Can You Go?
The Cultured Warrior #067 | Don't forget to support the anti-establishment establishment like every other non-conformist.
Week 11 of 12 of my endurance cycle is in the books. Â I promise, a review is coming, along with a recap of adding carbs back to my diet; but I want to make sure I understand the message fully.
As I've hopefully illustrated already, the process is about learning your body's cardiovascular "zones" and corresponding cadences (breathing, talking, etc.). Â Last week I finished a 55 minute trail run and had the thought "I could keep going..." Â That was strange to me because I'm not, nor have I ever been, "a runner."
It's not that I wasn't tired, but I felt like I had developed an understanding of and ability to maintain my "endurance" (Zone 2ish) pace – defined by Nonprophet as a pace you can hold for 90 minutes (or longer).  Needless to say, my conceptions of "cardio" have changed quite a bit.
12 Weeks in itself is enough of a commitment to force some perspective (mental adaptation) in addition to physical adaptation; much more so than your run of the mill 30-day challenge. Â Just as the best answer to the lifting question of "how much are we lifting and how many reps / sets?" is:
"Some, for a few."
So too, before we ask "how fast or how much"; we must ask "how far or how long" and even that is predicated on a more distilled form:
"Can you go?"
"When the blood in your veins returns to the sea, and the earth in your bones returns to the ground, perhaps then you will remember that this land does not belong to you, it is you who belong to this land."
~ Native American Proverb
New On YouTube:
Nutrition:
PubMed Central (PMC)Troy Purdom
"Training status, exercise intensity, exercise duration, sex differences, and nutrition have all been shown to affect cellular expression responsible for FAox rate. Each stimulus affects the process of FAox differently, resulting in specific adaptions that influence endurance exercise performance. Endurance training, specifically long duration (>2 h) facilitate adaptations that alter both the origin of FAs and FAox rate. Additionally, the influence of sex and nutrition on FAox are discussed. Finally, the role of FAox in the improvement of performance during endurance training is discussed."
You may recall that I recently published a very detailed article titled "Carnivore and Carbs... Again." Â I recently remixed and commented on one of Rob Goodwin's posts and threw in some references for the naysayers, including the following:
My original comment to Rob was:
"100% agree brother 🙌 adding a 4-6 oz of honey on multi-session multi-system days made a huge difference in my HRV and next-day-fatigue.  I'm always curious what the training regimens are of said purists; not to discredit them, just curious what types of duration / systems / intensity we're talking about."
And of course, someone chimed in (as expected and very much to my point):
"@savagezen You should follow @shawnbaker1967 then bcz he never deviates and works out hard! Plus he’s in his mid fifties 🔥🙌💥"
FML... Some people just don't get it... or think for themselves. Â They clamor for the attention of whoever is telling a narrative they can relate to; and I've been guilty of this too.
"@pamelajk959 Firstly, I do. Second, he's a great athlete, but I don't see a lot of variance / mixed energy systems (a lot of anaerobic and sometimes lactic). Third, he has a significant amount of muscle mass (gross, not percentage) that allows for more endogenous glycogen storage. I calculated all this in a recent blog post you're welcome to read or critique."
Misc.
It was an honor and a pleasure for me to be a guest on the Sapien's Playground podcast. Â Maxim, the host, is a German medical student with a very bright future ahead of him. Â We were supposed to talk about nutrition and training, but Part 1 ended up being an hour and a half of philosophy and psychology... We're both looking forward to Part 2!