Eating for endurance with Matt Fitzgerald

Matt Fitzgerald is an avid runner, a certified sports nutritionist, and the author of a new book called The Endurance Diet. In this book, Matt shares findings from studying the training and diet habits of elite athletes.

In the book, Matt discusses the 5 core eating habits of elite athletes:

1. Eat everything – Those who eat all categories of food. The diet is good enough and not necessarily perfect.
2. Eat quality – Those whose diet is skewed toward natural, unprocessed foods.
3. Eat carb-centered – A carb-centered baseline diet, with days of high carb diets prompted by a heavy day of training.
4. Eat enough – Those who don’t count calories, but instead reconnect with built-in mechanisms for determining how much food to consume.
5. Eat individually – Those with different preferences or intolerances, and who must allow for individuality within the other four styles of eating.

Matt also talks about training essentials for endurance fitness:

1. 80/20 rule of intensity balance – Spending 80% of workouts at a low to moderate intensity and 20% at full intensity.
2. Progressive overload – Increasing capacity by continually challenging one’s self.
3. Purpose-driven workouts – Choosing certain workouts that work better than others.
4. Hard/easy rule – Distribute hard sessions evenly amongst the low to moderate ones.
5. Recovery weeks – Doing less than what you normally do. Organize training in step cycles to get the greatest results.
6. Periodization – Breaking down a training cycle into phases that focus on different fitness building objectives.
7. Down time – Aim to be as fit as possible two to three times per year. Down time is required after each peak.
8. Strength training – Improves overall performance by improving strength and conditioning.

To connect with Matt Fitzgerald or learn more about The Endurance Diet, visit www.mattfitzgerald.org.

 

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