athlete, runner ultra marathon burnout advice

"Gary,
I am 48 y/o and have been suffering from some form of chronic exhaustion the past 6 years. I've had every medical and mental test known to man but nothing shows up defective, and the only diagnosis I've received is ME/CFS.

Just prior to this all starting I was running ultras and my last race put me in the emerg ward, blood work showed me void of electrolytes, although I was eating and drinking lots. It felt like my body was not going through a recovery cycle but I plodded through the race and went straight to the food table afterwards, but felt like it was just sitting in my belly, then I started to cramp everywhere, then I threw everything up. I made it home and drank more Gatorade and lay in bed feeling like I was literally going to die, then finally dialed 911. What a trip!?!?!

This was after a tough year of training, did not feel like my normal self, so not sure this incident was the beginning of the problem or the result of a poor training year. I started tapering down my training but soon realized I was suffering from exhaustion before I even started, recovery was non-existent. "

................"

G

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Gary Moller comments:

"G" goes on to detail the longterm health consequences that we might discuss in a later article; but let's start with a general discussion about training and nutrition for ultra distance running.

Recover!

Preparing for and running ultra marathons is all about recovery: recovery following training sessions and recovery after an event.

An ultra distance runner needs only to do three long runs per week and plenty of shorter ones in between including cross training like aqua-jogging. Of those three long runs only one should be of three hours or longer.

Training should go in peaks and troughs over about a 4-6 week training cycle. Each cycle finishing with the longest run of the cycle such as a 4-5 hour pod before having a lazy rest week before doing another build up.

Watch the video here about Lorraine's advice about recovery. For every mile raced, you should schedule a day of recovery. That means 50 days of relative rest if you ran a 50 miler. The video deals with this in more detail.


Mineralise!

Ignore the claims of commercial electrolyte replacement drink, carbo shots and so on - they are totally inadequate for replacing the minerals lost during exercise. Minerals are lost even when not sweating. They are lost as waste products of muscle and other tissue damage and the high metabolism. All that these drinks and gels do is rot your teeth and set you up for early onset diabetes.

The usual refined carbohydrate diet that is promoted to endurance athletes is quite devoid of minerals, let alone the fat soluble vitamins (D,A,E,K). These dietary practices are a recipe for disaster! And the consequences can continue for many years later including the development of seemingly unrelated medical conditions.

The solution is daily consumption of a cup or two of my bone broth recipe. This is the distance runner's best dietary source of minerals as well as providing a rich supply of collagen and protein for repair and recovery.

Protect your Joints
There are plenty of examples of ultra distance runners who have worn their joints to the bone. Some have required joint replacement decades before time.

When training running huge mileage there should be measures to aid the joints with repair. That means taking a joint food formulation daily along with the mineral rich bone broth. Go here for product details and watch this video if you are wondering which one is the best for you.