Month: June 2017

I really respect Eric. He has had some health problems, and decided to make the changes he felt would benefit himself and his family. On top of that his views on training mirror my own, in that you should be flexible, listen to your body and most importantly enjoy it.

Eric Lancaster.  Instagram: @TexasKetoAthlete Strava: https://www.strava.com/athletes/6844386

Who are you?

I’m a 37 year-old living near Austin, Texas.  I am a full-time paramedic, working 12-hour shifts.  I enjoy cooking, reading, exercise, listening to podcasts, but most of all spending time with my wife and three daughters.

What is your exercise background?

I played football (the kind with helmets) in high school and I threw shotput and discus.  In college I hike and lifted weights but nothing organized.  Up until two years ago, I very inconsistently lifted weights and ran.  In summer 2015, I was diagnosed with a prolactinoma (benign pituitary tumor).  That was a wake up call for me.  It was a reminder that I only live this life once and I have to make my health a priority.  I changed from 24-hour shifts at work to 12-hour shifts to optimize my sleep patterns.  I decreased my carbohydrate intake (eventually becoming ketogenic).  The focus on sleep and dietary changes helped greatly.  I researched and digested as much as I could through Endurance Planet (podcast) and Primal Endurance (podcast and book).  As far as my running experience, my personal bests are a 25 minute 5k and 53 minute 10k.  I have also rowed at 7:40 2000m on my concept2 erg.

What are your exercise goals for the future?

Right now I am focusing my training on a 25k trail run in October. http://www.tejastrails.com/#/jandj/

I’m very excited for the race and we have turned it into a weekend camping getaway for the family.  My training focus is building up aerobic capacity slowly while maintaining MAF heart rate.  I am doing a mix of running, rowing, calisthenics, weight training, and mobility/yoga.

Also, these are the lifetime goals I made for myself.

See my abs

1.5x Body weight (BW) front squat

2.5x BW deadlift

135lb barbell press

BW clean

1.5x BW bench press

Run a half marathon in 90 minutes

Run a mile in 6 minutes

Row a marathon (concept 2 rower)

2k row less than 6:30

Run a 50k

15 dead hang pull-ups in a row

What are your nutritional beliefs?

I usually do aerobic sessions early in the morning (due to heat) and I prefer to do them fasted.  I generally fast for 14-18 hours a day.  On non-exercise days, I aim for 20g net carbs.  If I’m doing more than an hour of aerobic work, I will add full fat yogurt and some berries post-workout, and that drifts up to 40g net carbs or so.  I eat a big salad of leafy greens once or twice a day.  I try to eat a serving or two of veggies in every meal.  Also in the regular rotation are eggs, cream, cheese, salami, bacon, olives, nuts (brazil, macademia, hazelnuts, walnuts, almonds), avocado, meat from my smoker (I am a Texan), MCT oil, and coconut.  I am the primary chef in my family, so I generally make two to three big meals a week and have leftovers for myself and my family.  I will often cook rice or bake sweet potatoes for them as I have very active and carb-tolerant kids and wife.

Anything you want to add?

The single greatest thing I have learned is that you have to enjoy the journey.  A race or event is only one day of your life.  The important stuff: training, diet, rest, and health are every single day.  For long-term success and happiness, enjoy every second of the journey.  Sometimes that means taking an extra rest day or two.  Sometimes that means running longer when you feel great.  Focusing on a rigid schedule or rigid goals will only lead to frustration.

Disclaimer:

I am an Ambassador for a Ketogenic Sports Drink called KETONE.io by Limited Labs – use coupon STEVEN for 10% off storewide. I also contribute to their weekly newsletter The Ketogenic Playbook.

I am also an Ambassador for IAMRUNBOX, which produces products to help the run commute community.

Photo Credit: Eric Lancaster

You can catch me on:

Instagram @ ketogenicendurance

Twitter @ ketoendurance

Facebook Page: Ketogenic Endurance

Reddit sub: r/ketogenicendurance

Strava Club: Ketogenic Endurance – open to anyone on Strava who likes the Ketogenic Diet or LCHF Diet.

Ketogenic Endurance Clothing

I love how Khai has taken it back to a simpler life. I found that growing my own vegetables was very rewarding. So I can only imagine how rewarding it is to take further steps down that road. I also respect his views on training, running should improve your health not harm it. If you enjoy the training, then you can enjoy your races too.

Khai Foo. Instagram: @kfoo1. Blog: http://butyoucannothide.wordpress.com/

Who are you? I’m a forty-something husband, and father of two young boys. We recently moved from Toronto to a small island off the coast of British Columbia, Canada as part of an attempt to live a simpler life and be more connected to the fundamentals of life: food, shelter and nature. We have a little bit of land which is allowing us to get closer to our food supply – we’ve started growing vegetables, wild-harvesting off the property and raising chickens for meat and eggs. Technology has allowed me to run my company, which has global reach, from this small piece of paradise.

What is your exercise background? I didn’t start running seriously until I was 41. I dabbled in all types of sport in my youth before spending about 15 years playing competitive ultimate. By my thirties, after beating myself up for many years, I actually swore I would never run again (by choice) and didn’t, for a solid decade. Running kind of snuck up on me: after relocating to Toronto from Vancouver, I started running to get in shape to play city league ultimate, mostly for the social side. Then someone recommended I read “Born to Run” (not the Springsteen bio)… and now I’m running ultra-distance races.

What are your exercise goals for the future? My main goal in running is to do it in a way that is sustainable and promotes my overall health for the long term. Sure, I want to challenge myself, but never at the expense of killing the enjoyment. I’ve come to believe that running slowly for longer distances is, in fact, a sensible way to run, especially as I get older. So I spend 95% of my time at MAF heart rate or below. This year I’m training for the 193 km Fat Dog 120 because, well, I don’t really know, but I try not to overthink it. Hopefully I will complete it and then see what happens next.

What are your nutrition beliefs? I came to low-carb for the running, and stayed for the health. I was initially drawn to it by the idea of becoming an efficient fat-burner for endurance events, but the more I learned, through reading and experiencing the changes in my life, the more I realized that it was not some radical fringe-diet for cross-fitters. I was actually moving towards “normal”. Going low-carb/keto is not about turning diet on its head, it had been topsy-turvy to begin with. I don’t get too stressed about the macros, but generally eat less than 100 grams of carbs a day. When my training load gets heavy, like it is now, I just eat more, and make sure there’s a lot of fat included. After several years of experimenting, I have settled into a way of eating that takes cues from traditional diets: exclusively whole foods with emphases on trying to eat locally, nose-to-tail, fermented foods and fresh vegetables.

Anything else? My journey into running and more “normal” eating is a few years old now and my experience so far is that it is slow and gradual process. Sure, there was a “honeymoon” period where change was substantial and somewhat drastic, but since then, with consistency and persistence I have seen my running and general well-being improving steadily in what I see now is a life-long pursuit.

As a side note, the body’s ability to adapt to fat as fuel is truly remarkable. I’ve been fortunate to be able to take Metabolic Efficiency Tests for the last couple of years and the results have been astonishing and enlightening. You can read more about my journey on – butyoucannothide.wordpress.com

Thanks to Khai for his time.

Disclaimer:

I am an Ambassador for a Ketogenic Sports Drink called KETONE.io by Limited Labs – use coupon STEVEN for 10% off storewide. I also contribute to their weekly newsletter The Ketogenic Playbook.

I am also an Ambassador for IAMRUNBOX, which produces products to help the run commute community.

Photo Credit: Khai Foo

You can catch me on:

Instagram @ ketogenicendurance

Twitter @ ketoendurance

Facebook Page: Ketogenic Endurance

Reddit sub: r/ketogenicendurance

Strava Club: Ketogenic Endurance – open to anyone on Strava who likes the Ketogenic Diet or LCHF Diet.

Ketogenic Endurance Clothing

I like Hayden’s mind set. He lives on nutritious real food. It does not matter what type of Low Carb lifestyle umbrella you stand under. If you cut out grains and sugar, whilst limiting processed food you are a long way down the road to good health. What is also apparent is that once you become truly fat adapted and have a high carb day, you can easily drop back into fat burning with minimal effort. It is also good to see others exercising fasted, I find the more I have eaten on the day of a run the more sluggish I am. I always have my best runs on a Saturday morning, when I have just got out of bed and left the house straight away without any food. 

Hayden Maher. Twitter and Instagram – @irunonfat

Who are you?

Husband and dad of 3 kids.  Live in South Australia.  Grew up playing Aussie rules football as a kid, never really into fitness until my late 20’s early 30’s. Lived on the typical western diet most of my life, until roughly 4 years ago when I ditched the grains and sugar.  Have done everything from Paleo, Primal, Keto, LCHF and a mix of all!  Currently my nutrition is Low Carb Paleo.

What is your exercise background?

No big achievements.  Used to race in amateur cycling events, mainly graded races up to 80km (no longer do this – was a carb junky back then). Keen runner and mountain biker now, recently did my first full marathon, which was 50/50 road and trail.  Finished in 4:24.  Have done a few half marathons, my PB is 1:38 for the half.  These have all been done low carb.  Have also done 4hr and 6 hr enduro Mtb races low carb.

What are your exercise goals for the future?

To continue to remain fit as I age.  Set a good role model for my kids (run Parkrun with them when I can). I have entered the “King of the Mount” – a 8km trail run with 600m of climbing!!  Looking for my next marathon, not sure whether to go a trail again, or road to aim for a better time.

What is your diet like?

My nutrition is simple.  I live a whole food Paleo life.  So no grains, dairy or sugar.  I live mainly on meat, vegetables, seed and nuts.  I remain low carb by limiting fruit and starchy veggies.  When exercising, I mainly do it fasted.  Though on my recent marathon, all I had was coconut butter, some nuts, a banana and water.  I find that simple foods work better for me when exercising.

I find that I can easily cycle into Keto if I focus on my Marcos or by fasting.  With my current running volume of 30-40km a week I generally do a carb re feed at the end of each day (normally some sweet potato with dinner).

Back in my cycling days I was a carb addict!! Would throw back gels all day on the bike, and pay the price for it later!!

How do you train generally?

I follow the MAF method of heart rate training.  Majority of my runs are at MAF, though do cycle into hard periods to change it up every now and then.  Also I really enjoy yoga and meditation – I think over the last 4 years as Paleo/Primal, I have learned a lot about life, my body and the environment we live in.  I think everyone should be living a Paleo/Primal/Keto life, we would all be some much better off!!

Disclaimer:

I am an Ambassador for a Ketogenic Sports Drink called KETONE.io by Limited Labs – use coupon STEVEN for 10% off storewide. I also contribute to their weekly newsletter The Ketogenic Playbook.

I am also an Ambassador for IAMRUNBOX, which produces products to help the run commute community.

Photo Credit: Hayden Maher

You can catch me on:

Instagram @ ketogenicendurance

Twitter @ ketoendurance

Facebook Page: Ketogenic Endurance

Reddit sub: r/ketogenicendurance

Strava Club: Ketogenic Endurance – open to anyone on Strava who likes the Ketogenic Diet or LCHF Diet.

Ketogenic Endurance Clothing

I live in the backwaters of the countryside in County Durham. Its a great place to run, but judging by the amount of Gregg’s, takeaways and pubs. I am not sure my village is at the forefront of nutritional progression. With my barefoot running and ketogenic diet, I sometimes feel like an ugly duckling, Dr Frankenstein, or Ariel from the Little Mermaid!! Wherein people are just clearly looking at me and thinking, what the hell is he on about? That’s ok though, I actually like being different.

With all that being said, just after a quick look on the web. You will see there are plenty of people thriving on low carb diets, as well as excelling with their exercise goals. This is the inspiration for the new Interview section of my blog. Hope you like it.

Glen Shaw

Twitter @GlennoShaw. Instagram @glenno_shaw.

Please note; you do not have to have a beard and be bald to excel on low carb, but it helps. I wonder if the world would fold in on itself if we ever met???

Who are you ?

I’m a bit of a worldy: born in Zimbabwe, raised in South Africa, now living in London (since 2006), and moving to Australia next year with my fiancé. I work as a level 3 support person for an IT company, which I’ll be sad to say good bye to at the end of this year. We are planning on doing a year of travelling before getting to Oz to settle down in Newcastle (NSW), where all her family and friends live.

What is your exercise background?

I let myself go and really only started getting back into training in 2009. I was never a runner (played rugby in high school), but figured that would be the best way to lose weight. That eventually lead to me completing two half Ironmans (in Exmoor 2013 & 2014) and a full Ironman (in Bolton 2015).

What are your exercise goals for the future?

This year I’m hoping to break the Guinness world record for the fastest marathon carrying 60-lb (27.22kg). I had started to train for it after Ironman and attempted it at the London Marathon this year but got a bit unlucky early in the attempt and finished 45 minutes behind the record. I’ve signed up to the Gloucester City marathon on August 6th to give it one last go.

What is your diet like?

Breakfast is just a bullet proof coffee, 100g of full fat Greek yoghurt and some blueberries. Lunch is a salad (raw spinach, feta cheese, tomato, cucumber, pastrami ham and full fat mayonnaise) then a kiwi fruit and some cashew nuts. Afternoon snack is babel cheese, almond nuts and a banana (then I’m ready for my evening workout). Dinner is whatever my fiancé cooks up, she enjoys cooking and likes the challenge of creating meals without (or as little) carbs as possible.

My weekends are where I’m pushing myself to the limit and at this point I’m still amazed at what’s possible whilst in Ketosis. For example, I’m training to do Challenge Almere on September 9th with my housemate and he has a massive dinner on Friday night, a massive breakfast and takes along sandwiches before we set off for 3 -4 hours of swimming and cycling, and all I’ve had is a normal dinner and a bullet proof coffee.

How do you fuel your backpack runs?

So on Sunday mornings without the bag I just get up and bust out up to 15 miles carrying nothing but a 500ml bottle of electrolytes, anything more than that and I take two bottles with me. But it’s all on a completely empty stomach (i.e. a fasted state).

With the backpack I have to load up, not carb up, but load up on food: Huge dinner, as much breakfast as I can eat and then I take a few nut butters with me which I have at the turnaround. I’ve found I can just about manage 10 miles without eating but once I start running further than 13 miles I need to eat loads (It just feels like my stomach needs food in it to stabilise the bag and I burn through the food really quickly).

Running with the backpack is hell on earth: shoulders and quads just get destroyed every time, and I can really only do one long run with the backpack every other week (it takes me a few days to recover from a long run and I still need to give myself enough time to kind of taper before the next big run with it). So in a two week segment I’m training 12 days but only really doing 3 runs with it (two short and one long) the other days are filled with swimming, cycling and strength work.

The record currently stands at 4h39m09s and I am able to maintain the 10 min/mile pace needed to break it but I need a good race day without any problems so fingers crossed that will happen at Gloucester!

Any advice for me?

I have two bits of advice I’d like to leave with you:

• Don’t risk long term injury for any event – short term success never outweighs long term burdens.

• Never ever, under any circumstances shave your beard off (look what happened to Samson), keep your beard game strong.

Disclaimer:

I am an Ambassador for a Ketogenic Sports Drink called KETONE.io by Limited Labs – use coupon STEVEN for 10% off storewide. I also contribute to their weekly newsletter The Ketogenic Playbook.

I am also an Ambassador for IAMRUNBOX, which produces products to help the run commute community.

Photo Credit: Glen Shaw

You can catch me on:

Instagram @ ketogenicendurance

Twitter @ ketoendurance

Facebook Page: Ketogenic Endurance

Reddit sub: r/ketogenicendurance

Strava Club: Ketogenic Endurance – open to anyone on Strava who likes the Ketogenic Diet or LCHF Diet.

Ketogenic Endurance Clothing