Ultra Endurance Athlete Starting Out

[Nathan_Toben]

Day 32: Keto Treats Last NIght, Fasted 20-Miler This Morning

Last night, my sister and I made Chocolate Keto Mason Jar Ice Cream and No Bake Keto Peanut Butter Balls. We put five balls on top of our ice cream that was in wine glasses. I finished mine (though not without a bit of honest struggle. It was SOOO delicious but very filling). My sister ate half of hers to stay within her macros. She is doing really good. Me, not so much . I mean, my activity level is abnormally high so I may have gone up to 60g-70g carbs yesterday but I only mildly kicked myself with my thoughts afterwards.

This morning was a planned long run. I started at 7:10am and finished at 10:50am. With a few water stops, it was probably a total of 200 minutes moving time.

It was cool at first but as I got into late morning, the temperature got probably in the 80s? My body felt good and relaxed. Probably in part due to the fact that I had the most carbs I’ve had by far in over a month - since starting keto - the night before.

Though my right hip did start to talk to me near the end, I think it was mostly due to overall core temperature rising and slight dehydration setting in, perhaps low salt too. My point is, it is not clear that any sensations of “deterioration” in energy or gait were directly related to bonking or running out of energy. In fact, if I had wet my bandana, drank a few glasses of cold water, I could have easily gone out for another 45 minutes to an hour even in the rising heat.

Long story short, this is my 3rd test of fat-adapted endurance.

1st = 20-miler cut short to a 14-miler. 6/10.
2nd = 20-miler on trails with gallon jug of water and electrolytes. 7/10.
3rd = Today’s 20-miler (could have been a couple miles longer) in heat, on roads, no electrolytes, a few water stops. Manageable but challenging. 7.5/10.

Progress.

I thought, “maybe I can even wait until later to eat and spark up some autophagy and/or HGH, dispense of some water weight etc. etc. etc. But this Binge Eater has got to learn from his mistakes. So instead of that noise, I made a bulletproof coffee, 3 scrambled eggs in a couple tables spoons of butter.

And that brings us up to the current moment. I might try some calisthenics, I might do an evening shake out run. Damn, I should take stock of the fact that I can say that. Muscle soreness has decreased SO MUCH in the last month and that sluggishness that characterized the start of my runs early on is no longer present.

I hope to be good to myself throughout this day so to avoid the parameters that lead to compulsive eating. ONe thing I have not experienced truly yet is consistent fullness from meals that overrides ravenous-brain. But like I have said in an earlier post, I have a very pronounced eating disorder and it will take more than a measley month to undo my factory settings.

I just got to keep my eyes on the horizon…

…and keto on.

[Nathan_Toben]

Day 34: Melancholy & The Infinite Keto

It is Sunday morning and today I pack up and drive back home to central NC from the coast. My sister finished her first week of keto and is feeling very good. As for myself, incremental progress. I ate a bunch of keto treats while down here. Ran 69 miles this week. I might go out this evening for 10-15 if I feel so inclined.

Not really much amazing news to report, keto-wise. I am continuing to feel minute improvements in my gait—focusing on the coordination aspect of running and trying to let the muscular aspect take a back seat to that. Keto clarity continues to play a role in my neuromuscular development.

Had a great time with my mom and sister.

My immediate focus when I t comes to my running right now is to continue to tick off miles at an aerobic pace and focus on running economy. I have a tendency to bend at the hip (the biker’s running dilemma) instead of the ankles. Gotta thrust my pelvis out in front of me, create a slight low-back arch and drive my knees forward while I drive my elbows back. Slice the legs through the air while pogo-sticking along.

I don’t know how to describe it but it feels like my body wants to drop weight. This is different than my Disordered Mind wanting to drop weight. I am noticing maybe some more vascularity in my legs and arms and muscular definition. I am also feeling more mentally full more often. Letting myself off the hook—I hope that continues but mental illness is a titan.’

Feeling a little melancholy. Transitions are hard for me. Being away from work for a week is good for me however now I am poor and out of rhythm. It’ll be ok, sometimes I just wish basic things were easier for me. I can run 100-miles but I can’t put the dishes away. Depression, baby! Living it.

[Nathan_Toben]

Week 6: Deficit Days of Summer

Switching to weekly updates to give more periodic snapshots of progress.

I am a few months out from my race so I want to begin sidling my way towards race weight now in the hope that I am not doing so later on when training becomes more involved.

This comes on the heels of my appetite being slightly reduced and my body showing signs it is making an honest foray into fat adaption. I mentioned in a previous post that it actually feels like my body is ready to drop weight, independent of my mind. This is new for me, sitting back in my body and just putting my hands up and saying, body, you tell me what you want, I’m just along for the ride.

Despite running 10 trail miles most mornings and biking 30 miles between 10am-2pm, I have typically been fasting from 9pm to 2pm-3pm or 16-18 hours each day.

I have been breaking my fast with two small tins of sardines and sea salt. It’s about 600 calories. I’m budgeting for a trip next week to Washington State to crew my dad for his second 100-mile mountain race, Cascade Crest. I will be pacing him for the last 40 miles of the journey while his brother/my uncles leap frog along the way in a car and provide food and drink for him. Gonna be an awesome experience…if I can get my darn shifts covered. Hence, I lay hunched over tiny tins of smelly fish like an embarrassed keto brute.

After lunch, I’ll then continue to bike until 7pm when i get off work—with maybe another shot of EVOO along the way. This really is not much and yesterday I was feeling this catching up with me. I need more calories early in the day, so I am drinking two BPCs before my 20-miler this morning.

The students are back in town now and so business is picking up a lot. The miles on the bike will begin reflecting that; getting as high as 400/week.

Dinner is usually bacon and eggs or Keto Nachos—I call them. Grass fed beef with spices, onions garlic black olives and melted cheddar cheese on top a bed of salt and pepper pork rinds and sour cream. Big meal at the end of the day after burning 2500-3500 calories in the day on top of BMR. Sometimes I overdo it at dinner but in the last few days, despite eating 2500 calories in a sitting, I am supposedly still in a significant deficit according to MFP.

I don’t think that MFP takes into a account the body’s ability to adapt to familiar stresses. Whereas someone else might burn 6000 calories biking a stage of the Tour De France, a Grand Tour rider probably burns far less because their body is absolutely prepared for such an activity. So I wonder how many calories these massive days actually entail for me. No way of knowing other than rough estimates.

My intestines have been bloated but also felt very hard beneath my abdomen early this week. May have been as a result of the keto treats I had down at the beach last week.

I don’t know what is going on but now that it is Friday, and I have been in a deficit the last three days, I think whatever is in there is slowly slowly slowly moving its way out. Being in a slight deficit feels so much less stressful on my whole system in the morning.

So, deficits. For me, ending the day in a deficit is very hard, especially on a day when I am recovering (Sunday blues day) and not exercising. But I am motivated by my recent consistency with morning runs and keto-clarity to give it a go. Ive been tracking to keep things more objective with MFP.

Last weigh in I was at 167 which meant that in the first month of keto I had gained and lost and gained and lost and gained ± 3 lbs. I aim to be in the low 150s and single-digit body fat percentage by November. Lofty goal. This will alleviate the stresses of running greatly and increase the ease at which i can ascend the hills in town on my bike.

Gosh but deficits are so hard. Keto is not a magic bullet for appetite suppressing for me. When people post about how they are struggling so much to get in enough food, I just blink a couple times and wonder if they are human. We are all different and so are our challenges, I just wish as a distance runner, I had their challenges.

One part about keto as an athlete that confuses me is this. For the first month, I removed all vegetables from my diet to really make a hard switch to fat-burning. Despite going this extreme, there were a handful of days that my carbs reached 50-75 grams. All from cheese, eggs, meats, pork rinds. Seriously.

So if my daily caloric needs are 5500-6500 calories and I am to get only 20g of carbohydrates and 134g protein (lean body mass calculator), this means that I am unequivocally relegated to eating/drinking massive amounts of dietary fat?

Literally drinking olive oil from the bottle throughout the day. “Just cook with a lot of fat” really doesn’t translate to these numbers. It would basically be butter soup.

What am I missing? Increase carbs from vegetables or just embrace the gallons of fat?

But onward and upward!

Weekly Totals will be:

Running, 70 miles
Biking, 200 miles

[AnnM]

Gosh but deficits are so hard. Keto is not a magic bullet for appetite suppressing for me. When people post about how they are struggling so much to get in enough food, I just blink a couple times and wonder if they are human.

Hi Nathan, I think those of us who are complaining about not being hungry are not exercising anywhere near as much as you do. Rather than looking at 20g of carbs as your limit, perhaps look at maintaining 5% of your daily calories as carbs, and then 70% fat and 25% protein. Or, since you are exercising so much, maybe you need to boost your protein to 30%. I think the 20g of carbs is meant for those of us who are consuming 2000cal or less per day.

As far as MFP, I started with it, but it didn’t seem to work well w/ the lower grams of carbs. I switched to Carb Manager - carbmanager.com, and I am doing very well with it.

As always your progress notes are informative and motivating. KCKO

[Nathan_Toben]

@AnnM thank you for the clutch advice! Phew that i think will make this whole numbers game a lot easier. I am downloading carb manager now. Happy Friday!

[AnnM]

Happy Friday to you too, Nathan. Yeah, I find Carb Manager to be a great tool! And enjoy your weekend!

[oward12]

Yo @Nathan_Toben,
I regularly think about how you’re getting on man. Hope you’re well.
Still practising Ketosis for your running or not so much recently?
It must be 64 days till Pinhoti 100 now right?

[Nathan_Toben]

Week 8: Traveled, Unraveled

Last week I flew to Washington State and then drove to Cle Elum (90 minutes outside Seattle) to crew and pace my dad for The Cascade Crest Endurance Run. He picked me up at mile 54 and we experienced the last 46 miles together, a total of 16 hours hiking and running. It was a wild experience.

But leading up to my travels I experienced an anxiety attack. They happen infrequently these days but when they do, it is paralyzing. An unsourced, seemingly inexhaustible feeling of impending doom. It led me to overeat keto and so when I got out to Washington, I was hanging on by a thread. Then, the day before the race, I picked up some cookies and ice cream at the grocery store, and while waiting around at aid stations, I started grazing on whatever was around.

The amount of water I retained was impressive. To get a sense, after a dozen or so miles into pacing my dad, I said, ok, you are fat adapted, just take in electrolytes and water and let this shit process out of you and if you start bonking, eat something.

Well I hardly drank any water for 10 hours running and hiking and continued to pee once an hour, clear. 10 hours, hardly any nutrition, I had enough onboard fuel and hydration due to eating carbohydrates the two days before to climb mountains, unaided for 10 long grueling hours. I never bonked. But by the end of it, I felt the old inflammation responses that my body exhibited pre-keto. The part that I am most surprised by is not that I didn’t need any fuel, but that I didn’t need any water. Bizarre.

So now I am home and just trying to not play food games, keep my fat high, carbs low and get back into a routine. I am a creature of habit and very sensitive to change. I am super grateful that keto makes carbohydrates a win-win scenario in a certain way for the keto endurance athlete.

If the Keto Endurance Athlete DOESN’T bring aboard carbohydrate, they ever so gradually, like a tectonic plate, shift their operating standards to the right; towards greater health and efficiency. Adaptations = LONG TERM.

If the Keto Athlete DOES bring aboard carbohydrate, they very quickly retain this fuel source for optimal utilization, burning up every last sugary kcal like a drip of jet fuel into a reservoir of diesel; we get such an enormous bang for our buck. Adaptations = SHORT TERM.

Who knew that being fat adapted would mean that two pints of ice cream and a bag of pepper ridge cookies would be enough fuel for 16 hours moving time. Now I do. I think a big lesson to take from in all of this is to allow the mental space to be shown by my body what level of metabolic and muscular fitness it truly is in. I think from endless days of being on the bike and even running before such, my muscle fibers have become much more glycogen-sparing than I thought. It seems like, despite my hunger hormones being off the charts, my body does not need a lot of fuel to go far, keto or no. If I can instill deeper trust that I just don’t need fuel nearly as much as I think, it will bring me closer to a proper assessment of my ketogenic endurance.

But cycling carbs is a roller coaster of emotion. This is not the way I want to go! I am experiencing gut distress, higher anxiety and all that crap from having fallen off the wagon and from the inebriation of sugar. My first relapse in 8 weeks.

But by being diligent with drinking a couple BPCs in the morning, getting my run in, getting to work on time and working wit a focused mind, I am reinstalling the rhythms that allow me to thrive.

My primary reason for keto is mental health. Only secondarily is it physical adaptations. Got to take the good with the bad and continue to develop a more right-sized relationship with my self.

Carb-phobia is not a healthy response or solution. I caved and ate carbohydrates and I will do it again. So how can I navigate these pitfalls with grace? Because holding myself to an unrealistic standard makes bouncing back from failure a more protracted process, instead of just popping back into the keto groove.

Orthorexia is a bit inevitable in the keto world and I look forward to searching out more voices of people who live a ketogenic lifestyle who embrace carbohydrates for the myriad benefits that they provide once we are no longer insulin resistant or have moved our health markers back into alignment. Paradoxically, embracing carbohydrates as a healthy tool makes them less intoxicating.

My hundred mile race is in 63 days, yes! @oward12. Thank you for checking in on me. You must be pretty intuitive because I had dropped off from my communication here and your message was what I needed to spend the time catching y’all up. I hope your nutrition is going well.

I am writing myself an ambitious training plan this morning to give myself some structure and restructuring my work schedule to allow for longer runs. This morning will be a 2hr trail run and 6 hours at work on the bike.

Tomorrow is a 30-miler early in the morning (start time 4am). And then, work until 2pm for the lunch rush and then head to my moms to recount the adventure out west and watch the new season of Ozark on Netflix like a vegetable.

This post is all over the place, and so am I! But if I only shared when I had my shit all together, well that wouldn’t be an honest sharing of my journey, would it? I’m really not keeping too calm, but I am keto-ing on, and sometimes, that’s good enough for me. Cheers!

P.S. My dad is turning 60 this year and only started running a couple years ago. Now he runs 100-milers. Anything is NOT possible, just most things are.

[oward12]

Congratulations to your Dad. One day I hope to join the 100 club. Somehow.
I am however in the emptional eating club so I’m with you on that. Feel your struggle and relate to the chaos. Still searching for the answer. Let’s forget the negatives anyway. You got to run and complete an ultra with your Dad. That’s pretty dope. Most just get to see their parents deteriorate. So you’re blessed @Nathan_Toben in that respect. Keep giving your best.

[AnnM]

Glad you are getting back on track. Very interesting to read about your body’s reaction to the mega carb load you had. I think one of the coolest things about Keto is that when you fall off the wagon for whatever reason, you can get back on as soon as you are able to do so.
Best of luck in getting back to your work and training routine.

[Nathan_Toben]

Yeah lets forget the negatives.

You know that emotional eating might be quite the asset…when you burn roughly 15,000 calories over 100 miles ;). But in all seriousness, I’m right there with you on the emotional eating. still searching. I am really lucky to have the dad that I do.

And @AnnM yeah, getting back. Had a big plate of kale and onions and garlic in a bunch of butter and chopped up bacon for dinner tonight. I’m deciding not to count vegetable carbs because it keeps me from eating vegetables! Got to nourish myself or else I’ll never be full.

[AnnM]

@Nathan_Toben, yeah I don’t mind if I go over my 20 carb limit a little if it is caused by veggies. I would have switched out the kale for chard, as I am not fond of kale. Had some broccoli at lunch, and was happy to see that the fiber cancels out some of the carbs.

[Nathan_Toben]

Week 9: More Vegetables, More Miles

Pretty cool to think I have been at this for over 2 months now. My brain wants to erase some of this time because of the 3-day slip I experienced while crewing and pacing my father for his 100-miler, but I did run/hike 46 miles with him so I should probably give myself a wee break .

So things are shifting a bit in terms of my ketogenic lifestyle. I am upping my vegetable intake. Adding, garlic, onion, kale, swiss chard, peppers, cucumbers regularly into my days. One thing that I have found that seems to work well for my digestion is:

1. Have a Keto breakfast after my morning run and before my bike shift starts (10am).
2. Have a big salad with hardly any protein lunch (2:30pm-4pm).
3. Have a Keto dinner with a bit of veg mixed in.

I don’t think that, during my biking shift (and with the afterburn affect of my morning run), eating keto foods at that point in the day serves me much other than for it to sit in my stomach and potentially cause indigestion when coupled with my evening meal.

One thing that I think I am becoming more acutely aware of is how two meals mingle digestively. It is a hard thing to get a grasp on because I could eat, say, a certain breakfast and it seemingly sits well in my gut, and then later in the day I can eat another meal, and for whatever reason, once those two foods mee in the middle, stomach upset can happen.

So for now I am going to try not having breakfast on lighter days and breaking my fast with lots of veggies in olive oil (also when liver and muscle glycogen is quite depleted) or I will go Keto-Carb-Keto for bigger training days.

In Ultra News

I signed up for The Cloudsplitter 50k.

This will be my peak training weekend before Pinhoti 100.

I am beginning to incorporate speedwork starting tomorrow. 4 x 1-mile repeats @ 6min pace with drills and strides afterwards. Nothing crazy, just something to get my feet in the door. I hope to build up to sub-6 pace over 6 times before race day.

Last Sunday I ran for 7hrs on minimal nutrition and filling up water in streams with my Sawyer Straw. It was an incredible adventure very much enabled by a ketogenic diet. In the 7hrs of moving time I only ate 4 Primal Kitchen collagen bars and though I was beat at the end, it was mental and muscular fatigue, not so much bonking.

I also made good food decisions afterwards despite being very hungry after such a big effort. Stopped at the Food Lion, grabbed a cobb salad and some cheese and prosciutto roll-up and sat outside on a picnic table while a Food Lion staff member told me how his girlfriend of 2-months is pregnant by her ex-boyfriend and asking me whether or not he should stay with her. Strange but who am I to judge the dude. It made me grateful for the day that I had up on the mountain pushing my body to its limits.

Literally pushing my body to its limits…

I’ve decided to let go of counting macros, let go of concerning myself with carbs from whole foods, let go of anxiety, just let go of a lot and make good choices in the moment. We’ll see how this goes.

I have to remember that everyone is unique and my lifestyle is particularly physically demanding and so my nutritional needs may differ from another individual on their journey to reverse T2D.

I haven’t binged in 9 days. It may not sound like much but it is big for me to make it through a weekend. My fatigue level is about a 6/10 so I am going to run easy this morning just to flush out some gunk, take it easy at work today and hopefully have a good amount of energy for tomorrow’s first speed session. Hope y’all are doing well and feeling momentum in your health journeys,

Steep

[VirginiaEdie]

I haven’t binged in 9 days.

I thinks that’s great. One step at a time.

[Nathan_Toben]

Make that 10 days

[SlowBurnMary]

Wonderful photos!!!

Grace and strength, strength and grace - recovery from sugar inebriation cycles and extreme ups and downs is quite a metamorphosis for us all, and the diversity of brain restoration in this community must certainly be for a higher good. It builds character, courage, and compassion.

Inner steadiness and physiological high functionality makes life SWEET. Walking, standing, sitting, running - all blessed.

[Nathan_Toben]

11 days binge free.

First speed session today. 8 x 200m @ 40sec w/ 200m jogging recovery. Had eggs sausage and butter for breakfast afterward and then rode 45miles at work and had no chance for lunch but got that laser tunnel vision, keto-focus to push me through to the end of my shift at 5pm and then a big salad for dinner at 5:30pm. Then, cooked sausage and garlic and onion in heaps of butter for second dinner. Yep, second dinner and I’m guilt-free. Body needs the nourishment after a long day so it can repair and do it again tomorrow.

[elastoplastic]

You are so inspiring, Speed. Your transparency and your perseverance encourage me. Well done on 11 days binge free!

And, I have to say, that after reading this whole thread and following your journey (I am five weeks in to keto), I am beginning to be curious about the limits of my own body. As a 35 year old mom of three who has NEVER been fit, this is an astounding awakening in my mind. I’m not quite ready to dive into the deep end yet, but I am feeding that curiosity and imagining what it must be like to be as in tune with my physical body as you are!

Lastly, I am reading Rewired by Richard O’Connor (2014), a book about habits, addictions and self-destructive behaviors (highly recommended to everyone!). He discusses binging in a few places and it was very helpful for me…

[Nathan_Toben]

So so glad that you are getting something out of my story. It has been very useful to me to document this transition and I have hoped that in being honest, it could eventually be useful to others.

If I could give one tiny piece of advise it would be this: each day, return to that feeling “an astounding awakening in my mind” and do whatever you can to protect it. This will be the jet fuel, not so much motivation, that will keep you curious and it is my belief that athleticism is a byproduct of sustained curiosity.

I do not have natural ability as a runner. I can confirm this because I do have some talent as a cyclist. Running is hard work whereas cycling just sort of happens. But my passion is in trailrunning. The reason I say this is because, while I may not have natural ability, my strength is in the mental side of things. If we can remove all the impressions we have of what athletic looks like, acts like etc., then the simple act of lacing up and going for a single 20 minute run can become a perfect notch on our belt towards athleticism. It doesn’t have to be pretty .

I just think the whole health and fitness industry has done a very terrible thing in its conditioning of what we now perceive to be “working out”, this very narrow, regimented, gym-oriented thing that hurts a lot and then you never want to go again. When it is so much more abstract and fluid and potentially spiritual than that. It is taking risks and adventure and going a little further, within reason, each week. Following that curiosity like a hunter.

About to head out for a 20-mile depletion run (no nutrition), these are very mentally hard. I suspect I will go to a dark place, and it doesn’t help that it is dark outside for half of it. But it helps to train my body to spare glycogen and increases fat metabolism and afterwards I feel very accomplished and it seems to reset my gut in some good ways. Have a good one.

[AnnM]

Hi Nathan,

Glad to hear you are doing well and adjusting your keto program as you see fit. As many people have said on this board, n=1, and we each have to do what works for us as individuals. For me, I have found that since I started work 2 weeks ago, I must have breakfast (keto) after I get into the office and then a keto-style lunch and mostly skip dinner, and that is working for me. I am taking public transportation, which means I’m walking a lot and climbing a lot of stairs. So, by the time I get into work, I’m really hungry, which wasn’t the case a few weeks ago. We just adjust as we need to!

Take care and KCKO!