Mediterraneo

It seems like I’ve spent more time trying to get home this year than actually travelling. First the race in Mexico turned into an epic that lacked the actual race, then our trip to Todd’s wedding was extended, but without us able to attend the event we were travelling for. All in all, however, both experiences have ended most excellently.


our hosts, chris and giusi at our "wedding" dinner, and with phil and lena toasting to todd and patty. "here's to absent friends..."

In the film Mediterraneo a group of soldiers invade a small island off the coast of Greece in order to occupy it during WWII. Their imperialist pursuits go almost unnoticed by the natives, who didn’t know a war was going on. The soldiers settle in to the lifestyle on the island and soon have forgotten themselves. The war is over for years before anyone learns about it.


old fashioned p90x, working on chris' vineyards; and a bad climbing area with a view so good it's hard to care.

This was pretty much our vacation: the abridged version. We’d popped down to Sicily to visit friends en route to London when an Icelandic volcano put the entire world on hold. We joked as it was happening; saying that if you’d been given a list of things that might interrupt your travel volcano would have been picked last, but then found ourselves just a few days into our trip frantically worrying about how we were going to get home. Mainly we were trying to get to London for the wedding. Our attempts at finding planes, trains, or automobiles to reach Albion were getting thwarted by the hour (still trying to get a lot of money back), leaving us feeling rather stranded.


trying to get us home. but looking at my view, probably wondering why.


chris working on his 8c project and me being dwarfed by one of many excellent caves.

Not to be deterred, Phil and Lena flew to Spain, trained to Barcelona, then booked a flight to Bogata, Columbia. They had to lie to get on the flight because it was only available to citizens. As they put it, “we nearly didn’t make it. It came down to a call they made where nobody answered.” From South America they were able to get back home a few days later. Luckily they made the right choice as those attempting to head east found themselves in a quagmire as the Cairo airport shut down, stranding hundreds.


shots from ortigia: our home away from home.

right and on top: the amazing piazza duomo, which was around the corner from our apartment

We decided on the opposite approach. We were in about the most idyllic setting possible. We were staying with friends, so it was free, on the island of Ortigia in the ancient city of Siracusa, one of the most beautiful places in the world. The architecture in the town goes back thousands of years, there are more Grecian ruins in Sicily than in Greece, and the climbing is the best in the world. We decided to stay put and ride it out, even though they were predicting that the volcano might continue to erupt for a year.


"there is no place in the world more beautiful than sicily". looking at taeormina, it's hard to argue with enzo's quote from the big blue.

At first things were a little tense. As Americans, we had work to do. Sure, we were in contact. In this ever-shrinking world you can do almost anything from anywhere and, in fact, my phone worked better from Sicily than it does down the block from our office in Santa Monica. Still, it just seemed wrong, to be stuck without a time table and in a situation where there was nothing we could do about it. The American corporate machine had finally met its match: Eyjafjallajökull.


the road up mt etna has to be one of the best bikes rides on the planet. you go from the sea through a city, then towns, then vineyards, apple orchards, forests, and finally lava flows leading to the ski station at 6,000' on the world's most active volcano.

lowering off of the 2nd ascent of what chris and i both agreed was one of the best routes we'd ever done. it ascended a massive cave through two man made dwellings that were somehow constructed in an overhanging cliffs thousands of years ago. the base of this cliff is littered with ancient artifacts. at another climbing area in the region there's a necropolis with 5,000 tombs carved into the rock. the history on this island is ridiculously overwhelming.


sizing up the competition lest we get stranded forever.

Acquiescing into the Mediterranean lifestyle didn’t take long. By day two we were fully acclimated. Café in the Piazza Duomo, or overlooking the sea, a little work, sightseeing or climbing, Panini, siesta. We’d usually work once our offices opened in America (I work virtually so not quite as vital for me) and then get enough done to go to dinner with Chris and Giusi, which happens very late in Italy and coincides with lunch in the States. And by the time the airspace re-opened we’d found ourselves rooting for the Eyjafjallajökull to keep working her magic.

trying to keep up with the very fashionable italians.

U.S. to Prevent GMO Labeling Worldwide‏

It's bad enough that we don't label the genetically modified ingredients in our foods (GMO), but now the US is trying to mandate the whole world follow suit. One of the nice things about being in Europe is that companies must warm that GMO ingredients are in foods. So rather than risk it, most companies avoid using them. In Italy I perused the labels of many American junk food to find that the European equivelant contained better ingredients. It's going to be hard enough to get our own labels to change but if we allow it to happen world-wide it's going to make it even worse. Here's the press release, thanks to the folks at Fresh: The Movie.

We have just a few days to stop the United States government from preventing the world from properly labeling genetically modified foods (GMOs).

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have adopted a pro-corporate position that laughably claims labeling GM/GE foods creates the "false" impression that "that the labeled food is in some way different from other foods."

And next week, at the United Nations meeting in Canada, they will tell the world to adopt the same position, preventing other countries from rightly labeling GMOs as different from fresh, natural food. The implications of this position could further undermine organic food standards all over the world, especially organic labeling.

We know that GMO food created by the likes of Monsanto is not only "different" but unhealthy and unsustainable. Can you help us tell the USDA and FDA to wake up and drop this ridiculous position?

Click here to tell the USDA and FDA: the world should be free to label GMO foods as such.

While the rest of the world wants to be able to label unnatural GMOs, Barack Obama's USDA and FDA have adopted pro-corporate food positions GMOs. Unless we act now, the United States will go to this meeting telling the world that GMO foods are not different and should not be labeled.

GMO foods, by definition, are genetically different. By altering nature's design in order to withstand a barrage of chemicals and other poisons, humans are without question creating a new, different kind of food.

We need to tell the USDA and FDA to abandon its wrongheaded, corporate food position that GMOs are the same as non-GMO foods. Sign our petition now before the deadline on Monday.

Thank you for your support on this urgent petition - please share this with anyone you know who cares about their food.

Best,

Lisa Madison
Distribution & Outreach Coordinator
FRESH

The Dark Side Of Coffee

Anyone who follows my blog knows that I love coffee and hardly shy away from touting its benefits. Today, however, I’m facing its dark side. Bushisms aside, there’s very little of the “with us or against us” mentality when it comes to most things in life. Conviction is only noble if it’s motivated by thought. Just because coffee increases both physical and mental performance and seems to stave of major illness and help you live longer, doesn’t mean it’s the Yoda of the nutrition world. We all have a little Darth Vader in us. And when I say all, I’m including everything that comes from living organisms, including coffee.

Due to our favorite magic elixir and its quite famous side effect, the jitters, need to be used strategically, simply because no combination of nutrients can out perform our most important training aid: sleep. Deep sleep, quite literally, is like doping. In various stages of slumber your body releases many of the same hormones cheating athletes inject themselves with while they’re awake. Hittin’ the hay is so important that the most decorated cyclist in history, Eddy Merckx, famously said, “the Tour [de France] is won in bed.” If coffee is having a negative effect on your sleep patterns then it’s offsetting any good that it’s doing for you.

I thought about this piece last week while lying in bed at 4am, staring at the ceiling, and itching like someone in the depths of drug withdrawal. Thanks to a volcano in Iceland, I found myself stuck in Sicily for the week (poor me, I know). I still had to work, however, and when our afternoon (PST) webinar on the Shakeology Cleanse had nearly 600 attendees it would be quite rude to try and move it just because it happened to be at two o’clock in the morning, my time.

Two AM, however, also happened to be the time that my jet-lagged body was lights out. Normally I’d have no trouble with such a topic in almost any stage. But each night Europe, just after midnight, I’d find myself hitting a wall as though Smokin’ Joe’d just clocked me with a left hook and I’d be dead to the world for about four hours until jet lag would work its voodoo, at which point I’d toss and turn until it was time to hit the cafe. Not wanting to risk disappointed 600 coaches by sounding as though I’d been sparring with Iron Mike I’d finished dinner with a couple of espresso’s, then had an American-style coffee just prior to the chat.

When I’m training hard I can often drink coffee at night and sleep fine. At times, however, I’ll over do it by using coffee as an ergogenic aid prior to training. A recent study showed that more coffee can be better than less, period, for staving off cancer. But all this goodness still has limits. I can always tell when I’m drinking too much coffee because I’ll itch at night. I was never quite certain if it was wholly to blame for this because I live in a dry climate. Sicily is not dry in the least, so when I felt the fateful itch I knew I was in for a long restless night. Quite simply, I’d overdone it. And like under hydrating during a race, over eating at Thanksgiving, or pulling that extra bottle of wine out of the rack I was going to have a price to pay.

So before you parlay the 20,000 or so positive studies for a 64 ounce coffee mug filled with extra-caffeinated Morning Buzz from the 7 Eleven, remember that most of those studies consider a 2 ounce espresso or a 6 ounce mug a serving of coffee. The six servings daily that may stave of prostate cancer could fit in one Starbucks vente. And caffeine may not even be the go to ingredient as some studies showed positive effects with decaf. The lesson here is that, like with most things in nutrition, keeping your coffee servings small and as natural as possible will give your performance the greatest boost.

Cleansing, Part III

The Shakeology Cleanse has taken off since I originally blogged about it. As promised, here’s the third installment of my cleansing analysis where I go into the differences between a performance cleanse, as I can the Shakeology version (SC), and a traditional cleanse such as the Master Cleanse (MC).

First of all, the SC is not a true cleanse but a calorie restricted nutrient dense eating plan. Traditional cleanses contain very few calories and nutrients. Compared to the much more popular MC, it’s like an all-you-can-eat buffet. Traditional cleansing diets are done to rid your system of toxins and bring it into homeostasis. They also contain a spiritual aspect. This process can take a long time, which is why you may have seen co-workers walking around the office in a zombie-like state for weeks on end swilling a strange concoction of lemons and maple syrup.

The SC is nothing like that. Depending on how you decide to do it you’ll be eating frequently and consuming between 800 and 1200 calories a day, and it could be even more should you feel you need it. The point of the cleanse is not calorie restriction, per se; it’s nutrient efficiency. The aim is to get the most nutrient possible into the fewest number of calories. The goal is to put all of these calories to use as a part of your exercise program, rid your body of undigested foods and toxins, and bring your hydration levels into homeostasis. The result you’re after is not weight loss—though it will likely occur (see my last post)—but that your body is running more efficiently. This should make you feel lighter and more energetic, even though you’re doing an exercise program.

I call it nutrient efficient eating, and not actual cleansing, because you eat a meal with a balance of proteins, carbohydrates, fats, and fiber every few hours. And while you’re not eating as much food as you’d normally eat you’re calorie to nutrient ratio is extremely high, meaning that that actual nutrients you’re getting should not be too restricted so activity can continue as it normally would.

A lot of people have asked me how I managed to consume around 1,500 calories a day on the cleanse but it’s not a stretch to do so. You have three Shakeology shakes where you can add fruit, nuts, and seeds. I would usually add various fruits to one shake and fruit and chia seeds to another, then have the third as a snack during a period where I was training. At night you get a salad and I’d pile mine high with veggies, nuts, and seeds and use some good olive oil and balsamic vinegar as a dressing.

This may seem like a lot of food but remember that the goal here is performance. You want to eat enough to fuel your day, including your workout. The foods you’re eating are so high in fiber and nutrients that it’s virtually impossible to overeat. You’ll be consuming so much fiber, along with enzymes and digestive aids that your body’s ability to eliminate will be heightened to where any excess foods will be quickly flushed.

Back to the weight thing; most people will lose some weight during a cleanse but that is not the goal. Those with a lot of undigested gunk in their systems will lose weight as it’s flushed out. Those of you who are properly hydrated and already eat well are less likely to lose. For those of you who need to lose weight take heart; you are setting up your system to use nutrients more efficiently and improving your ability to lose weight through structured diet and exercise. So while you may not lose much on the cleanse you’ll be more prepared to lose weight later. Think of this as a foundation training phase where you’re body might not change a lot but you’re improving you’re capacity for performance, and hence change, during the latter phases of the program.

I should probably address cortisol in another posting but I’ll mention it briefly here. Another reason why we don’t always lose weight on cleanses is due to this stress hormone. Restricting calories is stressful to the body and it reacts by releasing cortisol. Cortisol is performance enhancing in the short term but if you somehow keep you body stressed for long periods it creates havoc in your system and can cause you to doggedly hang onto weight in a type of survival mode. We don’t want this to occur, which is one reason the Shakeology cleanse is short (and the reason many people don’t lose weight on the MC). It’s important not to remain in a highly caloric deficient state for long periods of time, and especially when you are trying to exercise hard.

Spring Classics

I leave tomorrow for Sicily to do some climbing. Last year, however, I was in Belgium experiencing the spring classics that, in my mind, are the greatest races in cycling. Here are a few shots from that trip.

Oddly enough, though I love these races I'm never fit when they happen. Because I generally end the year with a birthday challenge, followed by a recovery period, April tends to find me transitioning from off-season to early-season training. One of these years, however, I’m going to get fit early and ride the amateur version of a cobbled classic.

Last weekend was The Tour of Flanders (Ronde van Vlaanderen) and up next is biggest one-day race of them all, Paris-Roubaix. You can catch all the action live at www.cyclingfans.com Now on to the photos.


bruce leads me up the famous koppenberg, 22% of horredous, slick, cobbles and the only climb the world's greatest cyclist, eddie merckx ever walked.

while shorter than the koppenberg, this climb was ridiculosly steep. getting up it requires resorting to mountain bike technique.






bruce and i on the muur, where cancella dropped boonen to win this year's ronde.


at the church on top of the muur, once of cycling's most iconic places.

after a couple of laps on the muur we stopped at the mid-climb pub. we were told this was "the best beer" and i'll be damned if it ain't in the running.


cobbles are so beloved in flanders that there's a cobble museum, run by ex-racing superstar freddy martens.


while flat, the roubaix cobbles are far worse in quality. here's a shot of the famous arenberg forest. riding a couple of k at race pace feels similar to jack hammering for hours. i can't imagine what a hundred k would feel life. someday i'll find out!


finally, a video romney made from last year's paris-roubaix. if you like cycling at all, and perhaps even if you don't, it's an event not to be missed.

Mixing Insanity And P90X

One of my co-workers said it'd be great if I wrote an article on mixing Insanity and P90X. I replied that I've already written two. But if the folks in the office don't know about them, perhaps you don't either. They were both released before we had our "Extreme Newsletter" archive page up. I think they should be required reading for anyone considering mixing these two programs. I would hope they'd help you mix any two programs.

The first analyzes the diet structure of each program and how to move from the X diet into Insanity, in which case you'd skip the Insanity diet plan.

When you look at the X diet, you see a plan that's designed to teach you how to eat for athletics. It varies over time, attempting to follow the changes in your body composition. Once you graduate from the X, there shouldn't be much need for outside diet plans except for variety's sake. You could use the INSANITY diet for this, but you'll want to alter your calories to meet your own goals using what you've already learned. It's almost a certainty that a post-X body will have a composition that requires more calories than what the INSANITY diet recommends.

The article then addresses how to structure the into phase on Insanity on the heels of X. The second article, on how to create hybrid programs, takes this into further account. For example,

The second big mistake people make when designing hybrid plans is not being physically ready. This is also usually due to the "more must be better" mindset. People often get impatient and create a hybrid before they've finished their original programs. In most cases, this is a huge mistake.

After digging through the archive there aren't many articles there that aren't appropriate for those looking to take your workout program to the next level. So bookmark this page and reference it often.

The Top 10 Reasons To Give Up Soda

If you're looking for a scapegoat in the obesity epidemic, look no further than soda. It's the single greatest caloric source in the world, accounting for somewhere between 11 and 19 percent of all the calories consumed worldwide. It's cheap, addictive, and readily available, which generally means that it will take some willpower to avoid. But don't despair, as we at Beachbody® are here to help. We present: our top 10 reasons to give up soda.

For those of you who read The Straight Dope but don't get my articles I thought I'd use this week's as a carrot. Just click on the above paragraph, which will take you to this week's newsletter, then enter your email address in the space in the nav bar. Notice that there are two options: the P90X newsletter and the regular Beachbody newsletter. I edit and write for both, but you'll need to use two different email addresses to get them both.

Then read on. If you're one of those who still drink soda all I can do is ask why? It is, and one of my older articles called it, the worst food in the world!

It’s Never Too Late

I’m not sure where society’s view on aging comes from. I constantly get letters from customers asking if they’re too old to do one of our programs even when they’re younger than the program’s trainer. I’m told that I’m crazy to attempt the things I do at my age. Yet Lebron James’ entire life could fit between me and a woman profiled today in the Orange Co Register, 73-year old Ironman triathlete, Mickie Shapiro.

Shapiro’s early life wasn’t much of an indicator of where she was headed,

Like many women of her generation, Shapiro grew up inside a fence of expectations. She was expected to play safe games like "Red Rover," go to college, meet a man, devote her life to raising children and, later in life, play with her grandchildren.

She followed this path until her 40’s. With her kids in college she headed back herself, earning two masters degrees. She began running with one of her kids and it became a passion. When she saw Julie Moss famously crawl over the finish line at the 1982 Ironman she was inspired.

"I'm going to do a triathlon," she promised herself.

Since that day, Shapiro has won eight Ironman races in her age group, come in second three times in her age group in the world championships and won the half-Ironman world championships twice.

We need reminders like this to clear our heads of just what society expects of us, which is pretty much that we do nothing. Work at a job you aren't passionate about, raise some kids, watch some TV, exercise vicariously by watching other people play sports, eat a lot of bad food, take some drugs, and anonymously fade away has superseded hard working Horacio Alger as the American ideal. And why? Where did this attitude come from?

Think about aging. Children soak up knowledge like a sponge: learning languages in months a trigonometry in less time them most of us spend watching our favorite TV show each season. And, okay, their bodies are developing and are naturally more attentive. But our brains still work. Our bodies still function. At 40, we’re barely half way to our life expectancy. How can 50 be the year we qualify for retirement benefits? Certainly the human body wasn’t set up to improve for 20 years and spend the next 50 in a state of decline. Somewhere along the line someone has fed us fed us a crock of shit. And for some unknown reason, we’ve slopped it down like chili cheese fries at a Colts game.

There are 24 years separating me and Mickie Shapiro. Enough time for Lebron to grow up and dominate an entire profession. Enough time for her to earn two masters degrees, finished a bunch of Ironmans, and win some world championships. The questions we should be asking ourselves isn’t when can I retire or am I too old for this? It’s what can I get done in the time I have left?

photos, except moss in '82: LEONARD ORTIZ, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

A Challenge For Childhood Obesity

I was going to raise money for Haiti during this year’s birthday challenge (in November) but have changed my mind and, instead, plan to target a much greater problem: childhood obesity. It’s not that Haiti doesn’t need help. They need more than most of us can imagine, and that was before the earthquake. But they are getting a lot more than I can provide and in my mind the most pressing issue facing the world is not poor countries. It’s not war, or terrorism, or disease. It’s simply that we’ve stopped using out bodies as we’re meant to. And it’s killing us. Fast.

This is not a problem that needs medical intervention. It doesn’t need drugs. It doesn’t need revolution, or even corporate or political agendas to change. It simple needs rudimentary education. In this video here you see school children who are unable to recognize vegetables. I extrapolate that the bar is set very low in an area where my expertise can be of service, a lot moreso than it can in Haiti.

On Medline, a governmental site for the National Library of Medicine, this is what they have to say about childhood obesity:

If a weight loss program is necessary, involve the whole family in healthy habits so your child doesn't feel singled out. You can encourage healthy eating by serving more fruits and vegetables and buying fewer sodas and high-calorie, high-fat snack foods. Physical activity can also help your child overcome obesity or being overweight. Kids need about 60 minutes each day.

Not very alarming, is it? In fact, given that, statistically, it is probably the single most important issue facing the world I’d say they are purposely glossing over the issue. Not surprising given how much is at stake (or steak) for our corporate food giants should we decide to actually eat less and the influence that they have over the government.

But the simple fact is that there’s no hiding this one. We don’t need studies or statistics. All we need to do is look around at the mall. We are, as a society, fat and getting fatter. To change this is easy, but we need people spreading the word.

I’m looking for suggestions. I want a grass roots organization to team up with that is doing good work. In exchange I promise to come up with something epic to entertain you. My current thoughts are:

50 educational things done for childhood obesity (articles, seminars, appearances, etc) leading up to the challenge...

then...

50 rock climbs at least 5.10 (about like climbing El Capitan twice)
50 boulder problem up to V5
500 kilometers of riding
50 kilometers of running
500 pull-ups
500 push-ups
All done in 50 hours

Could I do this right now? Of course not. Not even close. But as the saying goes, it's not birthday pretty hard. It's birthday challenge.

Tony Kornheiser: Douche Bag Of The Year

Some ESPN sportscaster advocated running over cyclists last week, earning the wrath of millions of bike riders, including Lance Armstrong who Tweeted "Listening to Tony Kornheiser's comments/rant on ESPN radio re: cyclists. Disgusting, ignorant, foolish. What a complete f-ing idiot." The only reason I’d heard of this dude prior was a month or so ago when got suspended for critiquing the wardrobe of female colleague, Hannah Storm, for essentially being too fashionable for someone her age. In the space of a month he’s offended everyone who rides a bike, women who care about their appearance, and anyone who holds human life is any sort of regard. Impressive, but he wasn’t finished.

When challenged on the above show, he also managed to throw self-propelled commuters and Nordic skiers under the bus with them,

"And they all, my God, with their water bottles in the back, and their stupid hats, and their shiny shorts, they're the same kind of disgusting posers that in a snowstorm come out with cross-country skis on your block," Kornheiser said. "Run them down."

And before we’ve hit the spring equinox. I’ve got to think the Douche Bag of the Year title is wrapped up. And if ESPN doesn’t can the guy and he manages to stay out of jail (which won’t be a problem in some states) it seems like he’ll be shoo-in for Douche Bag of the Century before it’s officially summer.

He may not get the chance, however, and we have some say in the matter. As most cyclists’ know, the Texan can be a formidable enemy. Armstrong urged his 2.5 million Tweetees to contact Kornheiser's bosses on both the radio and Pardon the Interruption to register their complaints. "Not happy about Kornheiser's comments? Let them know @ESPNRadio980, @ptishow, and here," said Armstrong via Twitter.

I’m just spreading some democratic love.

PS - For some good old fashioned ranting check the comment thread over at the Drunk Cyclist. You'll also find some good commentary and helpful ways to register your complaint.

Can Cordyceps Really Prevent Cancer?

One of the newsletters I subscribe to came with this headline, Cordyceps prevents cancer, says new research. Now I think this supplement is just great (you'll find it in Shakeology), but the hyperbole of the title caused me to read more in skepticism than anticipation.

Clicking through, I found the title of the actual article was far more toned down, now calling cordyceps an effective cancer treatment, thus lumping it in with more holistic changes like exercise and improving your diet. However, the up shot is that the article was based on a true scientific study. Not only that, it was a study focused on cordycepin, the pharmaceutical version of the plant, meaning that it was probably well funded and meticulous.

“Though the research focused primarily on cordycepin, it ultimately revealed the powerful effects of cordyceps in preventing and treating cancer. The study is set to be published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry and its authors hope that the findings will spark further research into the potential uses for cordyceps as a cancer treatment.”

While the study didn’t validate the usefulness of cordycepin, it did find that “cordyceps inhibits protein development directly, essentially eliminating the ability of cancer cells to function and survive.” Provacative indeed.

For you hard line fans of western medicine I’ll warn that the article was written by a “hippie scientist” who has no lost love for the machine. For example,

“I know many TCM practitioners and several of them can actually read the ancient texts. One book written 2,000 years ago -- yes, that's 1,900 years before Big Pharma even existed -- teaches the healing powers of medicinal mushrooms like cordyceps.

Much of Big Pharma's modern effort has been focused on trying to isolate, pirate and patent ancient Chinese Medicine molecules. This is, of course, a form of "biopiracy" where U.S. corporations steal intellectual property from China and never pay a royalty to anyone. Interestingly, U.S. companies don't even consider this a form of stealing. I guess "our" theft is okay but "their" theft is illegal, huh?”

Regardless, it’s promising research that he’s touting. And the cool thing about eastern traditional medicine is that it is generally 100% safe—although I did see a kung fu movie where the protagonist was given a magic arm, something I would not recommend trying at home. There’s no downside, other than a minimal cost, to experimenting with these remedies to see how they work for you.

Run Free, But Not Necessarily Barefoot

Before you throw out all of your modern running shoes and go prancing around barefoot like a Tarahumara, consider this: the winner of this year’s Copper Canyon Ultra—a Raramuri—credits his victory to wearing running shoes instead of their traditional sandals.

As reported by El Diario de Chihuahua, Yo he participado 3 veces, en la primera no llegué a finalista, en la segunda quedé en el lugar 14, las dos primeras veces usaba huaraches, pero están mejor los tenis, ya me acostumbré los uso desde hace dos años porque no lastiman”, reveló con cierta timidez el rarámuri triunfador.

Which roughly translated means that the race winner came in 14th the first two times he participated wearing sandals but won this time because his feet were more comfortable in running shoes. A Nike representative must be en route with a contract.

With all the recent data showing how running shoes can hurt your feet (more accurately weaken), and of course that tome of beautifully-crafted hyperbole, Born to Run, what to wear was a huge topic down in Mexico. I don’t think anyone questions the logic that as a culture we’ve become dependant upon shoes which has weakened our feet, but the jury is still out on whether barefoot running is a paradigm shift (did I use this phrase on two consecutive days?) or something that should be reserved for training only. If we’re keeping score, my group of runners were all wearing running shoes, albeit many were favoring racing flats over the more modern “system support” trainers.

Personally, I haven’t given up any of my shoes. For now, instead of wearing one style, I switch back and forth between support, no support, barefoot, five-fingers, and different styles with a theory that this will force my feet to adapt to the many different stresses and get stronger than they would be if I just went barefoot. I, however, have absolutely no evidence that my theory bears any merit yet. I’m beginning to think that a combination of racing flats, barefoot training, and foot strengthening exercise is going to be the protocol for almost all serious runners in the future.

Or you can just distill it all down to corn mash, drink it, and just go out and run for as long as you can. As race director and folk hero Caballo Blanco puts it, “The point: None of that crap really matters, what or not one wears on their feet. Run Happy...Run Free.”

pic: race winner josé madero, by brooke cantor

Enjoying My Coffee

A few months back we were treated to a study showing excessive coffee drinkers were at a much lower risk for prostate cancer. Now we’re seeing stats telling us it can ward off type 2 diabetes.

Although it is sometimes referred to as "the devil's brew," coffee contains several nutrients (eg, calcium) as well as hundreds of potentially biologically active compounds (eg, polyphenols) that may promote health. For instance, observational studies have suggested a beneficial link between coffee consumption and type 2 diabetes.

The article goes on to lend credence to the “emerging health benefits of coffee.” Seriously?

Coffee’s been consumed a lot longer than we’ve been recording history and spent most of that time as a coveted elixir. It's benefits are hardly emerging. Only recently has it come under scrutiny as being something unhealthy and, frankly, I feel this stems from our tit for tat mentality where when people get their favorite vices targeted (sugar, alcohol, tobacco, prescription drugs et al) the want to fire back with something. Coffee and tea, both having addictive qualities, are the low hanging fruit for this reactionary behavior.

But study after study show that what we put into coffee (see Triple Vanilla Macchiato Buzz Bomb) is doing far more harm than the coffee itself. In fact, there have more than 20,000 studies done on coffee, tea, and caffeine and they are almost unanimously positive. Not only that, coffee is chocked full of nutrients and lacks calories, a paradigm shift from the recent trend in nutrition--that of lots of calories with very little nutrition--that’s led to our obesity epidemic.

I’m stayin’. I’m finishing my coffee. Enjoying my coffee.

Synergy & P90X Plus

I’ve been doing a combination of P90X Plus along with riding, running, and climbing to try and bring my training back into focus. All the hubbub surrounding the Mexico trip, along with the small injury I suffered beforehand, put a kink into the schedule. With a month before a planned trip to Europe I’m trying to round out my overall fitness prior to departure, which will complete my base training for a planned big year ahead.

This is slightly different than the plan I drew up and began in December. But as I said then, it’s almost never the right course of action to complete a training program without some alteration. What happened, besides the slight injury that altered my climbing training, was that I began putting so many miles into running that my other fitness suffered. The main problem was lack of consistent sleep. With my aging dog requiring a lot of attention it’s been rare to get more than a few uninterrupted hours of sleep over the last few months. This kind of thing can wreak havoc with recover and training, especially volume, needs to get adjusted as necessary when it occurs.

The key to regaining lost fitness and keeping what I’ve gained in other areas is synergy; finding a training schedule that concurrently taxed many energy systems at once. For this I’ve been using the 90X Plus workouts. Sometimes it’s best to training energy systems separately because it builds strength more efficiently. The down side with this approach is that you then need some time to integrate this fitness together. When you have less time training synergistically, where you train across styles and energy systems, is more apropos. Crossfit follows this model, as does P90X Plus.

The downside to X Plus is also its upside: synergy. Because you train a lot of systems at once, including the kinetic chain, it’s a very efficient system for getting overall body fitness quickly. But because it’s training so many things together the workouts don’t plug into the 90X schedule very well, making it harder to use to affect targeted body composition changes, especially where hypertrophy (size) is concerned.

This style of synergistic training creates, as one of my bodybuilding friends put it, “skinny fit guys”—a club he has no interest in being a member of. I, however, am a poster child for the skinny fit guy club as I feel fat no matter how fit I am because nothing improves your strength for gravity sports as much as losing weight. Right now, my goal is to get as skinny and as fit as I can in three weeks time.
pic: romney showing the advantages of strength to weight ratio gained by training many systems at once.

Family First

I would be on my way back from the Copper Canyon Ultramarathon right now if life had not interfered. As it was, I had a little road trip adventure and got enough of a taste that it’s definitely on the schedule again next year.

I flew down to Phoenix where I was to rendezvous with a group of runners for a road trip. Our crew turned out to be an interesting cross section of ultra running. On one side we had Mark and Alexa. Young, fairly new to the sport, and very competitive; they had just returned from a six-day race in Costa Rica where they’d both finished in the money. On the other side was Chris, who's been running ultras since long before they were called ultras and finished more than most of us had heard of. In between were the Coury brothers. Grizzled veterans but still only in their early 20’s, they embody the future of a sport once dominated by retirees. Not only were they highly competitive, both having won races and run a hundred miles in less than 18 hours, but they also organize races and their lives revolve around promoting ultra running “for as long as we can pull it off.” I was the outsider, having only competed in one official ultra, my longest runs were mainly done alone in the mountains.

I was planning on getting a hotel, as crashing at the Coury’s undergrad pad with six dudes seemed pretty hectic. Their house, however, was slightly different then the places that I hung out in college. It was more like the Real World of ultra running. I ended up staying up late talking training and nutrition theory with the brothers, who were like test pilots for the nutrient limits of the human body. Nick did his ultras sans “race food”, instead relying on things like gummy candies. This made sense, sports foods being mainly sugar, but he also eschewed salt. Salt is a coveted by endurance athletes like diamonds are to socialites. It’s the stuff dreams are made of. Yet, somehow, Nick is not only finishing, but winning races using hardly any salt. His theory is that if you don’t have salt in your daily diet you don’t need it during sports. This bucks most experts’ opinions but it’s hard to argue with his results. Jamil’s diet consists of mainly raw fruit and a little beer. It’s a recent change and he plans to put it to the test down in the canyon. In short, they are my kind of people.

In the morning our group piled into the Coury’s parents Suburban and we headed south. We took comfort in the fact that with our tinted windows we looked like drug cartel henchman. Of course, this could work against us should we look like rival henchman. It seemed that everyone we know was worried about the border except for us. Indeed, it’s been the scene of some craziness lately but I wasn’t worried. I love Mexico; the people, the food, the culture. Nothing bad can happen to me down there. Sure enough, we breezed through the border towns without a hiccup and a few hours later were tickling the northern Sierra Madre.

The next afternoon we arrived in Creel, the town where El Oso, author of Born To Run, finally tracked down Caballo Blanco. We checked in to the actual hotel/hostel where this meeting took place and went out to explore one of the trails in the book. We were now officially in Tarahumara land. Indeed, there were Raramuri everywhere.

Creel is a highland village. Situated at the top of the canyon, at nearly 3,000 meters, it’s a mountain town. The ensuing days would see us make our way down into the Barrancas del Cobre to Urique. At only a few hundred meters above sea level the scene is as different as the weather. “It’s tropical,” is how one resident of Creel put it.

We didn’t see any runners but, apparently, Creel with its hotels and El Chepe (the train) is a tourist town. The true Raramuri lived in places no roads penetrated. According to Caballo Blanco the highland Raramuri were training hard to unseat those from the deep canyon, who’d been made somewhat famous by the book and had more-or-less dominated the race. While some of us had race ambitions we were mainly there to experience the rivalry first hand, and all else that goes with it.

Unfortunately, while nothing bad happens to me in Mexico it doesn’t mean they don’t happen elsewhere. Back at home Romney was dealing with Tuco not moving, eating, or drinking. The vet wasn’t sure if he’d had a stroke or not but the day I left he’d been hiking and running like normal and now he couldn’t get up and refused to eat or drink. Since he’s very old this was inevitable but his rapid deterioration took us by surprise. There was nothing I could do but he was breathing well and wasn’t going very quickly. If he wanted to die being “the fittest animal on the planet” most of his life wasn’t doing him any favors.

Bob, who provides Tuc’s summer home, flew out to see him. I decided that if he improved at all I’d come home, too. The first note I got wasn’t too encouraging. “I think he’s over it,” it read. But a short while later he drank, and soon after that he ate some bacon, by which time I’d already plotted a course to get back. The race will be here next year. Tuc probably won’t. And even though, as my friend Binky put it, “he left it all on the floor,” I felt I should say good-bye.

Traveling out of the Copper Canyons is not simple. I tried to catch El Chepe but missed the final train of the day. Two bus rides, a taxi, and three flights later (that included a 40 minutes transfer where I had to clear customs and run across LAX through three terminals, at least putting all this race training to some use) and 25 hours later I was back with my buddy.

Postscript: Though he couldn’t get up when I got here Tuc’s been doing better each day. At first he was so uncomfortable he could only sleep a couple of hours at a time (meaning so could I), but now he’s getting up on his own and sleeping through the night. Yesterday he even ran about 50 meters. The big adios is currently on the back burner.

More than 50 gringos made the trip south, a record by far, to compete with hundreds of Raramuri. The highland Raramuri dominated the race, getting 7 of the top 10 spots. "They could compete with anyone, anywhere" - CB. Juan Quimare, relative of Arnulfo who was made famous in the book, was the top deep canyon finisher in 4th. Nick was the highest placed gringo, coming in 6th. By all accounts it was an amazing experience for everyone.

pics: thanks to brooke cantor for the pics of the canyons and the race. the other shots are our crew in creel. you can see more pics and read more about the raramuri and the canyons at his web site, http://www.norawas.org/

Indoor vs Outdoor Training

“A real man likes the feeling of nature against his face.”
- Wang

“And a wise man has the sense to get out of the rain.”
- Egg Shen

Not my favorite author Gina Kolata has penned another not so interesting article for the New York Times. Unlike some of her other work, however, I won’t call this one bad journalism. It’s actually reasonable research. It’s just not complete. I’m also just not sure who doesn’t already know the answers as to which is more effective, indoor or outdoor training for outdoor sports.

As she states:

The most obvious difference with indoor exercise is a lack of wind resistance, Dr. Cavanagh said.

“The important variable here is speed relative to the air,” he said. For example, if you are running at 8 miles per hour into a 10-m.p.h. headwind, your speed relative to the air is 18 m.p.h. Dr. Cavanagh explained in an e-mail message: “Work done against air resistance can be extremely costly because the ‘drag force’ (force caused by air resistance) is proportional to the square of speed and the power required to overcome drag force is proportional to the cube of speed.”

Hmm, yes. Obvious. It then moves into not-so-much-more shocking,

“If you run all the time on a smooth surface you are not training all muscles in your legs and feet that you need to run on the road,” Dr. Cavanagh said. “If you are going to race under certain conditions, you might as well train there.”

The article proceeds with further testimonials from experts as why it’s better to run, ride, or row outdoors While for me this should be preaching to the choir I can’t help nitpick the lack of objectivity. As usual, Kolata misses out in addressing the benefits of indoor training (to be fair she does state it’s safer). But the real advantages are that you can isolate systems from outside influence where great performance gains can be made. You then need to integrate these gains back into the sport of choice but it is an advantage you have when choosing to train indoors.

Okay, so none of this is groundbreaking info. So why is it here? Mainly as an excuse to show this friggin’ cool mtn biking video. When someone can figure out how I can do this stuff inside of my house I might actually considering not going outside so much.

Taking Back Our Lives

I don’t generally re-post but I was doing some research for an article and came across this old rant that seems as relevant now as ever.

The Fattening Of America

Back then my blog had fewer readers and, frankly, less focus as I was testing the waters as to what type of information it should contain. So my guess is that a lot of my current readership hasn’t seen it. It’s, essentially, akin to the film Fresh in that it’s about getting proactive and doing something about our personal situation when it comes to our health. Some topics never seem to age, though it’d be nice if this one did. Here is the closing:

All this apathy towards things that really matter allows our corporations to have their way with us. We’ll work longer hours, for less money, with no health care, and no vacation plan, for little retirement, just so long as the Yankees can win another pennant. During the time Roger Clemens has been pitching, we’ve seen the discrepancy between rich on poor in our country widen to the point that we’re, statistically, a third world nation. Our minimum wage has only raised a fraction and is current half of all other first world countries. Our president told a woman who spoke of working three jobs in order to just feed her kids that her situation was “uniquely American”. We’re grown too tired, too busy, too broke, too distracted to even bother with the basic things that we know keep us healthy. When did this happen? It’s not the America I grew up in.

But the real problem isn’t George Bush, the media, or the Enron’s of the world. The problem is us. As a society, we just don’t care enough anymore about what really matters. We need to wake up and take back our lives.

And, literally, that’s all it will take. Sure, the corporate stranglehold and statistical disadvantages won’t change over night. But your health will. And no matter how broke or busy we are become no can still eat better food and find thirty minutes a day to exercise. It’s really as simple as watching less baseball.

Fresh

Fresh is in my mind the best of all the recent food movies. If we could make this film required viewing in our schools it would change the world, and along the way take the biggest single bite out of our obesity epidemic of any movement so far. The reason is that instead of dwelling on the problems that mass food production is causing, it focuses on the solution. And the cool thing is that it’s a lot easier than most of us think.

The problem with all the Fright Club style films is that they make us think the problem of the world are too vast to do anything about. Sure, they get you mad. Maybe they even inspire you to activism. But that’s a tough road to hoe for most of us. Fresh addresses the problems but its focus is on the solution, using examples of the individuals that are doing something about it and how effective they are.

Here are some hopefully statistics:

- One farmer makes a living on 3 intercity acres in Milwaukee.

- Another, on a small spread in Virginia, practices holistic ranching by moving his animals around the farm to complete a natural cycle so he doesn’t need to use any fertilizers or pesticides or even plant crops. He gets the highest yield possible out of his acreage, which stays exceedingly healthy, and brings in $3,000 per acre, compared to the $150 per acre that our subsidized industrial farms yield.

- Another quit using the “recommended” pesticides and antibiotics and now saves $14,000 dollars per year and has healthier animals.

- Food from mass production farms and ranches yields 40% less nutrients, which has been reflected on the labels and, for some reason, isn’t causing a national outcry (this is the obesity epidemic by itself, as well as adding to other aspects of our health care load. It’s not tricky math. If you need to consume 40% more calories to get 100% of your needed nutrients there is no other possibility than becoming obese.)

The film brings to light the fact that food production isn’t the complicated quagmire we're led to believe. We can all produce food in our own homes. Local co-op farms can feed entire communities. In exactly the same manner that we can turn our homes into generating plants that can meet our energy needs, we can grow food locally that meets our nutritional needs. And the result will not only mean a healthier world but a more economically sound one. The stats are unequivocally one sided. We can feed ourselves better than any big corporation.

There’s a line in the film where someone says “the only thing Americans fear is inconvenience.” To change this we don’t need revolution. We don’t need any great leaders. And we certainly don’t need a bunch of corporations telling us what to do. All we need is some very simple grass roots education and we’ll do it ourselves.

To start, bookmark the Fresh site and sign up for their newsletter.

The film is only available for screenings. Though you can purchase a private screening it would be more fun to attend a public one. If it's not playing in your community you can organize a screening yourself, which they will help you organize. Go here for details.

Analyzing Dairy Claims

It's high time to again pimp The Real Fitness Nerd, one of the publications where I occasionally scribe. The credit goes to Denis Faye in this instance for his straight dope attack on dairy claims.

Having a cow over cheesy dairy claims

Instead of summarizing I'm going to suggest you go and read it. If you like, subscribe to the Nerd as your critical eye to what's happening in the fitness and nutrition world.

I've cast doubt on the dairy industry's integrity myself (search my articles and mailbag). This inevitably motivates an attack from the uninformed masses that are led to believe that humans can't exist without dairy. No exception here, where one reader tries to defend the industry's claim that milk is an important source of vitamin D. Nice to see Denis ferret out the bullshit.

Some Fun P90X & Insanity News

Certainly the Barrancas del Cobre will offer some good blogging opportunities but, while you wait, Ben Kallen over at the Beachbody office found some fun news on Insanity and the X. Enjoy!

According to Atlanta Journal-Constitution sportswriter David O’Brien, the Braves’ Matt Diaz did P90X again during the offseason this winter:

Diaz doesn’t call around to ask reporters or club personnel: “What about me? Will there be a roster spot or any playing time left for me?” No, he hangs out with his family in Central Florida while all this is going on during the offseason, does his P90X diet/fitness regime for the second winter in a row, and prepares for spring training and the 2010 season.

http://blogs.ajc.com/atlanta-braves-blog/2010/02/25/diaz-mr-amiable-ready-for-whatever-role/

The Washington Redskins’ blog links to a year-old YouTube video in which quarterback Colt Brennan filmed the team’s training staff doing P90X:

http://blog.redskins.com/2010/02/16/redskins-name-larry-hess-head-athletic-trainer/

This weight-loss blogger is doing Insanity while wearing a GoWearFit electronic activity tracker, and posting the results. On Day 2, you can see that she was burning up to 14 calories per minute.

http://www.myallnaturalweightloss.com/insanity-workout-review-day-two/1091/