Paleo to Endurance transition
Background: Prior to May 2012, I did absolutely no swim, bike or run - just golf and doubles tennis.
In May of 2012, I weighed 235 (I am 5’ 8&rdquo
. I decided to get in shape with Crossfit and the Paleo Diet and between June and December I dropped down to 180. In January of 2013, I decided to become a triathlete after being inspired by some of the triathletes in my Crossfit box. I joined Lifetime Fitness, hired a 1-on-1 coach and completed a bunch of sprint triathlons in 2013. During my 2013 season, my weight dropped to a low of 162 - still sticking to the Paleo lifestyle. During the off-season (Oct through March) my weight crept up to 174, which is where I am today. I joined EN in February and I love the EN style.
I read the book “Racing Weight” recently because I’ve been thinking a lot about dialing in my nutrition. A lot of what I’m reading is saying that Paleo is not great for endurance athletes. According to Racing Weight, I should be taking in 3.75g per pound of body weight when training around 10 hours per week (my current level). For me that would be about 650g of carbs, which makes my Paleo self have a heart attack!
Since using the Paleo diet has been the only method which I’ve had success with, I am concerned about adding so many carbs in, even though the book says it’s right.
Does this sound right?
Of course, I would be sticking to “no processed foods” and adding only high quality carbs.
Has anyone else out there made this transition and can offer some advice or encouragement?
I am just really un-sure about how to make the transition and just how much to eat.
Comments
The Paleo Diet for Endurance Athletes by Loren Cordain (The Paleo diet author) and Joe Friel (need i explain who he is?) which explains how to do it:
Just accept that you need to be on a 'glucose drip" while running, biking, swimming hard but the rest of the meals stick to your Paleo plan. I never carb load or fuel with gluten but do use rice sources and sport drink. I follow the "core diet" fueling plan for racing and it works very well. Remember, triathletes are not cross fitters. If you want to perform well in triathlon, you need the carbohydrate as fuel-its ok if you are burning it up as you consume it. I have done my annual labs for the last two years that i have been in triathlon and my lipid panel and markers of inflammation are all still perfect, despite the carb fueling.
I have read about ketogenic diet (no carbs) and even that Ben Greenfield has gone ketogenic (triathlete, coach, etc.). When in ketosis, you always can access your fatty acids for fuel so supposedly you are never hungry and always have energy to exercise. However, it takes 21 days to be fully in ketosis and during that ramp up period you cannot do a hard spin or run-I tried. After two days, I got on the bike and in 10 minutes I was running to the kitchen to guzzle a bottle of ironman perform. This is something I may look into further.
I love to geek out about nutrition, paleo, gluten induced leaky gut syndrome etc so let me know if you want to get further into this
Betsy
My experience...
I did 90-95% paleo while training for IMAZ2011. Started eating that way in Feb 2011 all the way through race day in Nov.
I am also mostly dairy-free due to a slight lactose intolerance.
If you've already been paleo, then the transition won't hurt you. The transition took me about 3 weeks, of lethargy, fatigue, moodiness, low energy, etc. It was slow going. Don't expect to get much (effective) training in that period of time.
For in-ride nutrition, I use Nuun and Lara bars.
For long run nutrition, I used a banana pre-run and a gu/gel in-run. There's really no way to take solid paleo food with you - and digest it well- on the run.
I cheated on the weekends. Just couldn't help it with the massive amount of calories I was consuming, especially during the peak periods of training. Besides, a pizza tastes dam good with a beer or two!
And that gets me to my other point...beer. I have a weakness! Not very paleo though, technically.
So, it IS possible to be paleo and train for long course. I found I recovered better after my long workouts, actually.
However, I would suggest NOT being so strict that you don't cheat, at least occasionally, and enjoy the food that you can chow down on due to high calorie burn! Not to mention mental health of restricting your food sources when your body is craving any- and everything!
@Scott I have an Olympic next weekend, but my big race is Ironman Augusta 70.3 on Sept 29. So far, I've been training with Perform on my long bike rides and runs. It agrees with me and I'm used to it. I'm more concerned about day to day nutrition and whether or not I should introduce whole grains into my diet to boost the carbs. I watched the entire CoreDiet video last night - it is close to Paleo, but adding in legumes and some whole grain (only after workouts).
I believe that most paleo-ites try to avoid "starches" (ex, potatoes, grains, breads, noodles, etc) and use the term "carbs", because those "starches" are a major source of carbohydrates. Make sense?
There are plenty of carbohydrates available in paleo food, mostly fruits and veggies, a staple of the paleo diet.