Strangely Alive

I had an amazing day, and I will eventually write a race report. However, I thought I'd do a separate post on what I thought worked well to keep it to a manageable size! Ultra runners seem to want to force training (aka more miles) onto a situation when things aren't going well. It has never been a secret that I am not a "mileage guy". I did train hard, but what made the difference for me was training smart -- specificity and nutrition. I had a plan to attack this training cycle and it worked great. In my view, ultra running is about preparing your body for the moment, teaching it how to maintain homeostasis for long periods of time, and then problem solving in the moment. Just throwing more miles at the problem won't solve underlying fundamental issues.

Nutrition

I blog about this all the time and I finally got one right! I had a relatively simple (but well thought out) strategy and it paid off big time. My breakfast was small -- three hard boiled eggs and two servings of Ucan -- and then I started eating one hour into the race and stuck with it for at least 80 miles. I also had a packet of Vespa 30 minutes before the start of the race. My plan was to have Skratch as I often as I could without getting cotton mouth or dehydrated. Given my drink rate, this worked out to about every 1.5 hours (or every 3rd water bottle). Then, I had solid food (Lara Bars mostly) every 2 hours and Vespa every 2 or 3 hours. And, I had a few packets of Fuel 100 bites just for a bit of salt and some flavor. All totaled, I believe I ate between 3600 and 4000 Kcals, or 170 per hour. That is quite astounding for a 190+ lb athlete that used to eat nearly 400 Kcals per hour.

I kept what I needed on me for long stretches and utilized my crew meet ups as times to stop in place and eat. No excuses, I wouldn't leave aid without solid food in my belly. I supplemented with aid stations -- mostly a few shots of soda as a pick me up -- through the entire day. There were a few times I got some hunger in between stretches without solid food, but my energy was rock solid all day and my gut was never once upset. I don't have any fat utilization numbers to prove it to you, but I know my LCHF is a big reason why. No stops to empty my GI system, no nausea, no vomit.

The one thing I was careful about was salt. I don't normally use salt caps anymore after reviewing the work of Tim Noakes. Noakes' work suggest salt is not necessary and that it is not related to cramping or hydration.  Instead of worrying about salt intake, I heat trained to help prevent my body from dumping salt. But, the flip-side is that salt isn't bad for us in moderate doses either. Given the amount of water I drank, I went ahead and had some S!Caps every few hours just to be safe. I also got some salt in my Skratch and Fuel 100 bites. One could say I took the moderation approach to salt.

Heat Training and Cooling Off

I am not an expert on California weather, but it appears they had a somewhat unusual weather year. The high temperatures in the city near the race course were only slightly above average for this race (low 90's). However, I ran into a local at the airport -- who paced the 2nd place woman -- on my way home and he explained that the pattern of wind created a condition where the canyons where hotter than normal. That sounds like a reasonable explanation as the DNF rate was high this year and nearly all the carnage was done by Michigan Bluff. My watch read 97 degrees on my skin -- which means it was likely 10-15 degrees hotter than that -- in both of the first two canyons.

Anyway, I knew the race had a reputation for being hot and I prepared for it by heat training, primarily in the sauna -- over 20 sessions in the weeks leading up to the race. I wouldn't say I became a magically better heat runner as a result of this, but I learned to tolerate it and drink a ton of water to stay cool (sometimes two handhelds in under one hour, but only to thirst, never forcing it). After reading lots of opinions, I only did limited heat running as I really didn't want to impact the quality of my runs or put undo stress on my body by running fully clothed in high temperatures. There were a few short sessions (typically less than an hour) at really easy paces as I attempted to prepare mentally and test gear combinations.

The other part of my plan was to have a cooling strategy. I bought some "omni-freeze" gear from Columbia (hat, buff, and arm sleeves) and I stayed wet and hydrated through the entire day. In fact, I was still getting doused in water all the way up to the final aid station. The aid stations at WS100 and first class and I had no problem getting wet and packed with ice. There were a few instances where I had 3-4 volunteers giving me a cold bath at the same time. I generally left every aid station with 3 full handhelds and was usually empty (or close) by the next aid station because of my high drink rate. Even with a high drink rate, there were a few instance through the day where my pee was a bit yellow and far between (4-6 hours).

Patience

Other than the two items above, patience has been the biggest issue for me, particularly in a 100. I find myself getting into panic mode 30 miles into the race, forcing my external expectations onto the moment instead of dealing with what was in front me. This lack of patience leads to poor decisions, like leaving aid stations without addressing what I need and forcing a nutrition plan on a the fly. And, it causes me to get negative and discouraged as I try to reconcile my expectations and the current reality.

In this race, I knew quite well what the aid station splits were supposed to be for a 24-hour finish. I also knew I had to run with in myself and avoid the mistakes listed above. When I fell off the Western States projected 24-hour pace, I didn't panic. I had confidence in my conversations with Matt Curtis. I asked questions of the race veterans running near me. All of them said 24-hours was doable despite being slightly "behind". This took great faith from me as I am a "numbers guy" and figured Western States has been doing this long enough that they know. Plus, I had never nailed the second half of a 100 (until now) and figured a bit of cushion would be good. Long story short, there were a few internal arguments over my pace, but I stuck with what I thought sustainable and avoided previous mistakes. I just kept working at what I thought was a sustainable and constant energy level and trusted the rest of my training and planning would work out.

Strange week! Tony and I decided to take advantage of Labor Day and do a long run. We originally planned on Mt Falcon for 24-ish miles, but neither of us loved that plan. So I proposed Indian Creek as an access to the Colorado Trail section 1 with the intention of going 25 miles. Once it became apparent that we were both really enjoying the trail and had a chance to get all the way to section 2, we started extending the run. I finally added a few more miles just to get to 30, why not, right?! After that the rest of the week was pretty ho-hum and felt once again interrupted. I saw a doctor for my injured ankle on Friday, forcing Tony and I to skip a scheduled Friday night run and leaving me about 10 miles shy of my overall goal for the week. It was still a good week with lots of technical trail and time on my feet, but somehow just still didn't quite hit the mark. I suppose it is most frustrating because it is a continuing theme of interruptions from July through August and now this week.

My big picture thoughts right now are that I am lucky to have trained at all the last 2 weeks (110+ miles, 20 hours, and 15K of vert) given my injury, but it still leaves me feeling somewhat compromised and unprepared for this race. I have definitely been training more ultra specific on trails the past few months, but my overall fitness seems a step behind where I was going into NF50. That said, I am extremely confident in my fueling plan and the success I have had with that all summer. I fully expect that to be an advantage on race day. Hopefully that alone makes for a totally different experience than my first hundred, where I likely was borderline hypernatremic and possibly "over full" from stuffing my face with calories (probably 5K of kcals by the half way point).

My nutrition plan for Bear 100 is pretty simple, target about 200 -250 Kcals per hour from UCan and Hammer Bars and drink plain water to thirst. I may take a few supplements (amino acid pills and maybe a few salt tabs), but nothing that I would call "core" to my plan. I will execute on that plan as long as possible and likely will hit the sugar (Vi Gels, Red Bull, etc...) when necessary, hopefully not until late in the race. I will supplement with some "real food" like almond butter and protein bars only when I feel hungry. I have been experimenting with a handheld of multi-hour (3-4 servings) Generation Ucan (plain flavor) with a whisk ball and a Nunn tab (for flavor). Honestly, it is about the simplest nutrition plan I have some up with and works well my LCHF training. It mixes well, provides several hours of energy, and is just as tolerable as any other food in an ultra.

This next week is somewhat moderate (50-ish miles) and I may avoid any technical trail to put aside any risk of re-injuring my ankle. I had a few close calls the past week and I probably should stop tempting fate... After this week, it is just a bunch of easy maintenance running until 9/25!

Day	Miles	Notes
Monday	30	Indian Creek and CT
Tuesday	Off	Rest
Wednesday	7	Easy Strength Training
Thursday	9	Easy Strength Training
Friday	Off	Rest
Saturday	Off	Rest
Sunday	17	Deer Creek
Total	62	11,000 feet of vert

Previously.

The toughest part of transitioning to a high fat diet has been finding a way to eat enough fat. I eat something like 3000 Kcals per day when I am training hard and I have a rough goal of about 60% of my calories from fat. That means that I need to eat 1800 Kcals (or 200g) of fat per day. People just assume that you eat the common sources of fat that are promoted as "healthy fats", things like eggs, avocados, and almonds. Those products will help, for example:

Almonds have 45g of fat per cup
An egg has about 5g of fat
A medium avocado has about 21g of fat

The trouble is that each of the above also has significant sources of carbs and protein, which makes the ratios necessary to achieve 60% (or more) from fat difficult. I would have to eat 40 eggs or 5 cups of almonds to get to 200g -- I am full just thinking about that! Before long, you realize that you have to go to the purest sources of fat possible. Through experimentation and talking with others, here are some tricks I've learned to getting my fat intake up:

- Oils.  Lots and lots of oils.  Sometimes I eat a spoonful of Udo's Oil (15g of fat) plain.  You get used to the taste.  I put lots of oils (olive oil or flax seed) on my salads as dressings.  Eat a nice lunch salad made with eggs and avocados with 2-3 tbsp of oil and you get at least 45-50g of fat.  I also make liberal use of coconut oil when cooking and making shakes. Oils are also great for greasing pans and the cooking process to boost fat intake.

- Fat Shakes. One of my favorite tricks is a shake made with coconut milk (unsweetened, about 5g of fat per cup) with a tbsp or two of coconut oil (14g of fat per tbsp) and maybe a splash of heavy whipping cream (6g per tbsp). There are tons of variations here. If I mix in a few strawberries and half a packet of Stevia, it tastes exactly like a milk shake. Your kids won't know the difference. A few unsweetened coconut flakes works well here too. Sometimes I go healthier and mix in some greens (Amazing Wheat Grass, Kale, Hemp Protein, etc...), chia seeds, oils, etc... These shakes don't taste as good, but they are power packed with micro nutrients. Fat shakes are easy to consume and usually contain about 50-75g of fat.

- Fatty Meats. Men will love this one -- red meat is king! Pork too! Put down that skinless chicken breast and get some bacon or salami instead. I often snack on salami as a meal in a pinch. A typical package contains 4 oz with about 8g of fat per serving. This works well when traveling or out and about with kids. Lamb is another super fatty meat that tastes fabulous and has a wide range of recipes to cook. The one caution with meat is that a good high fat diet should also be moderate in protein (20-25%), so eating these products in excess won't work well. And buy the 80% lean ground beef! Take the few bucks you save and put it toward and organic or grass fed meat, if possible. When making ground beef, don't drain the fat!

- Full Fat Dairy (and Greek Yogurt). I sometimes mix whole milk into my shakes from above. We only drink whole milk in my house. If I got to Starbucks, I get a full fat (unless they have heavy whipping cream) latte. Whole milk and whole cheeses usually have 8-9g of fat per serving. Be very careful to pick sources with highest fat content possible. Read the labels because they sometimes slip you a product that isn't listed as low-fat but still has only 5-6g of fat per serving. With my salami snacks, I usually add in a few slices of full fat cheese. Today I had 4 oz of salami (32g of fat) and 4 oz of cheese (36g of fat) for lunch -- 800 Kcals and 68g of fat! Greek Yogurt is a great source, but be VERY careful. They often slip a bunch of sugar into it, even the full-fat brands. Absolutely read the labels and try to get one with less than 10g of sugar per serving. I have only found one brand that contains a great fat to carb ratio (2 to 1). Most are closer to 1 to 1.

Coffee. Coffee is a great way to get fat. I really like cream with my coffee. A tbsp of heavy whipping cream has 6g of fat. Applying the heavy whipping cream liberally to 2-3 cups of coffee per day can add 15-30g of fat to your diet without much effort. You can go the distance and make bullet proof coffee. I have made a substitute with a few tbsp of heaving whipping cream and coconut oil for a total of about 30g of fat in one cup of coffee! Blend that up for about 5 seconds and Yum!!!

Give it a shot! With a little practice and a week or two of tracking things, you'll get it figured out. Eat loads of fat. Eat only to hunger (no need to force food in, your body will tell you!). Be careful with anything that has more than 10g of sugar per serving (eat sparingly). Be careful not to eat too much protein (like not more than 6-8 oz in any serving). Read labels obsessively so you know what you are eating. Like anything, once you have a good rhythm, it is really pretty easy.

One last word of caution: the one type of fat to avoid is the cheap fats high in polyunsaturated fat: safflower, sunflower, corn, soybean, and cottonseed oils are example. These are typically the oils used in fast food chains and cheap restaurants and are typically processing by products of other foods. These are the one type of fat that you want to minimize. Polyunsaturated fat is contained in many healthy products like fish, but the concentrations of it in these products is unhealthy.

Training has become a bit of  a grind. I am on 2.5 months off good quality training now and sort of ready to race. There is some work to be done yet, but I see the light at the end of the tunnel. I have been trying to heat train as much as I can because I think that will be the hardest part of the race for me. It's not a hard course if the weather is decent. Unfortunately, the weather was chilly all week with lots of rain, so that wasn't real helpful. The highlight of the week was the big training run on the NF course on Saturday. I felt super strong and felt like a good time is a real possibility. Of course, it was unusually cool that morning too.

The low light of the week was feeling pretty fatigued all week long, which sort of leads to the next thing I wanted to mention. I have been doing LCHF for nearly 6 months now and I am starting to learn a few things. First, we had a free blood work screening at work a couple of weeks back. I didn't know about until the day of, so this was more or less a random test, no fasting. This was my first screening in years and I was really curious. The results were really good: total cholesterol 183, HDL 72, blood glucose 76. The most staggering thing was my blood pressure drop. Every time I see my primary care doctor, they bring up the possibility of blood pressure meds because I am in the "pre-hypertension" range. Of course, as someone that thinks of himself as healthy and young, that idea is appalling to me. No way am I starting a regimen of drugs to be taken for life starting at 37! Well, my screening post-LCHF revealed a reading of 115/74. I have verified this number at least three times since. Long story short, my health has never been better. As a runner, my gut has never been better either.

The second thing that I am learning is that there is a tricky balance. I still eat some carbs for instant energy on the run. My goal is fat adaption -- I want to burn more fat than the typical athlete at the same level of effort -- and I am not necessarily trying for ketosis. However, despite having tens of thousands of calories available in the way of stored fat, those calories aren't always easy to access if you go too deep into deficit. Leaner people like me, have to replenish those stores or they get sluggish. I can go for short periods of time -- like the length of time needed to run an ultra -- burning those calorie deposits, but sooner or later you have to catch up. Highly active, lean athletes, like Peter Attia, have to eat 3000-4000 calories per day to keep the fat stores replenished. In other words, the combination of low calorie and low carb doesn't really work for lean, active people. LCHF will not leave you hungry constantly like a high carb diet because fat satiates appetite. Sedentary people that are fully adapted often only eat once a day. Bringing this back to me, I've noticed my energy levels dipping when I don't keep my calories up. I am also experimenting with a carb "refeed" day (aka a cheat day) about every other week.

The final thing that I am seeing -- and this may be nothing -- is a pretty significant dip in my heart rate. This could just be from my fitness level being so high and my overall health being better than ever. But, my heart rate the past 4-5 weeks has been staggeringly low. Even when my effort feels hard or I try to run at normally fast paces, the heart rate data doesn't support the effort level. As an avid heart rate watcher, I can usually tell when I am just really fit. This time feels like it could some type of shift in my training zones. The only assumption I could make, if true, is that it is also related to LCHF. Dr Maffetone believes there shouldn't be much variation in max heart rate (hence his 180-age formula) and that people with high heart rates may just be unhealthy. I've always thought that was bunk because I see so much variation among my friends. Needless to say, I need to do some hard workouts soon to get an idea of what is going on.

Day	Miles	Notes
Monday	Off	Rest
Tuesday	8	Bluffs in the AM Strength Training Yoga
Wednesday	10	Open Space Trails
Thursday	9	Double FKA w/ Progression
Friday	Off	Rest
Saturday	22	North Fork Training Run
Sunday	14	Around the Bluffs and Back
Total	63	About 7,400 feet of vert

If you've followed along, I have been working on transitioning to a low carb, high fat diet for nearly 2 months now. It was a struggle to adapt at first. I tried to go into nutritional ketosis by limiting my carbs to 50g per day and I just couldn't do it. All of my runs felt terrible and I just had a hard time finding a "happy place" where I had some flexibility with my diet. Ketosis requires zero tolerance for cheating and I just enjoy some things too much to live with zero tolerance.

I have settled on what I would term a "high fat version of the Paleo diet". At this point, I think the Paleo diet is becoming an overused term and has slightly different meanings to all that follow it. For me, it basically means real food: nothing processed or out of a box, no fast food, organic and grass-fed if possible/reasonable, minimal sugar, and no grains of any kind. However, while Paleo eaters eat more fat than most Americans, there is nothing explicit that says it has to be high fat. You could eat meat and vegetables all day, in which case you'd be eating primarily protein and carbs, particularly if you picked lean meat (often prescribed by Paleo followers). What I have done is to go out of my way to eat fat when possible -- fatty cuts of meat, whole fat cheese, whole fat milk, full fat greek yogurt (careful with yogurt, lots of sugar), heavy whipping cream, coconut oil, ghee, almonds, avocados, olive oil, eggs, and bacon are my staples. However, I still eat some carbs in the form of berries, organic apple sauce, beer or wine, vegetables (no limits on Paleo friendly veggies), and a periodic cheat item like a Bing energy drink.

The only real difference between now and 2 months ago is the amount of fat I eat. The benefits of this change are that I am finally eating close to 3500 kcals per day -- which I need to run 55 miles per week at 190 lbs -- without feeling like crap or gaining weight. I haven't had an episode of the "runner's trots" in months. My overall gut health has improved tremendously. One example of a dish that I really enjoy pre or post run is a high fat Paleo hash my wife has been making. The base is sweet potatoes, kale, and onions that are sauteed in oil.  Then it is mixed with cooked 80% lean ground beef (don't drain off the fat) and topped with two eggs. Yum!

On the run, I have started to allow moderate amounts of carbs to keep my energy levels up. For now, I am really enjoying Skratch Labs as a low calorie (but mostly sugar) beverage. I have found that just a minimal amount of carbs coming in keeps my brain from feeling fatigue. For example, I tried to go without any carbs on my Saturday run and my mental perception of the difficulty of the run increased dramatically. Sunday all I had was a few swigs of Skratch (maybe 100 calories) and I felt strong the whole run, despite it being day 2 of a back-to-back and having fatigued legs. I will also enjoy Hammer Bars on the run. Again, they are primarily carbs, but they pass the "real food" test being entirely organic and non-GMO ingredients. Once in a while I use Generation Ucan pre-run, but I don't know that I am sold on that product. It is expensive, difficult to work with, and somewhat limiting because it is ineffective when mixed with high sugar products. I think it works, I just don't know that it works for me. I fully expect that I will take some gels in longer races, particularly in later stages.

A lousy training week due to a sore hamstring and a cold. I am not too bummed since it was designated a cut back week. But, I may become easily bummed if either drags too deep into the new week. Instead of training, I will talk a bit more about my LCHF diet....

After a little more than a week I think I am figuring this diet out. Right now I am targeting 3000 calories per day, but we'll see if I need to up that. Based on other runners' data, that number seems low. My goal has been to target 125-150 g per day in Protein, which I have been doing pretty consistently. My goal is 50 g of carbs per day, which I have exceeded a few days. The devil in the details is whether you consider net (carbs - fiber grams) or gross carbs. There seems to be some disagreement on this. If I count net carbs, I am easily under 50. And finally, I need to be eating upwards of 200 grams per day of fat. That is much tougher than it sounds.

Anyway, week one is in the books and here are a few lessons I learned:

1. Making Bulletproof Coffee (hot coffee blended with butter, ghee, coconut oil or MCT oil) is a good way to start the day and get a ton of fat in easily. I started with 1 tbsp each of Ghee and Coconut oil, which is about 30 g of fat in a cup. Lately I am upping the dosage a bit to get more fat. Soon I will experiment with drinking this before AM runs.
2. You can overdue avocados or nuts. They sound like the perfect LCHF food, but if you take them to extremes, they blow out your proper ratios. I am basically targeting a 10 to 1 ratio of fat grams to carbohydrate grams per day and a 2 to 1 ratio of fat grams to protein grams. Avocados are close to a 1 to 1 ratio of carbs to fat. Too much avocado quickly becomes too much carbohydrates. Nuts have the same issue with carbohydrates. Almonds have a good ratio of fat to protein (near 2 to 1), but only a one to one ratio of fat to carbs but only a 2 to 1 ratio of fat to carbs. Even bacon doesn't have near the fat to protein ratio necessary (about 1 to 1).
3. Based on the above, I have had to find creative ways to eat pure fat whenever possible. I found and tweaked a smoothie recipe that gives me roughly 45 grams of fat per serving, with little protein or carbs. If I have two of those a day, then I can quite easily get into the ball park for the day. The recipe includes heavy whipping cream, unsweetened coconut milk, and a few tbsp of coconut oil. Then I might include one or two berries or some cinnamon for flavor. It is actually pretty darn tasty. If I want to make it healthy, maybe add some kale or spinach.
4. Supplements are necessary to balance things out. I am currently taking Magnesium Citrate and Sodium (in the form of bullion cubes). In ketosis, your body will shed water from the carbohydrate stores. This results in an imbalance of electrolytes and causes people to feel nauseous or light headed. I also take at least one shot of Amazing Wheat Grass each day for additional micronutrients.

Day	Miles	Notes
Monday	Off	Rest
Tuesday	9	Fartleks Strength Training
Wednesday	6	Easy
Thursday	7	Zone 2 Strength Training
Friday	Off	Yoga
Saturday	6	Snow Run
Sunday	Off	Rest
Total	28

If you know my story, then you know I once weighed almost 250 lbs and was sort of spiraling out of control from a health perspective. Right after my daughter was born, I hit rock bottom. When I see really obese people, I always wonder what number it will take on the scale before they take action. For me, it was 250 lbs while shopping at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. I bought a treadmill and started "running" in my basement. It was all I could do to run 12 min miles for an hour. Not long after, my brother-in-law mentioned to me the Atkins diet and it sparked a decade long research into healthy diets. Of course I dove head first in to try it. And I lost 20 lbs in the first month. I've heard all the criticisms and I've read all the snide remarks from people only capable of thinking in dogmatic ways. (I mean if the government tells us that a diet high in fat is bad, it must be so, right?) The one thing that always stands out to me is that it flat out works. I know more people that have lost and kept of tremendous amounts of weight -- like 50 - 100 lbs -- than any vegan, Jenny Craig, or other calorie restricted diet. I don't live low-carb year round, but it has been a staple of my nutrition choices for more than 10 years now.

I recently came across a great article in the NY Times titled "What if It's All Been a Big Fat Lie?". That title is extremely appropriate in my opinion. You owe it to yourself to read the article and at least understand the other side. If you still aren't convinced that it is at least possible that there is some truth to this, then fine. But at least give it a shot. There are three points I want to emphasize and then I'll let you read the entire article on your own.

Don't Believe Everything the Government Tells You, They Aren't Perfect

In the intervening years, the N.I.H. spent several hundred million dollars trying to demonstrate a connection between eating fat and getting heart disease and, despite what we might think, it failed. Five major studies revealed no such link. A sixth, however, costing well over $100 million alone, concluded that reducing cholesterol by drug therapy could prevent heart disease. The N.I.H. administrators then made a leap of faith. Basil Rifkind, who oversaw the relevant trials for the N.I.H., described their logic this way: they had failed to demonstrate at great expense that eating less fat had any health benefits. But if a cholesterol-lowering drug could prevent heart attacks, then a low-fat, cholesterol-lowering diet should do the same.

The Current Paradigm is Broken, Badly

They (high-fat advocates) say that low-fat weight-loss diets have proved in clinical trials and real life to be dismal failures, and that on top of it all, the percentage of fat in the American diet has been decreasing for two decades. Our cholesterol levels have been declining, and we have been smoking less, and yet the incidence of heart disease has not declined as would be expected.

The 1990's data show obesity rates continuing to climb, while exercise activity remained unchanged. This suggests the two have little in common.

Eating Tons of Fat Won't Give You Heart Disease