Calories in

 This is the time of year that some people dread.

Though it doesn't really look like it yet

The holiday season brings all sorts of delicious temptations: eggnog, cookies, fruitcake, big dinners with all the fixings, with nuts and chocolates and candy seemingly all around us.

Sometimes it's enough to make you want to run away!

You'll also encounter any number of strategies to manage all of these "extra calories" - charts showing you how much you need to run to burn off various foods, or lower-calorie substitutions to choose instead of rich foods.

Like mushrooms

Now listen to me carefully here: if you are someone who is training hard - running every day, or lifting or cycling or otherwise sweating and striving to meet your goals - I want you to throw all of that "don't indulge over the holidays" nonsense right out the window. Unless you're taking time off from training, your focus should always be on eating enough instead of too much.

"Only eat what you can forage" is terrible advice for most of the people who would read this blog

If you don't provide your body with adequate calories to rebuild from the breakdown that occurs during training - because let's face it, you are absolutely doing damage when you train with purpose, because that's how you get stronger - then you open the door for illness, overtraining, and injury.

I don't make the rules - them's the brakes

As for weight gain, my experience over the past year has showed me that focusing on eating enough has led to me averaging a lower overall weight since spring than I have in recent memory - at least half a decade - and improving my recovery time after hard workouts. You need to give your body the materials it needs to repair damaged muscle tissue so it can rebuild it stronger than it was before.

Eating lots of plants for nutrients is good, but makes it very hard to get enough calories to properly fuel yourself

If you feel like you're too busy to eat enough each day, there are strategies you can employ to help with that. Many people have success with meal prepping: making large batches of dishes that can be stored for a quick meal later on. You can also cook in a way that multi-tasks: chop a bunch of veggies and throw them on a baking sheet with some sausages or chicken legs, then go for a run or workout while it's in the oven. 

Pull it out and let it rest while you change/shower/whatever, then dig in!
Lining the baking sheet with foil or parchment paper makes cleanup easier

If nothing else works, just buy yourself a big box of your favourite cereal. If you're still hungry before bed, have a bowl. Or a cookie. Or some eggnog. What you're eating is less important - as long as you're getting some vegetables in there daily - than that you're eating. Of course there are protein shakes and nutritional supplement bars and all that sort of stuff too: if it's appealing and accessible for you, go ahead! I keep things pretty simple, though - you don't need anything engineered, you just need food.

I do have a habit of routing my lunch runs from the office past a café that has allergen-free baked goods, though, and running the last half mile with a cookie or muffin in hand

Of course if you're trying to get leaner, it becomes a more delicate equation...but nothing will ruin your body composition goals like becoming injured due to inadequate food intake, and being unable to train to reach your goals. If you're reducing calories without reducing training, do so with caution, and try a very small deficit (with a big dash of patience) to avoid causing health issues.

Weight loss should never be approached as a sprint

If you genuinely enjoy the healthy substitutes for highly caloric foods or beverages, then absolutely consume them instead - especially if it's a matter of food allergies, about which I know entirely too much! However don't let some article (or person) shame you out of an indulgence that gives you joy: eat the cookie, or drink the hot chocolate, and know that you never need to feel guilt for fueling your body or savouring something delicious.

At the end of the day, we're not professional athletes with millions of dollars riding on our performance

So be kind to yourself, and have some fun with the life you have right now - I guarantee it will be better if you allow your body the food it needs to help you shine!

Energizer

 I've had a couple of people ask about one of my long race habits, so I figured it's time for another Seems Like Science post to talk about it.

Disclaimer: I'm neither scientist nor health professional

If I recall correctly, the first time I used vitamin B12 oral spray in a race was during my ill-fated attempt at the Foxtail 100mi in 2019. To be clear, I've used quick-dissolving sublingual vitamin B12 tablets as a regular supplement for daily life for many years due to a history of anaemia. I'm not going to discuss that application in this post: this is purely an exploration of liquid oral B12 usage in the context of a long race, which I will define loosely as 8+ hours in duration.

This is the specific product I have used, though I don't think brand is important.
This is in the form of methycobalamin, though, which may be a more easily retained by the body - but not necessarily - than synthetic cyanocobalamin

I spotted this stuff on the grocery store shelf at one point in early 2019 and picked it up with a theory that I might be able to use it during races - at the time, I think I paid about $12 for the bottle (which is small enough to easily fit in a drop bag or hydration vest. I based this on a couple of factors:

• Vitamin B12 is required to produce functional red blood cells, and since running actually destroys red blood cells (there's a real syndrome called "footstrike anaemia" - the result of footstrike hemolysis, or red blood cells being crushed by the impact of your feet hitting the ground - that can result), supporting the production of new ones is important
• Vitamin B12 contributes to the maintenance of healthy nerve cells, and running relies on a complex pattern of movements that must be relayed to the muscles via the nervous system
• Vitamin B12 also plays a major role in energy metabolism: converting food into glucose, which can then be used by working muscles to finally convert the glucose into forward motion
• Energy drinks (which I will state here that I do not use) frequently include B-vitamins due to their known role in promoting metabolism
• Symptoms of B12 deficiency - like fatigue, shortness of breath, and digestive issues - are all detrimental to athletic performance

Now, there are a number of reputable sources that state there is no clinical evidence to support an increase in athletic performance based on B12 supplementation in the absence of a deficiency, but maintaining B12 status relies on the ingestion of animal foods - fish, meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy - or supplements. Fun fact: the natural form comes from bacteria that inhabit these - there is a synthetic vegan form (cyanocobalamin, mentioned above). Animal food sources, however - whether or not you choose to eat them in daily life - are difficult to digest when running, and are thus typically not part of race-day nutrition. This may not result in deficiency for events lasting one day or less (vegetarians and vegans will be more prone to deficiency unless they take supplements or eat fortified foods), but my interest in the oral spray was more geared toward races that last more than a day and are therefore more likely to deplete the body's stores. While studies have been performed on athletes including those classed as "endurance" competitors, there is a wide range of events that are considered "endurance" sports - which may include races shorter than 1 hour, and seldom longer than 5 hours - I am not aware of any that have studied very long distance runners, whose metabolic needs and challenges vary from those in shorter competitions.

#ultrarunnerproblems

The other thing I will emphasize is that - being a water-soluble vitamin - B12 (which is also just known as cobalamin, as it is cobalt-based) is generally considered safe in very high doses, as excess is simply excreted in urine. I am not aware of any studies that examine the effects of dehydration - which can, of course, be another effect of very long races, as it can be impossible in hot weather to drink enough to match sweat losses - on the body's ability to excrete excess B12, so that will fall outside the scope of this post.

If anyone is interested in funding, equipping, and staffing ill advised labs to study this stuff, please message me!

So, being reasonably assured I wouldn't do myself any harm by trying, I started spraying this stuff in my mouth at events. It tastes like raspberry and delivers 500mcg - which is a LOT compared to the recommended daily intake of 2.4mcg for adults, even with an estimated absorption rate of only 2% for that dose - of methylcobalamin per spritz. 

But hey - why use a scalpel when you can use an axe?

(Let's not do anything silly like try to sue me for describing an off-label use of a readily available vitamin if you manage to give yourself a headache, nausea, or GI distress from taking too much, ok?)

Now, Foxtail - for many reasons - was a poor test of the possibilities that vitamin B12 supplementation might hold. I didn't really run anything particularly long for awhile afterward, so the bottle of spray lurked in with some other rather neglected race nutrition stuff on top of our microwave for quite awhile. I found it, though, just before what was possibly the perfect test event: the 2021 Three Days in the Park 72hr.

Going in with a torn hamstring, I'd take any little advantage I could get!

I didn't use any the first day, but finally realized it was there around 3:30pm on Friday - approximately 30.5hrs in. I had a spritz with a cup of coffee, and within 20mins it was like I'd swallowed the human equivalent of jet fuel! I used this combination again at around 3am Saturday morning, with the same effect: despite being worn and beaten, about 20mins later I'd go from dragging myself along to marching with purpose, and the effects would last for anywhere from 90mins to 2hrs.

I continued to use the B12 - which had expired in August 2020, but gave me no ill effects - in conjunction with coffee through the end of the 72hr, after which it retired to the top of the microwave once more.

I do not recommend using expired nutritional supplements, but that doesn't mean I won't do it myself.

While having the coffee + B12 combo as an ace in my pocket was great, I wondered what effect the spray might have on its own, and I've had a number of chances to experiment with it this year. I knew I was in for a rough day at the Pick Your Poison 50k back in April (because running up and down a ski hill - with 4 major climbs per 12.5km lap - is heckin' hard), so I tried some before the start, and then in between my 2nd and 3rd laps. There was no noticeable energy boost, but I was able to push my undertrained and kind of jacked-up body through almost 9 hours of reletless hills and run it in to the finish. I don't have a record of having used any at Sunburn Solstice this year, but that was also a sub-8-hour event, and the 50k I mostly walked at Foxtail this year was only just over 8hrs.

I had one more good, solid experiment opportunity left, though.

My real proof of concept came at Three Days in the Park this year, where I ran the 24hr. I started using sprays of B12 from late afternoon (around 4:30pm, or 7.5hrs in) and took 5 spritzes throughout the event. At no point did I actually have it in conjunction with a cup of coffee (though I did drink 2 of those, around 2am and 5:30am), but I believe it was a contributor to my rather steady energy levels throughout the race. Of course, steadily taking in calories and water are bigger factors - fuel and hydration will always be two of the biggest drivers in any event longer than 3 hours - but I was able to stay clear-headed and alert much longer than I expected before beginning to use the marginal amounts of caffeine that I took in, and theorize that the regular doses of B12 assisted my body in processing the nutrition I was taking in to ensure my muscles were supplied with glucose to keep me moving.

I have no way of confirming this empirically except through further experimentation

I understand that some weak anecdotal reports are not the same as evidence, but my high-demand race experiences using B12 have been positive enough for me to continue to add it as a supplement in long competitions. Even if it's a placebo effect - in the absence of any harm - why not seize a tiny possible advantage in races when I am pushing myself to my limit? My worst case scenario is likely some higher-priced pee, and even a slight improvement in mentality through the course of 24hrs can have a major ripple effect on the mileage I'm able to achieve. A happy runner has more energy to carry them down the trail than an unhappy one, and if the B12 does actually keep my red blood cell counts healthier or help me convert the food I'm eating into forward motion, I'd be foolish not to seize that advantage.

So, for anyone who has managed to make it through all that: I would absolutely be interested to hear your thoughts or lived experience with (legal) supplementation in races. This ongoing experiment has had no deleterious effects that I've noticed, and potential realized benefits with a very low up-front cost and little risk of side effects. Will you try B12 for your next ultra? Have you tried another supplement to good effect, or fallen victim to a side effect of a supplement gone wrong? Let me know!

I can't be the only one out there trying weird stuff based on wild theories!

Salad Days

The January thaw came and went, leaving us in a world of ice.

Which does have its pleasant aspects.

I succeeded (mostly) at taking an easier week, but still ran doubles on Monday and Saturday because the 100 runs in 100 days challenge is still a thing until late March. I'm actually hanging in decently well - at the halfway point (today), I'm technically 5 runs ahead of pace.

..and just barely in the top 10.

The ice has made it tough to get out on the trails safely, though. I ended up running down to the farmers' market through town on Saturday instead of via the trails, as Tanker and I did a small scouting mission on Friday evening and discovered they were nothing but icy death. It did give me an interesting view of some of the flooding in town, though.

Like this small conservation tract just blocks from our house.
There are trails under the floodwaters and ice.

Another road run on Saturday afternoon, then Sunday was brunch in Guelph with friends. I couldn't resist the opportunity to run on the Royal Recreation Trail along the Speed River, but I threw on my spikes just in case it was a bit icy.

"A bit" didn't begin to describe it.

Yowza.

There was a full sheet of 1"-2" thick ice that started at Victoria Road (where Tanker was sweet enough to drop me off so I could do a 6.5k run to our friends' house) and covered all but a couple of small patches of the trail for the full 2.25km down to Woodlawn Road.

With some sunshine and mild temperatures to melt the top layer, making it extra slippery.

It was lovely to run jacketless on the last weekend of January, though!

I've run on this stuff before without issue, as the carbide spikes in my traction devices have been able to bite in and give me decent grip. Not sure if it was due to wearing them with a different pair of shoes than usual or just the hardness of the ice itself, but even with my spikes I was getting some slippage.

NOT COOL

With some quick feet and a lot of butt clenching, I made it through ok. In some cases the side trails were actually the better option, but I tried not to be an idiot about taking anything too sketchy if I could avoid it.

The layer of snow on top of the ice actually gave some welcome traction.

The snow that came howling down this Monday buried all that ice under a thick layer of white. While I wasn't super keen on running through it (twice), it did allow me to finally get back down into the creek valley for the first time in a month on Wednesday evening's run. I'd been trying to spare my ankles while I went through the sizeable block of running from Stride Inside through Frosty Trail (and my "recovery" week thereafter), but for my last run of January I couldn't resist taking the chance.

I had missed this sorely.

That put the cap on 294.5km for the first month of the year, which is a pretty decent start. I've also been slowly chipping away at the extra insulation I put on through my "off season" in November and through the holidays, mostly thanks to paying some extra attention to my nutritional intake.

Proper nutrition not only leads to better body composition; it's also a path to decreased recovery time from taxing workouts, plus the best way to support your immune system for general health. So, I'm going to share with you one of my favourite recipes for a meal that you can almost feel revitalizing you after a long run. I hereby give you..

K's Big Effin' Salad of Awesome

That's one of those big 312g salad boxes, about half full.
Go big or go home!

This is something I make at least once per weekend, usually after my longest, hardest day of running. It's so wonderfully filling that I sometimes find myself not wanting dinner afterwards, and it has tons of nutrients to help me recover for the next day. I swear you can practically feel the vitality radiating through you.

The ingredients are all things that I generally keep on hand:

• couple of big handfuls of baby spinach and/or spring mix
• 2 large mushrooms (white or cremini, sliced)
• 3" piece of English cucumber, sliced
• 2 hard boiled eggs, sliced
• six big slices of pickled beets, chopped
• sprinkle of vegan mozzarella cheez shreds
• a tablespoonful (give or take) of raw pumpkin seeds, shelled
• your favourite dressing (I love Farm Boy's apple cider vinaigrette)

Toss it all into a giant bowl, mix it up and go to town. The best part is, you can tweak it based on your preferences or what you have on hand. Don't have any dairy issues? Use regular mozzarella. Don't have any hardboiled eggs, or have an aversion to them? Just leave them out, maybe substituting a different kind of protein (hemp hearts, tofu, chopped lunchmeat). Don't like beets? You could leave them out, but there's a fair bit of evidence they're really good for you both for general health and performance. I'd really suggest giving them a chance - you may find you don't mind them when they're all mixed in with everything else. You can add other things in if you want, too - I've enjoyed it with dried cranberries, cooked sweet potato, and even chopped raw broccoli in the past.

This can all be whipped up the day before (sans dressing - add it just a few minutes before eating, unless you want things to get a bit soggy and wilted), too, and stored in the fridge so it's ready to just grab and eat after a hard workout.

It might seem a bit odd to be eating salad when it's now about a million degrees below freezing, but from both a flavour and nutrition standpoint you just can't beat this for a meal. Add a hot bowl of your favourite soup and you'll be ready to take on anything!

Because even icy trails of death can take you beautiful places.

Let me eat cake

I got myself into a bit of trouble over the winter nutritionally, but I'm eating my way back out of it.

OMNOMNOM

In the last few months, I've been trying to cut down on my sugar intake. I don't think anyone can convincingly argue that sugar is really good for you, and it is increasingly suspect as the culprit in numerous health issues. I'd still eat some directly before, during or after a hard workout, but I tried to reduce as much as possible outside those times. I didn't totally cut out other carbohydrate sources - I'd still have a sweet potato with almond butter & cinnamon for breakfast (SO GOOD), pasta for dinner once a week, make pad thai on Mondays, have rice with fish and veggies a couple of times a week - but I kept my portions very moderate in an effort to strip off some of the Christmas pudding. I'd make Tanker a bowl of pasta but eat mine out of a mug; he'd have a dinner plate of pad thai and I'd have a dessert plateful.

I fell into two traps - one external, and one internal. The external one was in listening once again to all the dietary advice out there for both athletes and non-athletes alike to eschew carbohydrates in favour of more protein and fat. Whether you're calling it Paleo, Primal, or just low carb, there has been a huge push in recent years to reduce people's intake of sugars and starches in the name of health and weight loss. Many elite endurance athletes have made successful transitions to a low carbohydrate intake with no loss of performance, so how bad could it be? So, in an effort to curb my voracious appetite, I'd eat bushels of vegetables and a fair bit of meat, adding nuts, coconut and avocado for healthy fat sources.

Roast chicken, zucchini, onion, garlic & mushrooms - a delicious low-carb dinner.

The internal trap that snared me was thinking that winter equates to the off season. I tapered a bit after Christmas for the RUN4RKIDS 8-hour in early January, then had to take a few days off afterward for recovery from both the race and emergency dental surgery. I was rebuilding distance as the Frosty Trail 3-hour came 'round later that month, and didn't even take a single day off post-race because I didn't feel I needed it. I generally figure that it takes me 1 week to recover completely (enough for another hard effort) for every hour of racing, so that would mean I was finally back on my feet from RUN4RKIDS by March 4th - less than 2 weeks ago. 

By that time I'd run over 400km since the 8-hour. As of Wednesday I passed 700km for the year so far, and my average for the last month has been over 75km per week. This actually represents about the largest training block I've ever put in. The idea that I "didn't need" the extra calories a slice or two of bread would provide sounds patently ridiculous when put in that perspective, which I finally gained just a few weeks ago.

Just a few kilometers here and there..

I was tired. So freakin' tired. I had just finished that 72.5km week and was ready to lay down dead, before I even started adding back any cycling or swimming to my training. All I was doing is running, walking a bit, and my usual strength work - I was even getting more sleep than usual, but nothing was helping. I decided I needed a recovery week, so that's where the 66.8km bar fits in - I was just too shagged out to do any more.

Throughout all this, though, my weight was increasing. Despite being hungry around the clock and running more than I have since the build for Dirty Girls last year, my clothes were getting tighter and the scale was moving the wrong way. I was chubby, cranky (I have no idea how Tanker put up with me!), cold, hungry and utterly disheartened.

I really do like carrots, though..

Finally it dawned on me - I was in almost the exact same place I'd been in 2011. Having just figured out that gluten and I couldn't be friends (it's not me - it's definitely you) and hearing all about the wonderful results people were getting with Paleo, I decided to give it a try while training for my first half iron distance triathlon. I had the same result the last time: weight gain, fatigue, irregular hormonal cycles, and utter bafflement as to why this wasn't working the way everyone said it should.

Then I remembered some stuff I had read back then, about how females may actually suppress their thyroid function by reducing carbohydrate intake too much. I did some quick searching for "hypothyroid symptoms" and immediately knew I was on to something. The fatigue; feeling cold all the time; muscle soreness/failure to recover from workouts; weight gain; heavy, painful & irregular menstruation (yeah, TMI - sorry guys!); crappy memory and even worse mood...even the outer third of my eyebrows being nearly non-existent and the weird hoarseness (without having a sniffle to explain it) to which I'd awoken the day after a very long, hard run...it was all there on the list.

AH-HA!

Having finally put two and two together, I started adding back carbohydrates and dialing back the fat intake. I started on Monday, February 20th with a couple of simple things - a small bowl of oatmeal, a bit more pad thai for dinner - and by the very next day I felt like a brand new person! Enough that I was able to energetically run on my lunch, ride the trainer after work, then hit the pool before a late dinner.

Since then, I've been able to increase my training again, I'm no longer constantly freezing or starving, and the stubborn pudge is finally starting to fall away. Both the scale and the fit of my clothing are showing definite improvement - as of last night there is much less of me poking out from the edges of my swimsuit - and I have much better energy both during and outside of training. I'm also much, much less miserable to be around! My experience is far from unique: searching will yield numerous pages of other women's stories of failure to thrive on reduced carbohydrate intake, and a few brave scientists are finally publishing material about the effect of your sex (and thus your hormone levels) on your dietary needs. There is also new research being done that indicates the Female Athlete Triad (TL;DR: restricting calories resulting in lack of menstrual cycle & bone loss) - traditionally associated with disordered eating and very low body fat levels - may actually have more to do with the body's perception of energy availability regardless of body composition. Since "fat burns in a carbohydrate flame", my poor body may have felt that I was so severely lacking in calories it needed to halt all non-essential metabolic functions.

Muffins to the rescue!

I still wish to keep my consumption of sugar to a minimal level (contrary to the first pic in this post, and really the title as well..), so simply buying a bag of cookies isn't the way I intend to solve this. I'm still trying to restrict simple sugars to before, during and after training, but I've started baking again - the cranberry orange pumpkin seed muffins seen above were last weekend's fuel, and I'll probably celebrate St. Paddy's Day by baking a loaf of soda bread this evening. You may note that there was a drop in run mileage last week (from 84.4km to 79.5km), but that was due to trail conditions being a sketchy mess of frozen and thawed, claggy mud under the snow that fell last week. I was on the trails moving for just as long; I simply didn't make it as far.

The sunshine was super pretty, even though it was cold as hell.

Lest you think I may have impaired my fat burning abilities (which admittedly are highly valuable for ultrarunning, where you're moving at moderate effort for hours longer than your carbohydrate stores and GI tract can provide), Sunday's run was actually 2h20m of trail running & hiking done on nothing but water - I'd had a bagel with a fried duck egg and peameal bacon for breakfast, all washed down with a cup of coffee about 90mins beforehand, but took in no calories along the way.

The hiking because of stuff like this.

I still had sufficient energy in the last half-hour to run sustained on the paved Downtown Trail and CNR Spurline Trail in Guelph after leaving GORBA, too, so I certainly wasn't bonking. That tells me that a couple of weeks of increased carbohydrate intake haven't ruined my ability to use fat as fuel; it's just giving me my life back!

WAHOOOOOOEEEEEEEE

So the lesson here is that what works for one person may not be what works for you. I'm not interested in being told I was doing Paleo/Primal/low carb "wrong" - there's increasing research being published indicating it's a poor option for endurance athletes, and I am pretty solid in my conviction (having tried reducing CHO twice to highly detrimental effect) that a higher carbohydrate approach is the best approach for me personally. If you'd like to take your own nutrition in another direction, I'm not here to say you're wrong; we're all an experiment of one, and I wish you success in finding the best way to fulfill your own dietary needs! If you're not seeing the results you want from a low carb approach, though - especially if you're female - you owe it to yourself to consider that protein and fat may not be the saviours they're touted to be for you.

One last note about weight loss for athletes: I recently read something that really resonated with me, because I have been known to restrict calories as much as possible while attempting to reach race weight. This is a quote from a fellow who is currently experimenting with a pure "calories in/calories out" approach to weight loss by eating nothing but burgers, pizza, ice cream, cake and doughnuts:

"For weight loss, I used to have the mindset of trying to get away with as few calories as possible. This project has changed my mindset to try and get in as many calories as I can while still losing weight. The difference is remarkable just in terms of daily energy and workout energy" - Rob Gray 

So if you're going hard on the trails all day, maybe give yourself the leeway to do a little hard at the dinner table as well.

Who wants to say no to homemade chocolate chip zucchini bread anyway?

Don't get me wrong - vegetables are still the number one mainstay of my nutrition, with my sweet potato breakfast, morning snack of carrots & cucumbers, daily afternoon salad and copious vegetables with dinner. But, I'm really enjoying having french toast and bagels again for weekend brunches, not to mention my homemade goodies. Speaking of which, I'm going home to do some baking!

Just giving it away

It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of the EFS Liquid Shot gel from First Endurance (as evidenced by past race reports). Unfortunately, it seems to be an endangered species in Canada these days - when I went to pick some up prior to the Vulture Bait 50k in October, I was told that my favourite local running store was completely out of stock and would have to order it in.

Hmph.

So I tried another outlet I've reliably ordered from in the past. 

Nothing doing.

I tried several other places - anyone I could find in this country that said they carried it - all of whom were out of stock.

In the end, I ran Vulture Bait on a hodgepodge of Gu flavours with some Endurance Tap thrown in. It went ok, but I really love the convenience of having my gels in a flask rather than individual packets (not to mention the reduced impact on the environment, particularly since I usually buy the 32oz refill jug), plus the way my body seems to process the nutrition without any issues.  

Since I was down in the US last month, I decided to order some supplies shipped to the friend's place so I could bring it back with me, since EFS Liquid Shot still seems to be in plentiful supply in that country. When I opened the parcel from First Endurance, I got a surprise: they'd included samples of new flavours of their Ultragen recovery beverage.

Vanilla and chocolate, oh my!

Unfortunately, my dairy allergy won't permit me to use these. I really wish I could, since I actually bought a tub of the cappucino flavour a few years ago and used it after big or intense training days. Whether it was placebo effect or not, I seemed to recover quite well when I used Ultragen, despite some nasty side effects on my gastrointestinal tract. 

Let's just say Tanker is pretty happy I don't use it anymore.

So, since 'tis the season for giving, I'm offering up these two samples to a lucky blog reader. Just comment below if you want a chance to win these sample packets, and I'll draw a name at random from the list of commenters. Please include some way to get in touch with you so I can get your postal address to send these out! I won't limit it to any particular geographical region, since as a Canadian I'm sick and tired of being disqualified from this sort of draw and won't engage in that sort of shenanigans. 

Good luck and good recovery to you all!

Seems Like Science: Remove your excuses

In almost every race, we're forced to bargain with ourselves. If you're racing at an intensity that's appropriate for the distance, you'll eventually hit a point where you'll have to argue with your body about slowing down while it's presenting some pretty solid reasons for doing so. One of the biggest keys to racing success will be your ability to remove the excuses your body will try to give you, so let's review a few of the ways you can prepare yourself to keep on pushing.

We've all been there.

Training

This seems stupidly obvious, but it's worth mentioning. Every single workout you do is one more drop in the bucket of water you can throw on your body's lame-ass demands to slow down, stop and just curl up for a nap in the middle of the race course. The harder the workout, the closer you get to blowing yourself up to squeeze out one last interval, the stronger your voice will be able to shout LALALALALALANOTLISTENING when your legs are screaming at you that they've had enough and it's Miller time.

I don't think it'll be a big seller.

Tailoring your training to your chosen races will produce the best results. If you're going to be racing in Hawaii, doing all of your training in mild temperatures is going to leave you gasping. Similarly, if your race is a cross-country course with hills akimbo, running exclusively on the local highschool's track is probably not your best tactic. The more specific the preparation, the easier it will be to pull a Jens Voigt - because you've already done the work before, you know you're capable, which is a huge mental boost.

Nutrition

Not surprisingly, your body doesn't perform at its peak when you're hungry or hypoglycemic (that's low on blood sugar, kids). In endurance events that last longer than 90-120mins, there are proven benefits to consuming a carbohydrate solution to supplement muscle glycogen stores, which will generally deplete within that timeframe. There have also been demonstrable benefits to rinsing with a carbohydrate solution for shorter events, even if no calories are actually consumed. If your body is telling you that it's completely spent, you may be able to quiet that voice with some sugar.

I won't judge how you go about it.

Hydration

Similarly to the above, there is a proven decline in cardiovascular function as a direct result of dehydration. A thirsty body will slow down and begin to shut down no matter how strong your will to power through may be, so take a moment and hit that aid station for a cup of water or sport drink. There's evidence that the latter may be preferable, as the carbohydrate and electrolyte content may increase fluid absorption, keeping you better hydrated and able to maintain intensity. There's a pretty exhaustive hydration guide here.

'Cause noone wants to be this guy.

Pacing

One of the easiest ways to ensure that you'll end up blown and unable to maintain pace in a race is to go out too fast. You only have so many "matches" to burn, and once they're gone, you're going to be left limping to the finish line...assuming you can make it there at all. To avoid a performance explosion, you can either buy some fancy gadgetry (GPS device showing pace for runners or a power meter for cyclists), or you can pace by feel. If you intend to do the latter, you'll have to train at your intended race pace until you know it absolutely intuitively - so well as to be able to overcome the adrenaline and zippy, easy feeling from being tapered and rested at the starting line of an event. This is one of the toughest things to really nail down, but when you manage it, the first third of the race will tend to feel too easy, the second third will start to feel like work, and the final kilometers will have you ready to barf your lungs all over the finish line as your legs simultaneously fall off.

If you can coordinate all of the above, you can generally mitigate the effects of fatigue, using your mental strength to carry you through those last agonizing minutes. The suffering only lasts a little while - you can always collapse later!

Me after every single race.

How do you shut down your body's excuses? Let us know your tips and tricks in the comments!