I ran my first marathon last Friday. Yay! Luckily, I didn’t follow in the footsteps of the first guy to try it, a Greek soldier named Pheidippes whom, word has it, died shortly after crossing the finish line. But still, running 26.2 miles took a little effort. Starting at mile 24, it felt like …
Is It Safe? Five Steps for Running a Marathon, Man Read More »
If you’re an endurance idiot like me, odds are that you’ve done a long, pointless, awful event (or maybe several dozen of them) and ended the day with little more than an ill-fitting finisher’s t-shirt, a weird sunburn, and an urgent case of the squirts. It would be easy to blame feed station contamination, especially …
Since exercise is supposed to make us healthy and stuff, you’d think endurance athletes, who spend countless hours running, cycling, paddling, swimming, or (insert action verb here)-ing would be the healthiest kids on the block, right? Weird thing is, we’re not. We’re a notoriously phlegmy demographic—and with good reason, given all the heppest researchers know …
Immunonutrition: Eating to Avoid Illness as an Endurance Athlete Read More »
When it comes to nutrition, I tends to side with science—or at least common sense and strong anecdotal evidence. Usually, this serves me well, but sometimes, I end up looking like a dork when cutting-edge clinical research accidentally validates some made up crap that I’ve spent years debating. Case in point, I’ve never been a huge …
The No Carbs After 6pm Rule! Now Featuring Science! Read More »
By now, you probably know about the media’s gloomy take on a recent study in the journal Obesity regarding how participants of The Biggest Loser have broken metabolisms. If not, here’s the skinny, so to speak. The Biggest Loser is a reality show in which obese people go on a diet and exercise boot camp …
Few foods are as divisive as cured and processed meats. Although both were created for less-than-culinary reasons (the former to preserve meat, the latter to trick consumers into eat lips and assholes), the human race has developed both a religious-like love and a fatwa-like hate for these foods. It all boils down to: Are they …
Bacon. (That’s all I need in this headline to make you read this.) Read More »
If you’ve been a member of the Nerd Herd for a while, you know I’m a Steve Edwards Birthday Challenge devotee. Every year on my birthday, I do something hard and fun, just to make the most out of this bag o’ beans before it gets wrapped up into that big burrito in the sky. Last year, …
The BWR: Let’s hear it for exercise-induced nausea! Read More »
Nutrients don’t get much more annoying than Vitamin D. For starters, we don’t get enough of it. According to some research, the deficiency rate has as much as tripled in recent years. And one particularly harrowing article in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition goes so far as to call vitamin D deficiency a “pandemic.” (A …
Stress much? Well, knock it off! All that hand wringing and gnashing of teeth is doing you nothing but bad. Here’s a short list: it causes hormone imbalances, messes with your sleep, causes you to age prematurely, blocks your poop shoot, ruins your personal relationships, and it’s just a generally crappy state of being. …
Until recently, I found the notion of “food addiction” to be a load of horse poop. But after reading David Kessler’s book, The End of Overeating, I started wavering. Kessler’s theory is that food manufacturers have, over the years, engineered the balance of fat, sugar, and salt in fast food and junk food to the …
You’re not a "food addict." You’re a "crappy food addict." Read More »
