Eat and Run: My Unlikely Journey to Ultramarathon Greatness

by Scott Jurek

Green Power Pre-Workout Drink Hippie Dan first taught me the importance of greens like spirulina and wheatgrass. Spirulina is a green algae said to have been carried into battle by Aztec warriors. Used for centuries as a weight-loss aid and immune-booster, it has lately been studied and shown promising results as a performance enhancer for long-distance runners. Because spirulina is marketed as a dietary supplement rather than a food, the FDA does not regulate its production; buy it only from a health food store and a brand you trust. Packed with protein (spirulina is a complete protein) and rich in vitamins and minerals, this smoothie is an excellent source of nutrition. For a little extra carbohydrate boost, replace 1 cup water with 1 cup apple or grape juice. 2 bananas 1 cup frozen or fresh mango or pineapple chunks 4 cups water 2 teaspoons spirulina powder 1 teaspoon miso

Green Pre-workout drink

8-Grain Strawberry Pancakes

Strawberry Pancakes

emptiness, or an empty mind. This doesn’t mean sleepiness or inattention; the bushido concept of emptiness is more like that rush of surprise and expansiveness you get under an ice-cold waterfall. The empty mind is a dominant mind. It can draw other minds into its rhythm, the way a vacuum sucks up dirt or the way the person on the bottom of a seesaw controls the person on the top. When I hear a runner say he “runs his own race,” what I hear is bushido. Bushido is letting go of the past and the future and focusing on the moment. As Thoreau, an American practitioner (though he probably didn’t realize it) of bushido and a pretty good distance walker himself, wrote, “Our life is frittered away by detail. An honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers … simplicity, simplicity, simplicity.” I created my own bushido exercises. I stood in icy rivers to strengthen my mind’s control over my body. I sat cross-legged and meditated, visualizing my breath, focusing. Another

Bushido & Thoreau

Regular running is satisfying in itself. If you’re the competitive type, even greater satisfaction lies in running faster and longer, in challenging yourself. Progress can be a great motivator and a great incentive to keep exercising. If you want to improve as a runner, you can (and should) do supplemental training, which involves strengthening, flexibility, and technique work. But the simplest way to improve is to run faster. And the way to do that is to train yourself to run harder, the way I did during my long climbs at Mount Si. Here’s how: After you’ve been running for 30 to 45 minutes at least three times a week for six to eight weeks, you’re ready to start running occasionally at 85 to 90 percent of your physical capacity, or the point where lactate is building up in your muscles but your body is still able to clear and process it. Build to where you can maintain that lactate threshold level for 5 minutes. Then take 1 minute of easy running to give the body time to recover, then repeat. As you progress, increase the number of the intervals and their length while maintaining a 5:1 ratio between work and rest. So you would do 10-minute intervals of hard running followed by 2-minute breaks, or 15 minutes of hard running followed by 3 minutes of rest, and so on. After four to six weeks, you’ll be able to maintain this effort level for 45 to 50 minutes. And you’ll be faster.

Running Progression

Total Experience, by George Sheehan; and The Marathon Monks of Mount Hiei, by John Stevens. The monks call their practice of Tendai Buddhism kaihogyo, an

Books to read

BREATHING Breathing is critical no matter what you’re doing, whether it be meditation, calculus, or boxing (beginning fighters first learn how to breathe so they don’t exhaust themselves by panting). One of the most important things you can do as an ultrarunner is to breathe abdominally, and a good way to learn that skill is to practice nasal breathing. Lying on your back, place a book on your stomach. Breathe in and out through your nose, and try to make your stomach rise and fall with each breath. When you succeed in doing so, you’re breathing from your diaphragm rather than your chest (which allows you to breathe more deeply and efficiently). Once you’ve mastered that, try nasal breathing (in and out through the nose) while you’re running easy routes. For more difficult runs, like hills and tempo workouts, breathe in through the nose, then exhale forcefully through the mouth (akin to what yoga practitioners call “breath of fire”). Eventually, you should be able to breathe through your nose for entire easy runs and to inhale nasally during the less strenuous sections of even 100-mile runs. I experimented with nasal breathing when I was training for the Western States 100, and it helped me become more of an abdominal runner. Nasal breathing humidifies and cleans the air. As a bonus, it allows you to eat quickly and breathe at the same time, whether running easy or hard.

Breathing

an indigenous group of athletes plastic containers filled with high-fructose corn syrup. Why not just bring some blankets infested with smallpox? But Caballo insisted.

Smallpox blankets

Holy Moly Guacamole Avocados are a great source of healthy, monounsaturated fat, and the jalapeño adds a nice jolt of spice (scrape the seeds out before mincing and use half of the pepper if you can’t take the heat). Noble foods on their own, they combine to create one of mankind’s greatest inventions. It’s certainly one of my favorites. I can’t think of many dinners—and not a single Mexican one—that aren’t improved with a serving of guac. Take a spoonful of this mixture and you’ll agree. For a quick and healthy snack, enjoy on warm corn tortillas. 2 ripe avocados Juice of 2 small limes 1 medium tomato, diced 1 garlic clove, minced 1 jalapeño pepper, seeds left in, minced 10 sprigs fresh cilantro, minced 1 teaspoon sea salt Halve the avocados and scoop out the flesh into a mixing bowl. Squeeze in the lime juice and add the remaining ingredients. Mash with a potato masher or a spoon until semi-smooth and let rest at room temperature for 10 to 20 minutes.

Guacamole

Strawburst Anti-Inflammatory Smoothie I have always shied away from using pharmaceutical agents like ibuprofen to treat pain and swelling, so it’s natural that I have experimented with natural anti-inflammatories. When I sprained my ankle days before the 2007 Hardrock, my experiments took on a new urgency.

Strawburst Anti-Inflammatory Smoothie

Xocolatl (SHOCK-o-laht) Energy Balls A good meal — like a good story — deserves a satisfying ending. After working on this one for years, I think I finally perfected it. The natural caffeine in the raw cacao nibs delivers a jolt, and the subtle blend of chili flakes and cinnamon will

Energy Balls