Finding Ultra
I recently finished reading Rich Roll’s Finding Ultra. The book describes the life of Rich Roll, from a top high school and college swimmer, to his struggles with alcohol, a professional life as an entertainment lawyer, and finally to the making of a vegan-powered ultra-athlete.
Rich Roll is now a famous podcaster. The Rich Roll podcast is consistently a favorite in the self-improvement, personal development, and healthy living category.
Finding Ultra reminded me a lot about Christopher McDougal’s Born to Run. After reading Born to Run, my running became more deliberate. I started running longer distances, and my pace improved little by little. The book motivated me to become a better runner. You could even find some iskiate in my fridge from time to time.
I have now replaced the iskiate with a more plant-based and wholesome diet, inspired by Rich Roll. I have no ultra ambitions. However, I am spending several hours in the weekend riding the hilly roads of the Bay Area. I am now averaging more than 50 miles per week, with regularly rides over 40 miles.
After reading the book, I’ve adopted several lifestyle and workout changes:
- Eat a more plant-based and wholesome food diet
- A big glass of cold water in the morning. I am also mixing in the rather expensive Athletic Greens (AG1) supplements. This is still an experiment.
- Reduce dairy (Hello, Oatmilk) and caffeine
- Reduce alcohol
- Pay closer attention to the heart rate zones while working out. Riding slowly and keeping my heart rate in the aerobic zones is hard. Based upon the NTNU max heart rate calculator my HRmax is 182. That puts my Z2 at 109-126 and Z3 at 127-144bpm. Staying below 144 for endurance rides is not easy. On a recent 45 miler with quite a few climbs, my average heart rate was 152 bpm.
- During a long ride, I eat nuts, a protein bar, or even a small wholesome meal with beans and rice, rather than sugary gels.
- Post-workout, I use a foam roller.
- Work out the whole body through core, Pilates, and yoga.
My goal is to build up the muscle and endurance to ride an imperial century (100 miles or 160.9 km). Twenty years ago, that was not a problem at all. Now, the longest ride in the past 6 months has been a metric century (61 miles or 100 km). That was tough. With the recent AIDS/LifeCycle training rides, I feel more than prepared to repeat it.
I am finding my own ultra.