Questionable

Infrequently Asked Questions

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Annual Vale Tudo AMA

Reflecting

What do you do to keep from sitting at the computer all day?

I use a standing desk which is only comfortable for 45 minute increments, so I focus then leave to go outside for short breaks.  I love work, but know that I’m at my best for work only after 8 hours of sleep, 2 hours of training, and an hour of fueling.  I leave work to be able to come back fresher.  I might be tempted to overwork if I didn’t have a tight schedule.  I have running, lifting, climbing, or rolling on my calendar with people expecting me to show up, so I do.

Training

How do you think about balancing between cardio and strength workouts?

It depends upon one’s goals.  For me, strength is more important.  In terms of personal goals, it is the most important.  About 50% of my fitness effort is diet, another 40% is strength and 10% is cardio/endurance.  If you care about performance and longevity, diet is obviously non-negotiable.  Perhaps less obvious, strength training with weights is unavoidable to be the best version of yourself.  Cardio?  Meh.  I do it because I like it.  But your heart gets a workout from lifting weights.  If you get very lean (diet) and very strong (weights), the other stuff mostly takes care of itself. 

Fueling

What do you think about Celsius increasing endurance?

I have never tried Celsius but love pre-workout drinks especially cherry Bucked Up mixed with Lakewood cherry juice, which has one ingredient and comes in a glass bottle.  How much of the impact is physical versus psychological?  I don’t know.  But if it is a placebo, I’ll take it. 

Supplementing

What's the rank order of supplements that you've found to be most useful?

Creatine, magnesium, Vitamin D.  Creatine is for everybody.  Negligible side effects.  Helps grow muscles.  Magnesium helps sleep and has been leached out of the food supply so needs to be supplemented.  Virtually no one gets enough Vitamin D, especially anyone with any combination of dark skin or northern (or southern!) latitude. 

Measuring

What's your favorite distance to run on the trails and why?

50k for races.  It is long enough that it is worth travel.  It is short enough that I can do another activity that day or the next.  I love using races as an excuse to travel the world and find exciting courses.  But when I get there I also like having other things on the calendar so that I have a few ways to win.  Longer than 50k makes it harder to surf, climb, spar, and lift immediately after.  So that is the sweet spot for me.  In terms of everyday running, that sweet spot is probably 10-15 miles.  My next run at home is 10 miles.  I typically start at 5 AM which allows me to run then still make it to CrossFit after.  That is worth the drive from my home to the park where we normally meet.  All of these distances are on the very low end of what my running friends enjoy.  They’re prepping for a 100 miler this weekend and a 200 miler shortly thereafter.  That doesn’t currently appeal to me because it conflicts too much with lifting. 

Closing

How do you manage between being selfish with time vs time with family?

I don’t see any tension between the two.  The stewardess instructs us that in the event of an emergency, oxygen masks will drop from the ceiling.  Put your own on first before helping your kids.  The same is true with fitness, finance, and everything else.  If I’m not first a good example, I’m not anything.  So I invest resources into being rested, fed, trained, and skilled in all of my fitness priorities.  They also make me maximally ready to work and ready to be a dad.  We can eat healthy food together.  My kids often join me at the gym and sometimes join me on the trails.  My kids (and colleagues) get me for fewer hours of the day (but perhaps more decades) than they would without fitness.  But the hours that they get are of far higher quality than if I were as sleep deprived, hungover, stuffed with processed junk food, and sedentary as average men my age. 

Emergency post-production addendum to this answer: the long-suffering wife noted that I didn’t mention that one needs to have an LSW that does or oversees 99% of family tasks freeing me up to both do my stuff and do stuff with the family. Worth mentioning.

Thoughts/approaches on time management to fit all the things in?

Whenever someone protests that they don’t have time for the gym my snarky answer is “what’s your favorite show on Netflix?”  There is plenty of time each day for my priorities.  There’s no time for anything else.  There is a balanced approach towards fitness that can get a moderate level of success and an extreme approach that can optimize fitness; I have more fun trying to take the latter.  For example, everyone should drink at least as much water as alcoholic drinks (but I prefer to simplify and drink zero alcohol which frees up a lot of my budget both in terms of money and time).  Everyone should participate in as much sports as they spectate.  Anything else turns you into an observer instead of participant in life.  I’m more extreme – I don’t spectate at all.  For me, getting to zero – zero drinking, zero spectating, etc. – on my non-priorities is easiest.  They are no part of my life.  That frees up all the resources I need for a life of adventure.