Posts Tagged ‘Genr8’

Paleo, recovery, the sweet potato and my neck

Posted: December 8, 2011 in CrossFit, CrossFit Endurance
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Paleo – It works.

Recovery – Is the reason you get better (faster, stronger, etc).

The Sweet Potato – In your diet

My neck – Was what I was up to in mud…while attempting to train.

My relationship with the paleo diet has been tumultuous and considerably trial and error. Check out my post Paleo is Dead from last year. Didn’t sit well with many peeps in the CF community, rightfully so.

In the beginning, I saw immediate physical results. Not in body composition but in systemic inflammation. Tendonitis in my knee was something that had bothered me for so long that limping down the stairs in the morning was normal. Walking crooked up steps on the way to work was just how I walked. Doing a 15min knee prep warmup before any track work was par for the course. After being introduced to paleo by Brent Wenson, a good friend and fellow trainer at CF Atlanta, and implementing it for a solid 3 weeks with the addition of a good fish oil, tendonitis in my knee had disappeared. That was huge.

Fast forward a couple of years. I’m back competing on the track. In addition to training at a very high level, I’m coaching 4-6 classes a day, watching my daughter full time and trying to run a business at CrossFit San Mateo. Free time is a foreign phrase to me. The overall picture is that I’m not consuming enough calories and sleep is terrible. Thus, I’m not recovering properly, I have no energy and I’m getting injured. Big surprise.

I was eating a strict high fat/protein paleo diet. No post WOD supplements, lots of fat, lots of protein, only about 20% carbs. I was hitting the wall big time. Muscle glycogen stores were on a constant E. I would have a week of awesome workouts and 2 weeks of feeling like I was running in mud…up to my neck.

So, stupidly and in my fog induced glycogen depleted brain, I swore off paleo eating. In the month or two that I was “off” paleo, I noticed my aches and pains in my joints came back. My face broke out. My stomach hurt, all the damn time. Irritabal Bowel Syndrome?? I thought taking a deuce 3x-5x a day was normal…no?! Damn it! All of this and my energy still sucked.  The answer was two-fold. Day to-day nutrition and post WOD recovery.

Overall Nutrition

Let’s start first with overall nutrition. Enter my buddy Badier of The Lazy Caveman. His first response to all of this was, “Dude, everyone thinks paleo is a low carb diet. It doesn’t have to be. We just have to get your carbs from better sources.”

Because my training is so anaerobic (2-3x track wods, 3-4 CF WODs + strength) Badier put me on a 60-70% carb diet. 70% carbs, 15% fat 15% protein. I started eating banana’s paired with protein and fat. Rice has snuck in there from time to time to vary things up. In the end, sweet potatoes have become my Holy Grail. Since consuming at least 1 sweet potato nearly everyday, recovery, energy and overall mood (note: mood has nothing to do with being an asshole) is at an all time high. Most importantly, I can maintain a high level of performance throughout my program w/o any breakdown.

I could devote a whole post to sweet potatoes. My good friend is actually coming out with a book on its benefits. Real quick it:

  • Is a ”slow” carb
  • Is packed full of vitamins
  • Helps stabilize insulin levels
  • Has natural anti-inflammatory properties
  • Tastes great
  • Is easily transportable, stays well in storage
  • Is a must for endurance athletes

Missing an extra gear in your workouts? A liberal peppering of sweet potatoes in your diet may be your answer.

Post WOD Recovery

Nothing comes close to Vitargo Genr8. I’ve blogged about it in previous posts and over 7 months of taking it as a supplement can attest that it works better than any other product I’ve tried or try (Hammer, Endurox, etc). All of them are usually made with crap maltodextrin or dextrose (corn) which has shown to reach muscle stores slower than eating a piece of white bread. After a hard track session, swim or WOD, in the past I would have NO ENERGY. Usually I’d be very tired. With Genr8, my energy levels stay up as does my insulin levels (no crash). You know what this means??? It means no muscle catabolism. It means my body absorbs more work. I’ve noticed I need less sleep while taking this as well, another sign of superior recovery. The icing on the cake? I’ve put on 12 lbs of lean muscle mass in 12 months. That’s huge! That is with everything else remaining the same ie. diet, protein intake, caloric consumption.

In the end, nutrition is the athlete. If what you’re doing isn’t working for you, keep plugging away. The combination of an overall proper diet AND post workout recovery is what makes the athlete a high performer. If you’re bonking before/after/during your workout, you need to fix your nutrition!!

Hope the above shed some light on your nutrition plan and what works or what doesn’t work for you.

Never Let It Rest,
Brendon

Grinding away without the muscle catabolism

Posted: March 4, 2011 in Injuries, Track
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In track, we often compare the athlete’s fitness to that of a sword. Like a piece of raw iron starting out, you’re constantly grinding away, grinding away, making it into a sharp blade of steel by the end of the season. Grind away too much too soon and you’re liable to chip the blade or break it all together, which requires again going back to the basics.

This past 8 months I’ve found myself going back to the basics way too often. From not recovering enough to slight injuries, I finally feel like I’m back on a slow and steady grind. I figured with my background and basic level of fitness, I could get back into race shape within 2 – 3 weeks. I’m pretty much right on.  Here’s how it’s gone.

My first week back, running 200 repeats was terribly painful, literally. My pinky toes were so beat up from my fat feet being jammed into my narrow shoes that I had to run 100m sprints barefoot on the infield. Inov-8′s are great but one of the biggest complaints is that they are too narrow. Taking the insoles out helps.

Last week, I went 6x800m @ 2:30 to 2:22, with 2min jog between. This is big grinding work, helping me get back to basic conditioning. Friday went 8x200m @ 27 for the first 3 then 26. for the last 5. Followed up by a 1/4 @ 55. I was pretty happy with that considering I haven’t run that kind of pace since early January! Saturday was a 4 mile tempo, going from 5:45-5:15 pace.

This week has been fun and a little stressful. Following Saturday’s pace run the medial glute started locking up again…dang it! A lot of deep tissue work brought me to the starting line on Tuesday, where I only got through 10/14 400m repeats @ 70 pace, feeling like I was jogging with 1min rest between. I managed to sneak in 2x200m @ 27 running comfortably. Today, was again fast work. 1x500m @ 55 pace (1:09), 1x400m @ 56.2, then 3x300m @ 41, 42, 42. The workout called for 54, 54, 39-40, so I was little off. This week has been a challenge sleep and nutrition wise. Moving to a new house in Burlingame doesn’t help!

One thing that has been a lifesaver is the Genr8 Vitargo. I practically live on this stuff so much so that I consciously brush my teeth in the middle of the day so my teeth don’t fall out. It’s very potent stuff and works amazingly well with recovery after a workout. I do notice, with all things being equal (sleep, nutrition, stress), that I need less sleep and have more energy during the day while using it. I never experienced anything like it. Another great aspect of it, it keeps your insulin levels up post workout which helps save muscle catabolism. Traditionally with strenous anaerobic exercise such as running, muscle catabolism is common. It’s the reason why distance runners look so emaciated. If only they all had Genr8!

CrossFit WODs are only 1-2 per week as of now, with 4 running workouts. Lots of hollow rocks, knee’s to elbows, planks, kettle bell swings and kipping pullups to keep the core strong and engaged. Heavy low bar box squats 5×3′s working up to 245 after my workout today felt good too. When I think of 245 for 3 being actually pretty pitiful, I think about my competition. Are they doing the same?? Maybe. Maybe not.

Time to get some sleep and visualize the attack.

Never Let It Rest,
Brendon

Paleo is dead…

Posted: December 27, 2010 in CrossFit, CrossFit Endurance, Paleo
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First off, in my world, those words above are “fightin’ words.” The Paleo Diet is more than just a way of eating, it’s a religion. There are thousands of people, including my own members, who have vastly improved their overall health and fitness following the Paleo Diet. My words below reflect my own experience as an elite track athlete, not just as a CrossFit athlete.

Let’s back track a bit. Anyone who’s been following this blog knows the month of November and most of December has been very rocky. The inability to recover from workouts week to week was pinned on sleep, sickness and of course nutrition. In the end, as in most cases, it was nutrition, always was. Overall fitness (thanks in part to CrossFit) was the reason I jumped on the track dropping 4min pace for multiple 1/4 mile repeats with no recent track work. Nutrition was the reason I couldn’t recover to do it multiple weeks.

Looking for answers, I had the pleasure of meeting and speaking with Anthony Almada of Genr8 (see previous posts) who took the liberty of (re)educating me on the dietary needs of elite endurance athletes and how his product could fit into those needs. From this I came with away with the understanding that I need 7-10g per lb of body weight for proper recovery (I was more in the range of 2g/lb!) and that protein during a workout does not help glycogen reloading (Endurox). I was shown studies (with proper controls) that proved carb supplementation before/during/after a workout not only helped performance but aided in recovery. I therefore had two promising reasons to get off a “Paleolithic” way of eating. 1. My own experience 2. Studies to back the claims.

Let’s be honest, I didn’t need any studies to tell me something I already knew. Not only was I looking for answers but so was my coach, Frank Gagliano. One of the problems with remote coaching athletes is that we don’t see each other everyday and only communicate via email a few times per week. Getting to see your athlete train lets you know how they are handling the workouts and how their bodies are responding. IF Gag could have seen me, he would have immediately known something was wrong. If I were to explain Paleo to Gag, his response would be, “Why da f*ck would ya want to do that?!” Obviously he’s old school. The obvious answer to this question is to improve performance. Why else would I want to follow this diet if I wasn’t improving?? Sure, my BMI was under 3% and I looked shredded but I’m not running my ass off to look good! So, if I’m not improving and nutrition is to blame, guess what, I’m changing my fucking nutrition AND how I look at nutrition. One size does not fit all, whether you be couch potato, amateur athlete, CrossFit athlete, amateur endurance athlete or professional endurance athlete.

I had been following a pretty regimented paleo diet for the past 2+ years. I have gained considerable amount of muscle while being very lean. Last season on the track I ran into similar problems ie recovery but thought most of it could have been programming. While that may be true, I also noticed jumps in performance and energy after high carbohydrate loading days ie. pancakes and waffles. Most of the time, my nutrition breakdown looked like 40-50% fat intake, 30-40% carb, 10-20% protein. Even those numbers are low (fat) compared to what many say you should get per day. Now, I get 75-80% intake from carbs, 15-20% protein. !!! My engine is humming. I don’t recommend this unless you are “running your ass off.” For my amateur endurance athletes, carb timing is crucial and I’d loved to advice you on it.

I can hear it now…”But Brendon, how could you say such things?? My heart hurts with each word you have said! I feel like you have kicked me in the groin and stabbed me in the eye with a spoon at the same time!” Listen, the sky isn’t going to fall (I thought it was at one point but it didn’t). It also doesn’t mean I eat whatever the f I want (on most days..hehe). While I really try to aim for gluten free recipes/products, in the end I’m willing to forgo that for performance. Sacrilegious? Maybe. My diet is obviously not a sustainable diet. Meaning, I don’t plan on eating this way forever. In fact, if I did, I know without a doubt I would become another case study for diabetes, Alzheimer’s, etc. Then again my training is also not sustainable. All I can speak for are the results. In the past, I used the weekend to recover and started out strong early in the week. By Friday, which is our track/pace work day and the most important of the week, I was usually fried. Here’s how last week broke down:

Sunday – CF Endurance strength WOD
Monday – 6x800m @ 226-225 w/ 2min rest
Tuesday – Easy/CF Endurance strength WOD
Wednesday – 3mile tempo 5:50, 5:40, 5:30
Thursday – Recovery
Friday – 1x500m @ 54s through the 400m. Rest 5min. 400m @ 55s. Rest 5min. 4x200m @ 27.
Saturday – Easy
Sunday – Long run

I’m currently in Tahoe for a little altitude training ;) Loving the thin air!

Never Let It Rest,
Brendon

Weekly recap

Posted: December 19, 2010 in CrossFit Endurance
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This past week has been filled with physical therapy sessions and my first real track work in 3 weeks.

Leading into the week I had been in the pool swimming intervals, giving the IT band a chance to loosen up. Monday was 12x400m at 71-72 pace with 1min recovery. Easy but the IT/hip again locked down on me by number 10. A quick call to “magic man” Kelly Starrett and he was digging into my hip less than 24hrs later. He quickly found my problem; less than 50% range of motion in my left leg. Wow. How much extra work have I been doing on the track? Because of the decreased ROM, I was compensating by throwing my leg out around rather than pulling straight up. One session with Kelly helped a lot.

The rest of the week leading into Friday has been CrossFit wods, core work and easy running. I can still only really run for 20-30min before I start to tighten up again which made me a little nervous for fast quarters on Friday.

Friday was 4x400m at 56-57 with 4min rest. Despite not doing any pace/speed work for 3 weeks, I still managed to run the times, something I attributed to CrossFit workouts, hard training in the pool and running drills on my easy days. Quick feet, hip openers, skips, etc are little things that really make a difference.

Monday’s workout will be 800′s and 200′s.

Never Let It Rest,
Brendon

The Game Changer – Enter Genr8

Posted: December 9, 2010 in CrossFit Endurance
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“You will be able to do things you’ve never done before…”

Such were the words from Anthony Almada, Bio-chemist and CEO of Genr8/Vitargo S2. What ensued was an hour long conversation of educating me on his studies and others involving glycogen loading, carbohydrate synthesis, the 4:1 carb to protein myth and why Vitargo is fastest muscle energy renewing product on the market.

First off, Genr8/Vitargo S2 is the only product I’ve seen that actually publishes its finding on the container. Mr. Almada was clear, if it’s not proven to work, why bother? In his studies and others, time and time again, proper carbohydrate loading was the most important aspect, if not the only, in muscle recovery. It was the reason his elite Ironman athlete could perform 3 races back to back to back, finish in the top 2 and run the same splits in each marathon. What was more impressive was the fact he was out SUP (stand up paddle boarding) and paddling the day after while his competitors were literally walking on crutches….”Hmmm, so you’ve got my attention,” I said.

Diving in deeper, Mr. Almada went on to debunk the 4:1 carb to protein myth, citing errors in the studies, big money marketing and other studies that truly show adding protein to carboydrate drinks does not increase glycogen loading or speed it in anyway.

Next was the science behind why Vitargo works so well. Because of its makeup, it empties from the gut very quickly, leaving no bloating or swishing effect in the stomach. This means the ability to consume massive amounts of carbohydrates faster than before, supplying an enormous amount of fuel to working muscles and thus changing the game of endurance sports as we know it. He reports his athletes can take up to 1100 calories in a one hour workout (!!!!), consuming nearly 350g of Vitargo with no ill effects to the GI tract. With it comes the ability to “keep the brain happy”, giving the athlete a greater edge to push himself/herself outside their comfort zone. What’s also known as the Central Governor Theory, Vitargo seems to be able to rewrite our previous expectations of what constitutes brain happiness and the athletes ability to go beyond what previous thought possible. Does my opening sentence of this post make a little more sense now??

So how do I use it? Take 1 serving 15 before a workout. Take another 3-5 servings during the workout b/t intervals, during a long run, etc. Take another 3 servings within the hour after. Whew, that’s a lot of servings. But, if you tried that with servings of dextrose or maltodextrin you’d throw up all over your training partner, at least 3 times.This is why Genr8/Vitargo is so effective.

As Ron Burgandy would say, “It’s science.” Load faster, load more, recover better, run faster. I’m stoked to work with Anthony and use their product in the future. I also very excited to bring it to all my endurance athletes in the gym!

Never Let It Rest,
Brendon

Saturday LR/Monday 800m repeats

Posted: November 23, 2010 in CrossFit, CrossFit Endurance
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Feeling good after a week of easy running and strides, I decided it was time to get back on the train (bad pun). Prior to running 1, 40min in a hilly wet Huddart Park, I cranked out 22 back squats in 3min @ 225, way off my buddy Josh Courage’s best of 56…yeesh!

Friday was a pool workout, 2 rounds of 3x 1:3 (1min all out effort, 3min rest). Focusing on form and relaxing, I actually got faster as the workout progressed, making it just shy of 75m (3 pool lengths) in 60seconds. That was a really tough workout too. The lifeguard at the YMCA watched me as if I was nuts after gripping the scaffolding looking like I was about to throw up after every interval. Evening workout was a set of hollow rocks 3x 30s and some core work.

Yesterday was 6x 800m @ with the first three at 226 and the last three at 222. I went 223, 226, 225, 221, 222, 220 followed by 4x 200′s at 28-29. I felt better as the workout progressed and it was nice to run the legs out at the end a bit.

The Genr8 has been right on the money with recovery. I take the prescribed 3 servings during the day, one prior, another immediately after the workout and an additional serving 60min thereafter. During the day I notice I have much more energy and am better recovered in the the proceeding workouts. This morning is an easy recovery day with an evening CrossFit Endurance WOD coupled with a little speed work on the bands.

Getting ready for lots of turkey and sweet potatoes!

Never let it rest,
Brendon

Carb refeeding

Posted: November 19, 2010 in CrossFit, CrossFit Endurance
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So, apparently I’ve been “carb refeeding” all wrong. I’ve gotten so comfortable with my routine diet and fat intake that it’s actually tough to get less than the recommended amount of 50g of fat per day. Per Mark’s Daily Apple’s post on carb refeeding, my new daily percentages of carb intake on a high intensity training day would be somewhere b/t 70-80%, with 15-20% coming from protein. This puts a whole new spin on proper recovery. Tuesday, per Gag’s request, I went in for a blood test to check iron levels. Still waiting to see what those will look like but I’m sure it’ll break the needle on the ferratin readings. Even though this has been a down week, I have been able to squeeze in some good workouts to keep the intensity while giving my legs a chance to catch up.

Tuesday evening was:
5-5-5-3-3-3 Squat cleans ending with 185 for 3. Followed by 10 to 1 of 24″ box jumps and KTE’s.

Wednesday was 20min tempo @ 5:35 pace. Wednesday evening was speed band work. Building hip flexor power holding a band around the foot with it anchored behind me, keep the quad at 90 degrees to the ground, shin should be vertical, press out like a kicking motion and hold for 15s. Repeat for 3 rounds on each side. When I played one season of rugby with Old White in Atlanta (my only, more like 1/2 season), this is something that really helped my field speed.

Today I went to the track to do 4 laps of stride the straights, jog the corners but the foot still isn’t 100% to toe off in spikes. So I went to the local YMCA and did a kick ass CFE workout in the pool. 2 rounds of: 1min on, 3 min off, 1 min on, 3 min off, 1 min on, 3 min off. The 1 min was an all out effort. It was cool to focus on form and see my distance get better as the intervals progressed…I still almost drown.

The Genr8 recovery drink has been money. It tastes great but it’s kind of thick getting it down. I’ll prob buy some BCAA’s (branch chain amino acids) to add to it. I’ve been taking it pre and post workout and again 90min after. At this rate, I’ll be through a whole container in 5 days. Sponsorship in the works!

Tomorrow is a long run on some muddy trails ;)

Never let it rest,
Brendon

End of week recap

Posted: November 14, 2010 in CrossFit
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The end of this past week had me very busy with not much time to the blog but lots of time in my head.

Here’s what’s going on….

1. Reviewing/dialing in nutrition and glycogen replacement. The ratio’s of my current diet @ 40-50% fat intake, 20% protein, 30% carbs leaves my muscles depleted by the end of the week. I’ve made the choice to go with Genr8 as my post recovery fuel and put away the organic chocolate milk. My body was not processing the milk well at all and not giving me all I need for post workout recovery. I’ve heard very good things regarding Genr8 and am excited to try their product. That said I will also bump my carb intake significantly +20%. Staying gluten and fructose free as much as possible is very important to me otherwise my body feels terribly.

2. Paul Fitzgerald at Penninsula Rolfing was able to give me a quick tune up for Friday’s pace work which helped significantly with tightness/pulling in my feet. He did some work to the anterior gastroc and tibia. Basically the top of my left foot where the shoe lace is tied was hurting, enough where I couldn’t toe off with any force. There are tendons and ligaments that attach along the outside of the leg and the gastroc that meet at that point. That’s a problem when you need to run 56 pace on the track. Although I was only about 85%, I was still able to get in some quality work on the track Friday.

3. Friday’s workout went 500m @ 1:10 (56 400m pace) 5min jog, then 3x400m with 4min jog @ 57, 60, 60. The last two I really couldn’t push off of my inside foot so I focused on staying relaxed and getting the work in as best as possible. I spent the rest of the day in my 2XU compression tights which helped a lot with recovery. I use these after long runs, hard intervals or if I’m traveling as they promote blood flow to/from the legs. PM session was 5-5-5-3-3-3 max effort of dead lifts. The last three were @ 335. Way off my best 1rm of 425.

4. Saturday the foot felt much better and my legs felt great. I attributed it to the compression tights, they really do work wonders. It was an out and back at Huddart (one of my fav runs on the peninsula); 37min out, 34 min back.

5. Sunday has been a recovery day. Stretching, icing, and drinking wine with old friends…Steve Sherer and Kevin Elliott, ex-Farm Teamers. Holla! ;)

Never let it rest,
Brendon