient and informative blood testing geared toward athletes. You can get up to 30 biomarkers tested and more on your journey to bettering performance. Use code “enduranceplanet” for a 10% discount. We are joined by two rockstars of the endurance sports community, Jess & BJ Gumkowski, who are the triathlon & lifestyle coaching team of YogiTriathlete. Jess & BJ are experts in all types of endurance disciplines (from ultra to Ironman) as well as mindfulness and meditation for athletes. They host the YogiTriathlete podcast, as well as host monthly retreats for athletes in San Diego, which entail a 3-day immersion into the “awake and ready life,” and are co-creators of the m21 revolution online mediation and mindfulness community. Today they join Tawnee on this episode of Endurance Planet to talk about how to ride the high vibe: Sharing stories of life on the road: Jess & BJ left their “perfect-on-paper” life to enter the unknown, start fresh, and build new roots. They lived out of a Honda Fit for 6 months as they traveled from the East Coast and to the West Coast, where they settled in San Diego. They kept their adventure open-ended and didn’t know exactly where they’d end up, and found so many lessons along the way. They lived out of their car and mostly slept in a tent every night for months. They also didn’t even have a fridge or cooler, and had to shop daily for food. Practicing minimalism: The idea of letting go of “stuff” and leaving things behind, and then realizing that you are ok (and even happier) without most that stuff. How to stop acquiring more, even as a triathlete who has lots of gear, and prioritizing what’s important. Get hyperfocused with less to perform better. That 6 months of travel for them were terrifying and transformative, and when things felt overwhelming, just come back to the breath. Following your calling even when no one else believes in it. Starting YogiTriathlete from scratch, and holding onto belief even when times were tough. The abundance mindset: Starts with self-worth. Avoid the “lackful mindset,” e.g. I don’t have enough time, I can’t do that,I’m not good enough, I don’t have enough, etc. Move forward from feelings of fear by feeling the abundance around you (e.g. nature around you not monetary). Abundance is not just a bank account, it’s a vibrational set point. That abundance is you. Tools to counteract the lackful mindset: Don’t try to just squash thoughts. Allow what comes up to come up. Gain neutrality. Focus awareness on breath. This can be uncomfortable but it’s needed! Be neutral with negativity, don’t judge. What we resist persists. Non-judgement. Moving toward presence is tied into performance Feel your intervals, see the pain, and learn how to tolerate it. How the lackful mindset can keep us from getting to the races and goals we want. It’s ok to fail, see that point at which you fail, don’t fear it — failure is how we then can learn to break through. BJ shares his personal story on how he hit a low point in life only to then adopt mindfulness/mediation, and how it literally saved his life. How BJ is setting the right mindset for Kona qualification, and getting faster at Ironman into his 40s. Finding our identity, and not being identified by sport. Character traits that lead us into needing meditation and “level up.” Immersion into the “awake and ready life.” Jess shares when meditation clicked for her in 2010 and the baby steps she took into that world, trying a little of everything along the way. Meditation 101 for athletes — it starts with the breath. Identifying what type of meditation will be a good fit for an athlete. Paying attention to your breath while training, and not manipulating it nor the commentary of what’s happening (just the breath)! Why swimming is so good for a transition into mindfulness meditation. Present moment awareness is key for peak performance. But sometimes we just need to let things go to not fuel the fire. Stop fueling the fire by understanding: you are not your thoughts! Don’t indulge the fears, that is only fueling the fire. The art of detaching. “I am not my body, I am not my thought, I am not my mind.” BJ shares: How do you keep goals but also detach from numbers and results. (Hint: don’t be attached.) Why it’s best that athletes practice neutrality. Frame your mindset and vocabulary to work for you and manifest the abundance in your life — e.g. “I get to!” You are worth it.  The post Jess & BJ Gumkowski of YogiTriathlete: The Abundance Mindset, Facing Failures, and Why You Need Presence For Performance first appeared on Endurance Planet.

Sponsor: This episode is brought to you by Generation UCAN Superstarch, the fat-burning fuel of choice for endurance athletes and health enthusiasts. EP fans get 15% of UCAN, shop now. You can also use the code “enduranceplanet” if you’re shopping at generationucan.com for that 15% discount. Have you seen UCAN’s brand-new look? Their packaging is looking sleek and sophisticated, still with the same great SuperStarch you’ve come to know and love for steady, long-lasting energy with no spikes and no crash. Intro Banter Reference to previous episode on chronotypes. Lucho’s blog post on neurotyping. Meredith asks: Overcoming Fears I’m a runner making the transition into being a triathlete, and I spent most of last year training for my first full Ironman (Wisconsin). I had the run portion under control from years of half and full marathons, and my high school swim team days paid off by bringing my stroke back pretty quickly, but the bike was another story. I’d never really biked besides to get from point A to point B before Ironman training, and I was doing solid mileage on my point-A-to-point-B road bike, but I was struggling to improve. A friend let me try his super nice tri bike three months before my race so I could try aero position and see how a lighter bike felt, but I was so distracted trying to figure out my positioning and balance and stuff that I ended up losing control and broke my arm in a human vs. pavement collision. All things considered, I was super lucky. It was a clean olecranon process fracture (basically sheared the head off my ulna), a surgeon stuck a plate in my arm, and Ironman Wisconsin gave me an injury deferral for a year. I healed fast and got back to running, then indoor biking, then swimming as cleared by my doctor, and just got the plate taken out in January. I’m already running, swimming, and indoor biking again, but I am terrified of getting cleared to bike outside (which should happen in a few weeks). Any time I even think about it, I just start replaying the seconds leading up to the crash in my head — realizing I’d lost control, realizing I was going over and it was unrecoverable, and the minute after impact where I just laid there on the (thankfully empty) street thinking, “Shit, I’m hurt.” My questions: How do I get over this fear and get myself back to biking outside? I’ve gotten hurt in sports before and have never had this sort of mental block with getting back into it. I’m worried that the 6+ months I’ve been forced to take off outdoor biking has given me too much time to build up my accident into something worse than it was, but I’m also worried that if I get on a bike nervous and jumpy, I’ll be more likely to get hurt than before. Should I even bother trying to convert to aero position/a nicer bike, or just stick with what I know? I’ve got a half-Iron in June (Steelhead) and then the full in September, and it’s not like I’m trying to do super well in either — I’ve got goal times, sure, but I’m mostly doing this to get the experience and see if I catch the triathlon bug. I’m leaning towards just using my trusted road bike (Diamondback Airen — it’s nothing fancy, but it’s solid), but I totally see the merit in a lighter bike/having the option to shift body positions every now and then, too. I’m a 29 year old female, I live in Michigan (crappy winters and roads full of potholes), and I train solo (without a coach or group), if any of that impacts your answers. The Coaches Say… Mindfulness meditation can strengthen the mind. Train yourself to be more aware of thoughts and your reactions to thoughts and feelings. This allows us to not feel as helpless in the face of our fears. When  you feel the fear or issue arise, stay with it, don’t try to fight it. Eventually it will subside. Focus on breath = less controlled by anxiety. Breathe in for a count of 4 and breathe out for a count of 8 to increase serotonin; avoid shallow breathing. Exposure is key. Don’t indulge your anxiety or fear by avoiding the thing (trigger). Avoidance may give us temporary relief but avoiding it is allowing the anxiety to win and grow. Avoidance also breeds sense of failure in us. Start small coming back to riding on the road. Just practice clipping in and out first, then go for a ride around the block. Researchers have found that there are three characteristics that help us become more resilient and hardy: Challenge – Reframe the fear as a challenge, not an overwhelming threat. Control – We don’t have control over everything but we can control our actions, and this can help us become empowered and do what we need to do for ourselves. Commitment – Stay motivated and committed even through hard times, move forward with intention. Think of your crash as a learning experience that will prevent it from happening again. Your body will remember what went wrong and likely not repeat the mistake. Don’t worry about switching to a TT bike for the 70.3. See how that goes and if you’re feeling confident then you can try moving to a TT for the full if you have the desire to do so. Anonymous asks: Swim Harder But Going Slower I don’t get it, when I increase my effort and push harder in swimming to make certain intervals or test my speed, I end up going even slower than when I’m not thinking about speed at all. What gives? Does this mean my technique is falling apart? What can I do to fix this? Also some background: I only started swimming as an adult when I took up triathlon. I’m a 45 y/ male. Training for Olympics and 70.3s. Swimming is my weak leg, and I generally swim 2-3x a week for about an hour. The Coaches Say… This is a Central Nervous System (CNS) issue. You’re overthinking it (internal cuing problem); you’re not swimming naturally, efficiently. If you want to go faster, you have to relax. If you’re tense in the water then your mobility is off and you won’t move as effectively. Solutions: You need more deep-seated muscle memory. Focus on drills like vertical kicking (start hand assisted) to help with that. Stop trying to swim fast. Focus on form, not intervals and effort (just relax). Total Immersion Drills can be helpful. Try to get video footage of yourself swimming and compare it to a high quality swim video (or do a consult with a swim coach). Practice floating in the water to help relax. Fins and paddles won’t correct bad form, so don’t worry about using them. Buoy has applications for someone who’s swimming primarily in a wetsuit Don’t use tools as a crutch so you can swim faster with your masters buddies Ross asks: 50k Taper with Marathon Greetings from Norwich, UK! I have a question about training and tapering for a 50k with a marathon thrown in a month beforehand for good measure. Im racing a flat trail 50k (my first ultra) along the Norfolk and Suffolk border on 26th May and have a trail marathon on the 28th April. This will be my third marathon and my second on trails. My road PR is 3:15 and my trail PR is 3:43. I want to enjoy both races and am not going to worry about any scorching fast times, particularly with the 50k where I just want to savour the fact that I’m able to do it. My question is do I regard the marathon as a training run and continue to train right up to it and not taper and then begin the wind down to the 50k or should I include some sort of taper before the marathon, build back a couple of weeks afterwards and taper for the 50k after that? My gut feeling is that I should regard the marathon as my final longest training run and then taper but thought I should really check with the experts. Would I be better off in the long run (pun intended) tapering for both? Any advise would be very much appreciated. The Coaches Say… Short answer: you should be fine with a 26-mile long run, as long as you’re just jogging it. There are so many misconceptions about taper! It gets to the heart of the question: how much training do we need to maintain fitness? A 2 week taper is not a taper! You could probably do a 4-week taper for the marathon (reduce volume 30-60% and do longer threshold runs). Run the marathon. Then bike or swim for about 5 days after the race to promote recovery. You will super compensate! When you’re no longer sore, build back about 50% of what you were doing before the marathon for another 2 weeks (and include intensity). Drop volume again 1-2 weeks out then again the last week before the 50K. You will peak! This protocol requires daily monitoring and has a lot of variability. Don’t hesitate to cut it off if there are any red flags. Key takeaway: don’t be afraid to rest. Hormonal disruption from overtraining takes months or longer to overcome. Don’t go there. The post ATC 281: Steps To Overcome Fear and Anxiety, Swim Faster Without Trying So Hard, and 50k Tapering with a Marathon first appeared on Endurance Planet.

Sponsor: This episode is brought to you by Generation UCAN Superstarch, the fat-burning fuel of choice for endurance athletes and health enthusiasts. EP fans get 15% of UCAN, shop now. You can also use the code “enduranceplanet” if you’re shopping at generationucan.com for that 15% discount. Have you tried the new UCAN? Check out the UCAN Performance Energy Powders, powered by SuperStarch, for steady, long-lasting energy with no spikes and no crash. If you’re already a UCAN user, this is the same great product you know and love with a brand-new look! Welcome to episode 4 of Holistic Performance Nutrition (HPN) with Julie McCloskey, registered holistic nutrition coach, and Tawnee, a certified sports nutritionist and holistic endurance coach. Anonymous male athlete asks: I am a 31-year-old man from Norway. The last years I have been running and trained for trail-marathons. I started my running for about 5 years ago, with the goal to get in better shape, and lose some weight. I am 181cm high, and my weight is now about 67kg. The last year I switched my training to triathlon (half ironman distance), but I still have focus on keeping my running endurance because I still want to participate on a couple of marathons. I am training 7 days a week, about 10 hours. I do the most of my training in the morning (5 o clock) so I don’t lose too much time with my family. One of my biggest concerns, I am always hungry for food, but I feel that I am eating too much already. Do you have any advices on how I can eat to feel a little less hungry and still not increase my weight? Some days (1-3 times a month) I get so hungry so I am «over-eating» on greens and oats, typical on the evening. How can I avoid this? A typical eating day for me is: After morning workout: some muesli, sometimes a banana and 1 dl yoghurt Breakfast: 2dl Oatmeal porridge, mad on water, with 4 dl fat-free milk to drink Snack: 1 Carrot Lunch: 3 slices of bread with cheese and a little caviar, 1 slice crispbread, 1 bell pepper, a tomato and one orange Snack 2: 1 banana Dinner: Lots of greens and vegetable, chicken or fish, and a little bit of rice or pasta Evening meal: 1 slice crispbread with 1 egg, and one slice crispbread with mackerel. 2dl yoghurt with oats. I am drinking a lot of water, and some coffee during the day. I am only drinking alcohol (1-2 glasses of wine, or some beers) max one Saturday a month, and only eating 1 little chocolate every Saturday. Snacking in between meals Is always fruits or vegetables, and I eat a lot of carrots, maybe too much. ALSO: I feel that I am not able to push as hard as I should on my run intervals, or my bike intervals. On the bike, I feel too weak to push my heart rate up in zone 3-4 on the flats. Any advices? Should I differ more on my training and go more slow on more of my workouts? The coaches say: This is a heavy carb diet, consider replacing some meals with LCHF especially meals that are separate from training times. Best way to find out is to log on MFP or another app that calculates macros. Carb cycling would be a good strategy to avoid too low carb too fast. As carbs increase, you can lower fat grams; keep protein stable (20% calories, or aim for around 80-120 g/day – 1.4-2.0 g protein per kg bodyweight a day if training) Also can carb cycle within a day – e.g. LCHF B/L, then carb refeed at night, or vice versa – higher carb post workout in AM then LCHF rest of day. Training with MAF complements development of metabolic efficiency i.e.higher reliance on fat for fuel Focus on higher satiety foods Could have low leptin and not getting the signal to “put down the fork” so he is always hungry Leptin is made in fat cells, and at 5’11 147ish he may not have enough fat cells to generate hormone balance Possible nutrient deficiencies, I’d increase variety and cut the refined carbs for sure Cravings for oats and greens? Both high in manganese and although a rare deficiency, could be a thought – Deficiency results in joint pains, clicking of joints, weak ligaments/muscles Don’t eat so close to bed, save carbs for dinner, and balance that BS Carb ranges Ketogenic/very low carbohydrate diet: ~0.5 g CHO/lb (~1 g/kg). Lower/moderate carb diet: ~1 g CHO/lb (~2 g/kg) or slightly more. A typical high-carbohydrate diet: ~2-3 g CHO/lb or more. Also may consider monitoring blood sugar levels with at-home blood glucometer. Some norms to watch for: <90 mg/dL fasting in morning <140 mg/dL 1 hour postprandial <120 mg/dL 2 hours postprandial Back to baseline (fasting levels) 3 hours postprandial Mike asks: From my understanding the main benefit to a fasting run is to teach the body how to better utilize fat as an energy source due to the lack of available sugar/carbohydrates.  If we run after eating a breakfast with little to no carbohydrate would it have the same benefit since we would not be adding additional sugar to our system? (E.g. my typical breakfast is 4 eggs with butter and cheese with some bacon.). Would we help or hinder our fuel adaptation if we added a faster finish to a fasted or carb-depleted run? The coaches say: We conclude that aerobic exercise performed in the fasted state induces higher fat oxidation than exercise performed in the fed state. – although doesn’t say what the macros were in the “fed state” Twenty-seven studies – with a total of 273 participants – were included. There was a significant increase in fat oxidation during exercise performed in the fasted, compared with fed, state (-3·08 g; 95 % CI -5·38, -0·79; I 2 39·1 %). Fat oxidation rates have been shown to decrease after ingestion of high-fat diets, partly as a result of decreased glycogen stores and partly because of adaptations at the muscle level. Furthermore: The duration and intensity of exercise training required to induce changes in fat oxidation is currently unknown. Ingestion of carbohydrate in the hours before or on commencement of exercise reduces the rate of fat oxidation significantly compared with fasted conditions, whereas fasting longer than 6 h optimizes fat oxidation. It is evidenced that pre-exercise feeding blunted signaling in skeletal muscle and adipose tissue implicated in regulating components of metabolism, including mitochondrial adaptation and substrate utilization. Adding a fast finish to a fasted run? That’ll really empty your glycogen stores and enhance fat-burning (?) but at what price? That can quickly wreck ya if you don’t replenish afterwards with complex carbs, or if you’re pushing it when you don’t have the fuel. But if you have the energy towards the end? Maybe every so often could help challenge your body and as long as you’re recovering well it could be a solid mental/physical tool to have at least James asks: I started the keto diet with a protein focus on New Year’s day. I am a mesomorph. I started off at 188 pounds and weighed in this morning at 179 (so almost 10 pounds in a month). I think I will continue for another month and start adding more carbs back into my diet. So, at 169 while I am in the heart of my Marathon training. General questions about keto: 1) I am having regular diarrhea or loose stools.  Is this common and, if so, how can I fix it? 2) During my long Runs, I am bonking. Am I supposed to  take in some kind of carbs during these runs? Yesterday’s 17 miles wiped me out. Water only. The coaches say: On keto diarrhea: Pretty common because you’re eating foods in quantities you’re not used to MCT oil overload? Gall bladder could be overloaded and needs more time to adapt Solutions: activated charcoal, digestive enzymes lipase/ox bile/pepsin/HCL (Thorne has good blends), more soluble fiber, recalibrating your fat intake. Thorne options: Bio-Gest – HCl, pepsin, pancreatin, and ox bile Dipan-9 – undiluted pancreatin: lipase, protease, and amylase Betaine HCl & Pepsin May be eating too much fat at one sitting, no more than 60g of fat per meal. Bonking on long runs: Add in more carbs for sure 100-150 cals an hour on long runs. More natural gels, homemade energy balls, honey packets, any simple carb, tailwind powder, UCAN!!!! UCAN goes hand in hand with athletes looking to control BS and who are lower carb. This bonking may also show that body still may have work to do on fat adaptation, or you are running your long runs too fast. At MAF or sub MAF should be able to go 2hr on an aerobic run w/o bonking (2-3 hours on the bike with same result). You can test ketones post workout to see. Don’t make mistake of going on a low-cal diet by being low carb, huge mistake for athletes! Also food for thought, not saying periods of keto are bad, but for athletes it’s still up for debate on its effect on performance: “A Case for and Against Ketogenic Diets in Athletes.” With long-term keto, glycogen levels in muscle and the liver may or may not be compromised but “the athlete will likely lack the metabolic machinery needed to fully use them as fuel sources.” “Although ketone bodies may serve as a substitute for CHO, they may also paradoxically reduce endogenous CHO availability through inhibition of hepatic glucose output, therefore lowering the capacity to sustain higher intensity efforts (6,9). These findings emphasized the point that although glycogen levels in muscle and the liver may or may not be compromised with long-term KD, the athlete will likely lack the metabolic machinery needed to fully use them as fuel sources. It also suggests that while long-term KD may allow time for adaptation, short-term (i.e., 4 weeks) CHO restriction may compromise muscle glycogen stores.” Consider taking in PerfectAmino during long workouts as well. The post HPN 4: ‘Hanger’ Problems, Fasted vs. Fed Adaptations, and Keto Runs (Yes, Those Runs) first appeared on Endurance Planet.

Sponsor: Be sure to open Amazon via enduranceplanet.com—it’s just one extra click to link to Amazon through the sidebar banner (to the right of the page) or click the Amazon links in the show notes. Thanks for supporting the show. Sponsor: Be sure to check out our favorite supplement for athletes, PerfectAmino by BodyHealth. Protein in your food alone may not be enough. Amino acids must be in the right ratios to be utilized. That’s what makes PerfectAmino so potent. PerfectAmino has all the essential amino acids in the exact ratios needed to ensure proper synthesis in the body. It can boosts training, recovery, healthy lean mass (bones, muscles, ligaments, connective tissues), and more. PerfectAmino has been tested and approved for in-competition athletes and professional sports; and all of us over at EP have used in in our athletic careers. Chris Asks: Ironman Looking For Love Thought you guys may have some fun with this one; and perhaps a little different than some of the other questions you get. Maybe. 35 year old single guy who loves a good endurance challenge (Ironman, Leadville, etc. à humble brag) I’d say I’m slightly better than average but can be put in my place by most at any moment from an athletic perspective.  Don’t really care much though, just out there to compete and play with my friends. Staring down the barrel of another year of training and practice in prep for 70.3 at St. George and 140.6 Wisconsin.  I love it! It’s fun for me. The trouble is I am actively seeking a partner in crime. How the heck does someone find and maintain love when their favorite hobby includes getting up at 5 AM to ride bikes for 6 hours.  I’ve been on plenty of first dates where her eyes gloss over as you start talking about going to bed at 7:30 PM on a Saturday so you can get up after 10 hours of needed sleep to go make exercise. To be fair Ironman is easier than dating.  So why wound ’t I just Ironman. I feel like you and the team may have some fun anecdotes and advice for me. I can’t imagine this is unique just to me? All right heading to the pool because that’s the normal thing to do at 4:45 AM on a Friday Morning. You guys rock! The Coaches Say… Are you looking for a sherpa or a race partner? Think more about what type of romantic partner you’re looking for, and search accordingly. If you’re looking for more of a training partner (or, at least, someone who wants to do a little bit of racing themselves) commit to socializing outside of training with various athlete communities. Look for social functions put on by local triathlon clubs. Also consider proactively seeking your love interest at the gym, races, or even masters swim. Sure, you’re not looking your best in these scenarios, but that’s a good thing! Consider online dating for athletes: Fitness Singles or GoSporty If you’re looking for more of a sherpa, then don’t talk up triathlon so much on your first date. Focus on connecting as a person, not an athlete. Pro tip: Make it about her! Ask the woman lots of questions to truly get to know what she’s like… she’ll likely love this. Above all, resist the natural athlete urge to be a hermit because you’re prioritizing training. If you really want to find a romantic partner, then put yourself out there! Dan Asks: Strength Training DOMS I’m training for an April marathon and I’ve just started to build a better strength program into my training (moving from body weight to actual weights and lifting). I was wondering whether you had advice on how schedule my strength training? I do a workout run, easy, workout, rest, long (Tuesday to Saturday) then another easy run Sunday and rest Monday pending how I feel. I tried strength on an easy day, but the workout was really hard the next day – thoughts on how I overcome this (or should I suck it up because it will be hard for a while)? The Coaches Say… You want to start heavy weight lifting well before peak marathon training. Loaded weight should take place in off season, and transition to body weight during marathon season. Don’t force the weight now… body weight is sufficient to prevent injury. Using the TRX can help you expand the “body weight” repertoire. Resistance bands are also good. Instead of doing heavy leg weight sessions, do hill repeats for sport-specific strength training. Consider taking a “microdosing” approach to strength: try 10-minute isometric holds. See Tony Holler’s articles on this approach here. If you do want to continue with loaded weights, gravitate toward unilateral lifts. Tawnee has her athletes do balancing stick exercises (holding T position) to check for imbalances and train stability. James Asks: Keto Runs Thank you for your great advice. I started the keto diet with a protein focus on New Year’s day. I realize that I left out some information from my last question.  I am a mesomorph (think Christian Bloomenfeldt without the talent). I started off at 188 pounds and weighed in this morning at 179 (so almost 10 pounds in a month). I think I will continue for another month and start adding more carbs back into my diet. So, at 169 while I am in the heart of my Marathon training. Question about Resistance training: I am very muscular (even at 53). Can I keep my Resistance training down to one day? I am already doing core training, Plyometrics and jump rope (plus yoga on my recovery days). Question about MAF: I started MAF back in October. I feel it was good for my off season but now that I am training for my Marathon I am doing MAF on non-quality days (e.g., when I am not doing Intervals, tempo and hill Repeats) and am doing 2/3 MAF and 1/3 Marathon goal pace on long runs. Trying to stick with an 80/20 formula. I know this isn’t true MAF but does this sound like a realistic training plan? Also, being from the Pacific Northwest, I am not able to get a lot of Quality outdoor runs right now. I do my MAF test on a treadmill in order to create the same run conditions every time (no undulations in elevation or changes in terrain). I feel comfortable with my hill repeats outside but not my intervals (tracks and roads are covered in snow and ice). The Coaches Say… Resistance training is not conducive to losing muscle weight, especially for your body type. Beware plyometric training! It can be very hard on the body and lead to injury. Instead of heavy loaded exercise, consider doing low weight and high reps (as high as 50, or 3-4 sets of 15 reps). You can also play around focusing on tempo: lower slow and raise fast. Weights one day only is plenty. Maintenance 1-2 days is also fine, but not necessary. Do as desired. An 80/20 approach to the marathon is great! One way Tawnee adapts the MAF approach is to have athletes finish a long MAF run at tempo (for the last 30 min or so). You might also want to look into polarized training, which is more intuitive in some ways. Be sure to add those carbs back in during marathon training. The treadmill is fine for monitoring your MAF now, but know it will change when you go outside. Have 2 different MAFs, one for each. Frank Asks: MAF For Half Marathon I am 51 and have been doing MAF for over a year, No recent injuries although in November or 2016 ( over 2 years ago) I tore my PF around the 9th or 10th mile of a half marathon in which I was on track to break my PR by over 5 minutes. Currently my workout regimen includes: 2 runs/week–with each run being 10-13 miles. Sometimes a shorter distance if I am doing a high incline run but usually around 3-4 hours/week running; 2-3 swims/week ranging from 2500-3500 meters and 1 (occasionally 2) power ride spinning classes per week.  I use my swims as sort of a recovery day from my runs and rides and vice versa. I went to a 2 run/week regimen because I think I needed more recovery time. I will sometimes do a session on an elliptical rather than a 3rd swim, 2nd bike or 3rd run. I am 5′ 10″ with a large frame and about 190.  I had gotten my weight down to around 170 on a keto type diet but fell off the wagon and had to stop running for a while after my PF tear. I recently started a No sugar no grain regimen and seem to be loosing weight (and much to my wife’s joy, seem to be a lot less flatulent) ;.). My current goals are to start running 1/2 marathons again and perhaps entering a 1/2 iron man towards the end of this year. My questions are: 1) Does max HR as measured by a stress test have any bearing on what my MAF should be?  A recent stress test had my max HR at 179 which is about 10 above predicted max HR according to 220-age formula.  I imagine (or would like to believe) that a higher than predicted HR is a sign of a lower physiological age. If this is so, should I be adding to my MAF based on my higher than predicted max HR? 2) While swimming, would I use the same HR for MAF or decrease it by some specific #. 3) When I do my next 1/2 marathon, what kind of HR should I shot for during the race?  10 beats above, 15? How can I predict expected finishing time for that distance with my MAF pace? The Coaches Say… MAF is about fat burning, so the test to do is a metabolic efficiency test to gauge where your crossover point is. Max heart rate lines up more with zone based approach to training. See past episodes on adjusting MAF heart rate. 220 formula is garbage… Don’t use HR for swim. It’s too difficult to track, and not useful in practice. Use swimming as a time to work on perceived effort. Use HR for the first half of the race to make sure you aren’t going too hard. After that, you can probably scrap it and try to sustain your goal pace. Use simulation workouts to judge what your goal HR and pace should be on race day. Set realistic goals! Using HR and pace on race day is counterproductive, because they conflict. Your best bet is to start 10-20 seconds slower than you intend to go, see how you feel, keep the HR 10-20 beats above MAF for the first half, then, if you’re feeling good, give it your all for the second half. The post ATC 280: Triathletes Seeking Love, Heart Rate for Half-Marathons, And Does Max Heart Rate Hold Any Significance? first appeared on Endurance Planet.

Sponsor: This episode is brought to you by BodyHealth, the makers of PerfectAmino, an athlete’s secret weapon featuring eight essential amino acids in the exact ratios needed to ensure proper protein synthesis in the body. PerfectAmino has been tested and approved for in-competition athletes and professional sports; and all of us over at EP have used in our athletic careers. This is Part 2 of our interview with Brad Kearns, for Part 1 click here to listen. In this show, we pick back up on the testosterone conversation from Part 1 of the show. Brad is the host of the Get Over Yourself podcast, professional speedgolfer, co-author to the Primal Endurance and Keto Reset Diet with Mark Sisson. Enhancing testosterone naturally (summary): Reduce training stress: Do fat-burning/MAF workouts and limited HIIT (covered in part 1) Chronic temperature stress Diet: Be a conscious eater, sensible, and avoid extremes. Topics covered in our continued conversation: Temperature stress as a hormetic stress: Cryotherapy – does it count for cold water therapy? Maybe not as effective but has its own benefits. Cold water is an instant cure for anxiety and boosts norepinephrine. In as little as 30 seconds you alter your physiology to reap the benefits. Chronic cold exposure can benefit immune function, and adaptations for athletes who will be in the cold Get out before you start shivering or feeling loopy! You can take it too far! Diet and testosterone Eliminate nutrient-deficient foods, i.e. get rid of the crap! (Whether that’s vegan, keto, macros, etc.) Be a conscious eater, sensible, and avoid extremes. It doesn’t just have to be the ancestral diet (i.e. an overabundance of fruit maybe is not the best idea even if it is a natural food our ancestors ate). Main goal: Metabolic flexibility – don’t be wedded to regular meals as main source of energy and get good at burning your own fat for fuel!!! Achieve this with intermittent fasting, lower carb periods, etc. But it’s not just about low carb to get there, we produce glucose in other ways that can spike blood sugar even in the absence of carbs–a lot of this is stress and a chronic sympathetic state. Diet and stress: Don’t let dietary ambitions cause you more stress. Sometimes time-restricted feeding works, sometimes it doesn’t. If you’re healthy you should be able to handle any food (in moderation). Don’t just blame the food if things aren’t happening. Do avoid things like bad fats and oils. It’s important to create healthy habits that will last. Moderation vs. keeping a strict diet regimen. Brad says be strict at first, especially with sugars, bad fats, etc., and eventually you can be more moderate when health and metabolism are in good shape. Other Vegetable oils = not good! See Cate Shanahan‘s resources. How eating well can boost your MAF pace. Dropping excess body fat: Be good at burning fat before you start trying to lose weight. Sounds easy enough to just drop carb intake and decrease insulin levels to lose weight, but this can been further disruptive to an unhealthy body. FIRST you have to be healthy, i.e. gut health in order, stress managed, cortisol levels normal, able to burn fat for fuel, etc. The Keto Reset Diet says for gut health: Leaky gut is rampant for endurance athletes, so start with fueling with clean foods during training. To boost his T levels, Brad takes a highly spontaneous approach these days. Dr. Tommy Wood said he needed to eat more food to get rid of energy fluctuations, with less fasting. Sometimes more moderation sometimes hardcore keto. The most important factor is having the mental commitment to do what it takes to achieve your desired goals. Tawnee makes the point, do we sometimes sabotage ourselves from achieving these goals because we have unhealed wounds and mental work that needs to be done first? So it’s not just about getting healthy first before losing weight, it’s about being mentally sound as well! Food can be a coping mechanism. Don’t use food as a drug. Be mindful of disordered eating patterns if they develop on the healthy diet journey, and being careful not to develop an eating disorder. Gluten – do we all need to give it up or is there a case for it being ok? The post Brad Kearns Pt 2: Take The Cold Water Plunge, Unlock Dietary Success, and Master Your Body at Any Age first appeared on Endurance Planet.