The Big Book of Endurance Training and Racing

There ya go. That’s The Big Four of the Big Book.

Those four central themes show up in ALL of Maffetone’s books. Another underlying theme is the fact that Optimizing our athletic performance requires a holistic approach—one in which both the health AND the fitness of an athlete are Optimized.

Maffetone is strongly opposed to the idea that there are quick fixes. And, he tells us again and again that the whole “no pain, no gain” approach so prevalent these days is incredibly misguided.

So. Quick recap of the Big 4, then we’ll drill into each:

1. Build a great aerobic base.

   In short: Slow down to go fast.

2. Eat well.

   Eat real food not junk food. Specifically, say good-bye to sugar, flour, veggie oils.

3. Reduce your stress.

   You’re probably training too hard and not recovering enough.

4. Optimize your brain function.

   Eating well + training right = a better brain!

That’s from Section 1: “Building Your Endurance Foundation,” Chapter 1: “What Is Endurance?” in which Phil describes a number of different ways to answer that question.

I think the definition of the word endure is worth noting here. According to my Apple dictionary, endure means to “remain in existence; last: these cities have endured through time.”

For our Optimizing purposes, endure means to LIVE A LONG TIME! As such, again, I think we’re ALL “endurance” athletes! (At least those of us who aspire to live/“last” a long time! :)

The key thing to know about enduring a long time—whether that’s in an athletic race or the race of life? It’s ALL about Optimizing how we generate energy. Which leads us to a key aspect of how we generate energy and of the body’s metabolism: oxygen. Which then leads us to the distinction between aerobic and anaerobic.

At this stage, I’m pretty sure we all know that aerobic means “with oxygen” and anaerobic means “without oxygen.” But, did you know the primary fuels burned in aerobic vs. anaerobic training? I didn’t until I read this book. Here’s what’s fascinating: Aerobic muscles primarily use FAT for fuel. While anaerobic muscles use sugar for fuel.

We’re going to talk more about the importance of burning fat for fuel in a moment. For now, let’s focus on how we need to TRAIN in order to Optimize our energy production.

(Note: The book has three sections: The first one is all about how to train, the second is all about how to eat, and the third is all about how to take care of yourself so you don’t get injured.)

So… Know this: Maffetone tells us that, in an event that lasts longer than one hour, 98% (!!!) of the endurance energy used is derived from our aerobic system. If the event is over two hours, 99% (!!!) of the endurance energy will come from our aerobic system. Therefore, if you want to be a great endurance athlete, you’d be wise to build a VERY strong aerobic base.

How? Train in your aerobic zone. Short story: After working with a ton of world-class athletes, Maff came up with a formula to get us into our aerobic zone. It’s basically 180 minus your age with some asterisks depending on your level of health. Check out our Notes on The Maffetone Method for more or cruise on over to his site for a great overview of The 180 Formula.

You’re probably saying, “What? 180 minus my age? I’d have to go crazy slow!!” EXACTLY. Somewhat paradoxically, you need to be willing to SLOW DOWN to GO FAST.

By slowing down and training exclusively in our aerobic zone we develop what Maff calls “aerobic speed”—which is basically the ability to go faster at the same heart rate. We’ll talk about it more in our Notes on The Endurance Handbook but THAT’s the secret sauce. For now, let’s talk about another reason why prioritizing aerobic training is so important.

P.S. First, one more quick etymology lesson. After reading that passage and contemplating the importance of understanding our “metabolism” I thought to myself, “What does that word literally mean.” Enter: Another dictionary search.

Metabolism is “the chemical processes that occur within a living organism in order to maintain life.” It’s “from Greek metabolē ‘change’ (from metaballein ‘to change’) + -ism.” How cool is that? Our energy comes from a never-ending process of “change.” I like it.

That’s from chapter 2: “Training Your Brain, Muscles, and Metabolism.” I put a big “WOW” and an exclamation point next to that passage before folding the page over to make sure I pulled it out to share in this Note.

Why? Well… If we want to live a great, happy, long life, we (OBVIOUSLY) need to Optimize our Energy. (Which, of course, is why “Energy” is the first of our Big 3 we talk about all the time.)

And… Our mitochondria are LITERALLY our energy powerhouses. Therefore, they’re kinda important. In fact, although Yuval Noah Harari tells us “algorithm” is the most important concept of the 21st century, I think MITOCHONDRIA should be at least tied for that top slot.

In Homo Deus, Harari tells us we “should make every effort to understand algorithms.” I say we should make every effort to understand mitochondria.

We talk about mitochondria in a number of Notes including Mercola’s Fat for Fuel and Asprey’s Headstrong. They’re the cornerstone of what Mercola calls: “Mitochondrial Metabolic Therapy.”

Here’s how he puts it: “Mitochondria are so vital to your health that if you are interested in warding off and healing from disease, it is critical for you to learn more about them. … Researchers estimate that mitochondria account for 10 percent of your body weight, with approximately 10 million billion within the cells of an average adult. If that number is hard to comprehend, consider that more than 1 billion mitochondria would fit on the head of a pin.”

For now, know this: One of the fastest ways to build the powerhouses that provide you with all that superpower Energy you want (and need) to show up as your best self is to train in your aerobic zone. Slow down. Quit pushing yourself into an anaerobic state. Let’s take the time to build some epic energy super-charging stations.

And, btw, remember: Mitochondria’s preferred fuel is FAT not sugar. Which leads us to…

That’s from the first chapter in the second section of the book: “Diet, Nutrition, and Energy.” (Again, first section: Train right. Second section: Eat right.)

Imagine that super-lean endurance runner who is six feet tall and weighs 150 pounds. (Fun fact: That’s pretty much exactly my dimensions so if it’s helpful to imagine me, go for it! Laughing.)Now, get this: That guy has enough potential energy in his fat to RUN FOR OVER 100 HOURS!!! <- Think about that for a second. That’s crazy!

All that POTENTIAL energy is there. The question is, can he tap into that?

Which leads us to this: “To maintain efficient fat burning, we also must burn some sugar in the form of glucose. Both fat and sugar are almost always being used for energy at all times. Right now, you may be getting half of your energy from fat and half from sugar. When you improve your aerobic system and fat-burning capabilities, you may be able to obtain 70 percent of your energy from fat and 30 percent from sugar. But many people can only get 10 percent of their energy from fat, forcing a full 90 percent to come from sugar. That’s a very inefficient way to get energy and it could lead to fatigue, increased body-fat stores, and other problems. In fact, it became evident to me decades ago that those who burn more fat for energy are healthier, more fit, recover better, and have less illness and injury.”

So, we all have a TON of untapped potential energy stores. One quick way to check in on how well you’re accessing it: Do you experience fatigue and/or are you carrying around a little more fat than you’d like? If so, then you’re probably not quite Optimized on this front.

The (super!) short story on the fastest way to flip the switch from burning sugar to burning fat? Quit eating all that sugar and flour. Eat real food and ditch the junk food. Essentially, we want to avoid the high-glycemic foods that create an insulin response. And, voila! We train ourselves to become fat-burning beasts with incredible energy while easily maintaining our optimal weight.

Maffetone has a REALLY cool “Two-Week Test” to help us identify our level of carbohydrate intolerance and fine-tune our fat-burning engine. He says: “Of all the tools I’ve used throughout my professional career, the Two-Week Test surprised me the most in terms of its overall effectiveness.” <- You can check it out on his site here!

P.S. Couple of gems to have in mind: “As we age, we become more resistant to insulin, which causes us to be more carbohydrate intolerant. So, even if we eat the same amount of refined carbohydrates we could eat at a younger age without a problem, it now turns to fat. This is an oversimplification but a good example of how our body changes over time.”

Plus: “Wheat may be the most unhealthy food staple of the Western diet next to sugar and contributes significantly to ill health and disease. We all know how bad sugar is for health due to its high-glycemic nature—but wheat and wheat products can actually be worse due to an even higher glycemic index. Eating that piece of bread is not unlike eating several spoonfuls of white table sugar, and your body turns much of this wheat into fat. Almost half of that so-called fat free bagel can end up becoming stored fat.”

That’s from a chapter called “Training Stress—The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.”

Maffetone has a very simple formula: Training = Work + Rest.

In short: We need to push ourselves out of comfort zones (aka “undertraining”) to create a certain level of stress (he calls this “overreaching”) AND we need to make sure we deliberately train our recovery (lest we go too far into the “overtraining” side of the spectrum).

We’ve talked about this in a number of Notes. The Peak Performance guys have their own version of the same formula: “Stress + Rest = Growth.” And, inToughness Training for Life, Jim Loehr tells us “WORK HARD. RECOVER EQUALLY HARD.”

It’s amazing how many times Maffetone comes back to this in all his books. Making sure we don’t overtrain is ESSENTIAL to Optimizing our energy/endurance.

He’s ADAMANT that we need to reduce ALL the unnecessary stress in our lives if we want to tap into our athletic endurance potential—starting with reducing/eliminating all the “no pain, no gain” anaerobic workouts and including all the nutritional stress we put on our bodies via the sugar and flour and junk food PLUS all the other stuff that wears us down.

He even has an exercise to help us reduce stress. He encourages us to create a “Stress List” in which we capture the various stressors in our lives and then go about systematically removing them. He also offers a bunch of tips. My favorite: “Simplify your life. Start by eliminating trivia. Ask yourself: ‘Is this really important?’”

So… What’s on YOUR stress list? What’s gotta/gonna go? (Seriously: Pick one thing that you KNOW you can do to deliberately “train” your recovery a little more today. Maybe it’s turning your phone off at least an hour before bedtime or dialing back your anaerobic workouts or reducing your sugar/flour/processed food intake or… What is it?!)

Again: Optimal Training = Work + Rest. Train hard. Recover EQUALLY hard.

Here’s to running the endurance race that is our lives as well as we possibly can!