Ultra Kraut Running

I started off 2021 with some seriously concerning health news along with a minor tendon issue. I will save the health issues for a separate post at a later time, but suffice it for now that it had me not only start off the year with minimal running. I even had to punt on my favorite race, Mountain Mist 50K in late January. Instead, I hit the reset button. While I had already been following a 100% plant-based diet for the past 3 years, I now decided to take it a step further. It wasn't an ethical decision as much as a health decision. I decided to go whole foods, sugar free, oil free, salt free (WFPB SOS, what a ridiculous abbreviation). I may not be able to sustain this approach, but the goal is to limit foods that do not fall in this category. Basically, you try to avoid eating any processed foods, not really a bad idea for anyone regardless of their current state of health. After all, just going plant based 3 years ago had me all but eliminate any inflammation as a result of training or racing, feeling amazing most of the time, which is reason enough for me to keep at it.

In addition to this dietary adjustment, I also changed my training approach to try to overcome my tendon issue that had been plaguing me since overcoming COVID-19 in early December. I decided to follow the Maffetone method, which essentially suggests that runners train at a very low heart rate and in a limited zone. I slowly increased my weekly mileage, never adding more than 5 miles and ramping up in 4 week blocks before taking a down week. The results were pretty amazing once I put the training to the test. In my first shorter road races in more than 2 years (10 miler and a half marathon) I hit times barely off my PR marks from more than 7 years ago.

I decided to put my training to the real test, the Double Top 100K aka Stone Anvil 100K at Fort Mountain State Park in Northern Georgia. A gnarly course with 5000' of gain for each of the three 20 mile loops over very technical terrain. I set a lofty goal. I wanted to win this race, but since this race is very low key with very few runners participating I felt my stretch goal needed to be even more aggressive, so I decided to shoot for the overall course record as long as the weather cooperated.

I arrived at Fort Mountain State Park just in time for packet pickup as Perry Sebastian, the RD was at the cabin aka race HQ getting some things ready. We had a crew of 5 Huntsville runners arriving shortly after one another. Jerry and Jeff decided to camp at the state park and while I had driven my camper van, I was too late in getting campground reservations, so Paul was kind enough to let me crash at his hotel room in town. None of us were utilizing a crew or pacers, so everyone decided to use their cars at the start/finish line as their own supply station as they would hit that every 20 miles. I took a different approach. The course consisted of roughly 10 miles of an outer loop and roughly 10 miles of an inner loop. The aid stations were spaced in a way that allowed me to run pretty light. I was able to place a dry bag as my singular drop bag at one of the aid stations (Lakeside AS) that we would essentially hit it every 10 miles. Due to my restrictive diet, I had to make sure I brought everything I would need in regards to nutrition.

 

The Lost Falls 50K at Desoto State Park in Ft. Payne, AL was an inaugural event put on by Running Lane, a local Huntsville running event and coaching outfit. It was my first local ultra of the year after traveling to Moab, Utah in February. While I had started a new training cycle in mid January, I was still in the midst of my base building according to the MAF method following a strict low heart rate training zone protocol for every single training run while slowly building up my weekly milage. While I had tried to keep my heart rate low at the event in Moab, the Lost Falls race was going to be the first event of the year where I would not worry about anything other than running a steady race pace. 

I figured if I could finish the race in under 5:30 hours then it would have been a success. After all, I had only run low HR miles without any hard efforts, so this would be a real test of my early training so far. I lined up with the rest of the 50K runners and at 8AM sharp, we were off. I had made the 1:30 hour drive from Huntsville at 5:30AM, so I had a full hour to get my kit ready, so by the time we went off, I was rearing to go.
I settled into an easy pace right from the start and lost contact with the front of the pack very quickly. Just as well, it allowed me to run my own pace. But that comfort quickly changed to discomfort as I realized that my new untested(!) pack had already started to rub my right collarbone. It is a fantastic pack, BUT unfortunately, I had ordered it too large. As a result, I had to cinch it extremely right, which in turn caused the shoulder straps to sit too close to my neck cutting into my collarbone. This presented a fun little puzzle as I relied on my own nutrition rather than any aid station supplies due to my WFPB diet and I had to figure out how to carry at least a minimum of supplies...and my GoPro. 
I wrapped the buff I had used as a mask at the start around my wrist and shoved 3 Spring energy gels in there. I took two small ziplocks with my Silver Star Nutrition drink mix and put them in the back pocket of my shorts. that left my left hand free for my soft flask and my right hand for my GoPro. Unfortunately, I realized that I left my salt only after I dropped off my pack at the 8 mile aid station. So now I was left with only half of my nutrition and zero salt. This was gonna be type A kinda fun:-)
I accepted my fate pretty quickly. This was just part of my buildup for a huge summer of racing and things are sometimes out of your control. The quicker you accept it, the sooner you can move on and make room for problems you actually can solve. I kept listening as my watch indicated each mile with a beep, but I never checked my pace until I got about halfway though the race. My watch showed 2:33 hours which put my right on track for my race day goal. As I continued to move, my pace slowed and I decided to set another goal. Even if I continued to slow, I would attempt to run the entire race, i.e. no walking at all other then when refilling my water bottle at an aid station. 
I was stoked to manage to run until mile 31, when the race finish still wasn't in sight, but my quads finally started to cramp. I kept moving with the knowledge that I had at least manage to cover the advertised distance of 50K without walking. I crossed the finish line in 5:34 hours and called the day a success. I overcame some challenges, I was close to my minimum goal time and I managed to meet a secondary goal I set mid race. The summer race training buildup continues...

 

This will be the shortest race report in the history of race reports. Over the last month, I have been following a strict low HR training plan to rebuild my endurance base after recovering from Covid and to hopefully manage and resolve my perineal tendinitis issues that I sustained in the aftermath of my bout with Covid.

The last time I followed the Maffetone or MAF HR based training method had been 7 years ago. It basically requires runners to use a simple formula to calculate their heart rare training zone, which is rather low to ensure they're training within the aerobic zone to build your aerobic base (basically your running engine). In general, the recommendation is to do this strictly for 3 months before adding or phasing in any kind of higher intensity workouts.

I had run the Delano Park 12 Hour race seven times before. I've had good runs, great runs and some not so good runs. Today was a not so good run. In fact, for me it was the shortest run to date at this event. I pulled the plug at 21 miles after having walked the last 2 miles/laps. The plan all along hd been to run 50K at MAF pace. While my pace dropped after the first 15 miles, I did stick to the HR zone. However, my motivation to run the planned distance waned rather quickly. 

While I missed my goal, it was fun as always to catch up with the local running community in a real race. We're all largely deprived of in person races, so this was a great way to hang out for a bit, even if socially distanced and masked whenever in close proximity to others.

When I think back about my relationship with food and my diet in general, my earliest memories center on some pretty basic rules in our family. Soda is for special occasions only, sparkling water, juice and milk was fine, but we would usually not have drinks with our meals but rather after, so we wouldn't fill up of drinks before we actually ate our dinner. I grew up in Germany, which generally meant toast with cold cuts, cheese, jam or Nutella for breakfast, open face sandwiches with deli meat for lunch and a big dinner with some type of meat, often pork or beef along with potatoes and different vegetables cooked from scratch by my mom.

I developed a sweet tooth as I got older and food in general was as much about pleasure as it was about sustenance. While I did not have a difficult childhood in general, my parents did divorce when I was 15 and I did start to eat sweets in an almost regimented fashion. Picking up a coke, a bag of potato chips and a large chocolate bar became almost a daily routine. Thankfully, I also used athletics to stay busy and active, which helped keep my weight level. In fact, the only time I dealt with a significant increase in weight was during grad school. By that time, I was working full-time, but I had also started to smoke. Suffice it to say, while I had been a competitive athlete all my life, starting with soccer at age 6 and continuing later with kickboxing and ultimately ending up with ultra running, my other habits including my diet left a lot to be desired.

Fast forward to 3 years ago. I was in my mid 40s and had decided to start to get annual checkups. I had just recently changed general practitioners, leaving a doc that preferred to prescribe meds than deal with actual root causes of disease and choosing a fellow endurance athlete, instead, who would have a better understanding of my personality and lifestyle. At this point, I have had my share of serious health scares unrelated to my diet. I figured regular checkups would both keep me healthy as well as possibly help with my performance in general, if the blood tests during the checkup revealed any deficiencies.

When the doc returned with the results, I was slightly shocked. Two things required serious attention. One, my Vitamin D levels were too low and he advised me to take a daily supplement. This is a rather normal occurrence as we age, so I took that in stride. The second issue, however, was more concerning. My LDL cholesterol levels were through the roof, in the high 150s. While my HDL levels were great as a result of my ultra running, my LDL levels were still of major concern. 

My previous general physician would have immediately prescribed a statin rather than look at other lifestyle changes. My current doc, on the other hand, understood my desire to avoid drugs and pursue lifestyle changes, instead. Obviously, I was about as active as one could be. I ran every day, I went to the gym a couple of times a week and I stayed all around active. In addition, I had quit smoking for good 7 years earlier. All that was left to look at was my diet.

My mind was made up pretty quickly. My wife was both a vegetarian and the only one capable of cooking delicious meals in our household and since I already really only had the occasional chicken, it was time to make the switch to a fully plant based diet. But since cholesterol is in animal products like dairy and eggs, I had to do more than just turn to a vegetarian diet, I had to go full vegan. It wasn't easy, but I was committed and I did not stray, A year later, my LDL cholesterol level showed a 20% improvement during my regular checkup. Fast forward 2 years (no annual checkup in 2020 due to pandemic) and here I was in January 2021 for another annual checkup. Unfortunately, the results were not good, not good at all. My LDL cholesterol had risen to pre-veganism levels and actually exceeded the previous mark. Another follow up exam discovered other risk factors that were quite concerning. A battery of further tests showed that my heart was still functioning and working at normal levels, but I had to face some hard facts, if I was to believe my doc and the status quo of science as it relates to cholesterol and calcium buildup and the risk they posed to cardiovascular health.

First, I agreed to take a statin to lower my LDL levels to a more acceptable level. However, I wasn't willing to just resign to taking a drug for the rest of my life. Instead, I decided that day to change to a completely whole foods plant based diet with zero added sugars, salts or oils or WFPB-SOS. Through all of these radical changes, my wife has been super supportive. She's rolled with the punches and adjusted things as needed to help me make this change happen.

This lifestyle changes the average macronutrient piechart significantly. While it can often be intimidating and quite challenging when first changing to a plant-based diet, especially for endurance athletes trying to get everything needed to both "perform and recover", it can feel even more challenging when you eliminate added sugars, oils and salt. Am I getting enough fat? Am I eating too many carbs? What about protein? Protein becomes a big concern, especially as it pertains to recovery after training workouts and endurance events. Day to day, this lifestyle change to the SOS free diet calls for a super low fat diet (10-15%). However, the research that is available to this particular diet does not specifically discuss how much carbs vs. protein once should consume, especially when it comes to ultra marathoners. Once again, I started to keep a food diary to see what would naturally happen with my macronutrient makeup.

Because I also significantly reduced soy products, I was getting most of my proteins from beans and sprouted breads. I felt I needed more. Thankfully, this wasn't anything new as I had identified this gap even when I first turned vegan three years ago. While opinions and research vary on hoe much protein an individual athlete actually requires, I did want to make sure to get between 15-20% of my daily caloric intake. I generally try to get my nutrients from natural foods, so I started to look for and try out different vegan protein supplements that were both clean and hopefully somewhat tasty. I rotated to a few different ones, but never really landed at one that I stuck with.

A year into my vegan journey, I ended up volunteering as aid station captain at one of the Tahoe 200 mile aid stations. While there, I ran into a team of volunteers that offered to help out at my aid station after the runner they were supporting had to drop for medical reasons. After spending many many hours with these guys and getting to know them, I found out that they worked for a young nutrition company that developed and manufactured protein supplements among other products. Not only were these good people, but they made the stuff runners needed. My first question to them: "So, do you make a vegan protein supplement"? Their answer: "Actually, we're working on that right now. Would you be willing to try it out?", "Sure", I replied, "I would love to."

A couple of weeks later, I received a package in the mail that contained vegan protein supplement in both Chocolate and Vanilla along with a couple of rad t-shirts. I tried it...and I loved it. If you've ever tried certain protein powders, you know the issues you can encounter. The flavor is off, it doesn't dissolve easily or it creates a dust cloud in your kitchen, to name a few. The Vegan protein supplement from Silver Star Nutrition has none of these issues. I was spot on in every aspect. Even more importantly, zero stomach issues. I was hooked. Zero unnecessary additives, ingredients or calories, just what your body needs and your taste buds crave. I've even added this stuff to my morning cereal and oats, but most of the time, I just create a tasty smoothie that has as few ingredients as this protein powder: Baby spinach, bananas, frozen blueberries or strawberries and usually chia seeds and some flaxseed flakes with a splash of unsweetened almond milk or water plus Vanilla protein powder. It is the perfect post long run or post gym session fuel and has helped me recover and be ready for the next workout.

If you're looking to find that perfect protein supplement, give Silver Star Nutrition a try. You won't regret it. Yes, Silver Star Nutrition does support me by providing me with free supplements, but this relationship developed organically after I did some initial product testing for them. If I didn't love their stuff, I'd go back to trying the other supplements out there. Final note, I am in no way a certified nutritionist or dietician, but I am an experiment of one. Hopefully, what works for me works for you as well. But you won;'t know until you try. See you on the trails!