Announcement:

If you want in on an epic experience with the EP crew, don’t wait, email us now at [email protected]! We have two teams for SoCal Ragnar on April 7-8, both ultra and regular distance, and we’re taking signups for Ragnar Cape Cod on May 11-12.

On this show:

* Should you spend more time training your swim kick for the triathlon swim leg?

* Calf and quad cramping during the triathlon swim when in choppier waters.

* Some drills and benchmarks for developing your swim kick.

* Vertical kicking

* 500 kick sets, etc.

* Dr. Phil Maffetone will say he doesn’t promote long runs/LSD longer than 2-2.5 hours (or one needs to add walking time only), but Lucho will say otherwise. We explain the difference in philosophy.

* Slowing down to hold MAF heart rate is ok for training but not always recommended for racing. So, should we practice race pace and harder running in training where you disregard the heart monitor at some point, or not and stick to MAF?

* The role of dairy and athletic performance? Why would one go dairy-free and what are the benefits of eating dairy?

* Why you’d go dairy free:

* Dairy is usually one of the biggest GI offenders in athletes according to research, but that doesn’t mean we all should avoid it. You have to learn if you’re lactose intolerant or sensitive and have issues with dairy – some don’t, but many do.

* In this show with Dana Lis, PhD, we talked about FODMAPs. Lactose, found in dairy, is a FODMAP and one of the most common GI disrupters, along with fructans and fructose.

* Lactose combined with gluten was even more risky in their study.  Lactose in whey protein.

* Take home:

* Use an elimination diet to test is reaction to dairy and if it specifically causes you GI upset.

* If still not sure, and symptoms present, test your gut health for any dysbiosis, SIBO, leaky gut, etc.

* Many studies have shown benefits of dairy especially for athletes:

* JISSN position stand on protein with benefits of dairy.

* “Overall, research has shown that products containing animal and dairy-based proteins contain the highest percentage of EAAs and result in greater hypertrophy and protein synthesis following resistance training when compared to a vegetarian protein-matched control, which typically lacks one or more EAAs [86, 93, 147].”

* “In general, the proteins with the greatest leucine content include dairy (9–11%), egg (8.6%), and meat (8%), while sources low in leucine include plant-based proteins.”

* Tons of studies have shown the benefits of whey protein on performance.

* Go for clean dairy – organic, grassfed, etc.

* We love: Vital Proteins Collagen Whey and Collagen Peptides!

* Collagen Peptides are lactose-free.

* Also, dairy might not be your problem and it’s not always to be vilified – is it another variable for which dairy is getting the blame?

* We’ve discussed the benefits of minimizing ground contact time (GCT) when running in order to improve your running – we go more in depth on this aspect of training: