Scott Jurek - Food as Fuel: Plant-based Food for Endurance Athlete

hello good afternoon everyone thank you so much for coming to the seed we have a very great speaker for you today Scott Jurek ultra runner and author of eat and run applause awesome good so he is going to be speaking and then doing a book signing and taking some of your questions there and also wanted to tell you guys we have a VIP after-party today we're selling tickets at the raffle booth for $50 we have an hour open bar a VIP goodie bag all for $50 and all benefit to Farm Sanctuary and also have really great raffle sales going on over there all proceeds go to Farm Sanctuary and there we go Scott Jurek thank you so much all right well thank you for coming today let me just get a quick show of hands how many have run an ultra marathon in the audience excellent okay no prerequisite required that you had to run an ultra marathon and I asked that because I'm going to give you a little idea those of you who aren't familiar with what I do a lot of you know I am a plant-based athlete I've been performing in ultra marathons for almost 20 years now and I'll give you a little idea I'm sorry the slides are going to be a little small for those of you in the back but we're going to get into some nutrition concepts how I fuel my body as well as things that you can learn whether you're somebody who's a new athlete to any type of endurance sport you don't have to be runner and how you can incorporate that into your own diet as well as into your own exercise goals so a little bit about me by the way this one's not working right I assume this just asked something I try to block this one because it's not going to work I think the whole time so those of you who aren't familiar I grew up in northern Minnesota I was you know basically I grew up on one of those dirt roads where your next neighbor who had any kids that you could play with was probably a few miles away and I spent a lot of time in the gardens picking rocks pulling weeds I spent a lot of time hunting and fishing I basically I grew up Minnesota redneck so sorry if anybody else grew up like me but it was um it was a fun life and for the most part I learned a lot from being out in the woods and spending time with my brothers and sisters spending time with my mother she was a home economics teacher anybody take home AK in school I don't know if they teach it anymore but uh she was one of those teachers who basically taught you how to cook and sew and do all the things that you know are important I think to learn in life and so we grew up basically a lot of time in the kitchen cooking you know everything from pot roast to cookies and it was a real enjoyable experience for me about the time that I was seven years old she developed multiple sclerosis and the symptoms with that and this is a photo of her towards the end of her life and she really taught me a lot about you know taking care of my body through health and nutrition but as she aged and as she developed more and more symptoms her disease really hit home with me in terms of thinking more about what I was putting into my body on a nutritional daily basis and I think that's key to is any of you who've had an illness in the family it it hits home where you start to realize like okay I want to see what I can do to improve my health long-term for me you know I then became an ultra-marathoner a few years later started getting into this crazy sport of running 50 mile races eventually 100 mile races and you know around that same time I started thinking differently about my own diet and what I was putting into my body and initially it was for health I didn't think I was going to become a faster ultra marathoner had no idea what it was going to do to my performance my recovery and later of course it had a huge impact but when I first started racing it was all about putting in more miles this is a photo from the western states 100 a race that I've won seven times in a row from 1999 to 2005 and each year it was all about how can I tweak my training how can I tweak my nutrition to get the results that I wanted to year after year after year and by the way if you've ever heard about the western states 100 this is the best place to be on that whole course it's about mile 78 and you get to cross the American River basically fresh mountain snow water melt that's coming down the river and typically the race you can reach temperatures up to 105 degrees and this is typically the hottest time of the day for the top competitors it traverses over the Sierra Mountains from Valley climbs 18,000 feet descends 23,000 feet and you finished on the high school track and Auburn and a picture of me finishing across that line for the first time in the daylight now a lot of you might say well Scott I have you know I've helped runners or I've run across that finish line the day at the time usually it's the next day so for my my goal is to get across that finish line in 15 hours 36 minutes and to give you an idea of what kind of pace that is that's 9 minute 22 second piece and again it's it's not Central Park running or Prospect Park running it's again 18,000 feet of climbing with rocks and roots and technical trails another event that I've I don't know I've got to be mentally insane to try this one but yours years ago I said no way I'd never do bad water um bad water is 135 mile race from the lowest point the lower 48 and actually the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere Badwater Basin 246 feet below sea level it then finishes at the portal of Mount Whitney it used to finish on the top of Mount Whitney so the highest point in the lower 48 and you go across Death Valley and also another valley called Panamint valley and that valley isn't known for its scorching temperatures temperatures can reach 125 plus degrees during the heat of the day and at night even in the dark those of you have read eat and run I describe temperatures you know 10:00 p.m. it's still well over 100 degrees and it's pitch-black out you just don't get a whole lot of reprieve from the heat typically to you shield yourself from the elements so a lot of people are wondering you know why would you have all those clothes on it's a hundred and you know 25 degrees you know once you want to run naked but you're actually trying to insulate yourself from the exposure to the hot sun rays as well as the Sun bouncing off the pavement so super extreme conditions probably one of the most beautiful places I've run but also one of the toughest foot races I have encountered um anybody read Born to Run in the audience okay we got a bunch of you um I was fortunate enough basically about seven years ago actually now it's coming up to about eight years ago to go down to the Copper Canyon and run with Taramati Indians and it was one of my trips that I'd had on my list for a long time I wanted to go down there and experience you know these people who live in their traditional ways basically through hundreds and hundreds of years of transitions and changes that have occurred in the canyons down there and they still maintain a running tradition throughout their culture and throughout the tribes I um did a 50-mile race with those and I won't ruin the story for any of those who haven't read Born to Run or my book but it was one of those experiences I went down there not to you know Chris McDougall talks about well Scott went down there to like race against the tar Ammar and I really went down there to run with them and really learn from them and see what I could learn they're also known to eat a mostly plant-based diet throughout much of their existence they've subsisted off of you know corn and beans and some vegetables but they're staples are the foods that we should all be feeling our bodies with I feel another finally another race that I competed in was the spartathlon we have any Greeks in the audience got to have some out there okay this is our tap Ilan is amazing race that goes from Athens to Sparta 152 miles commemorates the run that fitties Ryan basically 200 BC he ran that distance to get a message to the Spartans at the time Athens was being attacked by the Persians and so they used to put messengers to deliver messages he ran 150 to miles got to Sparta and the Spartans actually said sorry we're having a big festival can't help you out right now you had to turn around and deliver the message back in Athens that he couldn't we weren't getting reinforcements but that this race commemorates that legendary run fortunately we only have to go to Sparta we don't go both directions we just get to do the one direction but I'm an amazing place you know you run through little villages the children come out on their bicycles out on foot chase you down just you know cheering you on the people are amazing and any of you know you know of course Greek food is fantastic so it's a it's a great place if you're an ultra-marathoner as well as vegan another race to the ultra-trail Trudeau Mount Blanc is one that I've gone over for five years I haven't had my best race there but it basically circumnavigates Mount Blanc over 106 miles 33,000 feet of climbing and descending you basically go through three countries and finish up in Xiamen e so another test of endurance and lastly I'll talk about this a little bit later is the the race called the hardrock 100 it's a hundred miles through the San Juans if any of you been to Telluride and some of the the places in the southern western part of Colorado these mountains are known for the ruggedness this course has over 33,000 feet of climbing but it's like you're doing it with a cocktail straw in your mouth because the altitude is so severe you're at 12,000 feet for much of the race you climb a 14,000 foot peak which is in this slide right here and you finish in a small town called Silverton and after all that you like I said you climbed over 33,000 feet it's a quite spectacular place to go and and hike or run depending upon what you want to do and I'll talk a little bit about how I made that race a little bit harder but the main reason I'm here today is to talk about fueling our bodies and as I mentioned you know years ago when I first started ultra marathon running I just kind of put whatever I wanted into my body I was one of those individuals who went to McDonald's at least three four times a week to make chicken sandwiches and a large Lord order of fries which really my go-to meal you know I used to think I ate healthfully but um it really wasn't that healthy um but when I started thinking differently about diet and had a few individuals kind of you know twist my arm and get me thinking differently I started thinking okay I'm doing all these crazy runs I am you know putting my body through the wringer so to speak and at the end of it I want to come out without all these injuries without all these diseases that I was seeing working in a hospital seeing you know with my mother having multiple sclerosis things that I wanted to avoid so I read the book mad cow boy by Howard Lyman as well as books by dr. Andrew Weil spontaneous healing that's really what got me thinking differently about food and food more as performance fuel high octane fuel that we put into our body so the way I look at the body and in a live you like Scott why are you relating the human body to a race car it's not very environmentally friendly but um I like to talk about you know we our bodies our race cars now we can put any type of fuel into that race car and it'll probably go down the road it might make it around you know the track several hundreds of times but you know is it going to actually be better for the engine long-term and so when we think about our bodies and fueling it I like to liken it to a race car and would you put regular unleaded fuel into a race car or would you put high-octane high-grade fuel and that's really you know what we need to think about it now we know like the race car we can definitely get around the track we can survive if we you know even put unhealthy plant-based food I mean Mountain Dew and Twinkies is technically plant-based right it'll keep you alive and it'll keep you running for a while but will it maintain and sustain health long term and that's really I think the message I wanted to all of you to leave today those of you whether you're plant-based or not really think differently about the fuel you're putting into your body and really how can you put high octane fuel into it so a couple of things I think the benefits of a plant-based diet for me one of the big things as an athlete I started taking responsibility for my health a lot of us in modern society don't really you know we assume doctors and technology will keep us you know healthy and strong and alive for many years but one big advantage I think of a plant-based diet for me was I started being more involved in my health taking more responsibility secondly I really was in it for the long term it's about longevity I wasn't looking for a quick fix a lot of athletes are looking for you know that Magic Bullet that's going to allow them to perform better and faster and stronger and really a plant-based diet is not going to some of you have maybe had success stories where you start feeling better immediately but some of you have been noticing probably like well I didn't really notice a huge difference and you have to really think about long term what is it doing to your cholesterol levels what is it doing to your heart health you know avoiding things like diabetes and for athletes we don't usually think about that we always just want to go faster now there are benefits as an athlete and things that I noticed but for me it was really about what what's it going to be like 20-30 years down the line I just didn't want to get my performances I wanted to really think about it you know long term home again improve my health and then of course the satisfaction any of you who cook your own meals know this that when you put time and energy into your diet you're definitely more satisfied you feel mentally stronger because you know what you're putting into your body on a daily basis and that's as an athlete I think that's a huge performance edge knowing what goes into your body and being in control of that I think and you know really help when it comes to race day and you're on that starting line and everybody else has you know performed and trained and you know prepared their bodies similarly having a little bit of an edge mentally can can make a huge difference okay um do we have any paleo folks in the audience by the way did they let them in of course and there's some this is why I bring this up because I think sometimes in the whole athlete performance arena for diet right now there's a lot of debate and there always has been there's always new diets and I like to embrace things such as you know I think we need to get along together and realize that there's benefits of a lot of diets and so rather than kind of section ourselves off and not talk to individuals but there's a great number of people to who may be adopted a paleo plant-based type of diet too so my basic what I want to say is basically there's a ton of diets out there there's gonna be a lot of confusion and in the end if you look at the diets that are successful the things that people benefit from the most are usually they contain fruits and vegetables whole plant foods now some of them if you're paleo you don't typically incorporate grains and legumes but if you look around at successful diets around the world and if you look at traditionally what people ate a lot of it's centered around legumes fruits and vegetables and of course some whole grains as we began cultivating more and if we look at around the world - history tells us that some of the longest lived cultures and people typically have a lot of plant-based foods maybe they're not a hundred percent plant-based but a majority of their diet is centered around plant-based foods and I think there's really something to be said with that they typically are whole as much as possible organic and then of course very simple food you don't need complex ingredients if you look at the way most the world has lived they typically have lived off of very few ingredients and very few in foods not as much variety as we have today we're pretty fortunate that we're allowed to have that and then of course some a lot of plants now I mentioned earlier we're going to talk a little bit about hard rock so the hard rock 100 I badly sprained my ankle you can see in this photo here basically I am I've got black and blue running all the way up to my knee if you can see in the berry back I decided to play soccer with a bunch of six years old two days before the race it was a YMCA dare program not a good idea if you're doing hard rock badly sprained my ankle basically was the size of a grapefruit two days before the start I've been training a year in basically four seven eight months to get ready for that ray trained a month down in Colorado basically put a Aircast a bunch of duct tape and a couple of other braces around my ankle ran it and set a new course record of 26 hours and eight minutes at that time and I did it with zero ibuprofen no anti inflammatory drugs basically sorry if you can't read this in the back but basically turmeric Romblon Arnica Montana ginger vitamin C and I Euston compression and that's all I did now it hurts of course everybody asked well it did it cure it completely no it's not going to cure it completely but my message here is that plants have a lot of power and healing attributes to them a lot of drugs will diminish some of the symptoms initially you might notice less pain but it actually prolongs the inflammatory cycle so I think as an athlete or those who are active we go through you know periods of inflammatory high points and low points those of you who might have a disease process going on or something affecting you we go in and out of those inflammatory cycles and I think it's key to to start recognizing that plants really can be our medicine I think Hippocrates said it best when he said you know let food be your medicine and you know all of us can incorporate that I think into our daily life thinking of food not just something that we get energy from but rather something that heals our body keeps our body running well okay so everybody asked me you know Scott how do you run these crazy 100-mile races you know through Death Valley through you know high altitude and basically keep your body running well so I thought I'd kind of break my diet down those of you want to get the Scott Jurek secrets watch the next couple of slides and go through I'm going through here so we'll basically keep it my key thing and message in my diet has always been integration so many of us when we try to go plant-based or change our diet we really just think about elimination so rather than think about the foods that you can't eat think about the foods that you can incorporate it's very important because if you go somewhere to eat with your friends and you end up somewhere like a steak joint and if you just think about all the foods that you can't eat you're pretty much left with maybe broccoli and Tytos and that's about it so when you're thinking about your new diet try to think about new foods that you can incorporate to replace the foods that you used to eat I think it's really critical secondly think of quantity a lot of athletes and active people tell me Scott I tried to go vegan I tried to go plant-based or even vegetarian and I just didn't have the energy typically what you're lacking in is not enough calories because you're just eating salad which is great it's healthy but if you're trying to maintain your carbohydrate intake if you're trying to maintain protein and fat salad is not the only thing you're going to be able to eat or can maintain a healthy diet and then thirdly focus on quality so after you got the integration and after you've got the quantity then you can start thinking about quality because there's a lot of amazing foods out there and sometimes people get bogged down and like well Scott I'm not eating enough quinoa I'm not eating enough goji berries really it's you know focus on the quantity then you can start getting into the quality and I think that's the fun aspect of the diet there's are so many foods out there but first make sure you're getting enough so your energy levels are staying high okay um those of you have seen me with big plates of food been known for my ability to put down a lot of food volume well that's because as an ultra-marathoner there may be days where I'm consuming 5,000 or more calories a day now this is the part of the program that changes depending on the sport that you're doing so you don't have to follow Scott Jurek's plan unless you're doing ultra endurance events unless you're doing a bodybuilding where you're trying to put on a lot of lean muscle mass but as an ultra endurance athlete calorie intake can be huge so when it comes to consuming that that's where it gets difficult a lot of times you know I can't just chow down on salads it means incorporating a higher fat content which I'll get into next year typically - I try to incorporate as much organic Whole Foods as possible so usually when I'm traveling it kind of varies but 80 to 90 percent of that is organic mostly Whole Foods because I love to cook and do a lot of meal preparation and the key thing here too is I was one of those guys who said why am i spending five dollars a pound or you know six dollars a pound on some organic produce when I could be getting a cheaper it really took me a while to start thinking of it as health insurance and in making investment in my health and a lot of us as we know from statistics today spend you know half the amount of money that we used to spend on food even just twenty five thirty years ago so I think you know the investment of organic the investment of whole you know high-quality fuel is really key and if you can't do that initially then try to eat you know lower on the pesticide level you know foods there's the Dirty Dozen try to vote the way those foods that are really high in pesticide levels but really think of it as cheap health insurance first and foremost okay so my diets usually around 50 to 60 percent carbohydrate because I know a lot of people think in terms of macronutrients it's just what we've been indoctrinated with typical health and nutrition so carbohydrates I try to do as much whole-grain as possible when I do bread for instance I do more sprouted breads try to avoid a lot of white flour I think that's key is beer really looking at long-term health fruits and vegetables are a mainstay usually for breakfast I might have two or three pieces of fruit it's a really key element I think in the morning to kind of get that blood glucose level up incorporate some you know sugars but also incorporating that real fiber with it legumes and whole grains too a lot of people don't realize that legumes they're known as of course as protein sources but densely rich in carbohydrate and for active folks for those of you who want to get a nice slow burning typically their low glycemic so you're not going to have those surges and spikes and your glycemic index and dropping at the end so they really kind of help maintain a level Plateau when it comes to incorporating those I do a little bit of pasta might be rice or whole grain pasta but not as much okay here's the big one fat some people may look at this and say Scott 20 to 30% fat seems awfully high especially if you look at you know MacDougal and if you look at some of the the folks out there whether it's Esselstyn if you have cardiovascular disease or your treating you know high blood pressure you're treating potential you know high risk cardiovascular patients definitely you know that is lower but as an athlete and somebody who's active and those of you who you know maybe have been low energy on a plant-based diet you might consider bumping up the fat intake the reason for that is the great thing about fat it's 9 basically 9 calories per gram and I know in the u.s. we've been told for so many years like low fat low fat well that's kind of coming back now and I think it can be healthy if you're burning those calories as an athlete it'd be very hard for me just to eat bowls of pasta all day long because of course that just has 4 calories per gram so um for me and trying to get 5,000 calories and day that's where I bump up the fat level and I think a lot of folks would benefit from that if of course you're eating healthy fat so the second part of you know boosting that up is eating healthy fats things like olives olive oil almonds I do a fair amount of like nut butters I'm a big almond butter fan things like avocados those of you who have been doing a little research know with essential fatty acids it's a critical thing to incorporate I'm usually doing that via 7 sources these days used to use a lot of kudos oil the great thing about seven sources it has a plant-based EPA as well as DHA formula so that you don't have to worry about avoiding are not getting enough DHA and EPA those are two things that are very hard to get and they come from LG in plants so if you're a plant based eater look at your epa and DHA levels that can be really key to a lesser degree i do some sea sesame oil i cook with coconut when i'm going to be using high heat some of you may have her too you probably don't want to crank up your olive oil I used to use a lot of olive oil but I typically now saute in coconut oil or coconut milk as much as possible just because it's a more stable you due to the being saturated fat okay protein this is where everybody is confused and with athletes they're always talking protein I just want to say here again because you can't hear this enough you can get plenty of protein on a plant-based diet whether you're doing endurance sports ultra endurance sports power sports sports where you're ripping down your muscles and having to build them back up now you can't do it again if you're just eating salads all day long you know you can be fine just kind of doing a normal diet not hot low activity level and eat you know low on the protein side but if you're an athlete or somebody who's active you need to really look at your protein levels the way that I do it I'm a big tofu and tempeh fan some of you might not be too into soy foods but it can be I think we've gotten too scared of soy and cultures have been consuming soy for you know literally you know thousands of years and utilizing that incorporating that so the key thing is avoid the really heavily processed soy products um they're great for transitioning and they're great for you know once in a while but I like to really stick with the tofu and the tempeh tempeh by the way if you don't like tofu it's got a different texture you should really give it a try it's three grams of protein to one gram of fat so if you want a really lean high protein source look at tempeh I think it's a amazing food I usually incorporate at least 2-3 times a week whole grains when you combine them with beans and you know legumes you essentially can get the full range of amino acids if you look at research too you don't have to consume them in the same meal years ago they used to say okay you got to get your your legumes and your grains at the same time in order to make sure that you're complementing those proteins well most of the research analysis as long as you're consuming a variety of amino acids throughout the day there's no issue with it but the key is you want to get some from grains and some from beans and legumes so just kind of mix that up throughout your day um big smoothie fans out in the audience anybody in the ion's smoothie fans okay it's kind of the way I start my morning to to get a good amount of calories because I usually make a higher fat smoothie with a lot of fruit but I also incorporate brown rice and pea protein there are a lot of protein powders out there I tend to just mix brown rice and pea protein get them in bulk larger amounts and just complement them again with the amino acids make sure I'm getting some grain some beans and that's kind of what I do I do a little bit of hemp protein powder keep in mind though hemp is a little bit lower in protein relative to the bulk so you got to use a lot of hemp to get a lot of protein and then lastly nuts and seeds and they're lower on the totem pole when it comes to protein so if you're going to consume nuts and seeds in thinking you're getting lots of protein make sure you kind of adjust that because they're actually higher in fat healthy fats typically but I'm just make sure that you're not doing too much seeds and thinking oh I'm getting plenty of protein okay supplements now you can't see this photo definitely not in the back but it's an ultra friend of ultra running friend of mine Erik Clifton and he's been vegetarian I think for 35 years and everybody asked me Scott should I use supplements do you use supplements well he's got a plate this is after a 50-mile run he's got a piece of pizza a bunch of potato chips a bagel with whipped cream and skittles on the top of it and I think yeah there's a bagel with peanut butter and M&Ms on the top of that if you're going to eat like Eric and I've seen him like devour a whole gallon of ice cream in one sitting um if you're going to be a vegetarian or plant-based eater like Eric then I would strongly encourage you to take supplements because you're probably not getting enough micronutrients into your diet but generally speaking I incorporate very few supplements into my diet and my whole belief is that you can get it from food so the key thing here is looking at your b12 levels I do supplement with a b-complex vitamin quite frequently throughout my training season if you're not doing a lot of fortified foods b12 is something that most vegans and plant-based folks should be taking a look into also to a lesser degree iron calcium zinc magnesium these can be some micronutrients that you can be low in women more so than men when it comes to iron I do take a liquid iron supplement because I'm training in Colorado where I'm at altitude so a lot of times you know for a much the year my red blood cells are being a little bit you know turned over at a higher rate so I've found kind of with a liquid iron that's easier on the stomach not a real aggressive amount has helped but most men in general don't have to worry so much about the iron we do however have to look at zinc and selenium those are two micronutrients you might in minerals you might want to incorporate I do just kind of an antioxidant blend just because I was a big fan of dr. Andrew Wiles work when it first came out and he was all about vitamin C selenium beta carotene and to a lesser degree calcium so I've just kind of kept that going but again it's more for the antioxidant effect and I know that's in debate right now do we really need a lot of antioxidants should we be supplementing with them I just kind of kept that going I don't think it's harmful but might be something that again you may not need to incorporate and then probiotics is the last thing that I incorporate these are basically you know your fermented foods I'm a big fan of kimchi sauerkraut miso things like that we are getting natural probiotics you can also do any type of coconut or soy yogurts that have probiotics in them or if you're not somebody who's as diligent on the food side you might want to think about supplementing that with a probiotic tablet or sublingual okay and then lastly when it comes to supplements I always like to bring up super greens and super foods because I feel like super foods and you know basically microgreens wheatgrass juice barley grass juice sprouts things like that those are great vitamin pills in their natural state so young plants and sprouts think of them really as like nature's supplements there are ways that you can incorporate a lot of antioxidants a lot of vitamins minerals micronutrients phytonutrients all the good things that we should be getting but you don't have to take them in a pill incorporating those into your diet I feel like is way better than just taking a pill that has a bunch of vitamins and minerals and micronutrients so I'm a big fan of those along with that seaweed too you know there's a lot of debate too with iodine and incorporating that if you're a big sea salt fan you should probably be blending some seaweed into that because some sea salts can be basically non-existent in iodine and we have a few minutes for questions and we can take out lists I might actually put a couple slides well you can't see him in the back so I'll talk you through I have a few slides if some folks have questions on basically race and training nutrition so if we get a question or two about that I might throw up some of these I know it's gonna be hard to see but I have a few formulas because some people ask you know Scott how much should I eat when I'm cycling when I'm hiking when I'm running and I have a few slides so if we don't have questions or if you want me to go over those I'll go over those next but I wanted to lead at least we've got eight minutes for four questions here so I thought I'd open it up and the way I like to do question and answer so you guys are big Twitter fans right here in New York City okay so um please don't tell me your life story um I want basically the questions we're going to do lightning Q&A here so you're going to have to keep your questions to Twitter length okay those we aren't familiar with that it's about what 165 characters characters not words um so I'm going to take some questions from the audience I'll just kind of maybe start on the left side and work my way through and I'm going to answer them as quickly as possible so I'm going to keep them to hopefully a sentence maybe two sentences so I'm going to try to rip through as many as possible because I know a lot of you have come yes okay as a marathoner how do I recommend training with all the gels and all the sugar what should I be doing um you know hear what I say on that when you're training and racing your body is going to utilize that sugar and you shouldn't be so concerned okay because when you're out there exercising your body says hey give me some of that glucose I need it right now um now if you're going to be an ultra-marathoner and running say day after day really long I like to incorporate some real foods I've been working with Clif Bar for years and I use you know the cliff shot gels the cliff drinks very sugary stuff but what I would recommend you do if you're going out there longer you might want to incorporate some real food bananas potatoes bean and rice burritos I'm a big fan of mixing it up so um short amounts don't worry about if it's your 2 3 4 hour run I'm probably not a big deal if you're doing that everyday you might want to consider something different it's a good question a lot of people have it that was more than one sentence but it's a good one a lot of people ask other questions yes in the back yes yes so training for a triathlon um I'm probably not the best qualified because I don't know how to swim so first learn how to swim um it makes your life a lot easier from what I heard but at some point I'd like to give it a try I would recommend for triathlon training on what from what I've bought to training is that nutrition is really key so I'm going to leave this slide up because for those of you who I'm for any type of ultra endurance event or you know whether TAF Iron Man or Ironman or even marathon half marathon you should use this formula for figuring it how much carbohydrate to eat while you're training and racing anything over an hour and a half so I'll give it to you if you can write it down real quick it's 0.7 times your body weight in kilograms okay you have to do that conversion it's a metric conversions really easy to point to you divide your pounds by 2.2 so it's 0.7 times your body weight and kilograms is how many grams of carbohydrate you should consume per hour so grams of carbohydrate per hour on the high end it would be 1.0 times your body weight in kilograms so whether you're you know ultra cycling endurance running you name it if you're going longer than an hour and a half two hours I'm some of you might not eat or drink much except until like two two and a half hours and that's fine but in general most people when you start going beyond hour and a half two hours you will need to replace glucose carbohydrate and the reason for that is basically your glycogen will burn through at that point and you'll need to consume some glucose or carbohydrates so again um you can do this on a plant-based diet you do not need to eat a steak on the run or eat a pizza you want to focus on carbohydrates because that's what your body is really wanting to keep your endurance levels up okay you can incorporate fat and protein but not so the question on the triathlon side you're going to be out there longer typically unless it's a sprint try so any sport long this is probably my best recommendation is looking at your hydration and your nutrition to get through that event because it's a very long event compared to what most people do you spend a lot of time out there so practice eating on the bike practice eating on this not so much on the swim gets a little tricky but on the run especially because that's the last leg of the triathlon another couple questions yes I'm sorry ah so percentage of raw vs. cooked it's a good sorry sorry about that so the question was what percentage of my diet is reverse is cooked um I tried the raw food diet completely for about six weeks um and I learned a ton from it but most of my dad I would say is in the neighborhood of probably thirty forty percent raw partly because I have to consume so many calories um um I really had to blend a lot when I was going on the raw diet and it taught me a lot about combining foods making foods I never had and if it's dessert I raw food is amazing for dessert so I try to eat most of my desserts raw food but um I'm not saying it can't be done there's people who are doing it Michael Arnstein II actually I think was in New York he lived up in New York outside New York City up in Queens and he was completely an ultra runner that was completely on he was a fruitarian and so it can be done but it gets very difficult so my recommendation is eat as much as you are able to to maintain your calorie and your energy level up but I think the raw food diet is is pretty fascinating but there are times of the year to where I feel like the body kind of requests that we especially the cold months that we want a little bit of cooked food so I think it's always fine in that balance but it's also body type to some people do very well on it yes so to help recover and that that'll be one more slide you guys can write this one down this is really key right here this formula is how much carbohydrate and protein so she asked the question what do I do for recovery after working out now anytime you're doing a strength workout anytime you're doing anything longer than 90 minutes use this formula this is where protein comes into play so I mentioned carbohydrate during the run and while doing exercise um you don't need protein so much during that but it's the recovery too because protein helps basically build the glycogen stores back up in your muscles and there's a time window so remember this well next time you do a hard workout strength or endurance for longer than 90 minutes you should be getting this within 20 to 30 minutes of exercising so I'll give it to you quick it's basically 1.5 times your body weight in kilograms that's the grams of carbohydrate you should consume and it's not just one energy bar it's your energy bar might be a banana and then it might also be an energy drink so it's more than what you think um protein is 0.2 times your body weight in kilograms and that's the grams of protein so there is a reason that some of these protein bars have been coming out like 20 grams 25 grams it's for this recovery and it's based on your body weight so women you know 10 this is why they're getting more women's specific bars those are in the ten gram 15 gram range because they don't need as much as you know 190 pound guy that's working out so it's all based on weight and again protein and timing is really key for after the workout um otherwise to things like ice baths other things I do to recovery I think you know massage self massage foam rolling all of those some stretching big fan of strengthening not obviously after a workout but that helps prevent a lot of injuries too but this is really key for glycogen replenishment and I think I'm just about I maybe have one more time somebody tell me if I need to go but I'll answer one more question I think I've got yes I'm sorry leg cramps thanks yeah we gotta do it the old-fashioned way of Trenton so leg cramps um usually with like I'll give you two two quick things basically leg cramps muscle cramps can result from a couple of reasons number one it can result due to fatigue so um sometimes it's because you didn't quite properly train now some of you might decide to do New York City Marathon on a whim nothing wrong with it um just keep in mind you might get cramps just because you haven't prepared those muscles to fire thousands upon thousands of times it's not millions of times during that you know four or five six hour marathon that you decide to do on a whim now so training helps that in avoiding the fatigue the other thing is electrolytes and there's a lot of debate on this there's a ton of information out now saying well you don't really need to consume sodium while doing exercise you know your body will regulate that I'm a big fan of using sodium on the run so I typically do anywhere from 3 to 400 milligrams of sodium it was a woman who asked that question I would say for women because typically again it's bodyweight dependent you probably only need 200 maybe high end 300 milligrams per hour so what I would do is play with adding sodium and electrolytes into your regimen with fueling and hydrating so rather than just drink straight water if you're having issues with cramps look at either using tablets or capsules of electrolytes and incorporating those because sometimes people don't use the energy drink on the course because they're worried well I'm not used to it I'm not going to you know use it in a race you might bring your own I highly recommend I do capsules because I can regulate in addition to the electrolyte drinks I'm doing I can regulate it a little bit more and then I can drink it with straight water and all the other you know sport foods or real foods that I'm eating so look at electrolyte you can get there's a ton of them out there salt sticks succeed and then maybe look at drinks that have higher amounts of electrolytes if you're somebody who's not going to do capsules or tablets but they're great and that's very helpful for the cramping so I'm probably going to get booted off here so I'm going to head back sign some books it's been great being here at the seed I'm great to be back in New York City you guys are doing great stuff just the energy at events like this is fantastic so keep doing what you're doing and thank you for having me

Channel: TheSeedNYC

Views: 59,003

Rating: 4.8801994 out of 5

Keywords: Scott Jurek (Author), Running (Sport), Sports (TV Genre), Athletics (Sport), plant-based, Veganism (Diet), Marathon (Sport)

Id: OwBAFrSK-l8

Length: 44min 49sec (2689 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 06 2014