Run for your liiiiiiife!

I couldn't think of a better title for an article featuring the ultramarathon athlete Rich Roll. A piece of chocolate for you if you have sung the Iron Maiden song while reading the title.

In his book Finding Ultra, Rich Roll brings us into his universe, from where he was a child to when he hits rock bottom in his forties and takes control of his life after that. Here are the key points of his story.

First, sport is an essential topic in this book. Rich Roll has been swimming in his teenage years. He has stopped a couple of years after to reconnect with the sport in his forties. Swimming takes a lot of places in his life, so it is apparent it would take a good place in his book. The other sports mentioned in the book are cycling and running, as they are the other sports in a triathlon.

What I think is interesting about those sports in the book is that Rich hires a coach and receives his advice. So we learn by those guidances how Rich, you, and I should train for a marathon, triathlon, or any endurance sports. The most important thing I would recall from this part is that you need to slow down a lot your pace to be in lower heart frequency during a significant (up to 80%) part of your training. This single piece of advice makes me realize(and maybe you too) that I've been training the wrong way for endurance sports for a while now.

The second exciting part is what he ate. He decides to go vegan(no meat and derived product) in a world he is probably one of the very few to not eat meat. Mr. Roll talks a lot about his shakes in his Vitamix. (a bit too much) He also talks about his food during his training days. It's interesting, but not a lot of people cycle two hundred kilometers each day. So unless you go pro athlete or make sacrifices as he does, it's more a story than a piece of advice. What I like most about this part is appendix one. It's a complete chapter only on why he went vegan and some tables with data like: "Plant Food rich in protein" or "Plan Food rich in Iron" with the quantity of protein or iron for a certain amount of food. These tables can be a good inspiration when trying to make some vegetarian recipes.  

There are some negative points on this book from my point of view. First, we got the impression that sometimes Rich is trying to sell a product, like his Specialized bike, his vegan mayonnaise, or his Vitamix, that comes back verrrrrrry often in the book. Second, he tries to sell the food trends like bio and no gluten when not many studies confirm it's necessarily better.

This book is a good story; it's entertaining, especially if you're into sports and want to know a bit about vegetal food. It's not a very long read and undoubtedly one to refer to when cooking a vegetarian recipe!