Tuesday, July 3, 2012

One year later. Pushed back ultramarathon

So it's been about a year since I've wrote a blog here. I want to change that.

So, I've been preparing to race a 50-mile ultra-marathon. I was *supposed* to do it last year, but spraining my ankle on my mountain bike threw off my training.

Training has started. I imagine myself crossing that finish line every day--which is essentially my daily motivation. Before about two years ago, I've never heard about anybody running over a marathon. My perspective on running changed with one of my friends introducing me to ultramarathons (and pacing him--or him pacing me!) and meeting Dean Karnazes, who is one of the celebrities of the sport.

I've been changing around my diet to accomodate for a race of this distance. I am slowly moving toward a Paleo/Primal way of eating. This is essentially cutting out carbs/sugar and eating the way *we were supposed to.* Our modern lifestyle is pretty unsustainable. By this I mean our sedentary lives and the crap that we eat. It's not really anybody's fault--it's the way our society has become.

So I've been trying to eat about 50-60% of my calories from fat. These calories are mainly coming from coconut oil and olive oil. I usually make some veggies and just lather them up with the stuff. I just bought a gallon of coconut oil--let's see how long that lasts me! Then I have about 20% of my calories from protein--about 60-100g a day. This is in the form of Raw Protein powder by Garden of Life. That stuff is incredible--about the best protein powder on the market. For more fat/protein, I usually have some walnuts/almonds during the day.

So by eating more fat, I am training my body not to have to store fat because it is plentiful. I have seen a dramatic result in my physique. Definitely more leaner/more muscle mass. Way more energy!!! I will post more on my food experimentations in future blogposts.

So going back to my ultramarathon, I am building up my distance days. I am starting to do back to back distance days. Usually a long run/long bike or a double run. I'm doing about 10 miles right now...and am working myself up to 22 miles. So running 22 miles on two back to back days will give me 44 miles...which is pretty close to 50 miles. Doing this on two days will  be less strenuous and will give me solid training for the 50.

I'm doing some altitude training in Lake Tahoe right now. Probably one of the best places in the world. I'm off to swim in the lake!