Over the winter I've gotten to work professionally with Justin Grissom. He's a Texan, a top notch professional engineer, a husband and daddy, and a highly disciplined Ironman triathlete and ultramarathon racer. He does things like the Boston marathon as a preparatory event for his bigger challenges. He thinks through every detail of his training, diet, equipment, and event execution. Here he talks about the effect of his nutritional choices on top performance.
After a lifetime of being a casual athlete and general proponent of health and fitness, I decided to get semi-serious about my pursuits 8 or so years ago. I trained for and completed my first marathon, in a less than spectacular 4:11. I was injured and it took months to totally recover. I continued running, lifting weights, eating my protein, and doing the things that most people do to stay in shape.
Most importantly at the time, I consumed as much animal protein as I could. Like most "athletes" I knew, the key to being strong was consuming as much chicken, beef, fish, and dairy as possible. A year later, I ran another marathon and finished (injured, again) with a less than spectacular 3:43. After this marathon, my right knee was so sore that I was unable to run for months. Since I had to do something active to maintain my sanity, I decided I might as well learn how to swim. Swimming had always seemed intriguing from afar, but I could barely swim to save my life. It took four days a week for four months, but I finally got enough skills in the pool to swim a mile.
Fast forward to 2015. I have completed triathlons from the sprint distance to the Ironman, and many other endurance runs, marathons, and ultramarathons. Over 4 years ago, my family and I made the transition from omnivorous eating to a plant based diet. No meat. No eggs. No dairy. Nothing that had a mother or a face is the easiest way to describe it to people who have never heard the term (and yes there are people who still, in 2015, have never heard of a "vegan"). I definitely did not come to this conclusion on my own; there is an enormous mountain of evidence that a vegan diet is superior to the typical animal based western diet. This is especially true for endurance athletes.
Following the lead of amazing vegan athletes Brendan Brazier, Scott Jurek, and Rich Roll, the transition was totally painless. When you tax your body with 10, 20, or 30+ hours per week of intense training, what you choose to put in your mouth for fuel becomes critical. Animal products, while being a concentrated source of protein, are hard to digest and create additional stresses on your body at a time when recovery is critical. I have lost over 30 pounds (I was not overweight before, and I'm not underweight now) and have seen my strength and stamina increase drastically. At 33 years old, the rate at which I can recover from hard training efforts is orders of magnitude greater than my capacity for recovery at 18 ever was. My cholesterol and blood pressure, which were at "healthy" levels before the switch, plummeted to levels that I never expected to attain. Something else dropped, too-my race times.
Most importantly at the time, I consumed as much animal protein as I could. Like most "athletes" I knew, the key to being strong was consuming as much chicken, beef, fish, and dairy as possible. A year later, I ran another marathon and finished (injured, again) with a less than spectacular 3:43. After this marathon, my right knee was so sore that I was unable to run for months. Since I had to do something active to maintain my sanity, I decided I might as well learn how to swim. Swimming had always seemed intriguing from afar, but I could barely swim to save my life. It took four days a week for four months, but I finally got enough skills in the pool to swim a mile.
Fast forward to 2015. I have completed triathlons from the sprint distance to the Ironman, and many other endurance runs, marathons, and ultramarathons. Over 4 years ago, my family and I made the transition from omnivorous eating to a plant based diet. No meat. No eggs. No dairy. Nothing that had a mother or a face is the easiest way to describe it to people who have never heard the term (and yes there are people who still, in 2015, have never heard of a "vegan"). I definitely did not come to this conclusion on my own; there is an enormous mountain of evidence that a vegan diet is superior to the typical animal based western diet. This is especially true for endurance athletes.
Following the lead of amazing vegan athletes Brendan Brazier, Scott Jurek, and Rich Roll, the transition was totally painless. When you tax your body with 10, 20, or 30+ hours per week of intense training, what you choose to put in your mouth for fuel becomes critical. Animal products, while being a concentrated source of protein, are hard to digest and create additional stresses on your body at a time when recovery is critical. I have lost over 30 pounds (I was not overweight before, and I'm not underweight now) and have seen my strength and stamina increase drastically. At 33 years old, the rate at which I can recover from hard training efforts is orders of magnitude greater than my capacity for recovery at 18 ever was. My cholesterol and blood pressure, which were at "healthy" levels before the switch, plummeted to levels that I never expected to attain. Something else dropped, too-my race times.
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