Eating practices of the best endurance athletes in the world
#28
out walking the earth
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I'm pretty certain Horner's dietary habits are exaggerated. He may like burgers but he probably doesn't subsist on them. Also one can find an exception to any rule. So even if he can eat prodigious amounts of junk food and ride with no ill effects, I know I certainly can't.
#29
out walking the earth
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#30
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I'm pretty certain Horner's dietary habits are exaggerated. He may like burgers but he probably doesn't subsist on them. Also one can find an exception to any rule. So even if he can eat prodigious amounts of junk food and ride with no ill effects, I know I certainly can't.
Now I wish I could eat multiple pints of ben and jerry's every night for a week and lose weight.
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interesting story. not really surprising, though. thanks for the link.
i have a friend who is a lightweight rower and is probably one of the best endurance athletes i know. he competes at the elite level and has rowed for the usa junior national and u23 teams. his diet is probably 90% bread and butter and 10% ice cream. ok, maybe i'm exaggerating a little...but not much. this guy eats a higher percentage of bread, pasta, and other carbs than anyone i've ever met. he tried eating healthy for a while - a salad or a bunch of cucumber of something instead of more carbs - and said he felt like he had no energy when he was working out. went right back to his normal diet.
YMMV...but if you do enough endurance activity, you need to fuel it with carbs. not really any way around that.
YMMV...but if you do enough endurance activity, you need to fuel it with carbs. not really any way around that.
#32
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I loved the Pollan books. He's got a sense of humor, I didn't find him preachy. I'm struggling with this for the upcoming season also. I'm specifically aiming at doing Everest Challenge so it'll give me incentive to be 10-15 lbs. lighter late this year. My current diet could pretty much be described as "Paleo, then add a bunch of dessert crap".
Gotta go, brownies just out of the oven.
Gotta go, brownies just out of the oven.
#33
Senior Member
When i was in Fl for winter training in college and put in a 30ish hour week (swimming and cross training) for a week and a half i found i had to eat stuff that was really calorie dense, or i'd lose 5 pounds in a week, have joints hurt like crazy, and get sick. I don't know how that would've worked out differently if the ramp up in volume had been more gradual, or if i'd gotten used to putting in those kind of hours, but for a week I was eating all the junk food I could find just to try to keep up.
Now I wish I could eat multiple pints of ben and jerry's every night for a week and lose weight.
Now I wish I could eat multiple pints of ben and jerry's every night for a week and lose weight.
my closest friends at uni are swimmers and I've never seen so many super skinny/fit kids eat so much junk food in my life. one of my buddies literally cannot gain weight. he intentionally eats as much as he can and stays incredibly lean and fast in the water.
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I'm pretty certain Horner's dietary habits are exaggerated. He may like burgers but he probably doesn't subsist on them. Also one can find an exception to any rule. So even if he can eat prodigious amounts of junk food and ride with no ill effects, I know I certainly can't.
I just got done with some yummy cake w/two scoops of ice cream.
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Anyone remember Michael Phelp's 10,000 calorie a day diet plan? It absolutely amazes me that pro cyclist can ride 4-6 hours a day and still have to watch what they eat.
#36
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I actually wonder what condition his arteries are in.
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#37
stole your bike
it is, yes. I find it interesting that americans ingest 61 billion dollars worth of supplements that have little to no actual scientific research behind it. Couple that with the fact that the 'traditional' american diet is one of corn syrup and processed foods, and seeing that a culture continually can turn out high end endurance athletes relying on simple natural foods, with little protein (ours is filled with steroids and hormones) and it certainly gives me inspiration to understand what I'm eating and how it impacts my racing.
Throughout cultures there is a lot of wisdom concerning the balance of diet, exercise, and mental well being. Unfortunately there's a lot of profit to be made by selling products that may or may not be anything more than a placebo.
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#38
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I've known several national and international level swimmers. Swimmers need to put in more hours of even harder work than cyclists. Those guys are nuttier than we are and that is saying a lot.
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Probably me, but it misses the point.
Here's an example of what I mean. He extolls the virtues of the French diet and the 'French Paradox' of a high fat diet, high carb diet with relatively little heart disease. What he fails to mention is that the French are increasingly finding it difficult to eat a 'French diet'. Now if the people who live in that country and with that culture are finding it a difficult thing to do, then what chance do I have of pulling it off. None. So you end up with "Cool Story, Bro".
It's been a couple years since I read the book, but I remember thinking, "I don't really disagree with this information, but there's absolutely no chance of me using any of it in a daily application to improve the diets of me and my family". The best sentence of the entire book comes right away, and it's the one that HMF quoted.
Here's an example of what I mean. He extolls the virtues of the French diet and the 'French Paradox' of a high fat diet, high carb diet with relatively little heart disease. What he fails to mention is that the French are increasingly finding it difficult to eat a 'French diet'. Now if the people who live in that country and with that culture are finding it a difficult thing to do, then what chance do I have of pulling it off. None. So you end up with "Cool Story, Bro".
It's been a couple years since I read the book, but I remember thinking, "I don't really disagree with this information, but there's absolutely no chance of me using any of it in a daily application to improve the diets of me and my family". The best sentence of the entire book comes right away, and it's the one that HMF quoted.
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Swimmers can actually afford to carry a little fat on their body as well. The best swimmers are not rail-thin Kenyans. They have a little fat and a lot of upper body muscle. Quite a different matter than your average pro GC guy.
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I'm pretty certain Horner's dietary habits are exaggerated. He may like burgers but he probably doesn't subsist on them. Also one can find an exception to any rule. So even if he can eat prodigious amounts of junk food and ride with no ill effects, I know I certainly can't.
#42
out walking the earth
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Probably me, but it misses the point.
Here's an example of what I mean. He extolls the virtues of the French diet and the 'French Paradox' of a high fat diet, high carb diet with relatively little heart disease. What he fails to mention is that the French are increasingly finding it difficult to eat a 'French diet'. Now if the people who live in that country and with that culture are finding it a difficult thing to do, then what chance do I have of pulling it off. None. So you end up with "Cool Story, Bro".
It's been a couple years since I read the book, but I remember thinking, "I don't really disagree with this information, but there's absolutely no chance of me using any of it in a daily application to improve the diets of me and my family". The best sentence of the entire book comes right away, and it's the one that HMF quoted.
Here's an example of what I mean. He extolls the virtues of the French diet and the 'French Paradox' of a high fat diet, high carb diet with relatively little heart disease. What he fails to mention is that the French are increasingly finding it difficult to eat a 'French diet'. Now if the people who live in that country and with that culture are finding it a difficult thing to do, then what chance do I have of pulling it off. None. So you end up with "Cool Story, Bro".
It's been a couple years since I read the book, but I remember thinking, "I don't really disagree with this information, but there's absolutely no chance of me using any of it in a daily application to improve the diets of me and my family". The best sentence of the entire book comes right away, and it's the one that HMF quoted.
#43
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I loved the Pollan books. He's got a sense of humor, I didn't find him preachy. I'm struggling with this for the upcoming season also. I'm specifically aiming at doing Everest Challenge so it'll give me incentive to be 10-15 lbs. lighter late this year. My current diet could pretty much be described as "Paleo, then add a bunch of dessert crap".
Gotta go, brownies just out of the oven.
Gotta go, brownies just out of the oven.
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#47
Scarlet Knight
I was sort of the opposite. Taken as a whole his books, those by a few other authors, and a couple I'm reading now have informed how I eat and importantly where my food comes from. I'm just trying to look at what specific things I eat, and in what quantities that support the going fast thing. Healthy would be a nice thing to be as well.
But I also live in Oklahoma, where we can get locally grown stuff all through the spring/summer/autumn. We are still growing our own greens (lettuce/kale etc.). I would not know how to do this as easily if I still lived in NJ.
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Same here, and the 'Paleo for Athlete's' thing is just a joke. Paleo means no grains, no 'root' vegetables (potatoes & carrots), no beans, no dairy and only sugar from fruit. Even if I wanted to do it, it's just not practical. Anyway, life is just too short to live like that.
Funny enough, the Kenyans diet is about as far from Paleo as you can get.
Funny enough, the Kenyans diet is about as far from Paleo as you can get.
#49
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none of the dudes around here who are big paleo evangelists are fast or thin.
#50
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