Endurance Planet

We are starting a new show on Endurance Planet called Holistic Performance Nutrition (HPN) and in this show, Episode 1, we introduce Tawnee’s co-host Julie McCloskey, who shares her story. Follow Julie on Instagram.

Julie’s bio: Registered Holistic Nutrition Coach (RHN) based out of Missoula, MT. After living in upstate New York through college, she moved out West and fell in love with the mountain life. She studied Holistic Nutrition in Vancouver, BC and now runs her own Nutrition Coaching Business, Wild and Well. Specializing in gut health, inflammation, and hormones, Julie’s passion is helping people regain balance, increase energy, and optimize daily performance through nutrition and lifestyle strategies.

An athlete and competitor since an early age, Julie was ‘that girl’ on the all-boys teams. She played basketball and ran cross-country and track, but soccer was always her love. At the collegiate level, she played soccer and ran winter and spring track while obtaining her BS in Marketing. After college, Julie began to run longer distances, thus inspiring a curiosity for performance nutrition and recovery tactics. She moved to Jackson Hole where she fell in love with trail running and road biking. Julie races every so often, always drawn to the dirt paths that go straight up, but is 100% intrinsically motivated by the connection with nature and passion to push limits. Over a few years, and with the guidance of many podcasts and books, she slowly moved from junk food to real food, and her interest in nutrition became so deep that she packed up her stuff and moved to Vancouver to study Holistic Nutrition full-time.

Julie’s greatest endurance feat was thru-hiking the Pacific Crest Trail in 2016. After 5 months of hiking 25-35 miles a day, she learned a thing or twenty about what it takes to keep a stable mind and functioning body for a feat of extreme endurance. Crediting a positive mindset, a sense of humor, a mixed bag of collagen and nutritional yeast, avocados, and nightly handfuls of quality mineral salt, she successfully hiked the 2,650 mile trail from Mexico to Canada (with only 1 hobble to the ER).

Julie has been on a health journey towards rebalance ever since. With HPA axis dysfunction, amenorrhea, extremely cold hands and feet, blue toes, sympathetic dominance, kidney trouble, and a host of deficiencies, she has simultaneously been her most loyal and most stubborn client to date. So yes, she’d do it again.

In this 272nd episode of Ask the Coaches, Brock and Lucho answer questions about Titanium versus Carbon Fibre Bikes, Should you Race by Pace or HR, Taking Time Off to Get Balanced, Training Short races and Long at The Same Time, and more!

If you were to return to 70.3 or IM racing next year, what do you think would be the performance difference between an old school titanium TT bike (e.g. Litespeed Saber) and a more modern carbon bike. Which one would you pick?

Let’s assume you can have the same drivetrain, wheels and aerobar setup. Also, for the carbon bike, pick a middle of the road like a Cervelo P3 or equivalent–nothing in the “down payment for a house” category.

This question may be coming in too late for me to hear the answer on your show before my marathon. If so, it’s all good, it may always help someone else in a similar situation. I am running the Columbus Marathon on Sunday, October 21st.

Since we last “spoke”, I’ve incorporated some speed workouts, changed training plans (from purely MAF to a more traditional plan, although I still make sure easy runs and recovery runs are truly so by looking at my HR). Cleaned up my nutrition with the help of a nutritionist, and incorporated strength training 2-3 times a week.

My plan was to qualify for Boston, which I’ve been training for since June, but with it now changing from 3:40 to 3:35 for my age group, I am no longer so sure I can run a BQ in two weeks. Is this all in my head? Did I cap myself by fixating on a number?

Most of my easy runs are now in the high 110’s/low 120’s bpm, and I’m between 8:05-8:10 min/mi pace in the low 140’s. Since I’m 37, this should still be a fairly easy zone for me, right? (Max HR 176 bpm). During training, I felt good and in control with a race pace of 8:10 min/mi, but my HR tends to go up by 10 to 15 bpm on race day, and this throws me off, because in my mind I feel like it’s not sustainable for 3 + hours. I successfully ran 3x 20 miles during training, with only a few niggles showing up at mile 18, so I’m sure I can go the distance, not so sure I can keep the pace required for a BQ if my HR goes into the 155-160 range.

Questions:

I am 48 years old and have been competing in long course endurance races for more than 20 years, first marathons then eventually long course triathlon.

Last year I had a bad season due to a weird injury early in the year that continued to nag at me the rest of the season. No self-diagnosis here – I worked with a sports medicine doctor and took time away from training as prescribed. By the end of the race season, I still wasn’t feeling right, which prompted me to do two things: real-time away from endurance training and a re-commitment to strength training. (Before I became an endurance junkie I was a gym rat who dabbled in powerlifting.)

I am now through the first half of race season and have continued on with the strength training with the help of the coach at my gym. I have raced well and feel much stronger than I have for a couple of years. Yet, something just doesn’t feel “right.”

The best way to describe it is I feel like I am fighting my body on a daily basis. I am motivated to do the work but I often hurt in ways that aren’t the good kind of training pain. I’ll get a niggle here, then a niggle somewhere else. I want to really push but often feels like I’m doing more damage than good. It feels like my body is out of balance yet I couldn’t tell you exactly how. I feel like it is time to step away from racing/competing for an extended period and really work out the muscular imbalances.

How does one go about doing this in an efficient manner? My fear is I would either try to do too much, hindering true recovery, or I would start to feel good again, causing me to rush back to test things out at a starting line. I enjoy the training as well as competing and would rather take time to reset the body now then destroy my body and be done for good in a few years time.

I’m a dentist in the Army who has struggled with all three events of the Army’s PT test that we have to do every 6 months: running, push-ups, sit-ups. The minimum 2-mile time for my age group is 17:00. Previously I would start running around 2-3 months before the test, stress and barely pass with around a 16:20 time, then stop exercising for the next 4 months until it was time to panic for the next test.

This cycle continued until I failed the PT test during residency and was forced to do 2-a-day remedial PT sessions 4x/week during one of the most difficult times in my professional and personal life. That pissed me off and made me want to make running something I enjoyed again as well as take charge of my fitness as a whole.

This May I ran my first 16:00 2-mile, then I discovered MAF and signed up for my first half marathon. I didn’t focus too much on improving my 2-mile time and got another PR at 15:48 in August and completed my first half Marathon in September in 2:05:24. I was happy with the improvement and breaking the stressful cycle I’ve had in the past.

Now I want to see if I can max my PT test before the Army shifts to their more cross-fit like tests in 2019. So this means I need to drop my time from 15:48 to 13:18. Do you believe this is possible by October of 2019?

I’m 5’10” 185lbs, I’ve already dropped 10 pounds since my last test in August and plan to get down to at least 170lbs. I love seeing my MAF improve and have gone from 13:15 min/mi. in May to ~11:15 min/mi currently but I know I have a lot more to gain there. I really want to break a 10:00min/mi MAF and beyond.

My plan was to run my first full marathon in April as my “B race” to keep improving my MAF through the winter, shooting to finish without injuring myself. I take another record PT test in April 2019 and then my last one in October 2019.

Should I continue to push MAF and then cycle a Jack Daniels program 6-8 weeks before the PT test in April and October? I’ve got about 1hr Mon-Fri and 2-3 hours on Saturday for long runs when I’m doing MAF. Is it foolish to do a full marathon and focus on improving my 2 mile time at the same time? Especially if they’re both in April. I haven’t signed up for the full, so I could potentially find a race earlier or later if it allowed me to cycle and focus on the 2-mile in April.

In this 271st episode of Ask the Coaches, Brock Armstrong and Lucho answer these listener questions and chat about their own training and racing. Lucho shares his enthusiasm for the Murph Crossfit workout (1 mile run, 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, 300 squats, and 1 mile run). Both Brock and Lucho agree that strength training and track workouts offer a lot of benefits to endurance athletes by developing more well-rounded fitness, improving technique, and mixing training up.

I was hoping you could give me some fuelling advice. In particular, in between two races on the same day. First I have a Championship 5k at 9 am and then a (less important) 10k at 11:15 am. So, I don’t have long at all really. I will finish my 5k, grab my checked bag and order an Uber to the next race.

I’m going to bring a bottle of water with Nuun and an endurance tap gel… But should I bring some protein? Some kind of gluten-free bread sandwich? The last thing I want is to feel starving during the 10k or get a cramp. But I know I should have something in between. Before the 5k I would have a piece of gluten-free bread with peanut butter and banana. I’ll sip on water with Nuun on my way there. Then I’m lost!

I am training for a 17-mile race with 5,000 feet of climbing, and am having trouble finding a training plan specific for races with this much climbing. Race times appear to be similar to that of a marathon, so I have been adapting an intermediate marathon training program and substituting longer runs for shorter runs on steeper terrain.

I live at high altitude at 7,000 with surrounding mountains hitting above 12,000, so there are plenty of options for training runs. Should I still focus on staying in zone 1 and 2 on longer runs even when I struggle to stay in my zone on steeper hills? How many hill workouts should I include? Every week? Every other week? What about mid-week speed work or hill repeats?

At what age should kids start using a heart rate monitor for training. (MAF)?

My daughter is a Freshman in High School running Cross Country. She is a dual athlete and plays soccer during and during soccer tournaments I’ve let her try a gu-gel during the half. Any recommended age for creatine, glutamine? I’m not big on supplements for kids other than protein.

I am a 43-year-old male. 5’4” 145-150 lbs. Been active and relatively “in shape” my whole life although never did endurance type activities as I didn’t have the temperament or interest.

March 2018, I decided to start running. I was running about 3 times a week. I ran my first half marathon in May (2 hours 4 min) and I ran my 2nd half in June (1 hour 56 min).

I introduced swimming (learned to swim as a kid, grew up at a lake, never raced swimming) and road cycling into the mix as well this past summer.

Did a sprint tri (MEC Langley) in Aug (1 hour 26 min) and an Olympic distance labour day weekend, Stanley Park (3 hours 3 min). I ran a 10Km race in Sept (49 min 25 sec).

I have listened a lot about MAF and think it sounds like a good idea for me. Building my aerobic base as I have never really been aerobic before.

I do have to run slow, about 6’30” per KM I think to keep my HR down. 180 – 43=137, however, the MAF app in my phone says my MAF HR should be 132 (I think because it minus’ 5 unless you are super active).

The time I have to train is weekday mornings from about 6:10 AM (get up at 6) to 7 AM and then 1 longer session (1-2 hours) once on the weekend (I am married with 2 kids, 4 and 6, and both myself and my wife work full time). So maybe 5-7 hours per week.

Given I don’t have much time in the mornings, I am questioning the value of MAF if I can’t do long enough sessions most of the time. Is it worth it to do a MAF run for only 35 min?

In the last podcast, I think you touched on this when talking about stimulus levers. You have duration and intensity. So given I don’t have a lot of duration workouts, should I do higher intensity workouts for my sub-1-hour workouts?

My goal is to swim, bike and run twice a week, however, that won’t likely happen every week as I don’t want to run or bike outside in the rain.

With respect to biking my plan is to try Trainer Road and I don’t know what to expect there but I am hoping and assuming it is easy to find “triathlon” designed training rides there to do for 30-45 min.

Swimming I am starting a tri swim session once a week for 5 weeks but other than that when I swim I just do steady laps for about 1.5kms.

So, back to MAF, if I only have 45 ish min to exercise, will running (or biking or swimming I presume, although I don’t have a HR monitor to wear while I swim) at MAF for only 45 including warm up and cool down have much benefit for me?

I want the benefits of becoming fat adapted and a good aerobic system, I am just not sure what the best way to incorporate it into the time I have to train.

I am not addressing a fat adapted diet other than small steps I can take (e.g. more nuts, avocados, higher fat yogurt, a bit less bread, rice, pasta, …); however, I suspect I am still eating a lot of carbs.

While re-introducing our much-missed show host,  Brock and Tawnee discussed…

Strategies for moving through difficult times…

In this episode of Ask the Coaches, Brock Armstrong and Lucho answer these listener questions and talk about:

I have a question about my long runs and increasing their distance. I’m a 24-year-old female and I’ve been running for about 9 years focusing primarily on the half-marathon. I have been doing triathlon my whole life, and am planning on my first full IM in Sept 2019. I PRd my 70.3 this July, but kind of blew up on the run, but have maintained my run fitness and am planning on doing a 21.1 in October.

I’ve never done over-distance training for any of my previous halfs or 70.3s, but am thinking that might help improve my run fitness. However, I’m finding that nearing the end, or just after finishing my long runs my glutes (near the sides by my hips) are quite sore, and I wonder if this will be a limiting factor as I try to increase my run distance. I’m assuming this is a weakness in my glutes (my knees collapse in on heavy squats and when I run I find dirt marks on my lower calves from kicking myself). I already strength train and incorporate exercises attempting to address this issue, but after about a year of trying to improve this, I’m not noticing much difference. At the gym, I do adductor and abductor stuff with the cables (attached to my ankle, not sure what to call this), and use a band to walk sideways and do fire hydrants and clam shells etc as well as RDLs and lunges.

Any thoughts on what else I should be doing? Or how often I should be doing it? (Currently doing strength 2x/week). I’m not sure if this is actually slowing me down, but I am concerned about how it might impact me when I try to train for the Ironman next year.

I will keep this brief but let Lucho Run wild with talking track.

I am a super slow-twitch athlete pretty fast… 73:15 half marathon, 25:30 8k. I have never trained for sprinting but have not broken 60 for a 400 since age 14 in 8th grade when my primary sport was wrestling, and I was not a long distance endurance slow twitcher.

I want to shake things up and try to ultimately break 2 minutes a year from now.

How would you phase a year training cycle to go from being in ~2:35 marathon fitness unable to run a 200 under 30 seconds to a sub 2 minute 800 runner? Imagine I am willing to dedicate myself to the goal as though I were… say, trying to qualify for Kona.

I have a question that I am running into as it relates to the 80/20 for Zone 2 vs Zone 5 training. I am a 42-year-old male. I am primarily a runner with a past triathlon background (so I do have a lot of familiarity with power, lactate threshold, etc) with a current focus on ultrarunning trail and mountain races. I see myself as a decent back of the “front-pack”/front of the “mid-pack” runner in most distances (top 5-10% of field when I don’t blow up). 2017 Leadville 100 run finisher (not top 5-10% : )), 4x 50 mile finisher, numerous trail/mountain 25/50k/100ks, half-marathons, etc. From a pace standpoint, I run 5ks in low 6’s and 10-miler/half marathons in high 6’s/7.

My question is: My MAF zone 2 by the MAF calc in addition to a recent VO2 max test, is in the 140s (145 MAF, 143-152 VO2 test to be exact, zone 5 is 183+). When I train (and I have focused on the actual HR Zones more the last few months versus just perceived exertion) my low effort endurance heart rate seems to be consistently below my zone 2 (120s, low 130s). And when I try to hit the zone 2 range on the bike (indoor trainer) or run, for example, my legs/body tire way before my heart rate elevates to Zone 2 range. I have been trying to have endurance rides/runs (90 mins) in zone 2 and my legs can’t make it. It feels high effort. I always perceived zone 2 as a low HR longer duration effort with limited exertion hitting the duration.

From a zone 5 perspective, I can’t even get close to 180 on my HR during intervals and barely touch the 170s. Is this good/bad sign of fitness and conditioning? Are my legs undertrained versus cardio? Am I working out too easy when I try to execute the low effort days? Do I need to build up my base up so my muscles are conditioned better? I am not a large guy (155lbs, 5’11”) so I don’t have the muscle capacity of larger bikers/runners. Plus, my training for ultrarunning races are consistently 3-5 hours on long days so I really focus on perceived effort with a goal of completing the workout.

Curious your thoughts as I’m always trying to progress my performance for endurance races.