tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44182558050116103962024-03-12T17:22:03.462-07:00The Screaming Viking! Swim ShowA "Strange Observer of All Things Swimming" and "The Helmet and Horns of a Different Opinion."Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger517125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4418255805011610396.post-40496165244424767112019-06-24T06:00:00.000-07:002019-06-24T06:00:17.118-07:00The best youtube channel out there... "Is Ketosis Dangerous?"I plan to use several videos from What I've Learned in future posts to help elaborate on certain topics, but I wanted to put this one out there for anyone interested. It is a pretty incredible breakdown on ketones for anyone curious.<br />
<br />
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Dan8qtgQRi8" width="560"></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4418255805011610396.post-48802498191336417952019-06-14T09:16:00.004-07:002019-06-14T09:16:39.883-07:00Get the Benefits of Ketosis Without Severe Carb Restriction! 20% off code<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXgjV0MK_qihCtRVSkwIXvs4oUL_WALCTpJkCIHV36lgCDz4-t8FkLp88GglTG-yxiobk_2_iwZPBdPupphAX9giGF3_uRevsUorTGQ9siW1DNrWyeGNrIhOI1kPHv_qC4RBI-PrqP9e3K/s1600/viking+on+the+laptop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="302" data-original-width="503" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXgjV0MK_qihCtRVSkwIXvs4oUL_WALCTpJkCIHV36lgCDz4-t8FkLp88GglTG-yxiobk_2_iwZPBdPupphAX9giGF3_uRevsUorTGQ9siW1DNrWyeGNrIhOI1kPHv_qC4RBI-PrqP9e3K/s320/viking+on+the+laptop.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Back to the keyboard...</div>
<br />
The Viking will be reviving the blog in the near future, with my first goal being the addition of new chapters to the Viking Manifesto. While I haven't been able to get back to training, I have still been able to explore the ketogenic diet in new ways and I have learned so much since I had to hang up my suits over three years ago. The biggest development has come from reading the recent research into Exogenous Ketones and their benefits. <br />
<br />
I must say, I have been surprised what I have learned and it adds new dimensions to my hypothesis on how LCHF and the ketogenic state can not only improve athletic performance, but also the lives of everyone in the general population as well. Right now I would do just about anything to be able to carve out time to train again as I think I would approach my Viking Method differently regarding nutrition, and exogenous ketones would certainly be a part of my routine. Now that thorough studies have been done, the results seem to be very much in line with the original hypothesis I laid out in my manifesto, and exogenous ketone supplements would most likely enhance the results while also making the desired adaptations easier to achieve.<br />
<br />
If you are curious, please tune in over the next few months as I lay out the details here at the blog, and on SwimSwam.<br />
<br />
And if you would like to try exogenous ketones for yourself, you can order at <b><a href="https://realketones.com/#swimviking">https://realketones.com/#swimviking</a></b> and get 20% off until Father's Day with the code <b>DADSRULE</b> at checkout.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4418255805011610396.post-52984130292916377282018-09-20T08:17:00.000-07:002018-09-20T08:17:21.104-07:00The SwimViking RPT App has finally been released!<div style="background-color: white; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.3; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em; padding: 0px; user-select: auto !important;">
The Screaming Viking says: <em style="user-select: text !important;">“A few years ago I started training USRPT myself and became a believer. So, as a coach, I wanted to take what I had learned to try to implement with my team and ran into a lot of challenges. So we made a game out of it: we make an X/Y/Z score, the kids plug it into the app, and we get to see how they’ve progressed in any particular race they’re training, and now I don’t have to look up anybody’s target times– the kids can calculate that themselves.</em></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.3; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em; padding: 0px; user-select: auto !important;">
<em style="user-select: text !important;">If you use USRPT in any way, individually, as a part of your season, or if you are full-on USRPT, you are gonna love using our app: SwimViking RPT by Strive Swim.”</em></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.3; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em; padding: 0px; user-select: auto !important;">
<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GQdD8_7FEZ4?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=https://swimswam.com" style="user-select: text !important;" width="640"></iframe></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.3; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em; padding: 0px; user-select: auto !important;">
With the Swim Viking RPT app there now is a way to put race pace training and tracking in the hands of athletes and coaches, keeping them engaged and helping them to see their improvements with visuals that make sense. Multiple athletes can be linked to a single coach, so that as an athlete logs their USRPT training progress, coaches can access it at any time. By using the app, no matter to what extent you incorporate the app into your season plan, you will have an easy way to take ownership of your swimming. Whether you are an age group or college swimmer, a coach with a large group of athletes, or a masters athlete who wants to try something new, the Swim Viking RPT app by Strive will help you navigate your way to speed.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.3; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em; padding: 0px; user-select: auto !important;">
<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dTN-ptgQ6kU?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=https://swimswam.com" style="user-select: text !important;" width="640"></iframe></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.3; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em; padding: 0px; user-select: auto !important;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.3; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em; padding: 0px; user-select: auto !important;">
For more information or to schedule a demo, please click visit <a data-wpel-link="external" href="https://www.striveswim.com/viking" rel="nofollow external noopener noreferrer" style="color: #ff1200; outline: none 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.7s ease 0s, text-decoration 0.7s ease 0s, -webkit-text-decoration 0.7s ease 0s; user-select: text !important;" target="_blank">https://www.striveswim.com/viking</a>. Also, don’t forget to ask us about discounted team rates.</div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; user-select: text !important;">
<div style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.3; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em; padding: 0px; user-select: auto !important;">
Founded in 2016, Strive “apps for excellence” are in use at USA Swimming clubs, YMCA clubs, USMS clubs, NCAA Division I, Division II and Division III programs, high school programs, the Team USA Olympic and Paralympic Training Center campus, national champion club teams, international teams on all six inhabited continents and by 2016 US Olympic Team and Team USA Olympic athlete’s coaches. Over 7 million swim practices have been written on Strive apps. Strive is partnered with ISCA, NISCA, WOWSA, ASA coaching and swimming organizations and has legendary coach Mark Bernardino and Olympic Gold Medalist Josh Davis as Strive expert partners. <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.StriveSwim.com&source=gmail&ust=1534359948000000&usg=AFQjCNH0Owa8HbSdODtiADaTl5PXcod7jg" data-wpel-link="external" href="http://www.striveswim.com/" rel="noopener nofollow external noreferrer" style="color: #ff1200; outline: none 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.7s ease 0s, text-decoration 0.7s ease 0s, -webkit-text-decoration 0.7s ease 0s; user-select: text !important;" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 700; user-select: text !important;">www.StriveSwim.com</span></a></div>
<div style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.3; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em; padding: 0px; user-select: auto !important;">
“The Screaming Viking is considered by many to be a sophisticated renaissance man in the world of swimming. He is an accomplished coach, swim dad, professional athlete, writer, diet advice guru, model, actor, poet, and legend in his own mind… if it has to do with swimming he has conquered it, and strives to help you to conquer these things in your life as well.”</div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4418255805011610396.post-51604282437863955082016-01-29T11:45:00.000-08:002016-12-13T10:33:55.881-08:00The Viking Training Method Can Handle Speedbumps<div>In case you hadn't heard, the Viking swam pretty well at the KMSC Pro-Am in December. I was actually only .11 away from my lifetime best from 1996 in the 100 breast with 57.13. My 200 was also my best since college at 2:06.4, although that is still about 2.5 seconds away from my college PR of 2:03.8. I made three A-finals and got to march out in my new costume so it was worth the trip to Texas for sure. Yup, that's made from a full body mountain goat and a little bear. The necklace has wolf teeth as well. It don't get much more viking than that.</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg29QM_czxXpSPrAUpE38QO-aFwHn1i2DEvhqTLMOKQ5pxdgn79hAHRle_vcvoX3j4IGnIgJ8iS8jPfSnGnBMyrbFUWUIYbd8PcX5shtzLQWXyFPSMTKQOzrUFy4_caalyRUuPWzJjTkIk/s1600/IMG_0166.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg29QM_czxXpSPrAUpE38QO-aFwHn1i2DEvhqTLMOKQ5pxdgn79hAHRle_vcvoX3j4IGnIgJ8iS8jPfSnGnBMyrbFUWUIYbd8PcX5shtzLQWXyFPSMTKQOzrUFy4_caalyRUuPWzJjTkIk/s320/IMG_0166.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small; text-align: start;">The meet director said "it looks downright satanic."</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /><div>My swimming was a little spotty leading up to the meet, but honestly I just don't even pay much attention to that anymore. Like I tell the kids, "it's all mental."</div><div><div><br /></div><div>After the pro-am I made it a point to get back in the water as often as possible, which is always hard considering my insane work schedule. This time though, I had a little help. We recently started a Masters program through my club, and in an effort to promote it I offered a discount to a local triathlon group called Rufus Racing. Rufus has a mileage contest that goes from January to March in which they have a spreadsheet set up online. As you complete miles, you log them on the sheet to earn points for your team. The entire Rufus crew is divided into several teams, with over 100 adults participating, and every biking mile is worth one point, compared to running miles at three points and swimming miles at ten points. They have a lot of fun trash talking each other on the facebook and stuff, and it has really been a cool contest.</div><div><br /></div><div>Since January 1st I have not had a single day without some kind of exercise. Normally it is an awesome week if I get in a third workout. This streak is by far the longest I have consistently got work in, even though some of it is pretty low quality just to log the points for Rufus. I have been running with my wife to help her get past IT band issues, and some of the days are easy runs rather than swims. I have also not been able to do as much USRPT as I would like, partly due to time constraints since if I only have 15 minutes I sometimes just jump in and do a warm up so I don't have a zero day on the Rufus spreadsheet. The lack of USRPT is also due to the broken hand. Some of you might have seen <a href="https://swimswam.com/swimmings-toptentweets-of-the-week-5/">my tweet</a>. For reals-- I duct taped it and went a 59.7 and 2:09.0 breaststrokes unshaved. Gotta set a good example for the kids, right?</div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwqca5GjCkzSnYqxy3C5p0v7Ed4xRSDgiKudyZN69zCzlkCQv5-O2Pj-PcAipDUluAAz-67521FblcnK5c3kSODrXLpNIRxnVtMhi0uP2VobKOlPRtf8pyfx4Wtxd9Y6EMzCEEL-RcMuE/s1600/IMG_0494.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwqca5GjCkzSnYqxy3C5p0v7Ed4xRSDgiKudyZN69zCzlkCQv5-O2Pj-PcAipDUluAAz-67521FblcnK5c3kSODrXLpNIRxnVtMhi0uP2VobKOlPRtf8pyfx4Wtxd9Y6EMzCEEL-RcMuE/s320/IMG_0494.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The worst part about having a finger that plays dead like this is that it becomes a lot harder to cut into a steak.</span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div>My hand is still swollen after almost two weeks, the finger still hangs limp, and it is still really sore. It kind of flaps around when I swim so I sometimes tape it if I think I am gonna try to swim with any intensity at all. It is hard to concentrate on technique when you have a rogue finger. The x-rays made it look like I chipped a small piece from my knuckle, but I am starting to think I partially severed a tendon since it doesn't seem to be getting any better. I thought I got off free with no surgery or cast, but that may change if I make a follow-up appointment. I am debating waiting until after spring break but that may be too long depending on the true nature of the injury.</div><div><br /></div><div>Breaking my hand finishing a relay lead-off 50 free is a great way to transition my team through the <a href="https://swimswam.com/jasper-county-killer-whales-officially-re-brands-to-berzerker-swimming/">name change from Jasper County Killer Whales to BERZERKER Swimming</a>. You can't get more <i><b>'berserkergang'</b></i> than that.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4418255805011610396.post-65655689973561641652015-07-20T12:10:00.000-07:002016-12-13T10:33:55.969-08:00Blair Bish is Trying Something New to Get Race Ready<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xAnQ95q3my4" width="560"></iframe><br /><br />it somestimes goes straight to his butt, which helps keep his hips up.. haha.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4418255805011610396.post-86177484758036175722015-07-17T20:03:00.000-07:002016-12-13T10:33:55.984-08:00Meet Carri Cook from TYRIn my last post I gushed about the TYR Avictor and now I want to gush a little more about the girl who let me give it a try. Carri Cook covers a large part of the USA for TYR and hopefully after getting to know her a little in this interview you will want to seek her out to see what TYR can do for you and your team.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fFWvkkQq5CE" width="560"></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPcWEsZz88rE1seBXBSU1vNX8Fzl430JuImqzJGLf70yHD_vhjbUtOQRTzdvGSr3nKIwOUxUvfhP5aqncMmZpH1Xg5nQz1q07wdI8Y6kzJOVyVV-WeUtLPWPoyGxeITuQS9H0rAA3NMRg/s1600/TYR_Logo_Vert_205x138.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPcWEsZz88rE1seBXBSU1vNX8Fzl430JuImqzJGLf70yHD_vhjbUtOQRTzdvGSr3nKIwOUxUvfhP5aqncMmZpH1Xg5nQz1q07wdI8Y6kzJOVyVV-WeUtLPWPoyGxeITuQS9H0rAA3NMRg/s400/TYR_Logo_Vert_205x138.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4418255805011610396.post-37372011338351514062015-07-15T13:22:00.000-07:002016-12-13T10:33:55.999-08:00I Prayed to Odin. He Sent TYR to help.<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVmo_XqKG2vkdnuR7-drOJN6BnfdS3UCmgPOGHgeGbcNlOHdHKbo7EEM2GXRiIwZ2dOE_8_zUWs-Uhr5r5EiVry9f9SQ1nLBcokqckkJs6Nz9zoERrpwJhLyQpbOdfhUJcVlA6Wb5pojQ/s640/blogger-image-1705890563.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVmo_XqKG2vkdnuR7-drOJN6BnfdS3UCmgPOGHgeGbcNlOHdHKbo7EEM2GXRiIwZ2dOE_8_zUWs-Uhr5r5EiVry9f9SQ1nLBcokqckkJs6Nz9zoERrpwJhLyQpbOdfhUJcVlA6Wb5pojQ/s320/blogger-image-1705890563.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Norse God of Warriors knows how to make a suit.</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">It is July 15 and I am at the first day of the Mizzou Sectional. My only athlete who was scheduled to swim today had to scratch so I ended up being the only race for my team. I have hardly been able to fit in much swimming, only getting in four very short swims since June 24th. I had absolutely no reason to expect to swim well, but lately I have the mindset to never back out. I have surprised myself enough times that it is always worth racing to see what may happen. I shaved legs today but left the hair on my face, chest, and belly, which is a pretty significant furry layer at this age. I may shave more for Futures in West Lafayette but I am not sure. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">After warm ups, I decided it was time to look into finding a deal on a tech suit. I caught the TYR rep on deck and told her about my AP-12's being stolen. I was hoping she had one to sell for cheap since they are rumored to be discontinued. We talked a little about potentially signing my team with TYR since we have never committed to a brand, and then she offered to let me try on the Avictor. HELL YEAH!</div><a name='more'></a><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">I warmed up a little more in the suit and then raced the prelim 200 breast with it. In my opinion, it is a fantastic suit. So many tech suits catch water at the waist and are hard to tie tight enough. That was one of the things I loved about the AP-12: the waist never caught water, even without the high waist model. The Avictor had a better string that didn't slip as much when trying to get it tight, and also had rubber at the waist which is something that has become more common in tech that the AP-12 didn't have. The fabric on the Avictor also seemed to be a lot thinner but it didn't feel like they sacrificed any strength.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The fit on the Avictor was the same, but the compression was very different. I have tried a lot of suits, and there are many varying degrees of compression across the thighs and hips on the market. The Avictor had excellent compression at the hips but I worried that it felt less tight at the lower thighs than what I was used to. After racing the 200 breast though, I can understand why they changed the design. My kick felt much more free. It was like the best of both worlds, with effective stability and compression, but the freedom of movement that allowed me to get the most from my range of motion. I felt like my kick was less restricted and more efficient than with other compression suits I have tried.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">My race went really well. Even after the huge roadblock in my training this summer I was able to drop two more seconds from my best time with a 2:29.9. Even better, my last 50 was by far the best split I have turned in at 38.8. I had much less fade today than ever. As a matter of fact, the entire amount of time I improved over last summer's shave meet is covered by the difference in that last split. It is kind of mind-blowing when you consider that I was trying my best to overcome what should have been a lack of fitness due to my crazy schedule over the last three weeks.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-ncHihXRs4z56n2L1mRoXzU7vpZwlV_Kkc5A8Y91UAoGHwf4LDdMlISFsVmltVgzy-MxVnyarfxIvkLlACxvdfhg_1H3jYJDRZJwFdHAmq7pyjTgLqQX1v6EsYZEVohRmaGc1d0Ra5mE/s640/blogger-image-564083061.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-ncHihXRs4z56n2L1mRoXzU7vpZwlV_Kkc5A8Y91UAoGHwf4LDdMlISFsVmltVgzy-MxVnyarfxIvkLlACxvdfhg_1H3jYJDRZJwFdHAmq7pyjTgLqQX1v6EsYZEVohRmaGc1d0Ra5mE/s320/blogger-image-564083061.jpg" width="180" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">These might be my best race splits ever for the LCM 200 breast.</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The best part: I met one of my short term goals. The time I turned in officially lands me on the FINA Masters all-time top ten list for my age group. <a href="http://www.fina.org/H2O/docs/masters/wrtop10/tabs_LC_all.pdf">Take a look here...</a> 2:29.94 lands me at the 8th fastest in history for age 40-44. Not bad for a guy who is just squeezing in short workouts in on the fly and didn't bother to shave anything higher than the knees. I turn 41 next week so I am really anxious to see if I can carve out enough training time over the next three years to move up on that list. I wish I could get off work to go to Masters Nats!</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4418255805011610396.post-5012240417591331472015-07-09T14:47:00.000-07:002016-12-13T10:33:56.022-08:00A Lesson on IntensityOne of the few difficulties I have run into with USRPT is that it seems to be very difficult for the average kid to have the mental will to do it correctly. To truly practice race pace there has to be a specific level of intensity involved, and many young swimmers are inclined to do as little hard work as they can get away with. The athletic mindset requires fighting human nature a little, and with a large team of kids who had grown up training in a way that allowed them to coast through a large percent of their time in the water, it seems almost as though many feel that they are doing enough by just showing up. Sometimes it's like they think the comfort zone is an intentional training zone. Even worse, they can act as though a good day of training or racing is something that just randomly happens to them as though they are waiting their turn for the best time fairy and she just seems to like some kids more than others.<br /><a name='more'></a><br /><div><br /></div><div>If I actually get a chance to fit a workout in myself, it is a completely different experience. I start getting anxious hours in advance. I get nervous that I might finally go hard enough to hurt myself, and I prepare myself to give the pain required it's time. I warm up with purpose, making sure I leave myself no excuse built in. I push during the set to make sure that any fail I have is caused by fatigue and not some other factor that implies a lack of focus. I can't always control my schedule, but I can control my own body and mind. I try to make the most of every minute. </div><div><br /></div><div>By the time I reach my third fail the lifeguards are wondering if they are going to need to call 911. </div><div><br /></div><div>I get pretty frustrated sometimes when my swimmers don't even look like they got their heart rate up on these sets. I can tell when the intensity is on or off. It is hard to watch when the majority of a large group just seems to be okay with mediocrity in training. Often I make my swimmers continue beyond their third fail just so they aren't incentivized by free time as a reward for doing a lousy job. </div><div><br /></div><div>Last night at practice we did a set of 20x50 at 200 free pace. Only about three out of 35 swimmers made it past number 8 before their first fail. Over half took the 4 freebies easy and then failed number five. So after they finished I pulled them out. I explained that since these sets are based on their own best times, I know they weren't even trying. Many looked around as though I must be talking to someone else. It wasn't a fun moment. </div><div><br /></div><div>So we did the set again. I told them that if they made ten in a row with no fails (and no freebies) the set was over. If they failed any of the first ten, they had to continue all the way to twenty again. It changed the incentive. They had five minutes to swim a 200 easy if they want it before we started. Not much rest really. </div><div><br /></div><div>Taa-daa! Every one of them made a better score to first fail than they did on the first round. All but two made it to ten with zero fails. Amazingly, when I looked through the notebook, ten was the best x score of the season for almost all of them. </div><div><br /></div><div>So then, I got to ask them, "WHY?"</div><div><br /></div><div>It was a rhetorical question, obviously. I felt like I got the answer from the looks on their faces. They finally looked like they had just finished a hard race. They were breathing hard enough that there were no conversations happening. A couple of them were sprawled on the deck like warriors wounded in battle. </div><div><br /></div><div>It was beautiful.</div><div><br /></div><div>I can only hope that the message came across in a way that makes them value their time enough to not waste it. When they get their next chance to make the most of an opportunity, I hope they remember it is a matter of choice. I would choose to take pain rather than waste time any day. </div><div><br /></div><div>I guess maybe a big part of my job as a coach, no matter the type of training, has always been to convince others that it's a good trade. </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4418255805011610396.post-91729856236282982482015-06-24T10:16:00.000-07:002016-12-13T10:33:56.039-08:00Dr Noakes, Spreading the Word on LCHFViking has made it pretty clear he is a Dr Noakes groupie over the course of writing the Manifesto and beyond. I stumbled across a couple of videos of his that I thought were worth sharing with anyone who checks in at the Brief because they are considering the low-carb/high-fat lifestyle. I had to at least make a few people pay attention, right?<br /><div><br /></div><div>Take a look and let me know what you think... It was nice that he mentioned Cameron VanDerBurgh. Now I am waiting for a world class distance swimmer to admit they do this, you know, because us breaststrokers are freaks and whatnot.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fL5-9ZxamXc" width="560"></iframe><br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6WVLrQmnnAY" width="560"></iframe><br /><br />Enjoy!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4418255805011610396.post-76784087309050277102015-06-23T13:31:00.000-07:002016-12-13T10:33:56.056-08:00Play the cards you are dealt<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lately, circumstances have been standing in the way of my training, and I am not sure it is going to get any better in the foreseeable future. The Viking Experiment just may come to an end if something doesn't change.</span></div><b id="docs-internal-guid-b4c479d1-2211-52fb-4b3a-511d69dd286d" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">First, summer is just plain busy. I was looking forward to the summer practice schedule getting into full swing because I knew that I could get more swims in but it didn’t work out that way. I typically swim the warm up and one USRPT set with my team before getting out of the water to coach the rest of the practice. The deal from day one though, was that if my swimming became perceived as a negative for my team I would stop. After over a year of swimming with the kids I had my first parent complaint about it, so that part of my swimming comeback is officially over. If I am going to keep training, I will have to fit it into the nooks and cranny’s between duties. That is pretty darn hard for a teacher/HS coach/USA coach and administrator whose in-water groups tend to overlap for 12-15 hours straight every day. I still hold fast to the rule that my swimming will not take away from my family time, so that leaves me very little options. I plan to plug away the best I can, but I am not sure this is an obstacle I can overcome. My swims have been reduced to usually less than twenty minutes each and have become fewer and further between. Also struggling to get more than five hours of sleep at night which certainly doesn't help.</span></div><a name='more'></a><br /><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Second, I have less racing opportunities this summer, and this is the first summer in a while that I have ever found a way to take a real vacation! Trust me, I am not disappointed that I will be able to get out of town for a week this year. My family and I desperately need the break… but it means that I will be out of training for 10 days straight until about 8 days before sectionals. Again, that’s okay… I have nothing on the line. I will have fun racing anyway and I still think I will swim faster than last year. It’s not like I would be training much if I were staying home anyway, right? Most of my target sets have been lagging lately, and my push times after USRPT sets haven’t been great either, but once in a while I bust out a gem like the 2:44 LCM 200 breast last Thursday evening. I have never been that fast in practice before, especially in a brief with hair on my legs and no dive. I think that swimming fast at sectionals will be more of a matter of being “race ready” than “in shape” this year. Also, I feel like my Viking Method for some reason helps hold the de-training effect off for longer.</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The thing that might redeem my summer?... I plan to swim at the Futures meet at Purdue in early August. That gives me a few extra weeks to get on top of it before the summer comes to a close. I am considering not even shaving for sectionals and putting all of my eggs in one basket for Futures. We’ll see how this evolves.</span></div><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is the bonus and curse of being an adult athlete. I have nothing at stake except my pride, and I honestly don’t have that much pride invested. My goal is to enjoy my swimming. Of course, I enjoy it more when I see improvement, but if there is a bigger picture here, it is that I want the kids to see that swimming doesn’t have to be a chore. This is truly a lifetime sport and it is meant to be fun, and not enough of us live that example. Of course, it is hard to keep that in perspective as a self-improvement junkie who still thinks he has a lifetime best in him, but I will manage the best I can. </span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4418255805011610396.post-55799629492368712082015-06-13T20:29:00.000-07:002016-12-13T10:33:56.099-08:00The Michael Andrew Adidas Deal<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBIDWYm1kvhsrQmu-QEhz7Htcmv6-e8j3BvlxkzPnXw09qHWIknAznRAWAmR-1Gru9N-IhVPJSDj-my_LIDrjvcybrj26UYMRTeoObWKykG9L7TmLc1PBhizVqsmtm8VkBuNChS1yIS8I/s640/blogger-image-589764269.jpg" /><a href="http://swimswam.com/michael-andrew-signs-multi-year-partnership-with-adidas-swim/">http://swimswam.com/michael-andrew-signs-multi-year-partnership-with-adidas-swim/</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div>I had been wondering for quite a while why no swim gear brands had signed Michael Andrew yet. Of course, he is young and nobody knows what the future holds, but in marketing one would assume that world class speed is not the only thing that matters. Ideally, if you want to sell swim suits you want your brand to be talked about and that is something Michael Andrew has in spades. Plus, his age makes him more marketable for youth. As a matter of fact, if I were in the marketing department for these companies I would find some athletes living the dream in Masters swimming and sign them too, because if there is anything we can learn from triathlon it is that adult fitness is booming and we need to get creative to capitalize on that. (I mean, come on... If they sponsored me I could help them sell some serious suits to the older crowd, right? Everyone at masters meets would want to wear Adidas and horned helmets if I were their mascot. Masters swimmers don't care what the fast 25 year-old wears; they care what the kind of fast for his age guy having more fun than everybody else wears.)<br /><div><br /><div>Perhaps the big brands were afraid of the vitriol associated with the flaming comment wars on all the swim sites, but that doesn't seem right to me. I would think they would welcome it. It gets their product noticed.<br /><a name='more'></a></div><div><br /></div><div>My thoughts on it all?... I think that suit makers were afraid of the Andrew family and their controversial pioneering of USRPT. Think about it: we have a very vocal old-boys network who hates it and has had ties with suit companies and their decision makers for decades. Basically, by sponsoring Michael Andrew, a suit company would be bucking the system. They would be essentially endorsing the training that holds the potential to make those coaches they have had long relationships with seem like dinosaurs. I feel that suit companies had been afraid to rock the boat with some of their most powerful partners and that has caused them to miss out on a gem. Even if MA never wins an Olympic medal in his life he has already accomplished things in this sport that will be remembered for a long time. He has brought Ultra-Short Race Pace Training to the masses.</div><div><br /></div><div>Michael Phelps said he wanted to change the sport, but really, what did he do to change anything? He got us more airtime on ESPN I guess, (tabloids too if anyone is really impressed by that,) and built a personal fan base, but hell, there are mommy-bloggers out there with a pretty large Twitter following as well. Michael Andrew is changing the game by showing us a new way to excel in this crazy sport, and he has been noticed enough to be well on his way toward accomplishing that mission before he has had any Phelpsian level international success. </div><div><br /></div><div>So, what does this say about Adidas? It says that they are entering the suit market with guns blazing. Michael Andrew is not the only athlete they have signed since jumping into our sport, with Cesar Cielo, Allison Schmitt and more on board before MA, but adding Michael to their list is a brave step. Adidas is new to the game and owes no loyalty to anyone. They see our sport as a fresh and exciting market, and I think that their endorsement of Michael Andrew says that if he and his training have the potential to be a game changer for swimming, they want to be a part of it. They are sailing their ship into uncharted territory with no fear about what they will find in this strange land.</div><div><br /></div><div>So, here's to Adidas. I hope I am right, and that this company has come into competitive swimming intending to make the other tech suit makers feel like they have missed an opportunity by maintaining the status quo. I feel this was a really good move. </div><div><br /></div><div>Congrats to the Andrew family as well. This is a very exciting time for the sport of swimming and I hope that this partnership with Adidas serves to make your passionate pursuit to change the sport a more rewarding experience. </div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4418255805011610396.post-85716493065903726612015-06-09T02:08:00.000-07:002016-12-13T10:33:56.120-08:00MotivationOne of the reasons I really like USRPT is because it gets straight to the point with each swimmer and asks the most important question "Are you motivated to improve your swimming?". A frequent criticism of the training is that it's the "same sets over and over again". Must be boring, right?<br /><br />Wrong! In my three weeks of training I have never had more fun training for swimming. Far from boring, every set has my mind working at 100% capacity, as I try to improve my technique, hit my paces and manage the start times (and keep count). USRPT, and the question it begs, has brought quickly into focus for me what I want to accomplish and why I am motivated for it. In talking through motivation with my swimmers, I have cited <a href="http://www.selfdeterminationtheory.org/SDT/documents/2000_RyanDeci_IntExtDefs.pdf">Deci and Ryan's self determination theory </a>which I find particularly strong in outlining motivation.<br /><br />For Deci and Ryan, the highest point in the hierarchy of motivation is intrinsic motivation, which is defined as "the doing of an activity for its inherent satisfactions rather than for some separable consequences". I enjoy the challenge of coming to the pool and trying to work on my swimming, and although I do have a goal of how fast I want to swim, I hardly think about it. My focus is on what I can do each day to improve myself, and then whatever comes from that is a bonus.<br /><br />Ok, on to the workouts:<br /><br /><b>Wednesday, June 3rd</b><br /><b><br /></b><i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 18.8999996185303px;">The workout</i><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 18.8999996185303px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 18.8999996185303px;">3x100 Warmup</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 18.8999996185303px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 18.8999996185303px;">8x25m turns</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 18.8999996185303px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 18.8999996185303px;">30x25 Freestyle, Pace 15</span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 18.8999996185303px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 18.8999996185303px;"><i>How it went: </i>By far the worst workout I have had to date. I was anxious after the nearly week long lay off necessitated by my trip to Bergen, Norway for a competition. I showed up at a time I don't typically swim, but one at which I figured would be relatively empty. Instead, the lap lanes were surrounded by loud schoolkids and there were probably 7-8 lap swimmers in each of the 50m lanes. Training in public swimming time can be a problem with this type of training- everyone around me is going much slower, and just swimming continuously. I finished my warmup fine and managed to negotiate my turns alright. When I started the set, I found it completely impossible to do it. On each of the 25s I attempted, I either swam right up on somebody and was unable to pass, or I got a fist in my back while resting for the next repetition. There was simply no room to do the practice, and no time to wait the situation out. I completed maybe 6x25, but without any idea what my pace or time was. I was frustrated and a bit anxious that my great work from last week would be squandered.</span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 18.8999996185303px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 18.8999996185303px;"><b>Thursday, June 4th</b></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 18.8999996185303px;"><b><br /></b></span><i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 18.8999996185303px;">The workout</i><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 18.8999996185303px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 18.8999996185303px;">3x100 Warmup</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 18.8999996185303px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 18.8999996185303px;">8x20m start and breakout</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 18.8999996185303px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 18.8999996185303px;">30x25 Freestyle, Pace 15</span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 18.8999996185303px;"><br /></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 18.8999996185303px;"><i>How it went: </i>By the next day, I decided I just need to shake it off and go after the same practice again. I arrived in good time and with adequate space to do my training. I was able to do 20x25 at my new pace (15 sec), with 12 in a row to start, then 6 and 2 more before I felt my lactic acid spike and shut it down for the day. I felt really good that I hadn't given up on challenging myself despite the layoff. My main focus technically is getting my legs to keep a small amplitude and good frequency, because I am working on the same with my swimmers and it allows me a stable plane to rotate from.</span></span><br /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 18.8999996185303px;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 18.8999996185303px;"><b>Monday, June 8th</b></span></span><br /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 18.8999996185303px;"><b><br /></b></span></span><i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 18.8999996185303px;">The workout</i><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 18.8999996185303px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 18.8999996185303px;">3x100 Warmup</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 18.8999996185303px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 18.8999996185303px;">8x15m breakout</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 18.8999996185303px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 18.8999996185303px;">30x25 Freestyle, Pace 15</span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 18.8999996185303px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 18.8999996185303px;"><i>How it went: </i>As I wrote earlier, i have temporarily set breaststroke aside and I am focusing on freestyle. I have added 15 minutes of stretching to the end of every training, because I know I need to improve my flexibility before I can progress with my breaststroke technique. This workout went great! I made 28x25 on pace 15, with 22 in a row, then a break and 6 more before I felt my lactic acid spike again and decided to shut it down. I feel like if I give myself adequate rest and recovery I will be able to do 30x25 on the next go around, and then possible set my pace down to 14 already. However, I know that might not happen quite so fast so I am going to take improvement as it comes and just focus on each day on it's own.</span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 18.8999996185303px;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4418255805011610396.post-72282498982573721322015-06-02T04:27:00.000-07:002016-12-13T10:33:56.141-08:00Highs and LowsThank goodness I don't have to start this post with a longwinded introduction. Since writing my last post, I have been to the pool for three swims! I had to cram them in three days in a row, which I didn't feel was ideal, but I knew I was going away to coach in Bergen, Norway over the weekend and wouldn't be able to swim. It is one of the great paradoxes of coaching that you are constantly around a pool but it is hardly ever appropriate for you to be swimming in it.<br /><br /><b>Tuesday, May 26th:</b><br /><b><br /></b><i>The workout</i><br />3x100 Warmup<br />8x25m turns<br />30x25 Freestyle, Pace 16<br /><br /><i>How it went: </i>Success! I managed to crank out 30x25 at my pace in this one, and damn it felt good. I made 18 in a row to start the set, then rested and did 8, then finished with four. It felt really good to build up to this. On the other hand, I know I am going to progress fast at the outset because I am so "untrained". One thing I noticed about a set where I swam so much continuous was how hot my body got- I was sweating for 15-20 minutes after getting out of the water.<br /><br /><b>Wednesday, May 27th</b><br /><b><br /></b><i>The workout:</i><br />3x100 warmup<br />8x20m breaststroke breakouts<br />30x25 breaststroke, pace 20<br /><br /><i>How it went: </i>Man, breaststroke is hard. One observation I have is that when you are doing breaststroke your work to rest ratio can be a little off. You are naturally always going to be slower, so I set my time all the way up to :20 rest and pace :20. However, I still really struggled to get anything going. I was still only able to 14x25, with 8 in a row, then 4 and then 2. Everything felt hard- I got some lactic acid, I struggled to hold technique and my pace fell apart. I think that I may have to be really patient in breaststroke, and that also my flexibility is really holding me back at this point, so I need to correct that ASAP.<br /><br /><b>Thursday, May 28th</b><br /><b><br /></b><i>The workout:</i><br />3x100 warmup<br />8x15m freestyle finishes<br />30x25 Freestyle, Pace 16<br /><br /><i>How it went: </i>30 in a row! Damn did that feel good. After Tuesday, I told myself I would force the pace up when I made 30 in a row, and now I suppose I will have to. It was really good to get into a rhythm and keep firing. The biggest challenge I had was that I was training in a crowded lap lane, where everyone else just wanted to swim continuously at a much slower pace. Invariably I was swimming around someone, or getting rammed in the back while I was resting, and I had to screw with my rest intervals both up and down to make sure I had space to swim. I didn't let it stress me out- these are the conditions that I GET to train under and I cannot control other people in the lane.<br /><br /><i>Looking forward: </i>I know that in about three weeks I will be headed to the European Games in Baku. Because of various logistical crazyness, I will be there thirteen days for a five day swim meet. Supposedly there will be a pool at the Athletes Village where we will stay, but already I am preparing myself that training conditions could be rough or non-existent. We shall see!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4418255805011610396.post-36927520636520223372015-05-29T08:44:00.000-07:002016-12-13T10:33:56.159-08:00Viking's new routine is starting to flow...Lately I have been finding a groove with my minimal modifications to the full USRPT method. I don't really feel like I am breaking away from it at all, but I have tried a few hacks to make up for my lack of ability to consistently train. For example, last week, my Friday workout time was hijacked by extra work duties, and this week I was only able to get in the water on Tuesday morning for 1000 yards and Friday for 1400 yards. Seriously... 2400 yards of training over 8 days. That is just something I had to accept from day one of this comeback adventure. I make the most of what I have and don't stress about the rest.<br /><br />Here is where I try to make up for some of it, beyond my USRPT sets for 100 and 200 breast:<br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><br /><ul><li>I still run because it is easy to fit those in. I run early but it isn't hard to get going. I can put in anywhere from 3-6 miles, and can be anywhere from 7:10-8:40 per mile pace depending on my mood. Later I plan to alternate in a lot of short sprints and jogs rather than just steady state runs because that is when I see improvement. Right now I just run out of guilt. </li><li>After almost every USRPT set I do, I give myself a couple minutes to recover and then push a fast 100 or 200 for time. This started because on days I didn't make a good score on my targets I wanted to redeem myself. What I found was that actually doing the race has helped me to apply race strategies in a new way and I have been able to use it as an additional gauge for improvement. Plus, I think that it takes me to that "point of failure" that we seek in USRPT and helps me focus on keeping race technique. As a matter of fact, I still have not mastered 20x50 on 50sec at 32 high, even though my recent shaved times would put my target at 31 high... But my practice runs of the push 200 have improved from 2:28 to 2:15. </li><li>I like to pull parachutes. There is something about breaststroke with a chute that helps me get my timing where I want it. I don't like using tools much but this one I kept. I also bought a pocket drag suit and when I am feeling lazy (just don't have the mental will to hit USRPT hard) I will work breaststroke kick with a board wearing it.</li><li>Mini-Max: after warm up, before my USRPT set, I like to do a mini-max or two. If you are not familiar with this, it is like an efficiency game where a lower score is an improvement. Your score is your time for a 50 plus the number of strokes it took you to complete it. I feel like this also helps my timing and keeps me from rushing. I started with a couple different combinations of 45, like 29+8+8 and 31+6+8... but I have since worked my way to a few 43's that were 30+6+7 and 31+6+6. (And yes, the pullout counts as one stroke.) </li></ul><div>One thing I have found is that my morning swims aren't always as good, so I keep track of my best scores and times in the morning versus the afternoon. Also, I finally get to try long course next week, and I intend to start at my paces based on where my sets landed at the end of the summer rather than jumping in with targets based on my new best shaved times. </div><div><br /></div><div>And oh yeah, one more big thing... Running seems to kick my butt and often my next workout or two can be lousy. I plan to cut that out about three weeks before my biggest meet. I think it hurts breast a little more than the other strokes simply because stiff legs interfere with the whip kick more than the others. </div><div><br /></div><div>If you are out there giving USRPT or LCHF a try, please drop a note and let us hear how it is going! I feel like we are taking a ship into uncharted territory here, <a href="http://swimswam.com/23000-usas-funded-review-of-literature-on-usrpt-other-training-methods-completed/">to places where the good old boy network is afraid to tread!</a> I am pumped that Chris is on board now too!!</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4418255805011610396.post-18636425262400044672015-05-27T05:02:00.000-07:002016-12-13T10:33:56.177-08:00Once More Back Into The FrayRelationships are the most important thing in life. That simple sentence explains exactly why I'm here, writing this blog. The nature of each relationship is quite different, and the ones that brought me here couldn't be more different. Today I'm starting up writing again with a simple goal: to document my own journey back to competitive swimming. Depending on how you count, there are at least four relationships that led me to this point, which I'll explain briefly.<br /><br />The first is my wife, who has always been the one to gently (or not so gently) push me in the direction I need to go. In the past few years, my swimming has fallen by the wayside, put on the backburner of being a first time dad while trying to cope with being the head coach of a swim club in a (sort of) foreign country. As the two of us emerge from the dramatic shift of being parents, she's started to push me back to two things that make me happy: writing and swimming.<br /><br />The second is my blogging mate, Shawn Klosterman, who has really inspired me to give it another go. Watching him crush it at Pro-Ams at 40 years old reminds me that my tender 31 years is far too young to give up on doing something awesome in this sport. Shawn and I have still never met in real life, yet his encouragement, guidance and motivation definitely brought me back.<br /><br />The third is actually a group, the swimmers I coach. Recently I have shifted to training a USRPT (Ultra Short Race Pace Training) training program. Some swimmers are thriving! Others are struggling a bit with the change, but slowly finding their way. In my own comeback, I intend to train pure USRPT, and I want to show them how I handle the various challenges and problems I encounter along the way, hopefully it will help them to figure out things for themselves as well.<br /><br />The last one is my daughter, who I'd like to set a good example for, and not give up my most important goals because "it's hard".<br /><br />Without further ado, here's my workout blog:<br /><br /><b>Monday, May 18th- The First Attempt</b><br /><b><br /></b><i>The workout:</i><br />3x100 warmup<br />6x15m breakout<br />30x25, 100 freestyle pace (16 sec, determined from a few weeks prior recording a 1:03 relay split 100m free, SCM).<br /><br /><i>How it went</i>: I completed 14x25. Initial thing I had to get over was my embarassment at the pace. I was never an amazing swimmer, still my old "personal best" would have me starting with a pace of 14 seconds, so 16 felt terribly slow. I am glad I started with 16s though, because after 8 I felt a wash of lactic acid and had to stop. I was able to complete four more in a row before getting the same feeling, and after that only two more.<br /><br /><b>Wednesday, May 20th- Breaststroke</b><br /><b><br /></b><i>The workout:</i><br />3x100 warmup<br />8x25m breaststroke turns<br />30x25, 100 breaststroke pace (19 sec, made up because I haven't swum 100 SCM breaststroke ever and haven't done 100y for over three years)<br /><br /><i>How it went: </i>This was rough. I was only able to do 8x25. Overwhelmed with lactic acid after 4x25, then only able to squeeze off two in a row after following the additional rest protocol. I spent a lot of time thinking, and came up with two theories that I intend to test out. One is that 19 was too fast, and I will try 20 next time. The other is that I have never really done anything close to breastroke race pace capacity work in my whole swimmer career, so maybe this will be a slow way up. I am determined to work from wherever I am and work my way up. Also, my turns felt very uncomfortable and I need to start stretching again as my flexibility is bad!<br /><br /><b>Thursday, May 21st- Freestyle</b><br /><b><br /></b><i>The workout:</i><br />3x100 warmup<br />10x15m breakout<br />30x25, 100 pace freestyle (16 sec)<br /><br /><i>How it went: </i>Progress! I was able to do 22x25. Again I was limited not by the pace but by lactic acid, but it came on much later this time. I swam 12x25, needed a break, then 6x25, a break, then 4x25. I felt encouraged by my progress, and could feel that I was in something resembling a rhythm. I am going to wait until I have a couple practices where I swim 30x25 on pace, and then hopefully set my pace up.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4418255805011610396.post-63745836896365596702015-04-01T11:46:00.000-07:002016-12-13T10:33:56.195-08:00A Rough Lesson on ElectrolytesRecently, G John Mullen <a href="http://www.swimmingscience.net/2015/03/ssp-016-usrpt-hclf-and-self-experimentation-with-the-screaming-viking-shawn-klosterman.html">had me on the Swimming Science Podcast</a>. I thought it went well, but during the recording I was forced to admit that my performance at Sectionals in early March was a big let-down. I felt "off" all weekend and I couldn't really explain it. I hadn't felt bad like that since switching to the LCHF diet, and with the way my training had been since December I was expecting to rock both breaststroke events.<br /><br />After the meet I went to the doctor to chat about what might be wrong. I was weak, a little achy, but nothing too strange... both of my kids had been sick so I thought I might just be fighting something... but then I started piecing together some clues that made me start down a new rabbit hole on the google.<br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br />I had been getting a little light-headed when getting up from my chair, which isn't that odd since my blood pressure is naturally so low, but it was something I remembered being frequent when I first started the new diet and was running a lot that I hadn't really experienced in a while. My leg cramps had also returned with a vengeance over the last few weeks... I should have seen all of the signs that I wasn't paying enough attention to electrolytes, but I had been busy enough with work that I just didn't take the time to think it through. <br /><br />The other symptoms were new. At the meet I had been joking with a few people that I must have added all of my muscle in my legs because my TYR AP-12 was extra tight, which is strange because it is a pretty worn suit. My jeans also felt tight. Also, I have always twitched while falling asleep, but recently it had gotten out of control-- it was lasting all night and was at the point where my wife was making me sleep on the couch. <br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh00vozCnfQF-3KFnrAXwxziK_bg_FKHu7WnQQ9ml8kd1LuuAGekMvedvRtBmC3ZgR3q1ukc9vXDaEmRxq8CAv_VWegW9eeFf1MnLTYfrONvcO7Ojlc4T-rUV_HaENp7wcbHoyRR7M2e7E/s1600/Mario-Jump-GIF-mario-37766021-500-470.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh00vozCnfQF-3KFnrAXwxziK_bg_FKHu7WnQQ9ml8kd1LuuAGekMvedvRtBmC3ZgR3q1ukc9vXDaEmRxq8CAv_VWegW9eeFf1MnLTYfrONvcO7Ojlc4T-rUV_HaENp7wcbHoyRR7M2e7E/s1600/Mario-Jump-GIF-mario-37766021-500-470.gif" height="187" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My dreams were awesome but I can understand why she wanted it to stop.</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>By the time I got to the doctor the next week I had noticed that my ankles were swollen enough that you might have guessed I was pregnant.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqOROx3H3sdvCx5cNtnqOeQfv-fW5vQOHBfNAS0tJ_fZMAYbub8ryo8Oh4kopBCyk-U4cfIApUt343q6aKBSCB25Em_FLI68zMoG04PaXi9YWHA_e4-vDWnGnKd38GIvm7PLA1Ec6LBxA/s1600/ankles.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqOROx3H3sdvCx5cNtnqOeQfv-fW5vQOHBfNAS0tJ_fZMAYbub8ryo8Oh4kopBCyk-U4cfIApUt343q6aKBSCB25Em_FLI68zMoG04PaXi9YWHA_e4-vDWnGnKd38GIvm7PLA1Ec6LBxA/s1600/ankles.JPG" height="135" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It took like 4 hours to get my tech suit on.</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Here's the list:<br /><br /><ul><li>Leg cramps at night had returned to the level they were when I first started the diet.</li><li>Lightheaded when I got out of the chair.</li><li>Twitching was worse and lasted through the night.</li><li>Legs, particularly ankles, were swollen.</li><li>Weak, with aches.</li></ul><div>Well, here's what it boils down to:</div><div><ul><li>I left my normal diet routine. I had to travel during the week and was left to eat at restaurants, leaving my normal routine along with electrolyte supplements out of the picture. The normal foods I eat that make me feel great were not available. Bad idea for meet week. The LCHF diet is kind of like a diuretic, as without the abundant glucose bonding to water, we don't retain as much. We have to replace electrolytes more frequently. </li><li>I experimented with baking soda supplementation. <a href="http://suppversity.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-latest-on-sodium-bicarbonate-serial.html">There is a lot of recent research showing that it might actually be legit.</a></li></ul></div><div><br /></div><div>As far as the routine is concerned, I just wasn't smart enough to think ahead and plan for my abnormal week. My bad. The baking soda though, had never been anything but good in the past. If the idea is to ward off the acidity that interferes with muscle fiber contraction at the end of a race, lowering your pH at race time might be a pretty good bio-hack. I had been reading up quite a bit on it, and I think that they need to add an asterisk to the research. I think the diuretic effect of this diet makes me need to be a little more cautious with the sodium bicarbonate than the average racer.</div><div><br /></div><div>As I was looking up symptoms of electrolyte issues, I discovered that all of the stuff on my list could be attributed to low potassium. I have always monitored this pretty closely and had become a little lax, sure. But, then I stumbled upon a post on <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/ketoscience/comments/2zlvg2/confused_about_sodium_bicarbonate/">reddit that implied that baking soda supplementation can cause hypokalemia (low potassium) by itself.</a> This, I believe, is why my symptoms were so much more pronounced than ever before. I had already been on the edge of a problem, and the bicarb opened the floodgates.</div><div><br /></div><div>This might seem like a pretty involved excuse for not swimming fast, but that is not my intention. (<a href="http://www.swimbrief.net/2011/06/best-practice-excuse-ever.html">As a coach I have heard some pretty elaborate excuses</a> as I am sure you can imagine.) It is more of a cautionary tale. Self-experimentation means you might have to become a little bit of a detective. My doctor didn't know what to tell me. I had to research it and figure out why I didn't seem to have ankle bones anymore and why I had become a Mexican jumping bean at night. I just hope this tale of electrolytes gone bad helps anyone experimenting with keto to watch out for issues that need to be addressed!</div><div><br /></div><div>Once I realized what was going on I added some potassium rich foods back into my diet, like spinach and avocado. I took a few extra of the 99mg potassium gluconate supplements I normally use, and I started using nuun tablets a little more frequently. Of course, I also did not touch the baking soda. By the end of the week my ankles looked human, and I hit a 2:07 200 breast in a time trial just to make myself feel better and redeem the lousy 2:09 I did the week before. All is good now and I am back to training after a short break. </div><div><br /></div><div>How did your season ending meet go?</div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4418255805011610396.post-18479573758016881392015-03-12T07:25:00.000-07:002016-12-13T10:33:56.221-08:00USA Swimming Has Officially Entered the LCHF Fray<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Yay! <a href="http://www.usaswimming.org/ViewNewsArticle.aspx?TabId=1&itemid=7728&mid=14491">A rebuttal fromUSA Swimming!</a> At least now I know that they are actually reading my stuff, eh? <o:p></o:p></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/E8_GVfPuw4M" width="420"></iframe><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; text-align: start;">I am pretty sure they have been trying to pretend I don't exist </span><a href="http://swimviking.blogspot.com/2010/12/i-am-totally-applying-for-national-team.html" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; text-align: start;">since they turned down my application for the National Team Director position</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; text-align: start;">. </span></span></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Jill Castle is an MS, RDN, and has a website that promotes her two books on childhood nutrition, so I have to say she does have some skin in the game here. I am not really making money on this stuff, but that is beside the point. If she is so highly qualified, why is she making so many strong claims with no sources cited to back her up?<o:p></o:p></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Read her article <a href="http://www.usaswimming.org/ViewNewsArticle.aspx?TabId=1&itemid=7728&mid=14491">here at the USA Swimming website</a>.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Her claims I can refute?:<o:p></o:p></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>“Both a low-fat diet supports and sustains cardiovascular health, and a high-carbohydrate diet is effective at fueling aerobic-based sports such as swimming.”</b></span></i><br /><a name='more'></a><i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i><br /><i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b><br /></b></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Well, actually, most of the gains in cardiovascular health with the low-fat diet come from people paying attention to what they eat and avoiding many of the foods that are obviously less healthy, like fried breading, sweets and sugary drinks. As a matter of fact, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvWX33enZE0">this study addressed exactly that</a>, and showed that while many diets made progress when leaving the crazy standard American diet behind, the low-carb diet did better in every measure of cardiovascular health, including more weight lost. <a href="http://authoritynutrition.com/7-ways-the-low-fat-diet-destroys-your-health/">The low-fat diet has it's own risks that I would say are worse.</a></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">...and on the point of which is better to fuel aerobic-based sports, with the RQ improvements shown in the Manifesto, I would say that fat is the better fuel once adapted. Fat may not generate ATP as efficiently as carbohydrate </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">to fuel high intensity exercise </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">even with fat-adaptation, but if our goal is to train our bodies to draw more power aerobically by converting fast-twitch muscle fiber to become oxidative rather than glycolytic, I would say that excess carbs are adding interference that stands in the way. This guy at Reddit </span><a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/ketoscience/comments/2yl3yb/psa_fatty_acid_metabolism_is_not_more/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">did the complex math</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> and it seems that glucose still wins by a hair, but the increase in hemoglobin due to the high presence of Beta-Hydroxybutyrate (a prevalent ketone body,) probably trumps it in athletics, before even considering the potential change-over in fast-twitch muscle fibers from type 2b to 2a, and the </span><a href="http://www.meandmydiabetes.com/2011/04/14/steve-phinney-low-carb-preserves-glycogen-better-than-high-carb/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">glycogen sparing effect</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">, which would be</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> pretty valuable, not just in racing, but in training as well. My contention is that with a long-enough adaptation, the trade-off is better in the way it actually applies to our sport. Plus, just because you are eating low-carb, it doesn't mean that muscle glycogen is never re-fueled. I am pretty sure that no matter what you eat, during taper with the decreased workload, your muscle glycogen builds back up even if it is done slowly. I truly feel that my Viking Method gives me the best of both worlds and as I have said before, I feel better at high intensity than I ever have.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>“</b><i><b>The ability to perform high intensity work is compromised due to decreased glycogen (carbohydrate) muscle stores.” </b><o:p></o:p></i></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i><b><br /></b></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Ummm… I just covered that-- that was kind of the whole point of the Manifesto—to show that this might not actually be the case. I think I have already presented a pretty good argument there, that with adaptation time even high intensity parameters can improve. Are you gonna tell me that <a href="http://www.mensjournal.com/health-fitness/nutrition/the-lebron-james-diet-and-how-to-make-it-work-for-you-20140821">LeBron James isn’t able to be intense in practice and games?</a> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>“The negative side effects of the high-fat/ketogenic diet for sport have been outlined in the research and include:”</b><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>-</b><b><i>dehydration. </i> </b>Yeah. This one I admit. When you no longer store as much glucose, you no longer store as much water... but has there ever been any advice out there for athletes that included drinking less water? Drink when you are thirsty and supplement with electrolytes. You should be doing that if you are eating high-carb too.<o:p></o:p></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>-</b><i><b>hypoglycemia (low blood sugar)</b>: </i>It has been shown repeatedly in studies, not only in athletics but even in starvation as well, that in the absence of carbohydrate the human body actually does a better job of maintaining blood glucose at healthy levels once adapted. When we eat carbohydrates, our blood sugar spikes and dips as insulin fights to regulate glucose levels. When we don't, we stay at a healthy level. Check out this <a href="http://eatingacademy.com/nutrition/ketosis-advantaged-or-misunderstood-state-part-i">interesting case</a> of a 40 day starvation fast:</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinRdqMJB5qOerqykNmlwsiKqsNsqhlZLsc26Te42V0eWxtE3rlo9c8kJy_emqb3sQG03yndWSiWAf3g5HNNk5sspXahsH-cupoavgV2r_J4u3pZNXKgDelJZIydBFNkGYNfoGup0vm6gw/s1600/Ketone-figures-5-645x545.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinRdqMJB5qOerqykNmlwsiKqsNsqhlZLsc26Te42V0eWxtE3rlo9c8kJy_emqb3sQG03yndWSiWAf3g5HNNk5sspXahsH-cupoavgV2r_J4u3pZNXKgDelJZIydBFNkGYNfoGup0vm6gw/s1600/Ketone-figures-5-645x545.jpg" height="337" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not that I am recommending forty days without eating to lose that last few pounds, but hey... it worked for this guy.</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>-<i>increased risk of kidney stones.</i></b> This was a side effect in studies on children using the ketogenic diet to treat epilepsy. In those studies, besides carbohydrate being severely restricted, water was often restricted as well. (As she points out in her article, the ketogenic diet for epilepsy is <i>very different</i> from the one recommended for athletes.) In later studies they have shown that this is not a concern provided that a person is properly hydrated, and in cases where it became a concern <a href="http://www.medpagetoday.com/Nephrology/GeneralNephrology/15204">a simple prescription of potassium citrate often solved the problem</a>. Many people also assume that since a ketogenic athlete might eat more protein when they cut out the carbs, that this is inherently harder on the kidneys. This is a myth. One meta-analysis found high protein consumption <a href="http://www.jissn.com/content/1/1/45#B4">might actually be preventive</a> regarding many of the ailments that standard nutritional hype attributes to it. Mark's Daily Apple does a nice write up here <a href="http://www.marksdailyapple.com/protein-kidneys/#axzz3U6Oy1DEm">about kidneys and diet</a>. It's worth a read and has great links to back it up too. Even the American Diabetes Association had to admit that low-carb isn't a concern with kidneys <a href="http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/36/8/2225.abstract">after this study comparing LCHF to Mediterranean and Low-Fat Diets</a>.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>-<i>acidosis</i></b>—um, I think she is too educated to be making this mistake. <a href="http://eatingacademy.com/nutrition/is-ketosis-dangerous">She is confusing nutritional ketosis with ketoacidosis</a>. Silly diet experts. Ugh. There are some concerns with pH levels and those articles often refer to the potential for developing kidney stones as well, but most <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/keto/comments/2x51yl/science_kidney_stones/">ketogenic diet resources have tips to make sure this is not an issue</a>. If this is an issue, you most likely have something else going on and the diet helped to expose it.<o:p></o:p></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>-<i>weight loss</i></b>—for most athletes, weight loss is a healthy goal. The trick is to lose the weight in a way that <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7990700">spares muscle mass</a>, which is one of the biggest benefits of the ketogenic diet over a high-carb diet. We have all seen athletes who put in the work but still carry extra weight and can't seem to get as lean as everyone else. Heck, I know a guy who trains for triathlons about twenty hours a week and destroys everyone in the Clydesdale category, but you would think after ten years of bad-ass training he might be close to his old fighting weight, right? Not even close. It is hard to fathom, but carbs signal the body to store fat, and it is amazing how well that can be done even in the face of super high energy burning. <a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/11/141106131522.htm">This study kind of cracked me up</a>, because they claim their results prove that calories in/ calories out applies for weight loss no matter the macro-nutrient content, but then they are actually showing that when the dieters decreased the carbs and upped the protein and fat, their body composition improved. The excess calories were stored, so technically they didn't lose weight, which I guess proves their point, but if you read it carefully you see that one group ended up leaner and stronger, meaning one group stored their equivalent weight as fat and the other group weighed the same but had less body fat percent and more lean muscle mass. (</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #070809; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15.6000003814697px;">Those who consumed normal- and high- protein diets stored 45% of the excess calories as lean tissue, or muscle mass, while those on the low-protein diet stored 95% of the excess calories as fat.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">) Now tell me, is there anyone on a weight loss diet who would be disappointed with their weight not decreasing when it was because they were leaner with more muscle? On the </span><a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/keto" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">reddit keto forums</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">, if you browse for a while, you will see this very thing over and over... so many people post that they were frustrated with the scale not moving until they realized their pants were looser and they needed a new belt even at the same weight. Are there any athletes out there who wouldn't want this? <a href="http://www.swimbrief.net/2015/02/interesting-stats-at-complete-nutrition.html">My recent body composition stats</a> gel with this finding as well, as I have gained muscle without lifting.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>-</b><i><b>poor growth</b>-</i> The ketogenic diet for epilepsy often has protein severely restricted to prevent gluconeogenesis, or creating glucose from proteins. Sometimes this is enough interference to cause some patients to have a lessened effect in seizure control. This is certainly not the recommendation for athletes, and in her article she even compares this diet to the macronutrient contents of the keto diet for athletes: <i>"</i></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;"><i>The traditional ketogenic diet is a modified blend of nutrients consisting of 90% fat, 2% carbohydrate and 8% protein, and has been used in children with seizure disorders and more recently in the management of obesity and other conditions. The high-fat/ketogenic diet used in athletes and research studies is generally modified to 70% fat, 15% protein and 15% carbohydrate."</i></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> I am not sure why anyone assumes that eating less carbohydrate would interfere with growth considering that fats and proteins are the building blocks for our cellular structure, but okay... maybe <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2004/oct/inuit-paradox">those ultra-healthy eskimo's</a> had loaves of bread stashed somewhere that they hid from the white man when we arrived and started documenting their habits. There is a lot of great farm land up there in the tundra.</span><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFcDTfKJeZN-m-yJhjRt-5en5LQfY2lUK2T6kisDBWDeSeGfzdwA2ixEabvG48PAa-5yi9k2mzJrOvaKBqcatZF-faZY0vkaP123vNRkx0ANSdR_8Ai7oNBXIyOmg2-V3pPxyeka8b84A/s1600/EskimoPie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFcDTfKJeZN-m-yJhjRt-5en5LQfY2lUK2T6kisDBWDeSeGfzdwA2ixEabvG48PAa-5yi9k2mzJrOvaKBqcatZF-faZY0vkaP123vNRkx0ANSdR_8Ai7oNBXIyOmg2-V3pPxyeka8b84A/s1600/EskimoPie.jpg" height="220" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It is more believable that they had these than that they had wheat fields.</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>-high fats (lipids) in the bloodstream</b>—umm… waitamminit. Nearly every study done in the last ten years shows the opposite of this. And even those who are hyper-responders, developing more cholesterol from saturated fats, are typically shown to still have less risk for heart disease over-all based on overall improvement in risk factors when going low-carb. The studies that show increased lipids and risk for heart disease are the ones that increase the fat without significantly reducing the carbs. Recent studies have shown that even with the extreme macro-nutrient ratios of the ketogenic diet for epilepsy, this is not a cause for concern as <a href="http://esciencenews.com/articles/2008/08/26/high.cholesterol.levels.drop.naturally.children.high.fat.anti.seizure.diet.hopkins.study.show">the elevated cholesterol levels that typically come with the diet in some patients eventually calm down</a>. The only reason everyone thinks that carbs are good for the heart is because fiber can reduce cholesterol. Big whoop... Most ketogenic dieters get more fiber from green vegetables, even without the grains. Also, the <a href="http://highsteaks.com/cholesterol/">health risks of high cholesterol </a>might not even outweigh the <a href="http://highsteaks.com/forum/health-nutrition-and-science/fiber-end-fantasy-myths-and-realities-an-indigestible-nutrient-198.0.html">health risks associated with high fiber</a>. The <a href="http://www.marksdailyapple.com/the-evidence-continues-to-mount-against-statins/#axzz3U6Oy1DEm">meds</a> they give you to control your cholesterol have also been <a href="https://nwpf.org/stay-informed/news/2009/09/statin-drugs-and-parkinson%E2%80%99s-disease-oops%E2%80%A6/">proving to be worse</a> than high cholesterol itself.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Remember this graph from the Manifesto?:</span><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6az102YJmko4_eUNCJ_sgkmMlD9_mjXxjMEhV7Hu9yrxA8Hp6glbh_63tbSZRaL3bV_mcKjgykgXzasm1i1pd28EA-JKyBi0x9ywLPMORzJON4SN24V6Bf6YU9hafJCM0f9oTMYAU_ME/s1600/chart.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6az102YJmko4_eUNCJ_sgkmMlD9_mjXxjMEhV7Hu9yrxA8Hp6glbh_63tbSZRaL3bV_mcKjgykgXzasm1i1pd28EA-JKyBi0x9ywLPMORzJON4SN24V6Bf6YU9hafJCM0f9oTMYAU_ME/s1600/chart.JPG" height="263" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">'nuff said.</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>-vitamin and trace element deficiencies</b>— Include your green veggies if you are worried about it, and if you go full carnivore, eat your eggs, sardines, shellfish and liver. It’s as simple as that. I am not sure I have seen a single study that shows these deficiencies even in severely restricted epilepsy patients. As a matter of fact, <a href="http://chriskresser.com/natures-most-potent-superfood">liver is a better choice for vitamins and minerals</a> than any grain or other plant matter out there. <o:p></o:p></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>-anemia</b>-- where is she getting this from? If she is talking Iron anemia-- I am not sure I know anyone who eats more red meat than me, which covers that easily even without all of the other foods I get iron from. B12: fish, shellfish, liver... What about folate?: The low-carb veggies are some of the best for this one. Try spinach, avocado, asparagus-- this one is new to me.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">My contention here is not that we have to be in ketosis all the time. Kids do naturally have it easier regarding moving in and out of ketosis as they generally have not developed the insulin resistance levels of most adults. I just think that the standard high-carb recommendations are insane. Come on! 700 grams!? 70% of calories from carbohydrate?! Ben Greenfield recommends between 100-200 grams of carbohydrate for those in endurance training. This recommendation is also echoed by Dr Tim Noakes in a <a href="http://talkfeed.co.za/three-mistakes-parents-make-feeding-kids-lchf-diet/">recent podcast</a> about LCHF and children. Dr Noakes even lays out a <a href="http://talkfeed.co.za/young-runners-lchf/">pretty good argument</a> for <a href="http://talkfeed.co.za/children-lchf-banting-diet-safe/">why LCHF would be better for kids than the grain-based high carb diet too.</a> There are plenty of articles out there about how to help your kids safely eat a low-carb diet if you take the time to look it up on the Google. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">To put it simply though, if you cut out grains, sweets and fake vegetable oils you are about 80% of the way there. Does anyone really think that would be bad for kids?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">There is a new movie out called <a href="http://ykr.be/1rjdgh55tb">Cereal Killers 2: Run on Fat</a>. Please, check it out. This movie features some of the leaders in low-carb athletics. You can also <a href="http://ykr.be/dis8j6h8k">watch part 1 here</a>. They both do a fantastic job of laying out the case for low-carb and are just excellent films that stand on their own merit.<o:p></o:p></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Also, yesterday I was invited to be on the Swimming Science Podcast with G John Mullen, so watch for a link soon!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"></span><br /><div deployment="2926772nl0l96" id="yekra-player" name="YekraPlayer" rel="349" sizing="auto"><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4418255805011610396.post-41757849417642691722015-03-11T08:29:00.000-07:002016-12-13T10:33:56.249-08:00Films to Spread the Word About LCHF.By now I assume your compulsion to believe everything you read on the internet has consumed you and you are ready to take the Viking's advice to drop the carbs... but if you are like me, you have that one MAJOR obstacle: well-meaning family and friends who want to prevent you from clogging your arteries with this crazy diet. They try to shove bread down your gullet and sneak it into your snacks to prevent you from getting that dreaded "bread-deficiency disease" that they all assume must exist since, well... I guess since Jesus was such a nice guy and gave people all that bread back in the day.<br /><a name='more'></a><br /><br />Nosey acquaintances will very rarely read the scientific mumbo-jumbo you throw in their faces, and they are often quick to dismiss anything that isn't their idea. That free donut at the faculty meeting makes a compelling argument compared to <a href="http://ketopedia.com/principia-ketogenica/">some pieces of paper with charts and scientific proof on it</a> that say bacon is a healthier option. Also, we have commercials like this to thank for making breakfast cereal look like it will automatically make you awesome at things like mystery solving, crimefighting and gymnastics all at the same time.<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dnMOB0We4yk?list=PL61oWqOfEd87OCk6izuj6-cW1WzGm14k3" width="560"></iframe><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>The only way to win them over?: a film festival. Get out some pork rinds and cheese dip and get your education on. Here are some of your best options: (Sorry, some of these require payment to rent or buy.)<br /><br /><br />1. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evcNPfZlrZs">Fathead</a><br /><br />2. <a href="http://ykr.be/dis8j6h8k">Cereal Killers part 1</a><br /><br />3. <a href="http://ykr.be/1rjdgh55tb">Cereal Killers part 2: Run on Fat</a><br /><br />4. <a href="http://ykr.be/hny7kh5h2">Carb-Loaded: A Culture Dying to Eat</a><br /><br />5. <a href="http://ykr.be/i572hwl7m">The Perfect Human Diet</a><br /><br /><br />...and just for kicks, I am adding <a href="http://highsteaks.com/homo-carnivorus-what-we-are-designed-to-eat-barry-groves/">Dr. Barry Groves' HOMO CARNIVORUS</a> in case the high production values of the other movies seem shady to them and they just need a good old power-point lecture. Please watch it if you haven't already. It will blow your mind and leave you wondering if your mom permanently damaged your health by forcing you to eat all those veggies when you were little.<br /><br />Oh yeah... you should expect to be forced to watch the anti-LCHF movie that is based on vegan principles: "Forks Over Knives." T. Colin Campbell makes a pretty compelling case in his film based on one of the largest nutrition studies in history, referred to as the "China Study," but anyone who directs you to that needs to be directed to this: <a href="http://rawfoodsos.com/the-china-study/">Raw Foods SOS</a><br /><br />At Raw Foods SOS, a former Vegan and statistics fetishist, Denise Minger, butchers Dr Campbell's interpretation of data to show that maybe Vegans should just shut up and eat a steak. This is seriously worth the read. She also wrote a book called <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0984755128/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0984755128&linkCode=as2&tag=rfs09-20&linkId=ZY5IDVCKWB54G3W4">Death by Food Pyramid</a> that thoroughly explains the screwed up scientific and political breakdown that led to our government food guidelines getting so off-track.<br /><br />Let me know what you think after you have your movie marathon. I just watched Cereal Killers 2 for the first time this morning, and I have to say it is an excellent film that I hope a lot of people see and consider carefully.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4418255805011610396.post-12856426891953830112015-03-02T09:03:00.000-08:002016-12-13T10:33:56.290-08:00THE VIKING MANIFESTO Part 7: How Do I Get Started on the LCHF Diet?<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">THE VIKING MANIFESTO: Piecing Together a New Approach to Nutrition and Training for Swimmers from Scientific and Anecdotal Evidence.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Part 7: How Do I Get Started on the LCHF Diet?</span></div><b id="docs-internal-guid-655fce68-db6f-2c88-47a3-7d74b5b38dea" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="Carb_Curve_color.jpg" height="400" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/vw9CqJhyNxdLXtPWVO_-vv_XsCwbENwWPze90tdJqTJx-OUpg_xmRwyr5GYETl8r3WEfIPNt9HEet_nxhybGwXqOo5DsazLf4Bxd3aPVn1OIEes3sqcSyGIq60vGcCG-8zAcjNc" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="400" /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.marksdailyapple.com/#axzz3SloGaG58" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mark’s Daily Apple</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> just helped you lose the extra weight with one drawing.</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you are still following along with the Manifesto at this point, then you must at least be intrigued enough to want to know </span><a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gZfJejOM8fJsX1iCilmnpp1qmT_KncJwWCR4-EsaEHc/edit?pli=1" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">what the low-carb, high-fat diet would look like in real life.</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> You may not quite be ready to drop the traditional nutrition info recommended by </span><a href="http://www.usaswimming.org/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabId=1635" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">USA Swimming</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> in</span><a href="http://usaswimming.org/ViewNewsArticle.aspx?TabId=0&itemid=6075&mid=8712" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> articles like this</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and </span><a href="http://www.usaswimming.org/_Rainbow/Documents/e39cb555-8693-4a41-97a9-2cc1b527b1f1/Nutrition-Fueling%20For%20Performance%20talk.pdf" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">presentations like this</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, but you at least want to know how different this might really be. I doubt anyone wants to take it as far as I have, which means going </span><a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/zerocarb" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">almost completely carnivorous</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, but if you read below you can see that it doesn’t have to be that extreme. </span><a href="http://www.anndziemianowicz.com/2011/02/look-at-worlds-oldest-cats.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This cat lived to be age 39 on bacon, eggs, broccoli and coffee</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. It can’t be that hard, right? </span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="39 year old cat.jpg" height="320" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/hvURlCZOumoYpmJtbbiXaGdd5e3GQqetkpg76AEVJx4ufIl2n-OIXOJPhQ-SM3FQ7eQXoCoy9_mHGkppabeCyM217dxa8p2CN3r-4EPi-qKrZVRWFMl3qjQYKPabfEwALcZPtbI" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="228" /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bacon, eggs, broccoli and coffee. This is key in my plot to break </span><a href="http://swimswam.com/jaring-timmerman-oldest-masters-swimmer-passes-away-105/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jaring Timmerman</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">’s records in the 100-104 age group.</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The question is, do you have the nuggets to give this a try long enough to adapt and see if the low-carb, high-fat diet is really for you?</span></div><a name='more'></a><br /><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you were to just jump in and try a low-carb high-fat or ketogenic diet, you would most likely feel miserable for a while and your performance in practice and meets would tank. My contention throughout this multi-part series is that if you stick with it long enough to adapt your performance will recover in every way, and will improve significantly in some of the most important parameters of swimming training. Add the correct training and this effect can be enhanced even more. So far though, I haven’t really gone into detail about how you would go about making the switch to LCHF in the most safe and efficient way. I believe that this is optimal for everyone, but I also know that people who don’t have the force of will to be meticulous about it at first may have a bumpy ride. </span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My basic advice?</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><ol style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Do not jump into this in the middle of a season. Use the time between seasons to get started because it is best to give yourself some adaptation time without the stress of a heavy training load. There will also be a period of time where performance in practice and meets may suffer. To give yourself the best chance of sticking with it you should use the pre-season to adjust.</span></div></li><li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Make a doctor’s appointment. Talk to your doctor about the change you want to make. If you are nervous about taking nutrition advice from a stranger with an obsession with Norse culture, ask the doc for a full metabolic panel so that you have stats to compare later to know if there are any issues that come up that would cause you to need to adjust what you are doing. This is not just about cholesterol. Thyroid stimulating hormone, C-reactive Protein, A1C and other measurements can be included and monitored as well. You will see some details below on why this might matter, but honestly, I wish I had done this myself just so that I could have shown off my improvements with some real stats. Be prepared for push-back from the doctor though-- this is not what they were taught in med school so once in a while they might try to talk you out of it just because they don’t know much about it. I printed stuff to bring to my doctor but she didn’t need to see it. She was immediately on board and encouraged me to keep it up.</span></div></li><li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My Fitness Pal and Runkeeper are your new best friends. It is vital that you track your calorie burning and food intake, at least for the time that you are learning how to manage this diet. This is not just for calories sake, and not just to monitor your macro-nutrient percentages. It is also important to track sodium and potassium due to the water-shedding effect of LCHF. If you want to see what I really eat and how I really train, ask to be my friend within these apps. These apps are now just a routine part of my day.</span></div></li><li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">DO NOT ATTEMPT TO ADOPT THIS LIFESTYLE WITHOUT THOROUGHLY READING UP ON IT. Think about it. You are taking nutrition advice from a stranger on the internet who you know nothing about except that he likes his hats to have horns. Do your damn research and don’t just take my word for it. At the bottom of this post will be a list of recommended reading. Some of it should be considered REQUIRED READING and they will be marked with a **. Do not skip these!</span></div></li></ol><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When someone asks me what it is I did to lose all this weight, I ask them “do you really want to know, or are you just making conversation?” I don’t want to suck any unsuspecting friends into the rabbit hole with me just because they were being nice. If they want to know, I send them this brief write-up I have saved on my phone:</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Target around </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.8-1.2 grams of protein per pound of lean body weight</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. ( I calculated that by subtracting my % body fat from my actual weight.) More protein is okay sometimes, but </span><a href="http://examine.com/faq/how-much-protein-do-i-need-every-day.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">less is not if you are working out</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Stay </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">between 0 and 150 grams carbohydrate</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The rest of your calories should come from fats</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. This is where you get your energy from. On the days you don't work out, stay at the lower end of the carbohydrates. When you are working out consistently and you have reached the weight you want to be at, it probably won’t hurt to have more. Between ten and thirty percent of calories is plenty even for an ultra-endurance athlete. A ketogenic diet is normally considered to be one that stays below 50 grams of carbohydrate, but in heavy training you can probably be in ketosis without going quite that low. </span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Recommended foods: fatty meats (too much lean meat is high protein, low fat); olive oil (cold); coconut oil (the only one to cook with besides animal fats like lard); butter; heavy cream instead of milk; nuts, but not peanuts; seafood (get some canned sardines in olive oil, shrimp, etc.); lots of eggs; avocado; green leafy vegetables.</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">AVOID: partially hydrogenated oils; wheat, beans, rice, potatoes, legumes; sweets; sugary drinks, including sports drinks; anything deep fried and breaded is from the devil. It is easy to over-do fruit: fructose refuels liver glycogen, which stands in the way of fat adaptation a little. Ideally the carbs you eat should go toward refueling muscle glycogen rather than liver if your goal is to stay in ketosis. The more fibrous fruits, like berries, are best.</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ELECTROLYTES: you will want to drink lots of water because the lower you go on carbs the more it is like a diuretic. This causes you to pee out electrolytes. The recommended supplementation is 5000 mg sodium, 1500 mg potassium, and 300 mg magnesium although sometimes it helps me to go higher. If you get leg cramps at night take another magnesium and/or back off the water a little and see if it helps. I have even been adding a half-teaspoon of baking soda to my water once in a while and it seems to help with my leg cramps as well.</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Basically, keto looks like this:</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="keto food pyramid.JPG" height="640" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/M0muWi7sov1hddQZQXjWP9hWlZjvk7rbiihINCypEdyYALBZG13Q2ZC1BpbfO4qyAbgdku8CAeI7-m4DBY1Lkbv9HKDOIT2XI_fqfNqz8ys8xacrum5FqYuuBR27O628zxE0pqE" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="492" /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yup. You are flipping the food pyramid upside down.</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Once you get used to eating this way, you may not feel hungry as often as you did before. Part of the reason I started tracking with My Fitness Pal was because I could go so long without eating that I worried I wasn’t eating enough. I now have to double check to make sure I am getting enough food to maintain my weight. I am not kidding. I no longer have the blood-sugar dips, afternoon sleepiness or food cravings that were once a normal part of my day. Yes, the carb cravings eventually go away. The hardest part of this diet is social: you will be amazed at how much carbohydrate is thrown in your face every day, and you will eventually marvel at how much of what others eat is stuff that you no longer even consider to be food. The guilt trips people lay on you over not eating a cracker can be sheer lunacy.</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="carbs.GIF" height="238" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/aHRo3yRmCDB7PZ2AXbJfSUyFzL5f205xeiEMpLJHbFXTGIv3Zt93IbceIfE03f79azvSHWatMaoDu2y3bUCkV450DsTMKKXSUmsDro8CCWoj89gqzRrFjN9PMM-yBkaJB0Z1JLk" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="320" /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At first it was like this. Now I walk into the teacher workroom and in my mind, those donuts might as well be bicycle parts.</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But, Viking… none of these foods come in a box?! How am I supposed to do a ketogenic diet around my crazy work schedule? This was actually the hardest part for me at first. I </span><a href="http://paleoleap.com/money-saving-tips/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">thought this diet would be expensive</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and I assumed I would not be able to do it since I am at the pool for most of my meals. When I did the math on the two or three fast food combo meals a day I was eating before, I realized pretty quickly that keto could be cheaper… but then I had to prepare my own meals. How do I manage that?: Simple-- I have a mini-fridge, a microwave and a George Foreman grill. Easy peasy. I stop by the grocery store on Monday mornings on the way to work and get my food for the week. If I have time to stop by the butcher I stock up there as well. (They sell individual 8 oz club steaks for $3.75!) I learned to make some really kick ass scrambled eggs in the microwave and the rest is pretty easy. Plus, anything can be made yummy with either cheese or Frank’s Red Hot all over it. Am I right? </span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="1363476233_1_georgeforeman.jpg" height="234" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/bz2dRMdjGABh93pJ-2Wad88zloCxP0Sptu-pf49Rf27nSgSti-OOeHkIotu22l1tLzc3VsSDpfQSqCWgFaC6hyRfcA4JUe1jpM94E2NVPR5untBzA6kOKXnw6h6ZtxLEUMJD7zU" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="320" /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">DaVinci. Galileo. Edison. Tesla. Foreman. This grill might be one of the most life-changing inventions in history.</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Also, there are a million places online with keto friendly recipes, and many of them are creative ways to have your favorite non-keto meals in a low-carb way with substitutions. You will see a lot of things like crushed pork rinds used as breading, or pizza crusts and taco shells made of bacon or cheese, which is better than bread anyway. I mean, really… if you think even the Doritos taco shell beats a bacon taco shell, you got issues.</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Can there be dangers associated with going low carb? Well, yeah, but they can be managed. Electrolytes are something that need to be taken seriously. They are vital for heart function, and too much </span><a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/ketoscience/comments/220gtq/nutrients_potassium_more_than_you_ever_wanted_to/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">potassium</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> can be even worse than not enough. I supplement daily with magnesium and potassium just to be sure I stay in a good range and I pay attention to MFP to make sure. I also do not avoid salty foods. Ben Greenfield wrote an excellent article about </span><a href="http://blog.wellnessfx.com/2014/01/07/ben-greenfield-4-dangers-low-carb-high-fat-diet/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">what he believes are the four dangers of going low-carb</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and fortunately he is a guy who not only manages this in his own triathlon training but is also a personal trainer who helps other athletes as well. </span><a href="http://www.bengreenfieldfitness.com/2013/07/how-much-carbohydrate-protein-and-fat-you-need/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> In this article, he recommends between 100-200 grams of carbohydrate for those who train with high-volume</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> for a few reasons, which is still very low. (He trained and rocked an IronMan this way.) When he did his AMA on reddit I asked him how many carbs are necessary for my particular low-volume training regimen and he said I should be fine with 40-60 grams of carbohydrate which is about where I land naturally. Of course, there are those out there </span><a href="http://www.bengreenfieldfitness.com/2012/04/exercise-on-low-carbohydrate-diet/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">doing high volume training with carb counts lower than mine, and Dr Attia is one of them, as he tells us in this podcast interview </span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">he did with Ben Greenfield. In that interview Dr Attia goes into detail about electrolytes, heavy training, and many other details about mistakes he made in managing the diet and I consider it mandatory listening. Unfortunately, in that interview, Dr Attia also says he wouldn’t recommend ketosis for a pool swimmer, but on that point I disagree with him simply based on my personal experience. (I don’t think he has ever heard of USRPT.) </span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Paul Jaminet, author of The Perfect Health diet, has also written </span><a href="http://perfecthealthdiet.com/2010/11/dangers-of-zero-carb-diets-i-can-there-be-a-carbohydrate-deficiency/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">a series of articles</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> laying out what he thinks can be dangerous, even going so far as to speculate that there might be a “carbohydrate deficiency disease.” He also claims that there are “</span><a href="http://www.bengreenfieldfitness.com/2013/07/how-much-carbohydrate-protein-and-fat-you-need/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">nitrogen balance</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">” issues with eating too much protein. These are worth a read. I am not trying to scare you away, of course, but I want you to see some points on the other side of the argument, so that if you should run into any problems you might have a resource to seek out changes that can make this diet more beneficial to you.</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Are carbs gonna kill me if I eat them every once in a while? Nah… Mark’s Daily Apple has an 80% rule, meaning that we are creating good habits and if you change your lifestyle to eat right 80% of the time you are probably doing just fine. I still enjoy ice cream with my kids once in a while. I do avoid grains as much as possible, including rice and corn because they make me feel like crap. Beans also give me stomach issues. To be honest, most of my carbs are from fibrous green veggies, nuts, dark chocolate and red wine. Plus, Dr Attia claims that after exercise we may be able to eat some carbs without interfering with ketosis at all </span><a href="http://eatingacademy.com/sports-and-nutrition/ketones-carbohydrates-can-co-exist" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">by calculating the glucose deficit based on workload</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, which is pretty handy for when you just feel like scarfing down something sweet. There are also variations of the diet that are outlined in the /r/keto FAQ that incorporate carbs on a schedule so if you are struggling with straight up keto you can look into those to see if they work better for you. Of course, after adapting for a while you may not feel the need.</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="IMG_4159.GIF" height="276" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/vxFcacYe28_P43iLlTkvVqoI-8luC1XiLa__QiPRHfCnQrWT1DH_2YcP1khqG419hIENT_MCOUsiKA9sJfl07XwF0iTqCW5ugyFFnNK-DC82cmFxKjBSqGf9VnFCuLVe6_o_RjI" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="320" /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">...sometimes a treat is worth it.</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What about cholesterol? Well, just last week our government announced they </span><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/02/10/feds-poised-to-withdraw-longstanding-warnings-about-dietary-cholesterol/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">will be removing cholesterol rich food avoidance from their guidelines</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Yup, eggs are back. I recently wrote a </span><a href="http://www.swimbrief.net/2015/02/ketones-inflammation-and-some-thoughts.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">post on cholesterol that has some links embedded within it </span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">if you are concerned and want to read up, but in the list of resources below I have the ** next to the /r/keto FAQ. It is required reading and goes into detail about cholesterol and what to watch for when you get that metabolic panel at the doctor’s office. Essentially, high cholesterol isn’t as great an indicator of heart disease as we have been told. Here is a nice chart that shows how a typical person changing from the standard American diet to LCHF will fare regarding risk factors for heart disease:</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="chart.JPG" height="422" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/qnGiGtippjFY7YLMyQ6Vp93Fo2e_rAstRh1cB6nj8RiANBvuPh5qo4sg0BDSRrCgsrg4p_XYTl0xm1zF8LAcGuqFqzG7kZibstL0c-0pITnpmavQ77Iy4KB2dK4vqbCjlHEukgA" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="640" /></span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A typical day of eating for the Viking? </span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Breakfast: six eggs scrambled in the microwave with Kerrygold butter, heavy whipping cream, Morton’s light salt, and occasionally some bacon cooked in the microwave as well. Lots of coffee. </span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lunch: Steak. Usually not over $5 worth. I don’t avoid the fat and gristle. The cheap cuts are actually healthier most of the time as the expensive ones are often too lean. Once a week or so, </span><a href="http://chriskresser.com/natures-most-potent-superfood" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I add 4 oz of liver</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and butter to go with my steak.</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dinner: Salad made from raw spinach, nuts, olive oil, avocado, and some kind of seafood like sardines, salmon/ tuna from a pouch or shrimp that just need to be thawed with running water. </span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If I am busy and get stuck hitting the drive thru?: Many burger places just lettuce wrap their burgers and that makes it pretty easy. Some, like Wendy’s let you order combo’s with side salads and ranch dressing rather than fries. Hardee’s and Wendy’s also put great coupons in the Sunday paper, and Wendy’s also puts coupons on their receipts. Occasionally I can get two ⅓ pound burgers at Hardee’s for $4, and a triple baconator can be $4 as well if you pay attention to your coupons and deals. Hardee’s is so keto-friendly that they have a low-carb breakfast bowl, and Sonic will even let you just order bacon and eggs if you sweet talk them. Dollar menu burgers are great too with no bun and no ketchup. Sometimes I even use the meat from McDoubles as the bun for my grilled chicken club. </span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="meatatarian delight.JPG" height="299" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/2tPCt_ucR2OnYoxDrRONuR6SuoIth6iGj7hUgHvra00GAjHWT7mT8y_UumbH58BvfpZFLpWCY_o8sNUAcOs5fBCLOYzE8XYqVOne9PiLqW8MI9mjgtisMOr2SJmeVfFrT72IOkg" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="400" /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Not kidding. I invented my own McMeatatarian Delight. </span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Also, in my town every BBQ place does all-you-can-eat ribs on Tuesday nights. They all know me by name.</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="fetish.GIF" height="260" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/5BAEmskKZw1c1jHHxHj4M4JLSRqLDm-dkDg-Y0zqWotAwZkkmwKRT94w8RnGaYrJubQJg5jLWmu3GUbfJdBhwu5fTuiaGbBCnPmDpud8ioyiYIIR1S44Abkd_xRe7dzRhfYcblc" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="400" /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">All-You-Can-Eat Ribs.</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Snacks to put in your swim bag? Quest bars are keto-legal even though they list as high-carb, simply because most of the carbs are fiber, leaving only three or four grams of active carbohydrate. (Some people doing this diet subtract the fiber carbs from the rest to come up with “net” carbs.) Quest bars are pretty common in supplement and nutrition shops. Even better though are </span><a href="http://www.ketobars.com/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">KETOBARS</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. This is a company that was started by a redditor who saw a need and I love them. If you order some, leave them a note that the Viking sent you.</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I plan to keep writing on this topic, and may post a bit more at SwimSwam, but a lot of additional posts will continue to be made at </span><a href="http://www.swimbrief.net/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Swim Brief</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, as they will be supplemental and will often be about my own personal second-swimming-career adventure. I love discussing this stuff so please don’t hesitate to shoot questions my way, and if you see me on deck feel free to grab my attention. I learn new things every week and I love to share. I don’t expect everyone out there to have read every detail of the Manifesto, but I hope that a lot of coaches have it saved in their browser to go back and catch up if they haven’t kept up. I also hope that readers take time to browse some of the many links throughout the articles as there is so much more info out there if you just keep following the science. As you can see, this stuff is slowly </span><a href="http://well.blogs.nytimes.com//2015/02/25/should-athletes-eat-fat-or-carbs/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">hitting the mainstream</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> so my ideas here may not seem so far-fetched in the near-future. </span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I am not the only low-carb swimmer out there, and I have a feeling that soon we will start seeing more and more keto swimmers crawling out of the woodwork. Until then, I hope to swim fast enough to make more SwimSwammers and SwimBriefers do a double-take and go back to read up on how I am getting the job done. Wish me luck.</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Recommended Reading and Resources:</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="http://josepharcita.blogspot.com/2011/03/guide-to-ketosis.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A Guide to Ketosis</span></a></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="http://www.dietdoctor.com/lchf" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Diet Doctor’s LCHF for Beginners</span></a></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="http://www.westonaprice.org/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Weston A Price Foundation</span></a></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="http://www.marksdailyapple.com/#axzz3RdgWOawc" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mark’s Daily Apple</span></a></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="http://eatingacademy.com/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Eating Academy</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, Peter Attia, MD</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="http://www.bengreenfieldfitness.com/2012/04/exercise-on-low-carbohydrate-diet/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ben Greenfield interview with Peter Attia</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">**</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/ketogains" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://www.reddit.com/r/ketogains</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> **be sure to read their FAQ as well!</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/ketoscience" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://www.reddit.com/r/ketoscience</span></a></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/ketorecipes" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://www.reddit.com/r/ketorecipes</span></a></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/keto" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://www.reddit.com/r/keto</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> **be sure to read the FAQ and Keto in a Nutshell!! </span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The search function within all of the keto subreddits can also help you find answers to just about any questions that come up!!</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Books:</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Wheat-Belly-Lose-Weight-Health/dp/1609614798" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wheat Belly</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> by William Davis, MD</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Grain-Brain-Surprising-Sugar-Your-Killers/dp/031623480X" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Grain Brain</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> by Dr David Perlmutter</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Science-Carbohydrate-Performance/dp/0983490716" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> by Jeff Volek and Stephen Phinney</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Movies and Videos: (lots more are listed in the /r/keto FAQ and “nutshell”!)</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evcNPfZlrZs" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fathead</span></a></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">**and of course, you can always contact me through SwimSwam or the Swim Brief if you would like to learn more. </span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">APPS:</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Keto Diet, Runkeeper and MyFitnessPal:</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="keto app logo.PNG" height="135px;" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/rQc-pshgECsK-2ZRhy-1gs1O-ZXUygFB7Lo10muEfWvE4nPdoLBe_spuDLtuDFX4DZiBpwNfpTJk_klHd5z5JJQJ97Qt7MGEdGQW4gsr7dzuHk5H8cmAmvqoGUMLLMQ3V-Q8c-A" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="180px;" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="runkeepermyfitnesspaljoinhands.jpeg" height="138px;" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/b_oBjsOk5V3hXcjvHUqbyvtq8qDAbe31Xll_HqTvkZZGdrvGUQL0Ogt4oq7hRusRl7ormd7EejJ1hQBsMQyJhuP0RAWTsaE83j0xwdNkvjtRU8rrONti9ve6dYEf4dY-W5VC3Ks" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="274px;" /></span></div><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4418255805011610396.post-59048058267182116692015-02-27T10:36:00.000-08:002016-12-13T10:33:56.320-08:00Ketones, Inflammation, and Some Thoughts on Cholestrol<a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/02/150216131146.htm">http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/02/150216131146.htm</a><br /><br />The article linked above is kind of important. One of the points I make repeatedly in my manifesto is that in regard to the ketogenic diet, we are still in uncharted territory as there are still a lot of questions that need to be answered and there is a lot of important science that still has not been done. (Even worse, there is a lot of science that has been done that just hasn't hit the mainstream as well though, too. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Principia-Ketogenica-Compendium-Literature-Carbohydrate-ebook/dp/B00N0KGKNI">Check this book out to see a collection of it.</a>)<br /><br />In a part of the manifesto I spoke briefly on reduced inflammation with the ketogenic diet, I think with regard specifically to more and healthier mitochondria, but I remember I also linked out to the /r/keto subreddit, stating that reduced inflammation is one of the most common side effects brought up by new dieters. Browse <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/keto">/r/keto</a> for a while and you will see it come up in so many different ways it is astounding.<br /><br />The ketogenic diet is being studied as a new possibility for the treatment of many diseases, mostly inflammation based, all the way from acne to arthritis, bipolar disorder to Alzheimers, and diabetes to atherosclerosis. The link above says that Yale University has discovered a direct link between Beta-Hydroxybuterate, one of the prevalent ketone bodies, and inhibition of one of the components of what they call the "inflammasome." Please take time to read the article at the link above.<br /><br />This would explain a lot.<br /><a name='more'></a><br />We have known for decades that the ketogenic diet is often effective in treating epilepsy. Heck, even back to biblical times we knew that just not eating could cure a person of "demons." Nothing brings about high ketone levels like fasting. Beta-Hydroxybuterate has also been tied to <a href="http://gladstoneinstitutes.org/pressrelease/2012-12-06/gladstone-scientists-discover-novel-mechanism-by-which-calorie-restriction-i">anti-aging</a>, which makes sense when you consider the direct implications for fighting inflammation.<br /><br />I am curious though, if this might also be at the heart of our scientific disagreements regarding cholesterol numbers and their relevance to heart disease. <br /><br />My cholesterol went up to above 500 the first time I was tested after starting on the ketogenic diet. I am not sure what it was before the diet, but I am pretty sure that was an increase as it is incredibly high. An increase is often reported by people new to keto, but usually it calms down after a while. There are also a few other things I was doing that might have helped it go that high as well. You see, there is a <a href="http://www.lecturepad.org/dayspring/lipidaholics/pdf/LipidaholicsCase291.pdf">theory that excess ketones can enter the cholesterol synthesis pathway</a>, which would be the reason that cholesterol goes up in new converts to paleo or keto and then often eventually goes down as our bodies become more efficient at absorbing them and using them for fuel. This is evidenced by increased ketones in the urine. Eventually, when fat-adapted for long enough, we don't create excess ketones and we have to use blood monitoring to detect ketones as they won't show in urine samples.<br /><br />I was running pretty hard at the time. Ketones tend to test higher after a run. I apparently had not reached that point yet the first time I was tested. Also, there is a chance I am just a hyper-responder to saturated fats, which might be genetic. <br /><br />I had been warned once in a forum on reddit that drinking saturated fats is not a good idea, especially if you are having a sedentary day, as it causes those fats to be quickly processed by the liver. Add MCT's like coconut oil, and you have a cocktail for high ketones, and possibly high LDL particle count as well. If you are looking to raise your cholesterol, I have to recommend my routine of fasted running in the morning followed by coffee with butter, heavy cream and coconut oil. Yikes!<br /><br />Taking a look at Dr Attia's <a href="http://eatingacademy.com/nutrition/the-straight-dope-on-cholesterol-part-i">"Straight Dope on Cholesterol"</a> or <a href="http://highsteaks.com/straight-dope-cholesterol-summary-dr-peter-attia-eatingacademy-com/">Ash Simmonds fantastic summary here</a>, we see that the correlation of cholesterol levels to heart disease is all over the place, with the only significant strong correlation being with particle count when the dust finally settles...<br /><br />but then <a href="http://azsunfm.blogspot.com/2012/09/font-definitions-font-face-font-family.html">here, we have a heart doctor who questions even that</a>. He claims that even with high particle count after switching to paleo, his heart disease showed a reversal according to scans. The significance there is that he was looking at actual disease rather than risk factors. He hypothesizes that maybe the reduced inflammation associated with paleo makes even particle count lose it's correlation with heart disease.<br /><br />Then we have this <a href="http://www.meandmydiabetes.com/2010/03/24/loren-cordain-caution-on-saturated-fats-disaster-with-grains-will-be-public-after-march-25th/">interview with Loren Cordain</a>. In it he states that even the Inuit had signs of atherosclerosis, but that without the inflammation from eating carbohydrate they would most likely not have had heart attacks. A heart attack requires inflammation to rupture any build-up that might be present. Dr Kummerow <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/17/health/a-lifelong-fight-against-trans-fat.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0">at this link</a> explains it very well, as he fought the system over it for decades.<br /><br />Of course, it gets even more complicated.<br /><br />Next we have to look at things like the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6U728AZnV0">phenomena of endurance runners having heart attacks due to undetected calcification of arteries</a> when they otherwise seem ultra-healthy. <a href="http://www.marksdailyapple.com/marathon-heart-damage/#axzz1jlaV7347">Mark Sisson at Mark's Daily Apple warns against chronic cardio</a> often. He insists this is why we should exercise intermittently, keeping our cardio low-intensity and mixing in some form of short burst sprinting. Chronic cardio might be providing even some of us fat-adapted athletes with too much repetitive inflammation. There are so many variables it is hard to keep track. Would marathon runners not have this issue if they ate a ketogenic diet? Who knows? Ugh... it is such a puzzle.<br /><br />So the question still remains that needs to be answered with more science: "are low carb dieters somehow immune to heart disease in spite of the possibility of higher cholesterol and increased saturated fat intake?" <br /><br />It seems like a silly question, but it is one that has been asked repeatedly. With the new finding at Yale, I would think that we need to get NUSI on the job as it might be a much more relevant possibility. In the paper cited above where it is implied that excess ketones can enter the cholesterol synthesis pathway, he insists that it would be stupid for low-carb dieters to just not worry about their high cholesterol and assume they are somehow specially exempt. He even suggests adding some carbs back into the diet just to help this level off. So then we are left wondering: is the high cholesterol more of a risk factor than the inflammation we would get by adding the carbs and reducing the ketones? <br /><br />I lean toward <a href="http://www.marksdailyapple.com/how-might-inflammation-cause-heart-disease/#axzz3S7rOcBg6">inflammation</a> being worse than particle count, but I would rather let scientists duke it out as opposed to just going with my gut feeling. I plan to stay low carb and keep eating my saturated fats, but without the bulletproof coffee, without chronic cardio (keeping the running at around three miles if I run at all,) and hanging on to my sprinting with USRPT and short workouts as the majority of my exercise. <br /><br />and oh yeah... I am going to make a gamble that <a href="http://www.hindawi.com/journals/crp/2014/945951/">dark</a> <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24274771">chocolate</a> and <a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/06/120619225941.htm">red wine</a> will <a href="http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/health/483365/Red-wine-s-a-tonic-says-doctor">help</a> too, because if eating those every night is wrong, I don't want to be right.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4418255805011610396.post-15686079184624230852015-02-25T06:21:00.000-08:002016-12-13T10:33:56.341-08:00THE VIKING MANIFESTO Part 6: USRPT. Duh...<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>THE VIKING MANIFESTO: Piecing Together a New Approach to Nutrition and Training for Swimmers from Scientific and Anecdotal Evidence.</b></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Part 6: USRPT. Duh.</b></span></div><b id="docs-internal-guid-7a71548c-94d4-384f-f551-9d4ed92f015e" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Okay guys, it's time to add one more thing to the list of topics to avoid when you are drunk: the list is now religion, politics, nutrition, your friend's mom, and USRPT. That’s right SwimSwam commenters, I know which of you loudmouth regulars is playing that game where you take a shot every time Braden mentions Michael Andrew’s name in an article. If the SwimSwam comments section was a bar, I know which of you guys I would want to party with.</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yup, in case you haven't already pieced it together, the Viking does Ultra-Short Race Pace Training. What other type of training could I fit in with only 20-30 minutes, two or three times a week to swim? </span></div><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="to-crush-your-enemies-see-them-driven-before-you-and-to-hear-the-lamentation-of-the-women-1137.jpg" height="200" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/DIAiDYn7xyZqPj0NN3T0zeFRejeuBaCxz7yFQQHKQg8d52j8zW4Hy-MFW3UJtQFkhnG9QfQ1j02kmqoi1Jr9M1NjIANLQRzI3jdLGI-lsK8DOZtaQTft3Jra2nNIvioS9zM" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="175" /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and don’t waste a lot of time training old-school when you could be doing USRPT.</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"></b><br /><a name='more'></a><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I decided after reading through </span><a href="http://coachsci.sdsu.edu/swim/bullets/table.htm" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dr Rushall’s work</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> that the science made sense and some of his claims seemed to fill in the gaps for me. There was something missing in the translation from training to racing with the way I was running my program. I was frustrated with the inconsistency and guess work involved in managing the various aspects of coaching so many athletes and I figured that since none of my athletes are world-class there really wasn’t that much risk in making the switch to USRPT to see how it goes. I essentially threw the old EN-SP chart out the window.</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="luke1.jpg" height="136" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/cdLSGJfLYvdN5T_qUShh-WeKv0s2TZRzUS7RvOPbv9W8Rp7dgUpnm5FKWHbp1daJVrbJ_Aoq84AGVXNsqm6FOZm_uxaK8N4flifXMh7KpjlZy9oBbeHlBMpsy8Q574KQ2OA" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="320" /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Let go, Viking. It’s outdated science.”</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> I also decided though, that if I am going to do it, I cannot make an informed decision without these two things:</span></div><ol style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><li dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Making sure I do it by the book so I am not still left with questions later.</span></div></li><li dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Getting in the water to try it myself. Hey, why not? I had been jogging and had lost some weight, and I had to know what it felt like to truly make an educated analysis.</span></div></li></ol><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At the end of last summer I gave a presentation on USRPT to a group of high school coaches to talk about how it worked in our first seasons of training. I had to admit to all of these coaches that while it was great for my team, it seemed to work better for me over the summer than it did for my athletes even though I trained significantly less than any of them. I usually did one USRPT set for 200 breast one or two nights a week in the LCM pool and one USRPT set for 100 breast pace one or two mornings per week in the SCY pool. My training was very inconsistent, usually less than 90 minutes per week, and at times throughout the season I was stuck with up to ten days straight with no exercise at all due to my work and family responsibilities. When the dust settled I was confused that I had done so well and showed continuous improvement throughout the whole season, even after being sick for the last two weeks before sectionals.</span><a href="http://concussioninc.net/?p=9535" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Some people think that USRPT isn’t for younger athletes</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and might assume that my age somehow made it more ideal for me. I almost bought into this, even though there really isn’t any logical reason why this might be. Now that I have spent some time investigating, I am certain I know why: I started my LCHF journey several months before starting my USRPT journey. It was not my age that helped me adapt better-- it was my diet. It is clear as day now.</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One of my favorite classes as a PE major was called Perceptual Motor Development. It had a lot to do with </span><a href="http://www.swimmingscience.net/2012/12/neural-fatigue-and-swimming.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">neurology</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, the brain, and how we learn movements through different developmental stages. The class was designed so that we coaches can have a better understanding about how to teach students of different ages physical skills in a progression. When it got really interesting though was when we would talk about neurology and training because several researchers out there, </span><a href="http://runnersconnect.net/running-training-articles/central-governor-theory/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(including Dr Tim Noakes, remember him?)</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> have shown us that the brain is so specific in regard to motor learning that, as those of us who have bought into USRPT like to point out: </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Igm3FU9Uq7w" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“the brain doesn’t even treat slow swimming and fast swimming as the same activity.”</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> This means that much of the traditional training I did in my first swim career served little more purpose than to increase capillarity to slow twitch muscle fibers. In my opinion, when we train that way, only the most talented continue to improve and a lot of kids are left to fade away. In <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6BkKyJeBOA">Bob Bowman's cup analogy</a>, I guess I just don't buy that we need the Big Gulp. I believe we can throw a better party with shot glasses as long as we fill them with the right stuff. I guess my idea of "capacity vs utilization" is a little different than his.</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now, for most people who have skimmed Dr Rushall’s work, the concept of specificity usually stands out enough to have a little bit of a conversation. As a matter of fact, </span><a href="http://concussioninc.net/?p=9557" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">John Leonard somehow scrounged together $23k of our USA-S membership dollars</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to try to prove to us that Dr Rushall hardly knows what specificity is. </span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="up-your-butt.gif" height="228" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/nYmYnnxV1Uke1SDJPp04JMhQDbV1OJon5WROvzulCViHrqgZfrg4_BOjrQGM7_XnANqDnkMu79-_jnF1EwVepFbJDYNBjpzDCqFHpiQHC01vhtdL8dbBeQjiK8PU-FOq-HQ" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="320" /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is time to tell John Leonard what he can do with </span><a href="http://concussioninc.net/?p=9557" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">that $23 grand</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While I do believe that most of us understand that with the way the brain works, specificity is king in athletics, I feel that many of us neglect it in traditional training. Dr Rushall claims that technique specificity and mental training are vital throughout his works and are just as important as the actual sets they do. It’s just that when I hear anyone talk about specificity, it focuses on the neurological, and it almost sounds as though many coaches think we can just not worry about it after we have taught our swimmers proper stroke technique as long as we mix in some sprinting once in a while. Worse, I hardly ever hear coaches talk about </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">specificity regarding muscle fiber recruitment and adaptation, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">even among those who use USRPT. In my opinion, this is just as vital. This is why LCHF can optimize USRPT, why USRPT can optimize LCHF, and this is also why so many people don’t quite understand why USRPT is truly a brilliant and unique way to train. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lots of people love to talk about Ultra-Short Race Pace Training, but it is very apparent that not many of those people have actually read Dr Rushall's work. I can't even count how many times I have heard coaches on deck rail against it with gems such as:</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"we have been doing that for years. It's just race pace."</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"it's the same as the Sprint Salo book. Why is everybody acting like this is some new thing?"</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">or the best one--</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> "It's just lactate tolerance work all the time. What's the big deal? Developing kids need aerobic training."</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Read it or keep your mouths shut guys. USRPT is far from any of those things that people assume. I would recommend USRPT to anyone at any age or any level of competition, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">especially in conjunction with the LCHF diet</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. The following passages from Dr Rushall's work should help tie the two together:</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Some think that USRPT neglects the aerobic system. On the contrary, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">USRPT exerts nonstop, maximal stress on every oxygen-using source of energy</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Its format of short repeats and rests creates a training stimulus that 1) energizes aerobic, slow-twitch muscle fibers beyond the capability of standard aerobic sets; 2) </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">converts a substantial fraction of anaerobic, fast-twitch fibers to the use of oxygen</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">; and 3) binds oxygen to hemoglobin and myoglobin. The overall training effect is to maximize not only base aerobic capacity but also the subsuming “oxidative capacity.” The result is greater speed endurance ― the ability to bring home a race before acid build-up takes its toll...</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ultra-short training produces maximal aerobic adaptation because the aerobic system (Type I fibers) is stimulated continually and maximally and the production of oxidative fast-twitch fibers adds further aerobic function. That contrasts with "aerobic training" or lower-intensity training that, at best, only stimulates maximal aerobic energy production in the Type I fibers. Higher intensity work (race-pace in swimming) is needed to develop maximal aerobic capability (Type I plus Type IIb fiber adaptations). Ultra-short training stimulates maximal energy source production for race- pace techniques. It trains the body to use its alactacid and lactacid energy resources for race-specific tasks better than does traditional (irrelevant) "lactate training".</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Traditional training gives us capillarity through distance, and mitochondrial density through intensity, and there is no doubt it </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">can</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> work. This is how Bob Bowman's "capacity/utilization" concept applies to developing athletes. I am not trying to tell anyone that traditional training won’t work. We see it every day. I just believe it is inefficient and not optimal, especially with the standard high carb diet. Now just imagine that you are eating a diet that is shown to make changes within muscle fibers that enhance the ability to work at high intensity without spilling over into anaerobic glycolysis, essentially maximizing your ability to tap fat and oxygen as fuel at high intensities. Then add to it a method of training that converts more fast twitch muscle to be oxidative, meaning a higher percentage of your muscle fibers are programmed to burn oxygen and fat at high intensity rather than relying on the glucose and lactic acid system. Then we basically have an abundance of the right fuel, the right method of fuel injection to make the most of it, and the right engine attached to the car to crank out all that power with less fear of locking up. </span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Remember these points I made earlier in the manifesto?:</span></div><div style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><ol style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><li dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The formula for success in swimming should be t</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">echnical efficiency and speed at the intensity as close as you can possibly hold to your VO2 max, for the specific distance of your intended race without the negative impact of lactate clearance not keeping up with production. </span></div></li><li dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If we want to improve supply and utilization both, we should focus on high-intensity swimming done in a way that is designed to cause type 2b muscle fibers to convert to type 2a, and the LCHF diet is the key to unlocking a higher level of potential if we can train for this specific adaptation along with it. </span></div></li></ol></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Essentially, USRPT, when done properly and consistently, is designed to maximize the conversion of fast-twitch muscle fibers to be oxidative, rather than glycolytic. KABLAM! The ultimate bio-hack. Fast twitch power optimized to use oxygen and fat as fuel. LCHF plus USRPT is a lot of capital letters, I know, but I truly believe that this is the optimal way to train swimmers at any age. Better oxygen utilization, better oxygen supply, and all of this applied specifically to fast twitch muscle fibers, while also warding off the fatigue associated with depending too much on fast twitch glycolytic muscle fibers and anaerobic glycolysis. What better combination could there be to help an athlete go out fast and finish strong in a race?. I believe that this could truly revolutionize our sport. Add to this <a href="https://www.blogger.com/"><span id="goog_1512019726"></span>all of the general health benefits that we get from leaving the standard high-carb diet behind<span id="goog_1512019727"></span></a>,</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and we have a winner. </span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">LCHF plus USRPT. This is the Viking Method.</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Think about this. I don't care who you are-- once you start creating more lactate than you can clear in a race your performance is going to suffer. No amount of "lactate tolerance" training or mental toughness is going to change that to the degree that it should be </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the focus</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> of high-intensity swim training. Also, training slow-twitch muscle fibers to optimize a race that lasts less than two minutes doesn’t seem that smart either. These are flaws in the most basic concepts of swimming training. We have been shooting arrows at either side of the target, with very few of us lucky ducks ever actually hitting the metabolic bullseye.</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="Vladimir_Salnikov_1981.jpg" height="200" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/GXvEXktpdo8ZbGxX2ovyVECIaO8o0CjFLycHt2HBnPRyhYIh3STTpAAmQQmsh54jBwu2UeRWNhAFeFZdOq8ChOwgPsU6GYvIrxxkz0y-TFC9WDLFeFsbW8QkilcPhYU4ZWQ" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="145" /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and then there’s</span><a href="http://swimswam.com/7-reasons-know-vladimir-salnikov/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Vlad Salnikov</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">… apparently he could train however he wanted, </span><a href="http://www.swimbrief.net/2011/12/my-team-doesnt-take-bathroom-breaks.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">smoke a couple cigarettes</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> behind the blocks and then get up and sprint a world-class mile. That guy had it all.</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Again, most aerobic work done in a traditional swim practice serves to maximize the aerobic potential of slow twitch fibers, and any speed work with enough rest between repeats to recover beyond the optimal time will train fast twitch muscle fibers to be more dependent on anaerobic glycolysis. USRPT brings about a better training response to fast swimming due to the short repeat distances short rests between repeats allowing for maximal oxidative adaptations and allowing more actual swimming time to be devoted to accurate race-specific swimming. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In USRPT the amount of rest between repeats is probably the biggest factor that sets the reality apart from what people assume about USRPT.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> When you also consider that USRPT is </span><a href="http://www.swimmingscience.net/2014/07/usrpt-and-the-concept-of-failure.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">self-regulating</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to avoid </span><a href="http://www.swimmingscience.net/2012/12/neural-fatigue-and-swimming.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">neural fatigue</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> as well as the cumulative fatigue that can lead to over-training, it is like the cherry on top of a really huge sciency sundae. Not that I would eat the cherry… or the sundae. Just making a point. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>This is the best of both worlds in specificity, as it covers the neurological side as well as the metabolic side with pointed specificity regarding muscle fiber recruitment and adaptation.</b></span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Doesn't it make sense to focus on recruiting more fast twitch fibers to fire aerobically with fatty acids and/or ketones rather than through glycolysis? Before reading my manifesto, many people might say no, because glycogen is the “preferred” fuel and fat is the "slow-burning fuel," but, oh yeah, the textbooks were wrong about that. Aren’t the high adaptations shown in the UCONN study enough to convince you that the longer we adapt to the LCHF diet, the more we can take advantage of this metabolic software hack by increasing our ability to oxidize fat as a fuel at increasingly higher intensities? Since it is possible to train our muscles to burn fat and ketones more efficiently through the LCHF lifestyle, it seems to me that there could be a </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">compounding</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> effect when combining it with USRPT. How fast do I have to swim in my forties to give y’all proof? I fantasize that a swimsuit company will sponsor me and help me afford to drop one of my stipends and free up a couple of hours to train like the young pups again. My 15 hour work days just don’t leave much time for training… but I don’t think I need it. I am gonna keep getting faster just doing what I am doing. Watch and see.</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="not me im in my prime.gif" height="93px;" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/B8PDsFSmv-P5_6deYFqyDMG25OEDOLJrSrOo3XZe_mTk4lRRsNFYgH0fGsCehLdUyF8cFzKQk1sQbUU38dH-q5D7Q96p1Sl_AH3_CI7fGzpx8JWqyYlUNpVx3dlCDfcAeAA" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="222px;" /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Too old to swim lifetime bests at 40?</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The only negatives I have found with USRPT so far are that it can be hard to expect kids to have the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>mental will</b></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to make the most of it day in and day out (hence Dr Rushall’s insistence that mental training is just as important as physical;) organizing a crowded practice can be tough (although my team has gotten pretty damn good at it;) and that one of my swimmers who had been accustomed to high yardage gained about 15 pounds after the switch (which would have never happened with LCHF. He has dropped some carbs and already lost most of it in a few weeks.) Anyone who has never tried USRPT probably would not guess how damn hard it can be when an athlete wants to improve. Last night my workout was a total of 300 warm up and 15x50 breast on 50, holding 32 high’s in the yard pool. Holy crap it hurt. By my third fail I was nearly hyper-ventilating.</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="amy- hurts and dying.GIF" height="122px;" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/VIoOe2GltEbs5AFjNuaKqb_isDagced5RSknHFF0Ninj5Z0kVr6K4bv7ieyM69PMH74LBfXrAbOGrWrnkdzYlZQHqhK62qcAXg9dqrI4isUr2SKm6b0Fkj4Fnp8kxdi8H70" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="182px;" /></span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The best parts of it: the kids on my team get into it and it gives them more accountability. I love doing it and feel I am wasting so much less time. My role as a coach has changed for the better. My swimmers can expect to race well all season, yet we have had very few disappointments when they suit up at the big meet at the end of the season. So far, it has been a win, win, win, win, win for us. I am happy to give coaches advice for implementing this with their teams, but that is a post for another day. I made a few mistakes in the transition to becoming a USRPT team, but right now it is a pretty well-oiled machine. My greatest recommendation if you are thinking about giving USRPT a try?: </span><a href="http://coachsci.sdsu.edu/swim/bullets/table.htm" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Read every damn word of those Swimming Science Bulletins</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span></div><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The next chapter in my manifesto is a pretty important one… “How in the heck do I even get started on a Low-Carb High-Fat Diet?” Yes, I realize I have talked a lot about LCHF without really talking about what I actually eat. More to come!</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4418255805011610396.post-79871985762380734172015-02-18T10:23:00.000-08:002016-12-13T10:33:56.367-08:00THE VIKING MANIFESTO Part 5: Muscle Fiber Types, Recruitment and Specificity<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">THE VIKING MANIFESTO: Piecing Together a New Approach to Nutrition and Training for Swimmers from Scientific and Anecdotal Evidence.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Part 5: Muscle Fiber Types, Recruitment and Specificity. </span></div><b id="docs-internal-guid-21c36208-94d1-f586-783b-93c8c6510342" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="bullcrap meter.GIF" height="121px;" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/t33kfdq7l_8ovQT1psbaCf3MxFsgF7439rrlojuTbycqSi68F-cUBL8AcLWWxTxgcfoEcShqCf3se7IMFfcyOgHRvFsOKtn0wiqd54eo8PXr5w1irdHaTntXQM7hevdrttA" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="302px;" /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At this point, I hope my arguments are interesting enough that you want to read more, but I understand if you feel like this guy. It's a lot to take in.</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the last chapter we focused on energy metabolism within the muscle, paying particular attention to the idea that mitochondrial density, the utilization aspect of the supply vs. utilization argument, is supremely important, and that </span><a href="http://www.marksdailyapple.com/managing-your-mitochondria/#axzz3RJDcQEMJ" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the ketogenic diet may enhance this metabolic adaptation in athletes</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. This would open the door for the LCHF diet making a difference in swimming no matter the race distance. Today, we are still on the topic of metabolism, but we will also be looking more at the supply side, as well as looking into how it applies to the concept of specificity, which should be at the heart of any athletic training, especially for a sport as training and technique intensive as swimming.</span></div><a name='more'></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the past, only ultra-endurance athletes paid much attention to the concept of fat-adaptation, almost as though it was something that really only mattered if you planned to hold steady state for several hours. Interestingly, a good marathon runner will tell you, you don't have to be "in ketosis" to be fat adapted. You can actually become somewhat fat-adapted as a carb eater if you work out often enough with long enough workouts to deplete glycogen stores often and force the adaptation, but it will not bring the same level of adaptation. Obviously LCHF isn’t the only way to go, but I defy you to find a better way to make that adaptation in a person training for a 1-2 minute race. While swimming has had generations of continuous success with high-carb and long workouts, I am guessing that soon there will be more people training and eating smarter who can have the same or higher levels of success and have more chance at a life outside of the pool.</span><br /><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I am hoping to be one of the pioneers who proves it. I don’t have time to train even a tenth of what I did twenty years ago, but I am certain I can go faster than I did at what would be considered my “prime” in spite of the </span><a href="http://swimviking.blogspot.com/2010/10/viking-might-be-taking-this-alumni-meet.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">twenty year taper</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> I am trying to manage. I am certain we will start seeing some world class athletes improving and loving the sport for longer careers, and you will see young athletes develop in a new way by training for the most appropriate adaptations, and getting rid of all <a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2015/01/19/health-check-do-you-really-need-carbs-recover-exercise?utm_content=buffereaeb2&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer">metabolic interference</a> that they didn’t even realize was standing in their way. New science is emerging all the time regarding the benefits of carbohydrate restriction. Just check out this <a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/02/150216131146.htm">finding by Yale University that was released this week</a>. It implies confirmation for me of a lot of the anecdotal evidence I have seen all over web forums regarding things like acne and arthritis improving, as well as with many of the claims made in the low-carb community about heart disease and more.</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I found a fantastic write up from the Gatorade Sports Science Institute called </span><a href="http://www.gssiweb.org/Article/sse-54-muscle-adaptations-to-aerobic-training" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Muscle Adaptations to Aerobic Training</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> that I will refer to as a textbook of sorts since they cite the sources that have made these concepts accepted standards. Even without considering diet, I love this as a resource because, while it agrees with a lot of what I have spoken about already regarding mitochondria, muscle capillarity and blood flow capacity, they do a great job of interjecting research findings into their descriptions that enhance our knowledge of the complex interactions between these contributing factors and create a good picture of what a smart training program will look like when we are specific about the adaptations we are striving toward. I just want to point out and paraphrase a few things from this resource:</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><ol style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><li dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">MITOCHONDRIA: They make the same points I did earlier about mitochondria increasing aerobic capacity, but they add that it was previously thought that “increased enzymatic capacity was not utilized because mitochondrial content was considered in excess of maximal needs even in untrained muscle, but now there is evidence to indicate that an increase in mitochondrial content is necessary to realize the increased potential for aerobic ATP provision induced in muscle training.” So basically, once they thought that we naturally had plenty of mitochondria so we should just focus on increasing blood supply to muscles, but now they have backtracked and think mitochondrial enhancement is pretty important because it gets muscle to burn more fatty acids and less glycogen to improve muscle performance. This is pretty much the point I made in part 4 of the manifesto. </span></div></li><li dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">BLOOD FLOW CAPACITY: Here they say that blood flow to skeletal muscle is so exceptionally high that cardiac output can’t sufficiently perfuse all of the blood vessels in our muscle mass even if they were to maximally dilate. Thus, even during intense exercise requiring max oxygen consumption, this limitation means that only a fraction of an individual’s entire muscle mass can be active, and then it only functions at a fraction of its blood flow capacity. Nevertheless there is evidence that the peak capacity of muscle is increased by endurance training, BUT the value of this adaptation that further increases the ‘unused’ blood-flow reserve in muscles is unclear. It is likely that the important features of vascular adaptations to training involve the optimal </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">utilization</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> of the flow delivered to the muscle and the exchange of nutrients between capillaries and fibers. Once again they point toward utilization being the more important factor. </span></div></li><li dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">MUSCLE CAPILLARITY: This is where the two points above come together. Basically, they say that exercise training increases the number of capillaries surrounding individual muscle fibers, so when a fiber is recruited it becomes more effectively “bathed” in the flow of blood delivered to the muscle. This development of increased capillarity can occur in all fiber types but is </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">most easily observed when improved in low-oxidative fiber and can contribute to total max oxygen consumption.</span></div></li></ol><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Low-oxidative muscle fibers? Now we are getting somewhere. This brings us to another one of those extremely important concepts in exercise science that many coaches have not been versed in: muscle fiber types 1, 2a and 2b (which the fantastic description I cut and pasted below from athletics.wikia.com calls type 2x.) Many coaches talk of fast-twitch and slow-twitch, but may not quite have their head grasped around the fact that we are considered to have</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> two types of fast-twitch</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> muscle fibers and the difference between the two might just be one of the most important physiological aspects related to training in the sport of swimming. Here is the run-down on fiber types so we know you are up to speed:</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3a3a3a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Type I</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 11pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3a3a3a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Type I muscle fiber is also known as "slow twitch oxidative" fibers. Muscle fiber types can be broken down into two main types: slow twitch (Type I) muscle fibers and fast twitch (Type II) muscle fibers Type I fibers are used in lower-intensity exercises such as very light resistance work aimed at muscular endurance and long-duration aerobic activities such as 5K and 10K runs. Type I fibers are identified by slow contraction times and a high resistance to fatigue. Structurally, they have a small motor neu</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">r</span><a href="http://athletics.wikia.com/wiki/Motor_neuron" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #006cb0; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">on</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3a3a3a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and fiber diameter, a high mitochondrial and capillary density, and a high myoglobin content. ST fibers also have a low supply of creatine phosphate, low glycogen content, and a high store of triglycerides (the stored form of fat). ST fibers contain few of the enzymes involved in glycolysis, but contain many of the enzymes involved in the oxidative pathways (Krebs cycle, electron transport chain). ST fibers are predominantly used for aer</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #006cb0; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">o</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3a3a3a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">bic activities requiring low-level force production, such as walking and maintaining posture, but are also the primary fiber type found in endurance athletes. Most activities of daily living use ST fibers.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 11pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3a3a3a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Type II</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-top: 4pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3a3a3a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Type II muscle fiber is also known as fast twitch muscle fibers. These fast twitch fibers can be further categorized into Type IIa and Type IIx fibers,</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3a3a3a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 7px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: super; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3a3a3a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> which are also known as </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3a3a3a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"fast twitch oxidative" and "fast twitch glycolytic,"</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3a3a3a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> respectively. Type I fibers are characterized by low force/power/speed production and high endurance, Type IIx fibers are characterized by high force/power/speed production and low endurance, while Type IIA fall in between the two.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3a3a3a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 7px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: super; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3a3a3a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is possible that a fiber might be transformed from Type IIx to Type IIA with exercise training.</span></div><h3 dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 3pt; margin-top: 7pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3a3a3a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Type IIA</span></h3><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-top: 4pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3a3a3a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Type IIA fibers (Fast Twitch 1), or fast oxidative fibers, are used more during sustained power activities such as sprinting 400 meters or doing repeated lifts with a weight below maximum (but not with very light weights).</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3a3a3a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 7px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: super; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3a3a3a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">They contain very large amounts of myoglobin, very many mitochondria and very many blood capillaries. Type IIA fibers are red, unlike Type IIx fibers, which are white. Type IIA fibers have a very high capacity for generating ATP by oxidative metabolic processes, and split ATP at a very rapid rate. They have a fast contraction velocity and are resistant to fatigue. Such fibres are infrequently found in humans.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-top: 4pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3a3a3a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Type IIx Fibers</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-top: 4pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3a3a3a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Type IIx fast-twitch fibers (Fast twitch 2), or fast glycolytic fibres, are recruited for very short-duration high-intensity bursts of power such as maximal and near-maximal lifts and short sprints. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3a3a3a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Type IIx fibres contain a low content of myoglobin, relatively few mitochondria, relatively few blood capillaries and large amounts glycogen.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3a3a3a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Type IIx fibres are white, while Type I (slow twitch) fibers are red. Type IIx fibers are geared to generate ATP by anaerobic metabolic processes, however, they are not able to supply skeletal muscle fibres continuously with sufficient ATP, and fatigue easily. Type IIx fibers split ATP at a fast rate and have a fast contraction velocity. Such fibres are found in large numbers in the muscles of the arms.</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now back to the page from the Gatorade Sports Science Institute:</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Please allow me to cut, paste and paraphrase a few things from their section on Training Stimulus: </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">it is clear that the muscles (or fibers within a muscle) not involved in the exercise task do not adapt.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thus, the critical stimulus for adaptation is something very specific to the active fibers and not likely to be some generalized factor circulating in the blood that influences all muscles.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Further, for a given exercise program, training must be performed for a sufficient duration of days or weeks to allow the muscle-specific biochemical adaptations to reach steady-state. For example, mitochondrial content appears to reach a steady-state after approximately 4-5 weeks of training.</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The magnitude of the training-induced increase in mitochondrial content is also influenced by the duration of the daily exercise bout. Longer exercise bouts generally produce greater increases in mitochondrial content. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> However, the influence of exercise bout duration is not linear, as training sessions become increasingly prolonged, the additional training time appears to be relatively less important as a signal inducing an increase in mitochondrial content.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Further, exercise intensity interacts with the duration of the exercise bout to make the initial minutes of exercise even more effective in establishing a stimulus for adaptation</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><a href="http://www.gssiweb.org/Article/sse-54-muscle-adaptations-to-aerobic-training" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Note in figure 2</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> that the peak adaptation in mitochondrial content seems to occur with shorter durations of exercise as the intensity of each training bout is increased</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. The benefit of very prolonged training sessions in enhancing performance may be related to adaptations in cardiovascular function, fluid balance substrate availability, or other factors not directly related to muscle-specific adaptations. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At least part of the beneficial effect of increasing exercise intensity on training induced adaptations in muscles can be attributed to the effect of intensity on muscle fiber recruitment</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Let that sink in for a second. All of the above basically makes the case that the high-volume traditional swim training that we all grew up with is old-school, and that if we want a better adaptation we can shorten up the workouts and just make them more intense. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">They also make the point that seeking a “general” fitness adaptation is a waste of time because muscle fiber recruitment is specific and muscle fibers not specifically recruited for an activity don’t adapt.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> The longer exercise bouts inherently involve lower intensities, and thus would be effectively adapting slow-twitch fibers to be more efficient at metabolizing oxygen. Remember, slow-twitch fibers cannot become fast-twitch and fast-twitch cannot become slow-twitch. The only change of muscle fiber type we can make is from fast-twitch oxidative to fast-twitch glycolytic and vice-versa-- so, essentially, high-intensity trumps long-distance training in regard to utilization and supply, since mitochondria increase with intensity AND as stated above in the section on muscle capillarity: development of increased capillarity can occur in all fiber types but is </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">most easily observed when improved in low-oxidative fiber and can contribute to total max oxygen consumption.</span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Therefore, I contend that i</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">f we want to improve supply and utilization both, we should focus on high-intensity swimming done in a way that is designed to cause type 2b muscle fibers to convert to type 2a, and the LCHF diet is the key to unlocking a higher level of potential if we can train for this specific adaptation along with it. Maximum power drawn aerobically, with the most efficient glycogen sparing possible to save anaerobic glycolysis for only the highest intensities at the end of the race. </span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Whoa. Damn… apparently, I wasted a lot of time training the speed right out of me back in the day. I never did get any good at that 1200 IM I was training for either. Hmmm…. Ever get the feeling you’ve taken some kids and done that to them? I know I have felt that way with a few of my most talented. I have a couple of former athletes I wanna talk back into the water when they bring their 4 year olds to sign up for our swim lessons program, and a few more I want to apologize to for just for wasting so much of their time. Yup, coaches… I said it. I admit that I wasted their time by just swallowing what I was taught and not researching it for myself.</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="bang head on fence.GIF" height="229" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/V5EZqYlpp9CeEWxQtYL8ks3HWFDlb0T0PO6vb23XN89BJvIvipNJDJ9b2uvzSVFUiw0ZqKDhZFCs3K-jcak3KmNkc9FBREZZhhX2xI2BzlKMvf4Ba8HOoskyvd0h5mcLbzg" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="320" /></span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The next chapter will be about the way we should train for the absolute best adaptations to translate to effective racing within the rules of the Viking Method. I am sure that many of you SwimSwam commenters can guess where I am heading with this. Time to break out the flame-throwers, y’all. There’s gonna be a lot of acronyms coming your way.</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="IMG_4103.GIF" height="179" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/hXssU_EqvleIRPXqSyOW2_kZwdkwY2z62cEh6NV8PRwMJs7pH1gZ6mDXLQACn-RaME1zpcaDQ64km6xb_fsRdpiyiP4gciiOPQBiGXUMTQE6PgDNxcdRBBQofAcE0EUWUas" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="320" /></span></div><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Please, don’t hold back on the comments.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4418255805011610396.post-85821143281032927722015-02-16T08:25:00.000-08:002016-12-13T10:33:56.389-08:00THE VIKING MANIFESTO Part 4: LCHF and Energy Metabolism Within the Muscle<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-bff5b218-9082-7f9e-2e0b-195054a4cc93" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small; vertical-align: baseline;">THE VIKING MANIFESTO: Piecing Together a New Approach to Nutrition and Training for Swimmers from Scientific and Anecdotal Evidence.</span></div></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small; vertical-align: baseline;">Part 4: LCHF and Energy Metabolism Within the Muscle</span></div></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small; vertical-align: baseline;">In part 3 I explained that while VO2 max may be important, focusing training on raising anaerobic threshold to maintain longer durations at high intensities that are close to VO2 max would probably yield more applicable results. I then presented research that implies that a low carbohydrate, high fat diet can help improve this aspect of aerobic conditioning, even in already extremely fit athletes, by making fat a more available and faster burning fuel. Now I intend to show that the implications for adaptation to the LCHF diet go beyond long-distance swimming at low intensity levels. </span></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small; vertical-align: baseline;">To do this, I must start with some of the perceived limitations to the LCHF diet and why they might not be limitations at all. </span><br /><a name='more'></a></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline;">First, I have to make you aware that many people who train with the low carb high fat diet believe that with keto there is a loss in VO2 max and peak power, as though keto-adaptation only serves to improve lower intensity activities and can hinder fast twitch or high-power activities. This has been backed up in some studies, but it is questionable whether those studies allowed proper conditions to truly know whether this is the case or not. There are world class triathletes out there who have a train-low/race-high philosophy regarding carbohydrate, simply because they want the adaptations associated with LCHF but want to avoid the limitations associated with glycogen stores not being refueled on race day. That makes sense, I guess, except that an insulin spike and full liver glycogen stores can stand in the way of ketosis, which I think would be a disadvantage on race day. Dr Attia actually endorses a product called Generation UCANN, which is what they call a “super-starch”: an extremely low glycemic carbohydrate gel that can feed an athlete carbs without the insulin spike. It is also known that eating small amounts of non-fructose carbs after exercising hard (creating a glucose deficit) will immediately go toward refueling muscle glycogen first, rather than toward fat storage or replenishing liver glycogen, meaning that you can </span><a href="http://eatingacademy.com/sports-and-nutrition/ketones-carbohydrates-can-co-exist" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">use your workload to calculate how many carbs you can eat without interfering with ketosis at all.</span></a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline;"> I don't bother with all that, but there is also some speculation that the little bit of carbs I do eat, in conjunction with the protein amounts I eat which are higher than the typical ketogenic dieter, might be refueling muscle glycogen to some degree anyway since my training load is so low. Ketogenic dieters often try to keep protein intake low so that gluconeogenesis, (creating glucose from proteins,) does not stand in the way of their weight loss. </span><a href="http://caloriesproper.com/dietary-protein-ketosis-and-appetite-control/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">There is evidence that while a high protein meal might reduce ketosis temporarily, it doesn’t necessarily stand in the way of the adaptations</span></a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline;"> I am looking for, as it is most likely the calories taken in that cause lower ketone measurements after meals, and the protein has other benefits in regard to training that are a good trade-off for athletes.</span></span></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline;">I am not sure I buy into the whole idea that we need carbs for peak performance and I certainly feel that more science needs to be done.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: red; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline;"> I don't have specific measurements so my experience is completely anecdotal, but I have never felt better at high intensities than I do now that I eat extremely low carb. Of course, I have been adapted for over a year and a half, and so far no study has even approached this-- especially one with swimmers. I tend to lean toward an almost completely carnivorous diet and I think my results are better when I cut out nearly everything but animal products. </span></span></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="IMG_3936.JPG" height="204px;" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/kAPJ8tVLQsmEp4R36HYKEpQ3lrEiARz92qfw8ahWpFxEX9taSt92t2MfYz-ToxNha7jiO8nBYMX-HN-l9ScKnxA4f7wt7xQI_vVR2hdLL-0uQ9sgMKFsA_MfoSyWG_soUT8" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="269px;" /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small; vertical-align: baseline;">My wife hates ordering at the drive-thru with me in the car.</span></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small; vertical-align: baseline;">There is evidence that with proper adaptation we might not lose that peak power that everyone is so worried about. Remember those two adaptations that we are training for: increased blood-flow and oxygen supply through capillarity and increased mitochondrial density within muscle cells? Well, mitochondrial density just might be the main reason the LCHF diet can give us such a boost and it ties directly into being able to churn out high intensity exercise.</span></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline;">Enter Dr Bill Lagakos. He is a guy who likes to tweet, and occasionally his tweets are links to recent research regarding health, along with write ups to help the layman understand their findings and implications. Dr Lagakos did a write up about two studies recently that showed increased mitochondria in mice with a switch to LCHF, and these adaptations came about within a few weeks. The best part-- these adaptations came about with no additional exercise. They did not torture these mice on a treadmill. This means that the diet prompted increased mitochondria on its own. Could it be that </span><a href="http://www.marksdailyapple.com/managing-your-mitochondria/#axzz3RJDcQEMJ" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">high fat prompted this response</span></a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline;">, or could it be that carbohydrate was previously holding this natural potential back? </span><a href="http://caloriesproper.com/ketoadaptation/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Take a look at it yourself</span></a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline;">. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline;">According to Dr Lagakos, it “increased mitochondrial everything.” </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></span></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="mighty-mouse.jpg" height="166px;" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/FkzcnJVGyak4pkBk67jUQ-uRTg91YuRzgYYXO6lCLmRdqJ3w6R9oLUUMnT9Jgejz2bRRkvIm0fLn4Dli8xJinsI6IwEFh-ewb31i2I-EvrXDko8LJOslX81kmL6xbosAkQk" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="221px;" /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small; vertical-align: baseline;">Most mice are herbivores. Get them away from the vegetarian thing and look what happens.</span></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline;">This is a very interesting finding. In that post, Dr Lagakos makes the analogy that if glucose were gas and mitochondria were hoses, then ATP would be the rate at which you can fill your tank. He then compares fat to this by likening it to trying to draw syrup from a tree with a spout. Remember how much ATP fat can generate compared to glucose from earlier in my manifesto?: 129 molecules from some fats vs only 2 molecules from glucose... Keep that in mind when reading as he theorizes: </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline;">“</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline;">So how would you get your bucket filled with syrup faster? Try “more spouts.” And reduce the viscosity of your maple syrup by diluting with some ketones. More than 3 weeks on a ketogenic diet and you have more better mitochondria and can generate ATP just as fast as high carb.”</span></span></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://caloriesproper.com/more-on-physical-performance-and-ketoadaptation/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Here</span></a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline;"> Dr Lagakos points at a few more studies. One is from the 1980’s and shows the same improvement in aerobic capacity along with lower RQ that Dr Attia found in his self-experimentation, but this study also includes some athletes whose VO2 max scores improved as well. (Remember how I pointed out that we should focus on improving anaerobic threshold since it is so difficult to improve VO2 max in well trained athletes? Hmmm… this indicates that for some we might see an increase in VO2 max as well.) Of course, Dr Lagakos is basing his findings partly on studies with mice. We haven’t had a study that shows this phenomenon of increased mitochondria in us that I know of, and we are obviously not mice, but it would sure explain some of the unique attributes of fat-adaptation. Mark Sisson, a leader in the paleo community, </span><a href="http://www.marksdailyapple.com/managing-your-mitochondria/#axzz3RJDcQEMJ" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">wrote a wonderful article about mitochondria that speculates on this as well, but I encourage you to read it at this link</span></a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline;"> because it goes into a lot more detail about what mitochondria actually do and how we can maximize them through exercise and diet, and his recommendations are pretty much along the same lines. He even implies that healthy mitochondria can have an anti-inflammatory effect, which is one of the surprise side-effects that continuously pops up on </span><a href="http://reddit.com/r/keto" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">ketogenic diet forums on the web</span></a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span></span></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline;">It gets even more intriguing though, as Dr Lagakos also points toward two somewhat recent studies showing no loss of peak explosive power in well-trained athletes who switch to LCHF. The interesting thing </span><a href="http://caloriesproper.com/more-on-physical-performance-and-ketoadaptation/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">here</span></a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline;"> in the first study is that the gymnasts being tested lost body weight but lost no power, which improved their body composition with no sacrifice. This would be valuable in most sports. </span><a href="http://caloriesproper.com/new-study-high-intensity-exercise-on-a-low-carb-diet/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">The other study</span></a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline;"> though, covered a broad range of tests of peak power: handgrip, vertical jump, max bench, back squat, max rep bench press power output, and the Wingate, which is the one that makes me drool the most. (</span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-uaKhOAn_A" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Here's a video of the Wingate.</span></a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline;"> Damn that looks hard.) </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline;"> There are of course theories about why these positive results might go against the standard thinking: the weight loss from the diet might have made these athletes seem more powerful in comparison, or that eating extra protein might have had a “trickle charger” effect by forming sufficient glucose through gluconeogenesis, which could explain why I feel as I claimed above, better than ever at high intensities. Also based on study design we could guess that peak power isn't diminished with LCHF "given enough recovery time" but more science will need to be done to get a full explanation. This concept intrigues me only because my schedule doesn’t allow for me to train as often as I would like, which would actually contribute to this effect for me and could be diminished in a more hard-core athlete. I am certainly not needing to manage cumulative fatigue the way I did under my traditional training regimen twenty years ago as I am getting plenty of time to recover between workouts, even though it is not necessarily because I want it that way.</span></span></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="il_340x270.541115471_16aj.jpg" height="195px;" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/9Wj1LAO5bqglH9ZhJzcgRD6FOkdRYjwbRO4IQOq97ROC0KWD2GRhMEIRz1LVg5jXkZWNc1OCfnWeCdAGzo-L3nia4KttoeCX9v9-VmutxuVTngB75MKX6hzcZ34jDe7rkUE" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="246px;" /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small; vertical-align: baseline;">Hey, making a comeback at age 40 just requires a little extra rest, ya know?!</span></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small; vertical-align: baseline;">One thing that is clear though is that well-trained athletes seem to be able to flip the metabolic switch more quickly, which might have something to do with these studies of short duration showing improvements that imply successful fat-adaptation, and this is probably because someone who is in shape is much less likely to have developed a high level of insulin resistance to overcome. (The majority of studies on the ketogenic diet focus on weight loss and thus have subjects who are obese.) Again, more research needs to be done with well trained athletes who are fat adapted for long periods of time to answer these questions.</span></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline;">The point is that increased mitochondria might be just as valuable as capillarity, even though it is typically accepted that in regard to vo2max, </span><a href="http://www.sport-fitness-advisor.com/VO2max.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">supply (capillarity) is considered more important than utilization (mitochondrial density.)</span></a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline;"> Of course, once again, when we get into the question of whether VO2 max is an important indicator of success in elite swimming. A better formula for success might be: </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline;">Technical efficiency and speed at the intensity as close as you can possibly hold to your VO2 max, for the specific distance of your intended race without the negative impact of lactate clearance not keeping up with production.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline;"> VO2 max is really only a small part of that equation. Again, more detail on that later.</span></span></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small; vertical-align: baseline;">Next we get into specificity. Hold on to your helmets.</span></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4418255805011610396.post-40714773341788641942015-02-12T07:30:00.000-08:002016-12-13T10:33:56.407-08:00THE VIKING MANIFESTO Part 3: LCHF and Aerobic Capacity<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">THE VIKING MANIFESTO: Piecing Together a New Approach to Nutrition and Training for Swimmers from Scientific and Anecdotal Evidence.</span></div></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Part 3: LCHF and Aerobic Capacity</span></div></div><b id="docs-internal-guid-8a5c6fae-7e65-dbc9-abb7-07d0476a9e5e" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In part 1 I gave you a summary of some general nutrition advice that seems to contradict most of what we have been taught all our lives. In part 2 I laid out some of the science of swim training in relation to the energy zone descriptions recommended by USA Swimming. This time, it starts to become about how a low-carb, high-fat LCHF diet matters to you, the swimmer or swim coach. </span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="tumblr_mrbqs8uGza1s9qf9ro1_500.gif" height="170px;" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/5D03qv9b83B2b5w_bx2cT1rCoLRZ3RYSCgbOscILfHJg1kaqAKC9ipe96MYUbgA-1e50X8EZshnm6Y_jMkL3k6P_OqwJk3gPPNGpV0qq4IpfCOFS1aC0iXegN8AVt6VcEkc" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="267px;" /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yup, this is kind of what researching for my manifesto felt like.</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When I first started burrowing down the rabbit hole on this topic I saw </span><a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/keto" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">unbelievable pictures</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> of overweight and obese people who said they had tried everything and this was the first thing that ever worked to help them lose weight and keep it off. I saw a lot of posts from body-builders who claimed they could </span><a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/ketogains" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">gain muscle and get lean by eating fat</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. I saw a lot of pictures of bro's from the gym showing off their progress and heard lots of stories about how everyone else at the gym (as well as their doctors) thought they were idiots until the progress in body composition and lipid profiles were obvious. The anecdotal evidence was overwhelming, and the </span><a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/ketoscience" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">science they presented and dissected</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> was fascinating. </span><br /><a name='more'></a></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Then I stumbled across this guy: </span><a href="http://eatingacademy.com/" style="line-height: 1.38; text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dr. Peter Attia</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> was a boxer who roomed with a swimmer at Stanford during medical school. He fell in love with swimming and started training for triathlons and open water swims, and writes an absolutely obsessive blog about his quest to stay in near permanent ketosis. He is also one of the founders of </span><a href="http://nusi.org/" style="line-height: 1.38; text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">NUSI</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, an organization determined to perform a lot of the studies to answer nutrition questions no one has attempted before. </span><a href="http://www.swimbrief.net/2011/12/my-team-doesnt-take-bathroom-breaks.html" style="line-height: 1.38; text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There’s a lot of bad science out there</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and he wants to do something about it. Watch this video of Dr. Attia to learn more than you ever wanted to know about the ketogenic diet. </span><br /><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/NqwvcrA7oe8" width="560"></iframe></span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Go ahead, search for LCHF and/or ketogenic triathletes and runners on the google. Come back when your mind is blown. Swimming is way behind the times when it comes to stuffing our faces properly.</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="floating_eating.jpg" height="200px;" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Y7ib4_q7exjMAVfvu7OW2_VvP0Tk9iNOE7VL2S_1AYhzVzPKXjWGOUKEDt0VT1qNUTnzRdSPs3_8sea_xbQ_SEAbUPaP78PSgOhPWXa6vzdWmCPJhz-SlWwK68GrvSRy4FI" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="426px;" /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Well… except for this guy. He’s got it figured out. Wait!... Is that John Leonard? And is he wearing an illegal suit?!</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">During the height of the Atkins phase there were probably a lot of active people who jumped on board the low carb bandwagon and within a few weeks decided that it was a horrible idea for athletes. This is due to two things: first, when reducing carbohydrate we stop retaining the same amount of water, which means that we also flush electrolytes and can end up with flu-like symptoms if we do not manage this correctly; and second, there is an adaptation time that is required to start seeing the benefits of burning fat as your primary fuel. As a sugar-burner, I did not use fat as a fuel as efficiently, but now that I am a fat-burner I still have no problem burning sugar as fuel any time with no adaptation time required. You see, there are changes that need to happen within the muscle, within cells, to be able to efficiently burn fat and ketones as fuel. Reducing carbohydrate allows us to take better advantage of a higher level of </span><a href="http://www.gnolls.org/3637/what-is-metabolic-flexibility-and-why-is-it-important-j-stantons-ahs-2013-presentation-including-slides/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">metabolic flexibility</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Part of the problem with the currently accepted science regarding athletic nutrition is that when it comes to any studies that measure whether carbohydrate or fat is a better source of energy, fat tends to be set up to fail. Studies can claim to be low carb while still allowing up to 30-50% of energy intake as carbohydrate (since the standard diet contains a ridiculous 70% carbs,) which does not allow for the metabolic switch to be flipped properly. It can actually be a recipe for disaster in health since a diet that is both high carb and high fat has proven to be the best way to develop heart disease, especially when much of the fat in the standard American diet is from easily oxidized polyunsaturated vegetable oils or trans fats. Also, very few studies have been done that have allowed proper time to adapt and gain the metabolic flexibility to truly find the answers to many of the most important questions </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">related to sports performance</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Most of the studies out there would seem to imply that carbohydrates are not just a superior fuel, but that cutting them out is guaranteed to make performance suffer. Unfortunately, the textbooks tend to agree.</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="Ad-icon-battle-Smokey-Bear-vs-perky-Flo-GQCBUS1-x-large.jpg" height="150px;" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/9BVVin1s2-mrSg_l6vmhKNyI3YXzAPY3BWaS6Y0oD0tAG3yZYvR5RzrrB2ae5tdr7eehXJRkb28QKwwAKkyNCDKrVu4lFHklizHQeNA_Ze4QOJsUMST9MxxjJBJw4HyOYRY" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="203px;" /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Smokey says: “Screw it. Burn those stupid books. They got it all wrong.”</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ever heard of Dr Tim Noakes? He wrote a book called The Lore of Running and there are virtually zero serious runners out there who have never read it. He was a world-class endurance runner in his day and is one of the leading researchers in athletics. He is one of the guys who helped make “carbohydrate loading” a well known concept, among many other very important areas of research in which he has been a respected leader. Recently, </span><a href="http://www.biznews.com/health/2014/07/28/tim-noakes-makes-real-meal-critics-say-diet-dangerous/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dr. Noakes has taken some heat</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> for changing his mind in a big way. He is now telling people </span><a href="http://barefootrunner.co.uk/tim-noakes-if-youve-got-lore-of-running-tear-out-the-section-on-nutrition/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“If you’ve got Lore of Running, tear out the section on nutrition.</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">” He now endorses a low carb, high fat diet. It takes a big man to admit you were wrong, but this guy followed modern research and came to the conclusion that we should all be eating fat rather than carbohydrate as our primary fuel, and as outlined in part 1 of my series, it is not just for sports. It is for digestive, cardiovascular and neurological health as well.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-right: 8pt; margin-top: 8pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Remember, moving anaerobic threshold and VO2 max up the hill has been the main focus of most traditional swim training for decades. The majority of the work we have always done is in the EN1/2/3 boxes on the chart and is done with the hope of improving blood flow capacity and mitochondrial density. Basically, we want to supply more fuel through efficient blood supply and provide more receptors through which to burn it. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here are some additional details on VO2 max from </span><a href="http://www.sport-fitness-advisor.com/VO2max.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">sport-fitness advisor</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and if you visit the website it links to additional sources as well: </span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-right: 8pt; margin-top: 8pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The fitter an individual is to begin with, the less potential there is for an increase (in VO2 Max) and most elite athletes hit this peak early in their career. There also seems to be a genetic upper limit beyond which, further increases in either intensity or volume have no effect on aerobic power. This upper limit is thought to be reached within 8 to 18 months.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-right: 8pt; margin-top: 8pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Crucially, once a plateau in VO2 max has been reached further improvements in performance are still seen with training. This is because the athlete is able to perform at a higher percentage of their VO2 max for prolonged periods. Two major reasons for this are improvements in </span><a href="http://www.sport-fitness-advisor.com/anaerobicthreshold.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">anaerobic threshold</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and running economy.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So basically, once you hit your “genetic cap” for VO2 max, most improvements you see beyond that have more to do with technique efficiency and with being able to improve the anaerobic threshold to spend more time at an intensity level close to that max without locking up due to generating lactate above what you can clear. This is important to understand in regard to training. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Basically, VO2 max is a measurement of potential, but anaerobic threshold tells us how much of that potential we can effectively apply to endurance racing.</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Remember Dr. Attia from above? Well, when he started his </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">blog, </span><a href="http://eatingacademy.com/how-a-low-carb-diet-affected-my-athletic-performance" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">he posted this</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> about the benefits he has seen since switching to a ketogenic diet. Keep in mind, this is a doctor who was well-trained in endurance sports and had been meticulously tracking his stats before he switched his meal plan. This is not your mom trying her first “couch to 5k.” Note the improvements at the first three levels, which are the most pertinent to aerobic training in light of the information given above. </span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="AttiaSummary1.jpg" height="355px;" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/0CimALhFdxVmzlEiD4ZCCnDuQJiDtv23Bhfw-vMPf7CTNrK-0dKSt9_sQiiOKwNq_EcyzCeXmR33hm2fMlyf09s5EVO1DqSUue7Aa97BGKsYpOol37dYvi_jr8Q1kSnm9_o" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="624px;" /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Isn’t this the exact adaptation we should be focusing on? These improvements are significant. </span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Part of the reason for these advances might be that the ketogenic diet brings on a </span><a href="http://www.meandmydiabetes.com/2011/04/14/steve-phinney-low-carb-preserves-glycogen-better-than-high-carb/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“glucose sparing”</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> effect, meaning that even though a person might be training to prime their muscles to burn fat, and are probably storing less glycogen in the muscles and liver because of the carbohydrate restriction involved, we can use so much less glucose while racing that we still have it there for that max power at the end of the race when we need it. To fully appreciate that this might be possible, I need to introduce you to the concept of Respiratory Quotient, or RQ. I have cut and pasted the description from Dr Attia’s website, as I contend that this is quite possibly more important to endurance training than VO2 max: </span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.6363636363636362; margin-bottom: 11pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The respiratory quotient, or RQ, is simply the ratio of carbon dioxide you produce to oxygen you consume. This ratio typically varies from about 0.70 to just over 1.00. Why it’s important and helpful to know this ratio is that you can infer, based on the ratio, what you are utilizing for energy (i.e., how much fat versus glycogen) at any point in time during the test:</span></div><ul style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.6363636363636362; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When RQ is 0.70 (i.e., when you breathing out 70% as much carbon dioxide as you are consuming oxygen), you are effectively getting all of your energy from fat.</span></div></li><li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.6363636363636362; margin-bottom: 21pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When RQ is 1.00 (i.e., when you are breathing out an equal amount of carbon dioxide to the amount of oxygen you consume), you are effectively getting all of your energy from glycogen.</span></div></li></ul><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.6363636363636362; margin-bottom: 11pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The goal of any endurance athlete is to derive as much energy as possible from fat, rather than glycogen, for a given level of exertion</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Why? We can store about 1,200 to 1,600 calories worth of glycogen versus 100,000 calories of fat. Furthermore, replacing glycogen during training/competing is full of problems. Hence, you want to “spare” glycogen for only those times when it is essential (i.e., when you are anaerobically active) and use fat as much as possible when you can afford to (i.e., when you are aerobically active).</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The implications for improving our RQ score should seem obvious for distance swimming and endurance training, since </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">relying less on glucose for work at the same intensity could be tremendously valuable. This can help an athlete to work harder with less contribution from anaerobic glycolysis, and may have something to do with the claims of “never bonking,” better lactate clearance, and better recovery that many low-carb athletes swear by. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Take a look at Dr Attia’s chart again-- it is obvious that his aerobic capacity went up, and that he was generating the same power/intensity while using significantly less glucose. Essentially, he moved his anaerobic threshold, and can spend more time closer to his VO2 max, by manipulating his diet with no other changes. Remember, he was already well-trained, and then made these improvements completely as a dietary experiment.</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dr. Attia gives us a great N=1 experiment, but </span><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7000826" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">other studies out there show that his increase in aerobic capacity and improved RQ are not an anomaly</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. As a matter of fact, recent studies that have allowed for adaptation time and that have finally been done with well-trained athletes are confirming new benefits that long time low carbers have been bragging about for decades. The science is slowly catching up. The hardest part for me to swallow about all of this when I began following the evidence was that most of us swimmers are not ultra-endurance racers. Improving low intensity endurance isn’t really that appealing to me as I don’t intend to ever race a mile again in my life-- and you couldn’t make me race a 10k even if it were to escape the zombie apocalypse.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="35427dd2-c39a-4bf3-80da-51a2c24f2ab2.jpg" height="177px;" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/cMlMNN60McRiQ81d5L9kT5kIRABrhKxsJevwjLfkk3z5vZR2RxsrfuirOqJSFRWQzGjmd3r9YT2_g73Vg2DwCN635yXPgK2gCIP7mQUWJj7ZStqhdeIf3rSayt0AJ6MyD_A" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="202px;" /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yes, kids… this is why the Viking keeps a speedo clipped to his backpack. Never know when you are gonna need it.</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For this to apply to us 1-2 minute racers, we would still have to be able to show that adaptation to a ketogenic diet will matter at much higher intensities, those that are owned by anaerobic glycolysis, or it just won’t apply to racing all that well. Right?</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Enter the UCONN study. </span><a href="http://www.bengreenfieldfitness.com/2013/05/low-carb-triathlon-training/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ben Greenfield</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is another self-experimenter. He and a few other hardcore triathletes teamed up with a leading researcher, </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GC1vMBRFiwE" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dr Jeff Volek</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> at the UCONN Human Performance Laboratory. They decided to test a whole bunch of stuff to see what changed when extremely fit athletes were given at least 6 months to adapt to a ketogenic diet, which is much longer than most previous studies had ever done. If you read </span><a href="http://www.bengreenfieldfitness.com/2014/05/how-much-fat-can-you-burn/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">part 1</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and </span><a href="http://www.bengreenfieldfitness.com/2014/05/how-much-fat-can-you-burn-2/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">part 2</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> of Ben’s write up, you will see that they blew some of their stats off the charts. The most important of those has to do with how quickly we can metabolize fat as a fuel during exercise. </span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It has been standard thinking for decades that fatty acids could only be burned at a maximum rate of about 1g/min. That was with research done with athletes though, who were not adapted to the LCHF diet. At that rate, even with the ability to generate so much ATP from fat versus the tiny amounts from glucose that I outlined in the last chapter of my manifesto, the trade off was not good compared to glucose which generates much less but at a much higher rate, unless of course you are only focusing on lower intensity activity. The study at UCONN demonstrated that when well-trained athletes are given enough time to adapt to a ketogenic diet, that rate can improve to levels far beyond what we thought possible. As a matter of fact, all of the athletes in the study were above 1g/min for the majority of the study, and some reached peak fat-burning above 1.5 times faster than what we previously thought was the maximum possible. This is an incredible finding and has tremendous implications for endurance sports. </span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So waitaminnit?!... you mean that we generate significantly more ATP from burning fats than we do from burning carbs, and by simply choosing to skip the hashbrowns when I order my steak and eggs I can make fat burn 50% faster?! Yup. That’s what I am saying. Why in the hell would we want athletes </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15.1800003051758px; white-space: pre-wrap;">in an endurance sport</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to be tethered to a carbohydrate burning system that is really only intended to help us with the kick at the end? Yeah… We have been doing it wrong for a long time, guys. Follow the science. Much more on this later.</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="ir1p8.jpg" height="133px;" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/urXPTUFtL5mLNNFR1pCg2PFVljNL3cjtWrD7nfKCVXG5Pe6xRMW3EEl-We5NrQXCu7L00gOXuJzgKsPsidBlZYObeMCbI9vtdoUGO60toxpFfm4cbhxrVkU5LcYc1r9akrE" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="127px;" /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Taking carb avoidance to it’s logical conclusion means that the Viking doesn’t even need to do dishes anymore.</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To summarize: there is evidence that the LCHF diet enhances some of the most important adaptations that swimmers strive to maximize during aerobic endurance training. By priming the body to more efficiently use fat as a fuel for aerobic workload, we can generate more power aerobically, reduce the required contribution from anaerobic glycolysis, spare glycogen for later in a race where it can play a more important supplemental role, and tap into a nearly unlimited fuel tank of stored fat when compared to the small amount of glucose we are able to store in the liver and muscles.</span></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Let that sink in for a bit… you’re gonna need to swallow that bite before I make my next post. </span></div><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4418255805011610396.post-2455794144139069512015-02-12T05:56:00.000-08:002016-12-13T10:33:56.428-08:00Interesting Stats at Complete NutritionA couple of my athletes have been stopping by a place called Complete Nutrition lately, which seems to be a place that focuses on supplements and meal replacement products for the bodybuilding crowd. Both of these athletes are beyond high school age and it is nice to see them taking an interest in nutrition. They have been asking me a lot of questions and bringing up things they are learning as they read up on it. <br /><br />I got curious about visiting the store because one of those swimmers has been checking in there to get detailed stats on his body composition. He was actually able to tell me how much his body fat percentage had improved and exactly what his lean mass is.<br /><a name='more'></a><br />So I stopped by the store and had mine evaluated. Now, I can't make an argument for accuracy here, but the last time I had this done was during a school health fair where they bring in doctors and collect stats and hand out flyers for different programs they offer, but it was far enough into my LCHF diet that I had already lost the weight with running and weighed about 171 with around 10 or 11% body fat. That would put my lean mass at approximately 154 pounds.<br /><br />Since then (probably over a year) I feel like I look more fit but I had to go to Complete Nutrition to satisfy my curiosity. The machine they have just requires you to take your shoes off, stand on some foot pads and hold onto a bar with sensors to press with your thumbs. Apparently it determines your body composition based on electric currents somehow. Sorry I don't know much about it.<br /><br />I came away with a sheet that says I weigh 174.7, with 7.3% body fat and 161.8 pounds of lean mass. This is very interesting to me as apparently I have gained 7 pounds of muscle while only gaining three pounds over-all. And this is without lifting weights. At age 40.<br /><br />...and I keep getting faster too. This morning after I completed a round of 100 breast targets USRPT style and scored 15+12+6, (a pretty good score considering I just moved my target time down about half a second not too long ago,) I took a 100 easy and then pushed my fastest 100 breast with-out a dive ever. 1:03.0. Even better, I was out in 29. For me, that's a big deal. I am feeling pretty good about the spring sectional meet coming up. I have already seen significant improvements since the pro-am in December and I am pretty sure it will translate to better racing as long as I am healthy when I get there.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0