Written by Christopher Kelly
May 7, 2015
[0:00:00]
Christopher: Hello and welcome to the Nourish Balance Thrive Podcast. My name is Christopher Kelly and today I'm joined by pro mountain biker Sarah Kaufmann. Hi, Sarah.
Sarah: Hello.
Christopher: Sarah rides for the Stan's NoTubes Elite women's team, is that right?
Sarah: Yeah.
Christopher: You're riding at the highest level. How did you get into bikes in the first place, Sarah?
Sarah: I got into bikes, I was Nordic ski racer in high school and I had a knee injury and that prevented me from collegiate ski racing. And so I got into riding to rehab my knee injury and it's funny because I'm a coach now and I coach so many people who got into riding just as a backup to stay active, rehabbing injury. And so, yeah, that was how I got into it. I started just riding recreationally on the road and I did a lot of touring and then I got interested in racing. I tried mountain biking on a borrowed bike and it just completely hooked me. I totally fell in love with it.
Christopher: That's cool. And I first heard about you indirectly. I used to be on the team in San Francisco called Team Roaring Mouse, a fantastic large team. And I believe -- Does that shop still or did support you in some way in the past and I think I heard about you through that.
Sarah: Did, yeah. I actually worked there. After college, I had what I consider very serious career job in San Francisco, working in finance, and this was at the same time that I was getting into riding bikes. And some changes went down at the company I was working for and I just decided to leave that job. And Chris who owns the shop there said, "Well, if you want to come work at the bike shop, I'll give it a shot. I'll train you. We'll see how it goes."
And I just said, "What the hell." And so I went and worked as a mechanic there for two or three years and then bounced around to some other shops as well. But, yeah, it's an awesome shop and he did support me. That was when I really started to get into racing and I was on the team there and definitely got me my start in racing.
Christopher: That's cool. And then I would describe you like an ultra endurance person, I think. Is that a 24-hour format? Is that still your favorite length of event?
Sarah: It's not so much anymore. I think I burned myself out on that a bit. Definitely when I started racing, that's what intrigued me and what I did, what I was mostly doing to begin with. I think I did 12 or 14 24-hour solos and I honestly have no desire to do one again.
Christopher: Oh, really?
Sarah: They're not fun at all. So then I went to shorter length events and did a couple of years really focused on dedicated cross country racing and then now I've settled in the middle and I would say stage racing is more my style these days.
Christopher: Okay. And then would it be fair to say that maybe the peak of your career was a couple of years ago and maybe even not been able to find the form that you had, say, in 2012 at the moment.
Sarah: Yeah. I mean, I hope that that's not the end of the story certainly but I would actually say 2011 was probably when I was the fastest. I got mono in 2012 and hit by a car and I think those two things compounded were a big setback and I don't honestly feel that I've recovered from them.
Christopher: Okay. And so, that's how -- I can't even remember. Was it through -- So, Jamie Busch, Dr. Jamie Busch is the CEO of nourish Balance Thrive. She's our medical director and she also races at the same level but I think she's taking a bit of a break this year and just doing the enduro format. But was that how you discovered Nourish Balance Thrive? Was it through Jamie?
Sarah: No. In fact, it was a surprise to me because I raced with Jaime a ton and I had no idea that she was even connected with it. I heard about it from you, Chris, through your Facebook. I heard about it from you indirectly because you're in California and we weren't talking. But definitely through social media. I was looking for something. I just had this nagging feeling that the mono, that something wasn't right with me and that I needed some way to heal myself and I also knew I wanted to go a functional medicine route but I thought that I was going to be told that I needed to stop riding in order to pursue that. And I knew that you wouldn't tell me to do that.
[0:05:08]
Christopher: Right. That sounds familiar. So tell me right about that time then when everything went wrong, the mono, the car accident, what was different then? How were you eating? How were you training? What were those things like then?
Sarah: I guess, I mean, I would say, well, I've been gluten free for seven or eight years at this point. And so I was eating gluten free then. I had the same coach that I do now. My training was similar. But maybe I didn't need to be quite as careful. And I think I could definitely handle a larger volume of training than I can now. That's taken me, I would say, until now to really grasp.
I just can't tolerate the volume that I used to do. And I think now that I'm finally learning that, I think there's maybe some additional room for improvement because I -- But as someone who got my start in endurance racing, volume was always such a big part of my training and it's been a really difficult lesson to learn that more is not always more. But I am learning it.
Christopher: Yeah, absolutely. I think I'm learning the same lesson actually. That's what I used to do, was just ride round and round for 20, 30 hours a week, fairly slow pace and 130 beats for me which is my maximum is 180 and now, weirdly, since I switched to a high fat diet, it's more like 190 is my maximum heart rate. But pretty slow anyway. And I got quite good results with that. You can't just justify the time. When I look at the difference in my performance now with about half the volume, if that, is, I mean, nowhere near. I mean, maybe I'm not quite as fast as I once I was but I don't think you can justify it. And I'm not even sure it's necessary even if you could tolerate that.
Sarah: No, I don't think it is. And it's ironic because, as a coach, I know. I mean, I would never give my clients volume like that because I know it's just going to make them slower. And yet for myself, it's so hard to say no.
Christopher: That's why you need a coach, right?
Sarah: Exactly, exactly.
Christopher: So how did you figure out the gluten free part? Did you just notice you didn't feel as good when you ate it?
Sarah: No, I had like what I thought were some random seemingly health issues that came up for me. That was, I guess, in 2007 or so. I was just getting into racing. I wasn't menstruating regularly and just some other random things that came up out of nowhere. I mentioned it to Lynda Wallenfels and she just said, "Well, why don't you try cutting out gluten?" And I never did get the blood work done. I just tried it. I just cut it out for 30 days. It was like four or five seemingly unconnected issues resolved. And so that was enough for me to just continue.
Christopher: Yeah, absolutely. And it's really common. Every single person that comes to me, I don't really persuade people to stop eating gluten. They've usually long since figured that part out before they talk to me. But gluten free doesn't necessarily mean a nutrient dense diet or a diet that's got all of the micronutrients that we need in order to be healthy and perform well on the bike. So has it evolved, your diet, evolved any since then and have you seen any improvement or is it just the same?
Sarah: Yeah. No. I mean, I would say I follow, I mainly eat paleo. But I know that I'm not as rigid as you are. But I do, I mean, like honestly I would say I eat a plant-based diet but I also eat some animal products and some grains. And, I guess, I'm not eating much dairy these days. And I do think that I feel better as the result of that.
Christopher: Okay. So tell me about what you changed. I can remember we talked for a while about high fat approach to endurance exercise. Do you think you reduced your carbohydrate consumption after we spoke?
[0:10:06]
Sarah: I did initially and it did not work for me. Maybe at some point down the road I need to try that again but when we initially talked, which was back in August, I did try that and it just didn't work for me. I reached out to you when I broke my collarbone because I knew I had some time on my hands to devote to this process. And so I was healing a broken bone. I was just getting back to riding. To me, it felt like this is a good time to mess around with my diet and try some new things. But in hindsight, maybe my body was just dealing with some other stuff and it wasn't the right time. But that being said, I'm not going to try in the middle of my race season either.
Christopher: No. I would agree with that. It's interesting. We should probably quantify this and say how low you went. So when I say a high fat diet, I'm talking about maybe 50% or 60% of your energy coming from fat, which is high with respect to the standard American diet but it's not necessarily a super high fat ketogenic diet. What was the balance that you found that worked for you? Do you know roughly what it is?
Sarah: Now, I would say compared to most endurance athletes, it probably is fairly low carbohydrate but it's certainly not ketogenic though it was initially.
Christopher: Okay. I see. So you dived straight into--
Sarah: Yes.
Christopher: Okay, yes. It's tempting. I wonder what would happen if I -- So I'd been through a similar story as you where I had this sudden decline in my health. Now I'm doing really well on a high fat ketogenic diet, so very, very low carbohydrate. And I wonder what would have happened if I'd have sort of tried to dive into that straight away the time that I had a ton of really bad health complaints going on. So the fatigue, the adrenal fatigue, low cortisol and low DHEA and then some GI complaints.
I'm wondering. I don't think it would have worked well because I consider the adaptation phase as a sort of stressor really. It's like trying to train your body to do something else and that may not be the best time when you're not feeling very well. So I wonder whether waiting was the right decision. And it wasn't planned. It was just kind of I just happened to discover the benefits, the work of Jeff Volek and Peter Attia and some other people. And it's only then that I thought, "Oh, wow, yeah, this looks really cool. I want to try this." But I was already feeling much better by then and I wondered whether that was the key part.
Sarah: Yeah. Well, can I just add?
Christopher: Sure.
Sarah: I have to say one of the biggest deterrents for me is -- And I had a conversation recently with a friend about this that there's some kind of balance between finding, like nutrient density, finding the right diet for you but also the amount of stress that it causes you to get there. And to be quite honest, I'm not sure that stress is worth it to me, at least at this point.
Christopher: Right. Yeah, I would agree with that. Yeah. For some reason, I find it very, very easy to comply to a high fat ketogenic diet. I mean, I don't travel as much as you because I'm not an elite athlete like you. I mean, I race at that same level but I'm not traveling every weekend. And also--
Sarah: It's also like I'm thinking about my teammates. I'm not going to buy my own groceries when we're all shopping as a team. Yeah, I'm just not ready for that.
Christopher: Yeah, I know. That is a huge commitment. I'm not sure I'd be able to do it without Julie either. I don't go to the world cups or any of the big races like you do but when I do travel, I've got Julie in a camper van and we cook almost exactly the same way as we do at home and I think that's a massive advantage. I mean, if you were to try and eat out or cook with other people then declaring that you need to get 80% of your energy from saturated fat is probably not going to go down too well with the teammates. But, yeah.
Sarah: I'm just imagining, yeah.
Christopher: But did you get anything out of trying to control your blood glucose? That's one of the first things I do with everybody is get them to pay attention to their blood glucose and the limits.
[0:15:00]
I normally say to people, I always say to people, 80 to 90 milligrams per deciliter is the target zone. And it's a very difficult task to achieve but I think just the process of seeing if you can achieve it is a really useful exercise. And you learn something from it. And you don't need to keep checking your blood glucose forever to continue to get the benefit from learning this process. Did you do that? What did you learn? Did it change the way that you ate at that time?
Sarah: Yeah. I mean, I did. I also I just like geeking out over the kind of biofeedback numbers. And so it was fun for me in that way. I did. It just made me think a little bit more about what I was putting in my body. I mean, that sounds silly because, of course, I was already thinking about it but it just is one more element to think about when you're sucking down a goo on your bike or something like that. And I did kind of -- I was surprised, I guess, to see because I felt like what I was eating, I guess, I would have expected to see fairly numbers within that range. And I didn't necessarily see that initially. And I think that it was largely a cortisol issue that is still regulating itself.
Christopher: Yeah. It's definitely changed. I don't think it's -- A lot of athletes, certainly the primary care physician that I first went to see, just looked at me funny when I talked about blood glucose because he knew how much exercise I was doing. But I know now that it just doesn't give you the excuse to over consume carbohydrate and you can still come undone, even if you're doing 20, 30 hours a week of training, it just doesn't really work like that. It seems like the sugary sport supplements can still get you.
But yeah, you're right, you did. So you came to us and you did some testing and you did a saliva cortisol test. But what we actually found was very low cortisol. You had 14.6 points and a normal result is around 35. And so, normally, that means the person is feeling pretty tired but not always. Can you remember sort of around August of last year, did that correlate quite well with your life experience? Or are you just the sort of person that feels pretty tired during the day?
Sarah: Yeah. I mean, I'm still dealing with some insomnia. I mean, sometimes, now and then, I would wake up and my guess would be that cortisol was super high because I just wake up either in the middle of the night or super early and I'm totally agitated and wound up. But most of the time, I was walking around feeling really low and tired and it was definitely getting to the point where getting on my bike didn't really sound very fun or interesting. I knew that wasn't me. And that was what was going on when I initially got mono to begin with as well. And it would ebb and flow these last couple of years, going in and out of this cycle.
Christopher: Yeah. And it was interesting. There's a page two to the saliva test that you did that looks at progesterone and yours was ten points.
Sarah: Yeah.
Christopher: And for a woman of your age, early 30s, I'd expect to see at least ten times that, maybe 20 times. Ten points. To give you an idea, my progesterone is 75. And Julie's at that time of the month would probably be 200 and something, so super, super low. Obviously, that's going to affect your periods like maybe you get PMS or something like that. I'm not quite sure how that's going to manifest itself. It looks like you're under a ton of stress. It's what it looks like from this result.
Sarah: Yeah. Well, I have followed your protocols since then, which included a lot of progesterone supplementation and a of lifestyle changes in order to manage stress. But what's interesting to me is that I felt like right around that time and right before when I got mono, I was not managing stress at all. I was just super wound up.
[0:20:03]
And in the year since then, I don't know if it's because I learned about how important it was to manage stress or if my body had just had enough. But I have completely mellowed out. But that being said, since we've started working together, I've become even more aware of it and now I feel like -- And the meditation has been so huge for me. I really feel like that stuff has evened out a lot more. I'm really interested to retest and where these numbers are at now.
Christopher: That's interesting. That's one of the things I get everyone to do is guided meditation. People seem to universally love Headspace. Is that the guided meditation app that you were using?
Sarah: That's what I started with. And now I just set a timer. Because it got to like -- The guide's voice was so helpful to learn how to do it. And then once I felt like I had it down, it started becoming irritating. And so now I just set a timer and just do it on my own.
Christopher: Wow. Just like the pro move right there. They do in Headspace actually. The guy talks to you and then he'll just be quiet for a while and then the idea is you're on your own. But, yeah, that's super cool. And it's so great to hear that because I had a very similar experience. It's one of those things. It's only a problem until you know it's a problem. I think a lot of people are going through life not realizing that they're becoming extremely agitated by things that do not matter at one iota.
And, of course, our brain, hypothalamus, the pituitary doesn't differentiate between the guy that's smacking his gum in the cubicle sat next to you and being chased by a tiger. And so we see the same physiological response which leads to disregulation of cortisol and some of these other sex hormones that we've already mentioned. And so if you can train a person or you to respond better to these stupid stresses, your community or whatever else there is, I see this as an advantage for your athletic performance because that gives you more headspace, to use the same name of the app, for your training stress, which is also stress but it's a type of stress, good stress, that makes you stronger.
Sarah: Right. Well, it's funny too because I've tried to get a few of my clients to do it and nobody has gotten hooked at the moment.
Christopher: Oh really? Because I struggled with it for a long time. I got into these CDs which I ripped into MP3. Somebody in the office gave me these CDs by a guy called Jon Kabat-Zinn who I believe is like a pioneering psychotherapist or something. He's really famous in his field. And I really loved those CDs. I thought they were great. I try to get other people into it. They were just not interested at all. I couldn't get anyone to do it. And then I started recommending Headspace and suddenly everybody was doing it. It was the first thing that people said to me in the follow-up was, "Oh, that Headspace thing is brilliant. I love it. It's absolutely wonderful." So that's interesting. So you've been struggling to get your clients into it then?
Sarah: Yeah. Because the way Headspace works is the first ten days are free. And so I'll put that on their training schedule, ten days of ten minutes of meditation. It's not a lot to ask. And for me, I totally got hooked on it. But nobody else has.
Christopher: Right.
Sarah: It's like you can only push people so far. So, I don't. I've dropped it after that.
Christopher: Yeah. It's a [0:23:44] [Indiscernible] process for me as well, the kind of the balancing act of, okay, so this would be ideal but this is something that someone is actually likely to do right. And that part is important. And the ketogenic diet is another good example of something that's potentially extremely beneficial but also very unlikely to get compliance. So it might not be the best thing to recommend. Tell me about your digestion at that time. Did you have any obvious GI symptoms? Because you did some stool testing and it showed an infection. But did that correlate with the way that your digestion was at that time?
Sarah: Yeah, it was bad. My belly was super limiter for training, for racing and just in general. And that has improved a great deal.
Christopher: Oh, good. Okay. So, yeah, we found an infection. It's called Blastocystis hominis, which is I can think you can think of that as a kind of a low grade infection. A lot of doctors would not really get too excited about that. I think they would try and treat it with an antibiotic but I don't think they would say, "Oh, this is it. This is why you feel so tired." They probably wouldn't make that connection. But that's really great to hear.
[0:25:00]
So you took some botanical herbs to get rid of that. We retested, didn't we? And it was gone.
Sarah: No. We haven't retested.
Christopher: Oh, that's right.
Sarah: Because I went to Vietnam and, well, we decided to wait until after I got back because there was a chance that I would get into something there, which I did get really sick but hopefully now my immune system is strong enough to fit that all.
Christopher: Right. I forgot about that, yes. So I always do a retest to make sure that the protocol works. The reason I made that assumption right there without checking the file was, blast there, I've got 100% record on. I'm not really worried about that. And yet you picked up on an important point there that I don't think you picked up this infection in the same way you pick up an injury when you step on a rake in the garden. It's more like you become run down, you're not handling stress well, maybe you're making some poor food choices and you're not getting enough sleep.
That runs down your immune system and it makes you a really good host for something like Blastocystis hominis infection. Now with all the changes you've made, the way that you're handling stress and the improvements you've made to your diet, I'm pretty confident that this infection is going to be gone despite the fact that you got terrible food poisoning in Vietnam. That mechanism, it works. That's evolved over a very long time and that's how it's supposed to work.
And I'm sure lots of people get exposed to the types of bugs that I find on this 401H GI Pathogen Screen all the time. And what probably happens is they get maybe one incident of diarrhea and then it's gone. And that's the end of it. Their immune system does the job and that's the end of it. And people that are run down over trained athletes, they tend to become more chronic infections that then causes problems, micronutrient deficiencies and such. So, yeah, what's next?
Sarah: I guess the retesting. I mean, I do feel better. Like I said, my digestion is better. My belly is non issue training and racing. But I do want to retest and see the numbers. Well, I was going to say also that my recovery seems to be better. I noticed if I go into some like a really challenging event or training block and I'm tired to begin with, my recovery is still really bad. But if I go into something like that rested, it's noticeably better.
Christopher: Okay. I think, I feel like we still got some more work to do here because I promised the earth when we started. I was like, "This is going to be night and day." And it sounds like you've seen, enjoyed some improvement but perhaps not quite as spectacular as I originally promised, which makes me think that maybe there's still something going on here. You did blood test at the beginning of March. And this is not a fancy test at all. This is a $26 blood chemistry from LabCorp.
I've run it through some software that I've found very useful for spotting patterns that span multiple markers. And it also spans multiple tests as well, so you can see trends which are already interesting. There's still some stuff going on there. So we saw low total white blood cell counts, low total globulin. So globulin is a protein. And low alkaline phosphatase. Alkaline phosphatase is a zinc-dependent enzyme. So you still look like someone that's maybe suffering from a chronic infection and a zinc deficiency. You don't think--
Sarah: Hemoglobin.
Christopher: And low hemoglobin too. So I could explain hemoglobin is the molecule that transports oxygen in the blood. And this is so, so important for oxygen deliverability. So anyone, every cell needs oxygen in order to do what that cell does. And it's particularly important for endurance athletes because your ability to deliver oxygen to the cells is a huge determinant of your athletic performance. And so Sarah had 13 points of hemoglobin. And this is well inside the standard reference range. So a doctor is never going to say anything about this.
But it's below the optimal range that's defined by my software. And I know that if I can add another point of hemoglobin onto that score, then that's going to have a significant impact on your power thresholds, which it doesn't need to be that much better. Let's face it, where are you finishing in your elite races? If I could add 5% onto your VO2 max, that's going to make a huge difference to your performance.
[0:30:11]
And the software is interesting because it helps me debug why it would be that the hemoglobin is low. And you have an elevation of mean corpuscular volume which is the size of the red blood cells, which usually points to B12 and folate deficiency. So folate is a nutrient that comes from leafy vegetables and then B12 more from meats. It's interesting because now your diet is impeccable, right? You're not scrimping on the vegetables in any way or avoiding meat or anything like that. So it kind of points a finger, your digestion not being good as it should be.
Sarah: So the other thing -- What was I just thinking I was going to -- Just going back to still some stuff to work on, one thing I would note is that I've always been a slow adaptor. For whatever reason, my physiology, it takes me a long time to get the benefit of a training effect or going from sea level up to altitude, it takes me forever, going from altitude down to sea level. My body just takes a long time to make changes. And so it doesn't, as frustrating as it is, it doesn't surprise me that this whole process is taking longer. Maybe there is still some stuff going on but maybe it's just taking a long time too.
Christopher: Yeah, absolutely. I think that's the case with the supplements as well. Sometimes people take them and they expect overnight success. So for example, while you are talking, I pulled up your organic acids result and that's the urine sample. And so I know that in order to produce healthy red blood cells, you need B12 and folate, also B6 and iron. There's a marker on the organic acids test called forminoglutamate.
Forminoglutamate builds up in the urine when there's insufficient B12. Sorry, folate. So it does seem likely that folate is the suspect here and the supplementation of folate is going to be extremely helpful for you, which you've been doing. But again, it's like how long would you have to take that supplement before you start to see the benefits? It's not going to be overnight. It's not as simple as, well, I bought some of that stuff and I took one pill and now I'm going to be particularly--
Apart from anything else, the lifespan of a red blood cell is three months. So it would be perhaps at least that long before you even see these new red blood cells in circulation. So it's a commitment. I'm hoping that anything that I've suggested is sustainable. That's another powerful lesson that I've learned. It's no use suggesting to someone something with program failure. So if the solution involved with a diet say that wasn't sustainable, then that's no use. It has to be something you can stick to.
Sarah: Yeah. So tell me about your sleep. I was interested in that. I'm a bit concerned that you're still struggling with it because it's such an important thing. So have you changed your sleep hygiene at all or your habits?
Sarah: I don't know that I've changed since we started working together because I had already made some pretty dramatic changes before. I'm not perfect. I'm not 100% compliant about not having my phone on before bed. I do what is F-locks on the computer. But I do try and get off. And that actually is a change that I've made. I don't respond to as many emails in the evening as I used to. I try to get off the computer, get out of the blue light in the evening.
But I do take an herbal sleep supplement that has melatonin in it every night. But I think it's a little less melatonin that I was taking before because it also has [0:34:41] [Indiscernible] and some other stuff. But my sleep is not great still. I noticed is the worst in the week to two weeks before I start my period.
[0:35:01]
And there's nothing I could do. I think I could take the most powerful drugs at that point and it just wouldn't matter. So I don't know what that's about.
Christopher: Yes, it's tricky. But certainly at least, having good sleep hygiene and allowing the time for the sleep to happen is so important. I know for me personally, I'd gotten to the point where I didn't even bother going to bed literally. I would just stay up, lie on the couch, watch old reruns of the Tour de France, which is baffling to me now looking back on that time. I've not really been watching any cycling at all and I think at one point I was really watching 40 hours a week or something.
Yeah, that's a terrible habit to get into because even if you do fix the problem you'll never know because you're not even allowing for the sleep to happen. Yeah, that's concerning. But how do you think you've done -- One of the things I try and push for with people and, I think -- I don't want to single out women but I'm going to anyway. And that's trying to decrease your exposure to environmental toxins. And when I say single out women, I'm talking specifically about personal care products. Is that something you've thought about or changed at all?
Sarah: Yeah. It's something I've thought about. I mean, I use the Skin Deep app on my phone that gives you -- Like if you scan a bar code in the store, it comes up with a report of what the risks are as far as carcinogens and allergic reactions on any personal care product or a lot of personal care products, whatever is on their database. But I don't use it on everything. There's some things I just know I like and I don't even want to know what's in it.
Again, it goes back to this balance of stress versus compliance for me. And maybe that's silly because it's like makeup and perfume and stuff like that. But I know what I like and sometimes I just want to use it. But it's on my radar. I have a good friend who has been through chemo twice for breast cancer. So it's certainly on my radar. I'm good about avoiding plastic containers especially in the microwave and that kind of thing. I guess I'm better with that stuff.
Christopher: Right. So I'm not just totally -- I know this stuff is a general good guideline for people but I'm not just guessing here. We saw on your organic acid an elevation of the organic acid 2-Methylhippurate. This organic acids test has got tons of different marks on it, 46 in total. In the lab, they choose specific organic acids because they mean something very specific. And in this case indicates exposure to something called xylene.
And xylene is a chemical that turns up in tons of different things. It's in paint. It's in varnish. It's in carpets. And the reason they choose it is because everybody is exposed to it, or at least everybody that's likely to do this test. And so what it's really telling you is how well a person's liver is working. And when you see this elevation of 2-Methylhippurate, it points a finger. And then you also had another organic acid glucarate which points at liver function, both phase one and phase two, not working as well as it should.
Anything I can do to reduce a person's exposure to chemicals and pesticides and all that kind of stuff I think is going to be helpful. So do you manage to get organic food as well? Is that something that's like a possibility for you or is that too hard?
Sarah: Yeah. I do. I'm pretty good about that actually. Again, I use the Clean 15 and Dirty Dozen app I saw. Yes. But I also am better about -- Like I'll buy organic stuff if it doesn't have a peel that you're not going to eat anyway, you know what I mean? I don't tend to spend the money on that stuff. And then here in Utah, there's tons of Farmers Markets in the summer.
Christopher: That's great. I used to be so skeptical of all that stuff, organic and all that. And now, we're pretty anal about it. Sometimes I wonder, is it really worth it? And then just this past weekend I decided it was a good idea to ride my bike from Santa Cruz to Monterey, which is a pretty flat ride. God, it was horrible. It was like [0:39:57] [Indiscernible]. It was like a 40-knot side wind. It was ludicrous.
[0:40:01]
And I'm riding through all these agricultural fields and there's like machines and all these kinds of stuff, kicking up dust into this 40-knot side wind. One of the things that's going on there is the sprinklers, which are for the strawberries that they grow there -- They grow acres and acres of strawberries. Of course, the spray catches in the wind. And I was thinking, it's just water, whatever.
And the first time it hit me, I realized it wasn't just water. I don't know what, pesticide or whatever, I presume they're non-organic. But it felt like -- Do you remember hairspray? My dad used to use hairspray. I think my sister did too. And it was like somebody sprayed me with hairspray in the face. It was like, oh my god. How is that not poisoning people? I don't understand. But, I guess, they got that down to a pretty exact science now where you can spray these fruits with some crazy toxic chemical and it not really affect the health of a person that then eats that fruit.
Sarah: Well, theoretically.
Christopher: Theoretically, yeah. Yeah, definitely organic, I think, is the way forward. So, yeah. We are going to do some retesting then. Maybe it would be a good idea to follow-up with you and see what's happened, what we've managed to achieve in terms of the lab results over the last three months.
Sarah: Yeah, I would love to see.
Christopher: So what do you think are the most important points that you've learned? First of all, would you recommend this process? I mean, this is a huge commitment that you made, changing your diet and your lifestyle and doing all these lab tests and you're taking a ton of supplements. Would you recommend it to someone else that is going through the same problems?
Sarah: Yeah, I would, absolutely. And I have. I've sent a couple of people that I know you at least did initial consult with. I think some of them did go on to do the testing and the protocol as well. So, yeah, I'm absolutely on board. I'm sold. But like you say, it's a massive commitment. It's a lot of money and it's time and effort. But I feel like I can see such dramatic change in the course of six months -- I mean, this was three years ago now -- where I went from feeling one way to not ever feeling that way again. So I know that that's in there somewhere. I can feel like that again. I don't think I've aged so much in three years that it's not possible. And so I was really super motivated. And seeing some progress certainly makes you hungry for more.
Christopher: Yeah, absolutely. And then we will get there. We have to. Like if we keep digging, keep running the lab tests, I'm sure we will get there. But I'm really interested in you as a coach and how you integrate this knowledge into your plans. So the first coach that I ever had -- I got great results for them. But I feel like he was rather incomplete in his sort of -- I don't know you can't really say to someone, "Just go ride your bike," or, "Just go lift weights," without considering how much sleep they're getting, what they're eating, how much stress they're under, what supplements they're taking, all of that kind of stuff. What do you say to your clients? Are there things that fit in to your training plan just like interval workout on Thursday? Or is it still separate?
Sarah: Yeah, it is. It's an evolving balance because I can only be so much to each of my clients. And so I try really hard to stay on top of them, to stay on top of everyone's stress level outside of training. Because I can see that in TrainingPeaks. I can see that every day. But what I can't see is the stuff with their family, with their work, all the other stress. And so I really try to hound people to keep me apprised of that information. And some people are more compliant than others.
And I think, well, I know I can be a better coach to those who give me more information. And luckily, I'm a new enough coach that I have, I'm getting more clients but right now I can devote a lot of time to every single client. So the more people communicate with me about their stress, their diet, their sleep, all of that other stuff, the better coach I can be. Some people are more forthcoming with that information than others and so I don't have a formalized conversation with people.
[0:45:04]
It's just like did I answer when they asked me and what information did they provide and then how do I adjust their training based on that, I guess.
Christopher: And are they all cyclists that you work with?
Sarah: I work with some triathletes and so I do some swim and bike, swim and run coaching as well. But generally, it's cycling, yeah.
Christopher: Okay. And then, so your philosophy is like with the plan that I'm currently on where it's sort of more less volume and then more intensity.
Sarah: Yeah, I would say so. I mean, there's definitely like you have to put in a base period with a significant amount of volume. And actually, that I would say is a really big frustration for me because people come to me in March and they want to race in April or they want to race in March. Whatever, I'll leave it at that. But there has to be a time to put in the volume. But after that, I don't have my athletes do a ton of volume and most people are going really good on that.
Christopher: That's great. So where can people find out more about you? How do we get in touch? I'll just put your email address on the show notes on the site or is there somewhere else that people could find you?
Sarah: Yeah. That would be awesome, my email dress is great. The coaching business that I work for is Plan 7 Endurance Coaching but, for me, it's best if people reach out to me directly.
Christopher: Cool. So you use training TrainingPeaks. I quite like TrainingPeaks actually. I've just got into it recently. You look at each person's, you look at every single ride that people do or you just look at select rides or…?
Sarah: I don't look at every single ride. I look at key workouts and races. Yeah.
Christopher: That would be quite fun actually to have someone do just the analysis of that. You get all this data, especially if you're using a power meter and it's like you look it out but you know what that means.
Sarah: That's awesome, yeah. Yeah.
Christopher: Excellent. Well, I'll put that in the show notes then, the email address so people can find it. Why don't you just say it, since you're on the air, in case people are driving?
Sarah: Okay. My email address?
Christopher: Yeah.
Sarah: It's sarah@plan7coaching.com.
Christopher: Excellent. Thank you so much for coming on and being intimidated and scrutinized by me.
Sarah: Thank you, Chris.
Christopher: And sharing some of your thoughts.
Sarah: Thanks for all your hard work.
Christopher: No problem. It's my pleasure. And then certainly I think I feel like we should follow up again. The story is still evolving. I'm expecting good things still.
Sarah: Cool, thank you.
Christopher: Okay. Cheers, Sarah.
Sarah: Bye.
[0:47:49] End of Audio
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