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Tag Archives for " episode 226 "

March 10, 2017

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.

 

Another episode you may enjoy

The tao of running | Gary Dudney