Introducing the Overworked Diet

I work a lot. Sometimes it's self-induced amd other times it's a casualty of my position and profession.

I could delegate other people to do the emergent issues on the weekend but oftentimes I like to know it was done right (I.e. random RN "oh I guess I never bothered to look at their TPN to see if it was running after getting off the phone with the Doc and you...").

Regardless, I'm not as self-abusive as some healthcare workers. I'd like to think all the counseling I have done and was trained to do helps me eliminate a lot of bad food choices. Below is a slightly serious yet tongue-in-cheek listing of my most successful habits.

Try to drink all your coffee before noon.-- I mean, it's a race. It's definitely better sleep (more on that later) when you do abstain from coffee after the noon hour but I also understand when you're overworked sometimes an afternoon cup is too much to turn down. Get it local, get it whole bean and grind yourself. If you're going to fry your adrenals you might as well do it having good coffee (sorry Starbucks...and the whole city of Portland).

Get a really sharp kitchen knife- besides knowing you can wield it and slice your annoying coworkers sharp knives make cooking safer, faster, and far more enjoyable. Get something >7" to get a versatile and functional knife (wit the exception of Santoku blades, which can be a bit shorter).

Love cooking at home-- nothing sucks worse than having no time to unwind at all and cooking at home can be that downtime needed. Not only that, but cooking at home as been touted to improve digestion and maintain a lower intake of salt, sugar, and processed foods. Bring into your kitchen only raw, or minimally processed ingredients, that require you to actually cook. Dropping pre-cut pineapple on a plate with some store-bought fruit dip is not cooking or holding down a decent kitchen. Man up.

Eat breakfast and don't be afraid of packing a random lunch- eating breakfast is important. Especially if you're overworked. How else are your fried nerves going to function at their most optimal? Also, piecing together you lunch from different elements or dishes is OK. I often have Italian seasoned whatever, with a curry this or that, and a ton of odd fruits and veggies in containers. 

Hydration, adequate protein, and healthy fats- the foundations of good health start with those three things. 

Master how to make the perfect toast and use good bread-- I have a love affair with toast almost every morning. It's like the perfect breakfast to me. Perfect toast involves a good bread, slathering coconut oil on it and putting a sordid nut butter on the top (non-hydrogenated of course, no plasticized arteries please).

Learn to love to grocery shop-- shop in places where you're a person not just cattle swiping bar codes. Co-ops (where all the pretty ppl shop, IMO), Famers Markets, and your smaller grocers offer a more humanistic experience than Safeway or Costco. you'll also stimulate your deep, local economy.

Learn to like Tea-- it makes you happier and prettier. I like to look good while becoming overworked. tea is rich in a lot of antioxidants that you otherwise won't find in other foods. coffee is a great boost (and delicious) but tea is like the afterburners in a long day at the office. I even started getting uber Hippie and putting chia seeds in mine.

Take your supplements- take a vitamin D, find a quality probiotic and be faithful to it. Take some fish or flax oil in your diet. Your sleep, skin, hair, arteries, immune cells, and athletic endurance will thank you.

So there is a brief list of the highlights in the Overworked Diet. Just remember: working crappy hours doesn't mean you have to feel like crap!


~P.

An argument against AntiOx supplements (and how I will lose my Hammer contract)

Besides my dismally poor ability to generate sales for Hammer Nutrition and very sparse racing season (still a 1st and 2nd though, just sayin'), this post will probably not sit well with some swearing by companies touting antioxidant benefits in their products (sorry Hammer).

A little of this is good...lets throw A LOT more in to make it ideal!

Antioxidants are effectively redox agents in the face of oxidative stress (unless you ask Dr. Randolph Howes-- who is an entertaining read on his alternate theories!). These reactions take place in all of our cells (with the exception of red blood cells and several immune-modulating cells) and especially in mitochondria-rich cells. Oh, Mitochondria-- you nasty smelting factories that give us energy. Think of antioxidant activity as the EPA coming and laying down law on the manufacturing.

If you've had high school and college chemistry you'll recall O-I-L R-I-G...which is fitting if we stay with the mitochondria-factory illustration.
"OXIDATION IS LOSS of electrons, REDUCTION IS GAIN of electrons."

When we soak up all the pesky free radicals brought on by Mitochondria-behaving-badly we quickly have a quandary: extra antioxidants become pro-oxidative. Oxidation can cause adverse molecular damages in body tissues and can slowly degrade the very self-repair systems we consider important to our bodies avoiding adverse outcomes on the cellular level and ultimately poor performance gains.

Countless studies have been done that have shown reduced endogenous antioxidants (that is, those we can make a lot ourselves without help) and synthetic vitamins and mineral cofactors actually hurt performance. it is only when we study bioactive compounds that support these processes we achieve more consistent, reproducible results showing improved or baseline results (you know, scientific theory. 

In the face of this evidence, and considering that no two individuals react exactly the same to the same stressors related to differing baseline nutritive status, it is reasonable to be suspect of sports nutrition and lifestyle supplements and the controls put into place to measure consistent, reproducible results (gee, there it is again...).

A Pharmacokinetics lesson: "ADME"

In my brief pharmacology training we are taught the essential pillars of studying and recommending efficacious pharmaceutical intervention in a patient's plan of care.

Absorption-- route of efficacy (IV, oral, transdermal).
Distribution-- which body tissues/organs is this going to be of the most benefit and which secondary sites will be affected.
Metabolism-- is the site of activation and metabolism in the liver, kidneys, cardiac tissue, collagen? In the provided form and dosage does it exert the effects we hope to achieve following cytochrome metabolism? Metabolism includes the half-life as well other factors (i.e. other cofactors or medications that have potential for interaction) that may slow/speed metabolism (steroid inhalers and vitamin D and calcium metabolism...). It's important to differentiate in vitro and human trials in these instance.
Elimination-- closely related to half-life, elimination involves looking at how the body will clear the metabolites whether it's through perspiration, urine, fecal, or reused in some way in the body.

Recognizing the ADME of antioxidants and nutrition can lead to greater understanding if used properly. Unfortunately, this is not often the case when developing a consumer product-- there is a great deal of naturalistic logic thrown in-- where gargantuan claims are made to encompass multiple disease or deficiency states in order to show some semblance of credible marketability.When we stumble down that rabbit hole people either get mixed/null results or suffer adverse effects.

Most often there are wide-ranging views on dose, frequency, and in what form because ADME isn't being followed prior to making recommendations on how to take the supplements.

----
I'm not saying antioxidants aren't a good thing at all, when the body is left smoldering they can effectively help attenuate raging inflammation (we give plenty of IV vitamins and minerals in the ICU). However, recognizing timing and efficacy are important considerations when using reduced antioxidant supplements. They certainly aren't a 24/7/365 thing to take.

Recognizing pillars of good nutrition and selecting nutrient-dense foods with minimal processing over exogenous/synthetic sources we can find fantastic results stimulating the body's natural mechanisms at healthy levels. It's not okay to consider pill-based antioxidants and cofactors before realizing the unreliable data and poorly-contructed dosage schedule for athletic performance.

The exception being those that need medical management for other ailments beyond a healthy diet.


P. 

Maupin 6hr TT & official retirement from racing (...for 2014)

I had an amazing time traveling and racing Maupin TT earlier this month. A whole new landscape (dry, rolling) really made me keen to give this race, dubbed The Ring of Fire TT, an honest go. Originally planning to do the 12 hour race the numerous hiccups in my preparation made the 6 hour a more feasible (and enjoyable) experience. Wendy and I traveled down on Friday night and stayed two nights in Hood River which is about an hour north of Maupin.
I myself prefer Hood River to Bend for that "awesome outdoorsy town" in Central Oregon.

The 6 hour started at NOON. Which for many reasons this was awesome:
1. I hate early race start times.
2. I like to have my mornings to get psyched up to ride.
3. Wendy and I could get a great breakfast in Hood River before driving down to Maupin
4. It wouldn't be cold.

There was one main hesitation for starting this late in the day and that was the heat in the weather forecast. The Ring of Fire certainly lived up to it's namesake!

Early Going
The starts for the TT were staggered instead of mass start, which was different than the other multi-hour TT and 12 hour races I had done in the past. While I was one of the last racers to start I enjoyed having plenty of "rabbits" ahead of me!

The course was a 27 mile loop up out, around, and back down into the town of Maupin (long enough that it wasn't boring or repetitive!). The starting climb went well, with pushing a moderate gear with steady cadence. Very quickly I picked up two of the starters right before me and by the top of the 3 mile climb I had moved up 4 slots. I felt plucky and with a bit of pop in my legs that I was worried wouldn't come out to play on race day. When my legs feel that good it's hard not to hit the gas-- but with the rising temperatures and the 6 hours of racing on my mind I held myself in reserve.
Upon coming off the climb there was a stiffening headwind and rough roads for a ways until a really great 2 mile downhill. From there it was rolling or moderate hills and a long descent into the river gorge and back into Maupin.

First lap checked off at goal pace and really nothing could have been done differently. My legs felt solid. Wendy had bottles already done up for me with Hammer Fizz  (1 tab per 20 oz bottle) and I did a quick exchange and was back out on course. Keep moving, don't stop long. You stop too long and you'll lock up. Lap 2 went well except I had a run-in with a stinging insect of sorts. Nasty little critter too, as I still have marks and occasionally itch even 10 days after the event! I lost about 5 minutes on the second lap dealing my jersey and making sure the bug was out of my kit.

Lap 3 and the heat started to really get to my legs. I swapped bottles and took in a calories. The climb out of Maupin wasn't as spirited as the other two laps, and the headwind following was a motherfucker. My TCR chattered over this rough patch of road yet again and watched my Garmin in dismay at the speed I wasn't able to achieve even with putting out pretty good numbers. Being a taller, longer, and leaner athlete I really suffer in headwinds and rough road conditions.
The heat issues continued as I tried to up the pace on the rolling sections however I felt like I was starting to settle into a slower rhythm than before and my lower quadriceps started to complain to me. I began to notice the salt rings on my body. My lips weren't feeling too kissable. I thanked God for the sunscreen that Wendy reminded me to bring.

I rolled into the race HQ with 1h12min left to race. Obviously another full lap was out of the question given my quickly retreating legs. To make matters worse, I had no idea where I was in the race standings as I had been passing 6 AND 12 hour racers all day but was never passed myself. George informed I was sitting in 2nd place. With a quick pee (almost clear piss, hell yeah) and Wendy swapping my bottles out I was off for about an hour of what was a death march back into those headwinds on rough roads. 1st place was about 20 minutes ahead of me-- so while I knew he wasn't able to be caught, I could definitely limit my losses.

Wendy followed me in my Mazda as the clock kept ticking. I rolled another 13 miles into the 4th lap for 94 miles in 6 hours. Cramping, tired, and with an astounding amount of radiating road heat lapping at my legs I threw my bike in the back of the car and climbed in the passenger seat to finish out that 4th lap.

The post-race was low key and casual-- truly a down-to-earth group of folks.  I spent a good 30 minutes on the asphalt eating overripe peaches, larabars, and trying to control my heat-induced nausea. For my efforts I scored a fresh set of Panache socks and a finisher cap from George. The food was great at the sponsored lodge restaurant.

Wendy drove us back to Hood River and the Airstream (thanks Jeff!) with me nodding off for most of the drive. A quick breakfast Sunday and damn good coffee from Hood River Coffee Company and we were off North over the Washington border and back to Olympia.

2014: Screwed up ankle, golf ball-sized tonsils, lungs, bruised ribs and road rash...oh my! 

Doesn't quite have the same ring as the whole "Lions, Tigers..." song but it definitely makes me chuckle how hard this year has been for injury and illness. January kicked it off with what was a Grade II ankle sprain followed with Viral Tonsillitis (thank you Prednisone) in June. Come around to July with the wildfires all over WA I ended up with some significant asthma exacerbation (once again, steroids you rock). Hard training, hard breathing. Capping off an eventful Summer was crashing hard on train tracks 2 weeks before racing Maupin-- only road rash and some bruised ribs from a 32mph crash and we'll call that lucky (I got a new helmet out of it-- the old one cracked!). I did however miss riding in Pullman, WA.

So I'm really looking forward to working on my overall strength again and putting back on the 15 lbs of muscle I intentionally stripped to get down to an efficient riding weight. Every year I say I'll "race heavier" but I'm a lanky puncheur at heart and excessive weight is a burden.
I'm going to work on this ankle and get my running back to par (and beyond)-- I have a lot of unfinished business on the trail. I think most of all this year has truly rekindled my love for riding my bike and the range of experiences it brings for me. The growl of carbon on road will always bring a smile to my face.

When I look back on the year I started off with a solid 1st place and finished with a 2nd place. two pretty good results bookend a difficult year physically (not to mention the emotional toll it all put on me).

I'm writing this post while cooking local bacon and a healthy pour of Cabernet.

To an extended off season and long base training season, cheers!

              Airstream trailer I found online for the weekend. Really awesome and perfect digs.

Rolling the rollers of Maupin.

My amazing one-gal support crew for the weekend. Blessed to have the support!

end of Summer climb up Mt. Ellinor sporting my Panache socks with Wendy!

July Updates (late entry!)

It's been a steady build-up period for me in July after committing myself to doing some endurance-ish riding in August and September.

What has certainly helped make this month more enjoyable is the very dry weather conditions (good for my training, bad for forest fires here in Washington) and Tour de France coverage. Thresholds are being improved, endurance building, muscles retrained...and the body is seizing these transformations relatively well.

I've focused on getting a fair amount of quality in from the start given that I had a relatively good base of fitness before making the aforementioned race goals. While I tend to be a bit more "low tech" in my riding (no HR monitor or cadence sensor, occasionally won't track elevation gain, etc.) I have strived to include the following work into my regiment.

1. long ride(s)- um duh, but one of the hardest things to learn is that a long ride doesn't mean a lolly-gagging spin for 7 hours, it means a steady quality day on the bike with maybe (maybe) several longer efforts thrown in either in climbs or a 10-15minute hammered flat section. 5-7 hrs is usually the goal for these.

2. tempo rides- 1 or 2 a week, depending on my weekday schedule and how the legs are responding. 80-180 minutes, maximum, trying to get in some quality intensity and likely over-gear work to get the muscles truly firing.

3. intervals- I hate intervals on the bike but I love what they do for raw speed. 5-10 minute efforts at 80-90% of maximum x 4-6 sets after a really good warm-up. If I'm not thrashed after this work I don't feel like it's been a good session. I do these on the trainer because that kind of work is dangerous on the roads

The rest of the time is spent on either an easy spin, rowing, or elliptical with 2 days of lifting and core in the mix. Total hours are typically ranging from 10-15 training hours/wk-- I anticipate the load to go up closer to Pullman and Maupin, but currently that tends to be a good amount of training hours given my 60 hour work weeks. I have also learned that sleep makes a world of difference.

While I have focused on my recovery using Hammer Nutrition products, I've started looking at ways to augment my performance on the bike. The two products I have found to be really beneficial on the longer rides and/or dosed on tempo rides are the Endurance Amino and Anti-Fatigue capsules. The branch-chain amino acids found in the Endurance Aminos help keep muscle catabolism down through replenishing myofibril-specific amino chains. Anti-Fatigue works by buffering ammonia using 275-550mg of Potassium Magnesium Aspartate. So far, both have worked well on keeping my legs from hitting rock-bottom even after longer, harder efforts. I pop 1 capsule of each during every hour on the bike or do a 2 capsule bolus dose prior to tempo efforts.

Coffee & TriggerPoint to keep the niggles away.

Hammer tubes keep my quiver of "muscle pills" dry, organized, and easy to pop!

Fun evening rides on gravel.

A commitment to the saddle

given the race calendar for the trail running scene being all-but-over relative to my running goals and fitness, I turned my focus towards the bike for the remainder of 2014. I decided about 3 weeks ago to go full-gas into readying myself to ride an aggressive racing timeline with crescendo at the Maupin TT series in early September. 

Prior to making the plans I was "training for fitness" only and have relished the return to a racer mentality. A closer watch to diet, strengthening, sleep, and all the other aspects of performing one's best has been something I missed.

The thing about sport is the World of experiences you can gain from it. From riding in shitstorm rain with blown legs, to seeing the inky clouds smeared like mascara across a sunset as you tap out a steady, strong cadence in Summer heat-- light years apart but each instance granting an even richer understanding of Nature, pain, and the unwillingness to stop finding more within oneself. I'm seeing striations and vasculature not seen in a year, training numbers coming back like old friends, and muscles that feel ready to work. I forgot how much I love the honing of fitness to be at the best.

I'm excited to commit to the saddle once again. It's been a few years since I raced an endurance TT but I am hoping for good training fortunes. And at least in cycling I can't twist my ankle! 

P.

with my head towards redemption

"It was a dark and stormy night..."
On 1 March 2014 I was pulled over for DUI by Washington State patrol. My BAC was .07(still under the legal limit) but I was stated by the officer to have been driving erratically (dash cam seemed to show otherwise). Despite compelling evidence to disprove, I was sentenced this week for Negligent Driving with 24 months of monitored probation. A sobering reminder that you can never be too careful in the eyes of the law. It's a punch to the gut but I leave better off than if it had been a DUI charge.

Frankly, I am just happy this is over! it's has been costly, both financially and emotionally, and I cannot fathom ever wanting to go through this process again. Between my athletic injuries, legal woes, and work issues this year has proven to be a test of attrition. Having one less thing to worry about is a Godsend.

My drinking, an evolving story
There are aspects of my past I wish I could do over. It took earlier legal issues and standing in front of judges to curb my "bad boy" tendencies and alcohol use. Doing the responsible thing hasn't always been my main obligation but it is certainly something I strive for today.
Beyond the legal and unsavory aspects of that mischief I like to also focus on how it affected my health. I'm not naturally a healthy person: I suffer from a long history of ENT infections, mixed IBD, asthma, and a true diagnosis of ADD (I was a test bunny for the first generation of Ritalin). Diet of course has tremendous effects on these things and I successfully manage many of my long-standing issues through diet and lifestyle changes. Alcohol definitely affects those things and having made a conscious decision throughout even my 20s to reduce my alcohol consumption has paid dividends in my athletic performance.

But don't take my word for it...
Don't think it makes a difference? Lets consider all of the pro athletes that shun alcohol during their entire season or just for the weeks leading up to an evident. They lose weight, maintain more muscle, sleep better, and their body recovers faster.  Bradley Wiggins, Lance Armstrong, Darcy Africa, Brendan Frazier, Matt Tegankamp...seriously, I could go on for a few more paragraphs.

As a cruel reminder to our mortality, athletes are struck with the knowledge that while we live longer than sedentary folk we also encounter certain aspects of aging far earlier. "Soft tissue" diseases, those involving organ and glandular tissues, strike those folks that aren't athletic much earlier and harder. In contrast "hard tissue" diseases, those affecting bone, ligament, and muscle, are more common in athletic folk. It's a very sobering display of the gross cell turnover and regeneration cycles that ultimately lead to our smoldering deaths. By keeping those processes in check with good diet and lifestyle habits we can ultimately live a life free of both those "soft" and "hard" tissue damages!

Biochemically, alcohol is a poison (excluding flavonoids and polyphenols from this discussion). Don't believe me? Ask your liver. If we were to take a sponge (your liver) and coat it in a thin layer of melted Crisco (alcohol) it probably wouldn't do it's job very well. It would take time and natural enzyme reactions to clear all that hydrogenated crap (alcohol) off your sponge (liver). The liver cannot be asked to perform at it's best for training, utilizing energy substrates and keeping muscle protein catabolism in check,  if it's constantly covered in Crisco. Our joints suffer untold consequences due to the inflammation and altered homeostasis from alcohol consumption. Mucles are less supple, and our fascia become 'crunchy'. Simply put, the less we drink the more we can get out of food, fuels, and training.

Bringing this full circle
Before I was called into the court room for my sentencing I was thinking about the liver and all it's wonderful enzymatic processes (seriously). I realized how much of an impact alcohol had had on my recent months as well as in my adolescent years. Furthermore, I pondered how much performance is to be gained from curbing my already very tame alcohol intake.  It was before those doors opened that I made a promise to myself to focus on redeeming the second half of this year.

So cheers to chapters behind us, what lies before us, and our potential. I raise my glass (of water) high.

disclaimer: no sponges were harmed in the writing of this post.

on which I am left smoldering

When I ran my first trail marathon and only a week later rode 220 miles in a 12 hour race my mother bought me a small stuffed Energizer bunny. I was 21 at the time. I was pulling double course-load in school, keeping a steady girlfriend, and training my arse off. Fast forward through my sixth year of college and I was pretty much still going with the throttle wide open.

Looking at present day: While I patiently waited for my left ankle to resume full strength and durability, I realized that the "down time" would be great to work on many more career-oriented tasks. Working 10-12 hour days then putting in study time on top of what I would consider "lighter" training (only 8-10hrs/wk) on the bike and rower while my injury heals up. It is now apparent that the stresses of real life are far more damaging than that of any academic savant and should be managed more carefully.

I've already admitted on this blog that I don't sleep an excessive amount--always falling on the low end of the recommended hours to get in a night. I often attributed that to my workload and my feelings of ambition and the "relentless drive forward" that has consumed me for most of my 20's to today.

ambition, it seems, got the best of me. 

I recently was befallen with a viral acute tonsillitis. Basically, I fried my immune system and made it possible for the Epstein-Barr Virus to get into my system. By tonsils were swollen, painful, exudate ridden, nasty-looking hot messes of reality hitting me in the face. I put too much on myself and suffered the consequences of undoing months of training.

I will not digress into my work-related stresses, but I can tell you that I am not happy with my main "bread winning" job. My side projects and on-call contracts are much more meaningful to me--and take up what many would consider needed down time to recharge. Changes are on the horizon and I anticipate feeling much better about my job within this year (*fingers crossed*).

One of the ways I battled this virus is obviously resting more. Easy to do when you're too wiped to even spin light gears on your bike. Humbled, frustrated, and emotionally pained are the three descriptive I would use to describe the situation. I could feel myself atrophy on a daily basis. While I was resting and on steroids I made sure my diet was locked-down tight. Nothing that could raise my inflammation. I stopped drinking (easy to do when you're on Prednisone) my glass of wine at night.

Luckily my nutrition sponsor, Hammer Nutrition has some products that help fight off viral infection and keep me feeling better than I might otherwise:

Super Antioxidant- Grape Seed Extract, Superoxide Dismutase (SOD), Glutathione are featured in this product. While I was skeptical of external antioxidant supplements (SOD & Glutathione are utilized in our mitochondria) I have been impressed with the results in repairing my immune system.

Tissue Rejuvenator- Turmeric, Quercetin (found in apples and onions), Yucca Root, and the highest enzyme blend in any Hammer Product make this an effective to lower overall inflammation in the body. I really enjoy this product and have used it with good result.

Additionally, I doubled my basal Vitamin D dosage and have increased the amount of omega-3s in my diet-- Overall, I focused on getting higher amounts of quality fat in my diet.

----
I am now healthy enough to start gradually resuming my normal training load and my ankle I feel has resolved enough for some steady road mileage. I will be starting with overall strength gains then returning to churning out larger mileage and steady threshold efforts for anticipation of returning to competition in the Fall after several months of consistent training.

The goals have obviously changed for the season with later-year racing on the mountains showing an appeal to me as well as some 12-hour bike racing.

Now go get some sleep.

P.