If you’ve been paying attention to any diet news recently, you have probably heard stuff about the Paleo diet and gluten-free diets and all sorts of diets that fly in the face of the standard endurance athlete’s diet.

Some of the advice is great, but like much of the nutrition information you find online, a lot is garbage. One book I thought stood out from the rest is The Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson of the Mark’s Daily Apple blog.

Mark used to be a serious marathoner and triathlete and probably had a diet and lifestyle similar to yours. Today he has a “Primal” lifestyle, where he lives, eats, and exercises much, much differently! We’re talking a serious cut in cardio exercise and a diet rich in red meat and saturated fat, with almost no carbs.

If Mark didn’t have such a prevalent background in endurance sports, I wouldn’t take him seriously. I would have skipped over his book completely. But coupled with my past experiences with the endurance sports lifestyle, Mark’s insights really hit home with me, so I decided to read the book.

All you really have to do is read the introduction and you’ll agree with where Mark is coming from. I’m willing to bet that his experience as an endurance athlete is not far from yours. You know, tons of exercise, getting burnt out from overtraining, destroying your immune system and getting sick five times per year, etc.

After that, Mark gets into a “Conventional Wisdom vs The Primal Blueprint” discussion. It’s a comparison between what everyone does (even though is rarely works) and what he thinks should be done. It’s funny because they are the exact opposite!

That leads into the 10 Primal Laws. This is the basis of the book. These are ten general rules to live by, and although they are for everyone, a lot of the logic can be applied to your bike racing and nutrition. Not to mention your lifestyle outside of your training plan.

I was sold on the book at this point, as my diet and training have become more “Primal” over the last couple years without even knowing it, and my results have been undoubtedly different (in a good way.) I’m still an endurance athlete, but the way I do things has changed.

Anyway, back to the content of the book. You absolutely have to read the “Grok vs Korg” section, which is a humorous comparison between the way humans lived thousands of years ago compared to today. Unfortunately, all the statistics about long workdays, lack of sleep, lots of sitting in cars and at desks, and eating tons of processed junk foods are true!

That finishes up the first section of the book which is still mostly an introduction to the whole idea of The Primal Blueprint. Next, you get into real meat of the book.

This starts with a lot of information on your macronutrients – protein, fat, and carbs. This is great advice that’s easy to understand. It shows you why most carbs are generally bad and protein and fat are generally good. It’s a much better explanation than I’ve read anywhere else, and yes, it’s well cited!

Just to be clear, this book is NOT the Atkins diet or some other stupid “extremely low calorie, no carb” diet. And while the whole “Primal” idea may sound gimmicky, the book isn’t. It’s actually a lot of science that makes sense. Rather than saying typical ideas and science you may have heard is wrong, it’s more like putting an asterisk at the end of the statement.

You actually get the “why” behind the arguments and even more importantly, how every part of your diet works together. If you don’t know this, attempting a low-carb diet probably won’t help you.

Next, there is a chapter devoted to each of the ten Primal laws, where it goes into detail on each one.

Laws 1-3 are about eating healthy and avoiding poisonous things (mostly processed food.) This continues on with good diet advice similar to what was in the first part of the book. There’s not much to say other than it’s good advice that you need to read.

Laws 4-6 are the exercise laws. In general, it’s good information, and I’m pretty sure most normal people would be much better off if they followed this advice.

However, from an endurance athlete’s perspective, I’m not so sure I agree. For example, Mark says if you get “Primal fitness” from a weekly exercise routine of 2-5 hours walking, a couple strength training workouts, plus one 10-minute sprinting session, you’ll be able to complete a half-marathon or triathlon with very little additional training.

I think that is overstating things a bit. A half-marathon is no joke. Sure, technically you could walk a half-marathon and “complete” it, but I don’t consider that an accomplishment. However, I don’t think Mark is writing for professional athletes, so no need to nitpick each detail here.

Then you get into Heart Rate (HR) zones, just like you’d find in most any endurance sports training plan. You know, do most of your rides at an endurance pace (60-70% Max HR,) rather than spending lots of time at 80% MHR, where it’s hard but not hard enough to be really beneficial. For intensity, you sprint, which would be a max effort.

I think most endurance athletes have that down, assuming they have read something like Joe Friel’s The Cyclist’s Training Bible.

Moving on, I find it odd that in the “chronic cardio” section, Mark says people are doing their frequent 30-60 minute cardio sessions at like 90% MHR. Rarely do I ever spend an entire 30 minutes straight at 90% of my MHR. 20 minutes, maybe, but that’s still an infrequent training session or race.

I can’t imagine someone of average fitness being able to exercise at that rate for any substantial amount of time!

Anyway, this section says to me, “keep doing what you’re doing” when it relates to exercise. That’s not what I expected to read, but I guess that’s a good thing!

Lastly, Mark gives some advice on proper form for running and cycling (page 190.) But unless you’re new to this stuff and buying your cycling and running gear at Walmart, you should already know this.

Finally you finish the exercise section and get to the lifestyle advice. You have your basics like getting plenty of sleep, but it goes into great detail on how sleep works and how important it is to wake up naturally. You may already know this, but it’s good to read if you don’t.

I’ve followed the recommended sleep schedule, waking up without an alarm, at least 80% of the time since I can remember. Middle school maybe? It’s quite possible to do.

I have also been following the “Play” and “Get Adequate Sunlight” laws for as long as I can remember, and I must say, it works.

Finally, The Primal Blueprint laws include avoiding stupid mistakes and using your brain. I really need to work on this! I am always making stupid mistakes and getting hurt, typically when doing something mundane. Apparently I’m alert and can keep myself out of trouble during treacherous moments or sports, but walking around the house, I’m in trouble!

Well, that finishes up the Primal rules. Now on to some other topics to round out the book…

This is a big one – the Primal Approach to Weight Loss, which covers how to lose 1-2lb body fat per week.

This is just some more details on using the Primal lifestyle for fat loss. It’s also the section where Mark admits it’s not all “effortless” like it says on the title.

A very brief section on intermittent fasting is included, although it doesn’t go very deep in the “why” it works department. I find IF very interesting and thought if he would recommend it in the book, he’d provide more details. Oh well, there is plenty of info out there if you look it up. [I will be trying this out to see how it works! Stay tuned for my Primal fat loss results.]

Finally, the conclusion. To finish up, Mark talks about how the typical lifestyle today sucks compared to Grok and how to change it, with some specific steps for taking action.

Then the rest of the book is appendices. My favorite is a three-day journal in the life of Mark Sisson, which includes diet and exercise and a general timeline.

Lastly, the “Primal Approved” and “Primal Avoid” pages which are great. It’s like a quick reference of what you can and can’t eat, drink, etc. along with what workouts are good and bad.

Usually I don’t learn a whole lot of practical information from a regular hardcover book like this, but I learned a lot and was left with a feeling of satisfaction after reading it! So it was both fun to read and useful!

My final verdict is…

Primal Blueprint is worth the read, even if you don’t believe any of the “Grok lifestyle” or “Paleo” or “live like a caveman” kind of stuff you hear.

The athletic stuff isn’t very useful because if you already have a well-designed plan that follows basic training principles, you’re right on track.

But I think the Primal lifestyle is great. And Primal eating, in addition to the basics of Precision Nutrition, makes for a solid nutrition and wellness plan. I would buy this book just to read the sections about nutrition!

Official website: www.PrimalBlueprint.com

Buy online: www.Amazon.com*

*The book is $26.99 at the official site, but more like $14.92 at Amazon.com.

You know the general rule about doing one long ride (3-6 hours) per week to maintain endurance? Even during the race season where you’re focusing more on interval training and racing itself, it’s common to do that long endurance ride each week so your body doesn’t forget what it’s like to go long.

Well I was thinking about that, and I wondered, “couldn’t that idea apply to other areas?”

Almost instantly, I got the idea to do an “endurance eating” day once per week, too. This would be one day per week where you consume a substantial amount of calories above your usual intake. It’s not a cheat day where you can binge on the worst junk food you can find; rather, you’d binge on your regular healthy diet of fruit, vegetables, oatmeal, lean meats, nuts, legumes, etc.

I’m not a doctor or an RD or anything, and I didn’t test this idea in a laboratory, but I think it has merit. Here’s my reasoning…

First, the ever popular “starvation mode” argument. This is where your body adapts to a restricted calorie diet and therefore lowers your metabolism, burns fewer calories, stores more fat, etc. It’s not a good place to be.

That’s the danger with restricting calories every day for long periods of time. Your body just adapts to that caloric intake and you’ll no longer lose weight that way. (Just like if you do the exact same exercise routine for a long period of time, your body adapts and no longer produces results.)

People used to say that if you skipped meals, your body would enter starvation mode. I think that’s an old wives’ tale, though. Experts that I have some faith in say starvation mode kicks in after seven days. (It has to do with the hormone leptin; here’s some more info on starvation mode if you’re interested.)

What I’m thinking is that if you strategically eat big once every week, you can keep your body out of starvation mode and continue to burn lots of calories, as if you were on a high calorie diet each day. Basically you are keeping your body prepared to handle a large amount of food in one day (just like keeping it ready to handle lots of miles in one day.)

Ideally your body will think “burn fat!” since it will think you’re eating 6,000 calories per day, but then since you’re eating healthy and low on the calories for the next 3-6 days, you burn more than normal thanks to that big eating day!

By the time your body starts considering that you’re going a little low on food, bam, you hit it with another endurance eating day!

I wouldn’t expect miracles, but every little bit helps.

I do know that this strategy is getting more common in the general fitness and bodybuilding population (for example, there’s a book called Cheat Your Way Thin,) but I thought it was interesting to compare it to endurance training so it makes more sense for cyclists.

And hey, what’s better after a long endurance ride than a huge amount of tasty food? The two go hand in hand!

Photo credit: morrissey

When I first started mountain bike racing, my experience consisted of solo road rides and group mountain bike rides. Eating while road riding was easy, and on the group mountain bike rides, we always stopped to regroup, making it easy to get a bite to eat.

But… you can’t stop riding during a race! You need to get plenty of food and water, all while navigating treacherous terrain!

It’s tough, but not impossible. Here are some tips on how to do it:

1. Know the course.

You need to know the type of terrain you’ll be dealing with in order to make the right food choices.

If the course includes many dirt roads or smooth doubletrack sections, it will be possible to consume energy bars. If the course is technical singletrack, you might have to limit yourself to liquid calories.

Knowing what you’re in for will help you decide what to carry with you.

2. Open your energy bars before the race starts.

If the course offers easier, open sections, you can probably eat an energy bar while riding. But you don’t want to have to tear open the wrapper while riding. That’s annoying and completely unnecessary.

Before you line up at the start line, always tear open the wrapper and peel it back at least half way. Then re-wrap the bar and place it in your jersey pocket.

During the ride, you simply peel back the wrapper, rather than tear at it and then peel it back.

3. Tough terrain calls for energy gels.

If you’ll be on singletrack most of the time, and you only have very short sections of smooth terrain, you’ll want to skip the energy bars in favor of gel.

Gel is easier to eat because you just squeeze the packet into your mouth and swallow. Bam, it’s down. I like to either carry GU gel packets under my shorts (easy to grab,) or carry a gel flask. With the gel flask, you don’t have to worry about tearing open the gel packets.

Even easier are the newer energy gel bites, like GU Chomps and Clif Shot Bloks. These can be carried unwrapped in your jersey pocket, which makes for a very easy-to-grab snack.

4. Extreme terrain calls for liquid calories.

While I do like to carry some gel with me during races, I have been moving towards getting my calories via my water bottles. This is great for the really rough courses because you don’t have to deal with any wrappers or reaching into your jersey pocket.

You can do this with a high-calorie drink like Hammer Perpetuem. Fill your water bottle with Perpetuem and you can get 200 calories per hour that way.

(Skilled riders can stick with water bottles, but usually a hydration pack is easier for drinking, especially on singletrack. I stick with my Specialized bottles since they’re easier to clean out than a hydration pack.)

5. You can make a mess!

When you’re already covered in mud and gunk from the course, don’t worry about smearing a little gel on your face. You’re going to finish dirty, so gel, sports drink, drool, etc. will just blend right in.

The key is to get some nutrients into your mouth, not to stay clean.

Just remember, don’t litter! Dropping gel packets on the course can get you disqualified (and could ruin the race’s future, depending on who owns the land,) so make sure all wrappers end up back in your jersey pocket. Yes, even the little tops to gel packets.

Now practice these tips on your next ride and you’ll be ready to eat and drink without hesitation during your next mountain bike race!

Have you ever been too scared to eat and drink during a road bike race?

For my first years as a cyclist, I almost always rode alone or with one other person. Eating and drinking were easy, and I could always stop and relax to peel open an energy bar if necessary.

But once I started doing fast group rides where I was rotating through a paceline, there were days I definitely didn’t eat and drink enough. It just seemed too weird to grab my bottle or pull something out of my jersey pocket in a big group.

Not only is it hard to eat while also concentrating on the riders around you, you never know when a competitor could attack, forcing you to either drop your food or get dropped!

Here are some rules to follow, based on tips I picked up over the years:

1. Choose an easy-to-eat bar or gel.

I like Powerbars because I can take small bites and chew them quickly. They also slide down easily. Not so with bars that resemble real food (think dry, grainy bars such as Powerbar Harvest.)

Energy gel is another option, especially when carried in a flask. That is very quick to go down. I do recommend the flask, as dealing with a gel packet (tearing and then squeezing) can be cumbersome.

2. Your energy bars should be open before the ride starts.

Always rip open the wrapper and peel it back at least half way. Then re-wrap the bar and place it in your jersey pocket. This saves lots of time.

During the ride, you simply peel back the wrapper, rather than tear at it and then peel it back.

Another great idea is using energy gel bites like Clif Shot Bloks and PowerBar gel blasts. You can simply dump them into your jersey pocket and grab one at a time. They’re pretty dry, so they don’t need wrapped, and that saves a lot of time.

3. Eat a little at a time.

When you do eat your energy bar, take small bites. You will most likely be traveling at a fast pace, and your already heavy breathing will be even heavier if you have a huge chunk of energy bar blocking half your airway.

Just have a big enough bite that it still fits on one side of your mouth, between tongue and cheek.

The aforementioned energy gel bites work great for this as well, since they’re bite-sized.

4. Eat at the back of the pack.

The best time to eat and drink is when you’re at the back of the pack. You can relax a little bit since you don’t have riders on your back wheel.

You can also make use of the draft created by everyone in front. You can pedal with less effort, so you can devote more attention to eating.

Still pay attention to the leaders, though, in case they attack.

5. Eat when the pace eases.

At a stoplight, when the pack is settled down and calm. Or if there’s a tailwind. (If you’re in the back, you get the most benefit from the tailwind.) The easier the pace, the better, so you can devote more effort to chewing.

I like to eat at the top of a hill if there are no attacks. (Rarely are there attacks on the descent, so if everyone is together at the crest of the hill, it’s probably safe to grab a bite.) Then chew on the descent.

I usually don’t begin eating during the descents because I need both hands on the bar! This is especially true when you’re not familiar with the course.

6. There is no such thing as table manners.

When you’re riding with a pack of stinky guys blowing snot rockets, you don’t have to worry about being polite. Chew with your mouth open, swallow food whole, drip water on your jersey, grunt, etc.

The only “rule” that comes into play here is, don’t litter! Make sure you get your gel packets and energy bar wrappers back in your jersey pocket.

Practice these tips on your next solo ride, and put them into play during your next race. Eat enough food and you’ll finish strong!

I try to give out plenty of recommendations on what to eat (What To Eat Before and After a Ride, Banana Smoothie Recipe, Cinnamon Raisin Oatmeal Recipe, etc.), but everyone wants to know more…

What to eat healthy daily? i was wonderin whats very healthy to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner and also if you get a lil hungry in between what are some good snacks… the reason why i ask this is cause i’m tryin to work out my body. i am not fat one bit i’m fit i just wanna know what to eat to keep my body healthy.

Thanks,
Eating Erin

Hi Erin,

There are so many good foods out there I can’t list them all, but I’ll give you an idea of something I might eat on a typical day.

Breakfast

My two mainstays at breakfast time are oatmeal and whole wheat toast with natural peanut butter. Both are healthy choices that provide you with energy for the day. You can adjust proportions to your needs, but I typically have a huge bowl of oatmeal or two sandwiches, each loaded with a thick slab of peanut butter.

Another good option would be an omelet, which is a great way to get tons of nutrients from fresh eggs and veggies.

When I don’t need as many calories, I like to have a bowl of plain yogurt and fruit (such as strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries.)

To round out my breakfast, I may also have an orange, apple, or banana. If I don’t have one with breakfast, I’ll have one as a mid-morning snack. I may also have a handful of walnuts or almonds, too.

For a beverage, green tea.

Lunch

One of my favorite lunches is a chicken sandwich. My usual consists of a sprouted grain bun with a few slices of chicken breast, then some sort of vegetable topping. My favorite add-ons are basil pesto and avocado slices, but you can also stick with lettuce, onions, green peppers, olives, and/or cheese.

If I was going out, I’d probably grab a $5 footlong from Subway; either turkey breast or sweet onion chicken teriyaki.

After lunch is another chance to snack on fresh fruit (apples, pears, peaches, etc.) and raw veggies such as carrot sticks and chunks of cauliflower (which won’t be as noticeable in your teeth as broccoli.)

Dinner

If I haven’t had one yet, it’s time for a large salad or vegetable stir-fry.

For the salad, we’re talking a large plate piled high with hearty lettuce, spinach, cucumber, carrots, mushrooms, cheddar cheese, and whatever else is fresh. If I put anything on top of that, it’s olive oil.

For the stir-fry, I put a couple pounds of vegetables in a pan and stir-fry them. I add fresh onion and garlic for flavor, along with plenty of spices. This makes 2-3 large plates full of vegetables. When finished cooking, I douse them in olive oil.

Then I’ll have to find something for an evening snack. This could be a glass of milk with whey protein powder, apple slices covered in peanut butter and raisins, a hamburger made with quality meat, a glass of Barlean’s Greens, or whatever else I can find.

And that’s just what was on my mind! Things change year-round as I try new things and find whatever fruit and veggies are in-season.

If you want some more advice on great meals, I have to recommend the Precision Nutrition system and gourmet cookbooks. The whole package (nutrition guides and cookbooks) will set you back almost $100 (or even $150 if they raised the price,) but if you just want the cookbook for meal ideas, you can find Gourmet Nutrition for $40 or so.

While certainly not cheap, it’s a great way to get healthy meal ideas if you’re totally lost in the kitchen!