I am always looking for better ways to train and race in
order to improve my race performances. I genuinely believe I can win my
age-group in a race, most likely in a half-ironman distance event I suspect, at
some point in the future but I am a little way off that based on past events.
I eat wonderful, nutritious, real foods and have felt so
much better since I started doing this and avoiding processed foods about two
years ago. Also, I stopped using mainstream sports nutrition products such as
energy gels and bars and now fuel my longer workouts and races with real foods
like fruit, nuts and/or fats like coconut oil, as well as drawing energy from
my stored body fat.
Some slight changes
Over the past 12 months or so I have done many of my
workouts in a fasted state to some degree and/or consumed very few calories
during longer workouts. Through this I have found the ability to produce
constant and consistent energy from burning stored body fat. What I intend to
trial over the next few months, as I approach race season, is how I respond to
training in a fasted state less often and consuming more calories during longer
sessions. Also, preparing slightly different for certain key high intensity
workouts with the food I eat, including extra carbohydrates before and during
the sessions.
My hypothesis is that, provided I continue to consume a
majority low carbohydrate, moderate protein, higher healthy fat, real food diet,
practice moderate intermittent fasting and do occasional workouts in a fasted state,
I will have no problem maintaining my ability to burn body fat efficiently for
energy. Then, by determining what and when to eat carbohydrates during longer
and/or more intense sessions, those workouts will be more progressive towards
their purpose and I will have greater success at increasing speed on race day.
This is particularly important for the upcoming season as I will include
several short course events and I need to develop my top end speed
significantly.
As I have discovered, fueling with fat from food and stored
body fat is highly effective in long distance, endurance events. When you are
fat-adapted you are far less likely, if ever, to ‘hit the wall’ – whereby your
muscles are depleted of glycogen and can’t access any other energy source – because
your body has so much energy in reserve in body fat to draw from and supply
your muscles.
Fueling high intensity training and short distance races can
be a different kettle of fish. I believe that for producing very high intensity
efforts and production of maximum force/power/speed during a short period of
time, carbohydrates are necessary. Carbohydrates provide the quickest source of
energy to the working muscles, as they are absorbed into the bloodstream faster
for use as blood glucose. However, it will only be the appropriate use of
carbohydrates that will provide benefits. Excessive use could potentially
inhibit performance as my body may resort back to a greater reliance on
sugar/carbohydrate ingestion for continued, longer term energy output.
I have no doubt that a low carbohydrate, moderate protein,
higher healthy fat lifestyle consisting of real, natural foods is very
important for everyone whether you exercise a lot, in small amounts or not at
all. Combine this with some intermittent fasting and I see it being the most
effective lifestyle for obtaining and maintaining optimal health and weight
control. Also, there has been a massive amount of people over time, including
many triathletes, who have suffered because of an overconsumption of refined
and/or processed carbohydrates. This has resulted in those people suffering a
range of ailments including poor control of weight and appetite, big
fluctuations in energy due to the blood glucose/insulin rollercoaster and poor
recovery due to increased inflammation. Therefore, I understand the importance
of not abusing carbohydrate consumption and using them appropriately to
maximise training and racing gains.
Expectations
The quality and timing of those carbohydrates is highly
important with the main sources being fruit and sweet potato. I may use fruit
during workouts and races in their whole form or as purees that I prepare
myself and coconut water too. Previously, I have eaten some sort of fruit
everyday and sweet potato a couple of times per week; my new regime will be an
increase on that.
Occasionally, I will do high intensity sessions in a fasted
state because I might be doing it very early in the morning and/or to maintain
my fat burning ability at those intensities. I know I often feel very good when
I train first thing in the morning and have great energy throughout, therefore,
I don’t particularly need anything to have a great workout, provided I am
properly hydrated.
My intake during a race, I anticipate, won’t accumulate to
be a very high quantity of calories compared to what I used to consume and what
many athletes currently do. For example, when I competed at the Ironman 70.3
World Championships in Mont-Tremblant, Canada, I consumed approximately 1200
calories during that event. Then, only five months later, after becoming
fat-adapted, I raced Challenge Melbourne over the same distance. In that race,
I consumed less than 600 calories while producing a personal best bike split
for 90km, feeling great for the entire run and coming home like a freight train
in the last 5km. This improvement was all down to the fact that my body had
become so much more efficient at producing energy because I was consuming a lot
of fresh, real foods and less processed and refined foods on a daily basis. I
had also changed to a low carb, moderate protein, higher fat intake which
allowed my body to become very efficient at producing energy from stored body
fat as well.
It is very important to understand that, although I will be
going back to the consumption of carbohydrates to fuel races and more of my
training, it is not reverting back to a common, daily, high carbohydrate
intake. Also, there will be as much emphasis as always on the consumption of
high quality, nutrient dense food but in larger quantities, mainly due to an
increase in the amount of vegetables and fruit that I will eat.
The benefit of hindsight
Over the past couple of months, I have realised that I may
have been functioning in a calorie deficit much of the time during last season,
and this may have been the main factor in my sub-par half-ironman performances.
On a very regular basis I was performing training sessions first thing in the
morning in a fasted state. Also, I did many longer workouts, up to 3 hours, only
consuming water and no calories. I would always refuel very well afterwards and
I would be well fuelled prior if I was training later in the day but I was very
focused on developing my fat burning capabilities in preparation for the
Ironman, in May, and I possibly took it too far. I know that it worked for the
Ironman as I was so used to doing a steady state effort for a long time relying
on body fat for energy but, in hindsight, I may not have used my intermittent
fasting as best as I could in an overall approach to my entire lifestyle.
For many months, I almost never consumed any food within the
first three hours of the day. I would always have about 500mls of water and
usually a coffee when I got up but I didn’t have breakfast until after training
or after being up for several hours. Usually, I didn’t feel hungry until then.
If I was working an early shift I might not have eaten for the entire shift and
then have my first meal when I got home at lunchtime. My reasoning behind this
was it would help me to be as fat-adapted as possible. I would eat large meals of
nutrient dense foods and, usually, only do so in an approximate 8 hour window
each day. Therefore, I knew I wouldn’t be overeating so I would be in control
of how much I consumed and I assumed it was more than adequate for my energy
needs. As it turns out, I may not have been consuming quite enough to properly
combine with my training and, therefore, I was putting my body under
unnecessary stress, to a degree, which likely contributed to the episodes of
fatigue and illness which seemed to happen a little too often.
I must point out to you that what I was doing is not necessarily
the wrong approach. In fact, I think the above mentioned approach would be a
terrific strategy for more sedentary people to use several days per week while
ensuring the food eaten is of a high quality. However, for someone who is
trying to train 10 – 14 hours a week while spending time with a young family,
aiming to get eight hours sleep a night and working a full-time shift work job,
it appears this wasn’t appropriate for me. For that reason, I am changing my
eating structure to be more suitable for supporting my training load as part of
an overall strategy towards balancing life as well as possible. I thought I was
doing this previously but my race results suggest otherwise.
A few changes
I began changing things approximately six weeks ago and I
have been feeling really good for it. Here is what I have already started to
implement:-
Ø
Large, green smoothies some days which usually
contains approximately 700mls of fluid (combination of water and coconut
water), two bananas, two large handfuls of spinach, half an avocado, another
fruit such as one apple, some berries or two kiwi fruits, half a tablespoon of
coconut oil, one or two eggs and a teaspoon of maca powder. Sometimes, when I
make it the night before to take on an early shift, I will add a tablespoon of
chia seeds and flaxseed meal which gives them time to soak up some moisture and
make it a bit thicker and filling. This is such an easy way to get in fluid and
nutrients quickly with little preparation time so it’s a terrific breakfast or
post workout option.
Ø
Eating more often – I am eating up to five times
per day and about half of the time I have breakfast within about two hours of
getting up in the morning. Again, this is dependent on what training I have
done or am going to do that day. I still always start the day with a big drink of
water and a coffee before I decide what I will do for breakfast and how soon I
will have it. This means I am consuming slightly more food and calories per day
than I was before and I have found that I am drinking more water overall with
this greater food intake.
Ø
The type of food is as important as ever – lots of
vegetables and salad, the majority of which are non-starchy. Fruit, eggs, meat,
chicken, fish, nuts and seeds and small amounts of dairy. Also, I have other
fats from olive oil and coconut products like coconut oil, coconut cream and
coconut milk. However, the quantities of each of those groups has shifted
towards more vegetables, fruit, nuts and seeds as an overall approach towards
eating more plant foods.
Ø
My dairy intake has decreased – I use butter when
cooking eggs in the pan but cream and cheese have become almost non-existent
over the past month. Milk is limited to a dash in my coffee or tea. This has
been a conscious decision as I am beginning to lean towards dairy not being
necessary and if I was to eliminate dairy altogether I honestly don’t think I
would be missing out on anything because I am replacing it with more
vegetables. I have heard the point made several times that ‘cow’s milk is made
for baby cows, not humans’ which seems fair enough to me. It may be the
simplest explanation for why plenty of humans don’t digest it well. I don’t
believe I have a problem with digesting dairy but if I decide not to have it
all, it won’t be any loss nutritionally. Also, although I am not vegan or
vegetarian, I have recently felt much more sympathetic towards dairy cows
because, in order for them to supply us with milk, they have their calves taken
away from them almost immediately after giving birth. I think becoming a father
has contributed to these feelings arising and I must say that it seems a very
sad scenario.
Ø
My fat intake is still up there through
consumption of quality meats and fish, nuts and seeds, coconut oil/milk/cream,
olive oil, eggs and avocados. Eggs will remain a regular item and I am consuming
wild caught fish more often and other meats less often. Fish has not been very
prominent in my diet recently but through the convenience of wild caught
sardines in a can I am changing that. Whenever possible I will consume other
species of wild caught fish too.
Ø
Less fasting – Instead of fasting until late
morning or lunchtime most days, as I was before, I now only do it once or twice
a week and it is dependent on what training I am doing that day or have done
the day before. I haven’t done a 24-hour fast for a while but they will be
thrown in the mix from time-to-time. Essentially, I will be looking to achieve
a much better balance of fasting days to regular days to use it more
effectively. Training on an empty stomach first thing in the morning will still
be semi-regular which will cover the vast majority of my intermittent fasting
regime. 24-hour fasts will only happen during low training, recovery periods
and will be used to enhance those recovery periods as well as fat-adaptation.
Ø
No more bacon – I have decided to avoid bacon
from now on. Previously, I had stuck to buying a locally produced product that
a small, local grocery/café store supplied. It was the best quality I could
find with almost no nasties in it and it was better than anything in the
supermarket. I ate a lot of bacon in the early months of being low carb/high
fat and didn’t give much thought to the quality of the bacon I was eating. Now,
I understand how bad 99% of available bacon products are and the other 1% which
is organic and/or free of nasty ingredients is very expensive so I just don’t
care for it anymore. Instead, I will eat more plants. Essentially, bacon falls
into the processed meat category, particularly when it is not in that 1% of
quality products, so it is no better than cured or other deli meats and I
definitely avoid those.
The changes I have mentioned above have enhanced my focus on
consuming quality, nutrient dense, natural foods. This goes beyond looking
purely at the macronutrient breakdown of fat, protein and carbohydrates. I now
have the added focus of obtaining greater amounts of micronutrients (vitamins,
minerals, etc.) through the higher consumption of fruits and vegetables.
In order to be in the best possible health to support my
lifestyle and continue pushing for greater race results I must keep pursuing
the best possible nutritional intake. Although knowing what is the best
nutrition is an ever evolving thing for both me and the world, I’m sure we can
all agree that the best possible nutritional intake will always involve the high
consumption of quality vegetables. Likewise, the best possible food intake does
not include processed foods, ever!
To be the healthiest version of yourself you must consume
natural, nutrient dense foods all of the time. Every processed food you eat is
potentially robbing you of life, causing you to be sick more than you should
both short and long term. It creates unnecessary inflammation/pain in your body,
increases your risk of contracting one or more of a huge number of diseases or
illnesses and reduces your overall life expectancy.
Do what is best for your body and mind by only eating the
best quality food and you will enjoy a lifetime of possibilities and if in
doubt, just eat vegetables.
Cheers,
Lincoln.
