rich roll

So excited to reveal the new logo for JAI ULTRA, the production banner for our training / plant-strong nutrition / yoga camps, as well as future endeavors in the world of nutrition, products, garments….So many things in the works, and still too early to make any formal pronouncements, but let’s just say its all very exciting….

Thanks to my brother & sister-in law Joe & Vicky Curtis at Curtis & Company Advertising & Designfor the rockin work on the logo. And thanks to Brandt Furgerson at Zoot for working with me on my race kit garments for Ultraman, which will display not only the Jai Ultra banner, but also my other various sponsors & supporting companies, all of whom have been incredibly supportive over the past year – Vega, Zoot, Sportiva Importare, TriathlonLab and Ascended Health.

I cannot believe Ultraman is almost upon me.

Despite more than a few grueling training weeks, I still think I have so much work to do to be ready. Chalk it up to the racing mind of the obsessive endurance addict.

Last week I put in 93 miles of running (not including the cycling and swimming). My biggest run week ever and it went great. 2×15 mile hard runs on Sunday, a 20 mile run on Tues, a 21 mile run on Thursday and 22 mile run on Saturday. I negative split every run and each run was successively faster than the previous run — all great indicators that I am recovering well between workouts and continuing to improve. My pace at a given heart rate level is far superior to where I was last year, which is great news.

But what goes through my mind? I didn’t get enough biking in that week! I still have not done a 40 or 45 mile run yet like I did last year! Always dwelling on what I “haven’t” done as opposed to celebrating the small accomplishments of the journey. But my coach has a plan, and I’m devoted to following it. He said we would be doing things differently this year, and that we have. Similar if not more miles, but ALOT more work at higher intensity. Last year was all about working my aerobic engine so I could finish the race. This year its been about improving strength, speed and power. I tend to use last year’s program as my measuring stick rather than looking at my hard power and heart rate training data, which is miles beyond where I was last year. So that’s it. No more negativity. Come race day, I will be ready.

Julie and I have been working on our eCookbook and hoping to get it done by Thanksgiving. But in order to make it available, we also need to update my (and her) website to make the book downloadable and still don’t have a web programmer for this. So many things to take care of when I already have zero time to do anything except train, work and see my family. Don’t know how were going to get everything sorted out, but we’ll find a way.

I also started working with my friend Compton Rom at his nascent start up Ascended Health. Compton is a PhD in biochemistry and his company offers a wide array of supremely healthy live rejuvenating wellness elixirs — everything from oils and superfoods to toothpaste. We are testing out some unbelievable cutting edge performance and recovery products — double helix DNA water, probiotics, photoplanktons, adaptagens, live cultures and super anti-oxidants. Cutting edge for sure, working with the highest grade raw products from all corners of the world. I have begun using some test formulas over the last week and my recovery is through the roof! Very excited to continue my work with Compton, with the goal of creating some unparalleled performance and recovery products specific to the endurance athlete.

I leave for Kona on November 2, which will give me some good time to adapt to the climate and get some good training out on the course before the race without any distractions other than work, which I am grateful I am able to do from any location, no matter how remote (a huge perk!). I feel a bit guilty about parting from my family for this time, but I have invested so much time and effort into preparing for this race, I feel its worth it to get in this push over the last couple of weeks before the taper and race. Honestly, I am very excited to just get out there and hammer for a week.

The whole family is coming out for the race (including my dad, apprising his role as crew navigator!) but I am still having a heck of a time trying to lock down at least one crew member who can change a flat tire. I have a few friends still pondering it, but no firm commitment yet and I’m getting nervous. I’m sure I can find crew on the Island, but would love to have a good friend at my side. I realize its asking alot given that its over Thanksgiving weekend, so I’m just living on faith at the moment that it will all work out according to God’s plan.

Heading into a good cycling block and my final race simulation weekend scheduled for the end of October, just before I head out to Hawaii. Can’t wait.

On another note, I’ve been reading BORN TO RUN by Christopher McDougall and I am inspired. If you are not familiar with the book, its a must read, not just for endurance junkies, but for anyone. It chronicles this journalist’s quest to commune with the ancient Mexican Tarahumara tribe — a lost civilization of barefoot (or barely sandaled) super-runners isolated from every aspect of modern life. A beautiful portrayal celebrating the simple things in life and the pure unadulterated and contagious joy, freedom and spirituality of running.

All I want to do is start running in my Vibram Five Fingers and barefoot. But I am going to exercise some rare restraint and hold off until after Ultraman.

Now here’s a first – I’m on a book cover! Thanks John Segesta for taking amazing photos — as always. John is a genius behind the lens.

Here’s the deets — check it out!

RACING WEIGHT: How to Get Lean for Peak Performance
by Matt Fitzgerald

For endurance athletes, the power-to-weight ratio is critical. After all, an extra 10 pounds demands more than 6% more energy at a given pace. Racing Weight explores weight management as a means to better performance. Losing those last few pounds can seem impossible, but Racing Weight will help you hit your fastest numbers.

Endurance sports coach and certified sports nutritionist Matt Fitzgerald offers a safe and healthy 5-step plan to help you get leaner and lighter for competition. By improving the quality of your diet, managing your appetite, and timing important nutrients, you can perform better—and look and feel great.

Fitzgerald grounds his approach with practical examples of good nutrition, featuring personal food journals from elite athletes competing in six different sports and a selection of 21 recipes from professional triathlete and dietician Pip Taylor.

Racing Weight is an essential guide to help endurance athletes make the subtle but important changes they need to start their next race at their optimal weight.

About Matt Fitzgerald

Matt Fitzgerald is the author of 12 published and forthcoming books on running, triathlon, sports psychology, injury prevention, nutrition and weight loss. A prolific health and fitness journalist, he is Senior Editor of Triathlete magazine and writes regularly for such national publications as Bicycling, Experience Life, Women’s Running, Maxim, Men’s Fitness, Men’s Health, Outside, Runner’s World, Stuff, and for websites such as active.com and runnersworld.com. Fitzgerald is a featured coach with Training Peaks and a former coach with Carmichael Training Systems. He is a certified sports nutritionist (CISSN) licensed by the International Society of Sports Nutrition. Fitzgerald is a top age-group runner and triathlete. In 2002, he was named a USA Triathlon All-American, and he is now training to qualify for the Ironman World Championship.

I cannot tell you how much I appreciate the countless e-mails, Facebook comments and twitters I get almost daily inquiring into the specifics of my plant-based whole food nutrition regime. Its hard to reply to everyone, and with limited time I just don’t have the ability to get back to all of you. But it is clear that what most people want me to address is my diet.

How can you possibly train 25-30 hrs / week, work as a lawyer and handle being a husband and a father of 4 without eating any meat, dairy or any other animal products to keep you going!?! Impossible!

Not impossible. And not just plausible. In fact, I challenge each and every one of you to try it for 30 days. If after a month you don’t feel better, have more energy and realize scientifically verifiable improvements in your physiological and metabolic factors such as blood pressure, cholesterol and body fat, I will be very surprised.

Are you game? Then its time to let you in on a bit of Plant-Strong wisdom that has done right by me.

A couple things. First, let me be very clear. I’m not here to prostelyze or tell anyone what to do — I’m only sharing some of my experience over the last 3 years. Take it or leave it. But I can honestly say that it has changed my life in countless ways — all good. And my program is not whimsical. It is built on a foundation of scientific data established by leading medical professionals in the field such as T. Colin Campbell, author of THE CHINA STUDY, and renown cardiologist Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, author of PREVENT AND REVERSE HEART DISEASE, buttressed by such books as THE ENGINE 2 DIET by Dr. Esselstyn’s son Rip, a former All-American swimming colleague of mine, and Brendan Brazier’s THRIVE. That said, I’m not a doctor or a registered nutritionist. Pick up these books and do your own research. I’m just an average guy on this adventure trying to find the best solutions to not only realize my potential as a 43 year old athlete, but to improve my overall wellness for the duration of my life — so I can be as vibrant and healthy as possible for not only myself, but for my wife and kids. So far so good.

Second, in this day and age it can be very difficult even for the most discerning consumer to know what foods are good for you. We are so overly-saturated and inundated with conflicting advertising and marketing messages (primarily from the food conglomerates, pharmaceutical & food industry lobbies) telling us what to eat – low fat, non-fat, low in saturated fats, high in Omega-3′s, drink this, eat that, red wine, no red wine, eat chocolate, you need more protein, don’t eat chocolate, etc. It can make anyone’s head spin. Just walk the aisles at any typical grocery and read the packaging – almost every product has some banner slogan about why its good for you. And on top of this we have all the supplements – vitamins, protein, etc. It can literally cause vertigo. What do I see? Lies. Deception. Everywhere. Carefully crafted to dupe and confuse. Marketing dollars spent to get you to buy foods that simply are not good for you. Plain and simple.

My point? Get back to basics. This does not have to be ROCKET SCIENCE! When in doubt, organic fruits, veggies, grains & legumes. Every time. All the time. Honestly, keep it simple. The fewer ingredients the better. And if you can’t pronounce the ingredient, its probably not good for you. This doesn’t have to be hard or complicated, people. In fact, you very well may find it easier to eat plant-strong, as most of the foods are so close to their natural state and thus very simple and easy to prepare. The closer your plant-based foods are to their natural state, the better.

As I have mentioned before, my wife Julie (she’s the genius cook and deserves all the credit!) and I are working on our eCookbook and hope to have it ready for download by Thanksgiving. Of course, I will keep you posted. Were saving specific recipes for the book, but wanted to at least share the basic structure of how I fortify myself (and my family) while training 25-30 hrs / week, working a full time job and raising children with my wife. Not only has this regime nourished me, it has propelled me to feats of athletic excellence I didn’t believe I was capable of, boosted my ability to recover quickly between training sessions, enhanced my energy levels and significantly contributed to my overall health and wellness. Its not opinion – its a fact.

So let’s start with some of the things I have been eating during heavy training. Bear in mind that my caloric intake is likely higher than most, so I’m not recommending everyone eat as much as I do, particularly when it comes to the amount of oils I eat. That said, fats are NOT the enemy. Especially for the endurance athlete where one of the primary physiological adaptations you are trying to improve is your body’s ability to efficiently metabolize and burn fats. OK enough. Here’s the goods. All of these products can be found at Whole Foods (if you have one) and likely at any decent health food market. If you strike out, just google them and I’m sure you can get everything online. The brand names I can recall are in parentheses.

PRE-WORKOUT VITA-MIX SHAKE
For those who don’t know, a Vita-Mix is like a blender with a jet engine. It will literally make juice out of anything. Anything. Its a pricey item, but I couldn’t live without it.
With some variations, this is what I eat before a very long morning ride or a very long morning run. If the ride/run is shorter I obviously reduce the portions. Often the shake is more than enough for me.
VEGA Whole Food Optimizer (yes, it has that precious B12)
VEGA EFA Oil
Chia Seed – great for endurance
Maca – also great for endurance
Coconut Keifer (So Delicious)
Coconut Milk (So Delicious)
Coconut Oil (365)
Almond Milk
Hemp Oil
Flax Oil
Acai
Rice Protein (Sun Warrior) – very small amount / tablespoon
Barley (Sun Warrior)
Hemp Protein (Living Harvest) – very small amount / tablespoon
Water
Small amount of juice (your choice)

BREAKFAST FOOD
Generally the shake is enough but sometimes I will have these
Gluten free toast w/ almond butter
Banana
Gluten free granola with coconut milk or almond milk & berries / fruit
Quinoa with coconut milk & berries / fruit (Quinoa makes a great breakfast food!)

NUTRITION DURING LONG RIDES
I am generally mostly liquid unless the ride is VERY long
Perpetum
CarboPro 1200
Endurolytes or Nuun (salt tabs)
FRS
Cliff Bars (non-dairy ones only)
potato wedges
almond butter sandwiches
bananas — lots of ‘em!

NUTRITION DURING LONG RUNS
CarboPro 1200
FRS
Water
Cytomax (sparingly)
Gels (only if I get into trouble)

POST RIDE / RUN NUTRITION
1st: Coconut Water — GREAT FOR ELECTROLYTE REPLACEMENT! Drink immediately

Within 30 minutes: Replace glycogen stores & protein. I will eat a small amount of something high in carbs right away, like brown rice, gluten free pasta, mashed potatoes, toast, etc. When I feel a bit settled, I will have a shake with many of the items listed above for the pre-ride shake. I will also add in alot of foods high in anti-oxidants, such as blueberries, pomegrante and acai. In general — replace your electrolytes, replenish your glycogen stores, get some protein (can be in the form of rice or hemp protein but prefer leafy greens) and make sure you eat foods high in anti-oxidants to combat the free radical damage to your cells caused by heavy exertion.

DINNER
(yes its night time by the time I’m done) or post-workout meal / lunch, I will have some variation of:
VITA-MIX drink with ALOT of veggies (see list below);
GRAINS — brown rice, quinoa, red & brown lentils and gluten free pasta are typical, generally with steamed veggies — broccoli, spinach, carrots, beets, brussel sprouts, etc.
POTATOES: — mashed with veganaise (recipe coming in eCookbook!) or wedges baked with olive or coconut oil
KALE CHIPS (secret recipe in eCookbook!)
SALAD: Variation of greens with veggies with vinagrette dressing
NUTS: cashews and almonds & pumpkin seeds (high in iron)
AVOCADOS: Love ‘em and eat tons of them
VEGGIE BURGERS: home-made only (again, you’ll have to wait for the eCookbook). I avoid the store bought versions as they tend to be loaded with alot of junk. Many of them are not plant-based (have dairy products in them) or are full of wheat gluten, which I avoid. Gluten free bun with avacado, onion, tomato, lettuce, veganaise & mustard
BLACK BEANS: eat tons. Black bean vegan chili – love it!

DESERT
I’m really not a sweet tooth, but a nice fruit based Vita-Mix concoction with coconut milk or cacao is great. Also “So Delicious” makes some great coconut milk ice cream. Julie makes an AMAZING Chia Seed Pudding — but you will have to wait for the cookbook for that one:)

VITA-MIX TYPICAL INGREDIENTS
Again I vary it and its usually either a fruit based concoction or veggie — we will have our favorite special recipes in the eCookbook. Julie and I have some really amazing concoctions that are simply delicious and ridiculously nourishing.
Beets — tons of beets!
Carrot
Kale – again, tons
Spinach
Green beans
Aloe (cut from our own Aloe plant)
Lemon
Celery
Broccoli
Tomato
Chia
Avocado
Pumpkin (or pumpkin seed – great for iron and best absorbed when taken with foods high in vitamin C — thanks Holistic Guru for this tip!)
Chlorophyl
Sea Salt
Acai
VEGA EFA Oil
Coconut Oil
Flax Oil
Hemp Oil
Pumpkin Oil
Chia Seed
Almond / Walnut / Cashew
Orange
Blueberry
Apple
Banana
Coconut Milk

One final note for now. THE PROTEIN QUESTION. I get it almost every day — how do you get enough protein on a plant-based diet? First, if you are eating a well-balanced plant-based diet, your protein needs will be met. You would be surprised at the protein content of many plant foods. End of story. Second, people don’t need the massive amounts of protein the food & supplement industries want you to believe. I stress my body more than almost anybody, and I do not have an issue with this. Without going into a dissertation on this and the metabolizing of amino acids, in general, only about 10% of your diet need be protein. In fact, I only use rice and hemp protein poweder if I put in a massive workout. Otherwise, I don’t find it necessary and get all the protein I need from my whole food intake. The marketing machine wants you to believe you must drink all these high (whey) protein drinks. Don’t buy into the hype, as it based on a lie. Not only that, it puts undue stress on your kidneys and is overall NOT HEALTHY.

I’m sure I’m missing a lot, forgetting many things and oversimplifying almost everything. But I think you get the general drift. I will continue to supplement and please feel free to post any comments or questions.

I look forward to hearing from all of you.

PLANT-STRONG!
Rich

The days are getting shorter but the training days are getting longer….

Happy to report that training has been going very well. Ultraman looms at just 53 days off, and although I feel quite fit and legions beyond where I was last year at this time, there is a mountain of work to go. Intense work.

I just finished a relatively light week of training (21 hours — light for me!), but it culminated in a very tough weekend.

FRIDAY: Swim workout followed by 3hrs of riding with 2.5x up Latigo at threshold pace / 80 cadence. For those not familiar, Latigo is a legendary Malibu climb — a very tough 2,000 ft. ascent. I busted my butt on these repeats clocking my PR for the climb on #2. On the first attempt I was not yet fully warmed up and went 40 mins+. But on #2 I clocked 39mins+, by far my best attempt, with the caveat that it has been a very long time since I let one rip up this nasty grade.

SATURDAY: 8hrs on the bike with 13,000 ft of climbing. Left the house in the freezing cold pre-dawn (wasn’t it 110 degrees just a week ago?), climbing Piuma and Saddle Peak and plummeted Tuna Cyn down to PCH where I re-conned with my training buddies. I was planning on alot of flats after my hard Friday climbing, but got talked into joining them, which involved taking on Latigo (again!) and Piuma (again!) before heading off on my own again to climb Mulholland Hwy. When I got home I was as fried as I have ever been from training. I could barely move. It was all I could do to get some recovery nutrition in the belly before a nap, interrupted by a brief period of wakefullness to eat dinner and hang with the family before getting back in bed. I didn’t plan to be this tired and am a bit knawed by guilt, as I was simply too tired to be a good and present dad for my kids. As I lay in bed I wondered how the heck I was going to be able to get 4 hours of hard running in the next day. And I was counting the weeks until Ultraman would be over so I could resume some normalcy with the family. My wife and kids have been so enormously supportive, and I have devoted all of my very limited free time to them, but it has not been enough. I have missed too many soccer games and fun kid activities and I will be happy when things normalize and I can make up lost time with my wife and children.

SUNDAY: Slept like a rock and woke up actually feeling not bad. Decided the first of my two 2hr runs today would be on my favorite trail — Dirt Mulholland — which is the non-paved portion of Mulholland Drive which runs from the foot of Topanga Cyn in the Valley all the way to the 405 FWY. It begins with 30 minutes of solid ascending before rollers to the Nike Missile Tower. I generally run this loop in about 1:48-1:50. I began gingerly thinking this would be survival. But after about 15 minutes of warming up, I suddenly felt great. I picked it up and continued to build all the way to the end and ended the run at 1:44 — a good 4-5 min PR. Wow. Didn’t expect that. What a pleasant surprise. I felt great — like I actually know what I’m doing! Then I thought — uh oh. I overdid it. I am supposed to put in another 2hr run this evening at a FASTER pace than the am. Whoops. And for the record, I hate pm runs. I don’t know about anyone else, but if I don’t get it in in the morning, it is very tough for me to train at night. Not to mention we hosted a birthday party for my nephew that afternoon, so no nap. So I had to check the brain at the door and just get out and get it done. For this run I hit rolling pavement with the first hour giving me too much ascending. But the air was cool and the moon was full as I ran in the dark and managed (after a very rough 15 minute warmup) to get it done. And done right. Faster than the morning run. By alot. Wow. My legs were toast and could barely move when I got home, but was very happy to get this in the bag. I honestly didn’t think I could do it. And I know I couldn’t have without great recovery nutrition throughout the day. And a testament to my overall fitness and progress – that I can bounce back after hard sessions and hit it hard again. Nice. Good confidence booster.

But no rest for the weary. This week may be a bit short on hours again (21) but it involves 90 miles of running – basically a 2hr45min run every other day this week. Should be interesting!

All for now…Off to the pool.

PLANT-STRONG!
Rich