Welcome
Welcome to Episode #171 of the Mile High Endurance podcast. Mile High Endurance is your weekly connection to coaches, experts and pro athletes to help you reach your endurance and triathlon goals.
We're your hosts coach Rich Soares and 303 Chief Bill Plock. Thanks for joining us for another week of endurance interviews and discussion. You have a lot of options for training information and we are glad you are choosing to spend some time with us.
Brain training. What has always fascinated me about endurance is the brains role. You undoubtedly have your own experience with pacing, giving up or digging deep. I mentioned last week that I was reading the book, Endure by writer Alex Hutchison. A significant amount of the content of this book covered various aspects and studies about the brain's involvement in everything from learning to pace ourselves like we heard in last week's episode and the example of the study of children in a running study and at what age the brain learns to conserve energy and "pace" our effort for future needs. Or, in Tim Noake's "Central Governor" theory and research that first proposed that it isn't the body that knows the limits and the brain simply responds and decides to slow down, there's actually a part of the brain that takes information and stops the body before you reach the physical limits of endurance.
You undoubtedly also have experience using your brain to things as simply as learning to ride a bike, or as hard as nailing the swim stroke or increasing your running cadence. Today, we are taking a look at a different aspect of brain training. Is there a way to make the neural connections between the brain and muscles stronger, to recruit muscles more efficiently, to be more resilient, to have greater strength and endurance.
We have Tom Griffin from Halo Neuroscience joining us today to talk about the science, the studies, and the new design of the Halo2. You will be introduced to the topic of TDCS (Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation). We will talk about that in the interview, and then elaborate on it after in some additional studies that I read about in Alex Hutchison's book Endure.
Announcements:
Sponsor - iKOR Labs:
Today's show is supported by iKOR Labs. iKOR is a clean, natural source of recovery enhancing CBD that protects your body from the stresses of training, improves recovery from intense efforts and helps you maintain a positive mental state. It is the most bio-available CBD product on the market, iKOR is a protective anti-oxidant and highly effective anti-inflammatory. It is used by world class professional athletes. Save 20% by using the code "endurance" at checkout and consider saving even more by doing auto recurring order. Go to www.ikorlabs.com for more details.
Last Week's Guest:
Thanks to last week's guests, Franko Vatterott and Matt Smith on the topic of training camps. If you are interested in the Park City, UT Sansego camp you can save $100 off the registration by using the code MHE100. If you haven't heard that yet, check out last week's interview on episode - #170.
In Today's Show:
Sponsor - Riplaces:
Our interview is sponsored by Riplaces. Riplaces are an elastic lace system that integrates a bungee loop with a plastic core to connect the loop in each eyelet of your running shoe. The system comes with 10 bungees in each of 5 sizes to achieve custom tension for the perfect fit. The bungees and the cores come in a variety of colors and styles to help you personalize your set. Or, you can choose the MHE logo package. Pro triathlete proven and endorsed, use the code MHE25 to get that 25% discount. Go to www.riplaces.com for more information, or go to the MHE Sponsor Discounts page by going to www.milehighendurance.com, or directly to https://www.riplaces.com/collections/mile-high-endurance
Interview Introduction:
We all have experience finding that additional reserve. You've been in a race, felt like you've reached your limit, yet when you are within sight of the finish line, you have the crowed cheering, or a competitor approaches, you find the energy to push harder. We see it with marathon and ironman finish times. You see a higher concentration of finish times before the hour marks than after the hour marks suggesting the runners and triathletes find those reserves to finish under those milestones.
Similarly, when doing a 20 minute all our effort on the trainer in your basement, you may be able to achieve what you believe is your best 20 minute power effort. Yet, do a time trial race the next day in a competitive situation and now you miraculously find an additional 6 watts of power over the same or greater distance. Is it that you are 6 watts stronger the next day?
What is the brains role in slowing us down or speeding us up? How can we tap into those reserves in training? Do muscles really have memory? How can we get stronger, faster and have more endurance, using our brains? Let's get into the interview with Tom Griffin.
Sponsor - Halo Neuroscience:
Our post interview discussion is sponsored by Halo Neuroscience. The Halo Sport from Halo Neuroscience will help you learn the technique and form to get faster. 20 minutes of neural priming with the Halo Headset gives you an hour of neural plasticity to work and lock in the muscle movement that leads to strength, power and endurance. Use the code "MHE" at checkout to save an additional $20. Pre order now and your regular price of $399 is $299. Add the MHE code and your price is $279. If you use the code MARCHMADNESS, you can save $30 for a price of $269.
Video of the Week:
Building a Champion: Olympic Sprinter Hafsatu Kamara
Endurance Trivia:
Question #1 - How much time needs to pass from the time glucose-based sports drink passes the mouth before there is a measurable improvement in performance?
Read from page 189 of Endure, Alex Hutchison
Question #2 - Using a combination of CAT scans and EEG, researchers have been able to identify the part of the brain that shows increasing activity just prior to muscle failure. That region of the brain is the:
Read from page 234 of Endure, Alex Hutchison
Question #3 - The acronym tDCS stands for:
Read from page 229 of Endure, Alex Hutchison
News:
Post Interview Discussion:
Upcoming Interviews:
Closing:
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Stay tuned, train informed, and enjoy the endurance journey!
Training camps can have a substantially positive impact on your training. Surrounding yourself with similarly motivated athletes, eager to learn and train, surrounded by coaches and a series of days of focused training is of course going to result in focused training that will boost your fitness. What is often under appreciated is the knowledge you gain about training and the awareness you achieve with respect to your current training practices and how effective or ineffective they may be. Now we aren't talking about an ordinary training camp today. We are talking about what is arguably the best training camp experience available. We are going to talk to two folks on the staff at SANSEGO (Crowie's coaching company) about an upcoming camp with Crowie and Dr. Max Testa at Park City UT and the camp experience of a lifetime.
If you run in Newtons you know why we love them. If you don't, you will find out why they have created a fanatic customer base of Newtonites. Today's interview offers insights about the shoe industry in general and Newton Running specifically. We had a chance to visit with founder Jerry Lee last October in Kona and we wanted to share this story with you.
Balancing ultramarathon training. Who among us doesn't have to balance career, family and training? Not many. Our guest today is Kyle Pietari from Denver. He has finished 2nd place at Leadville 100 twice (2015, 2016) and top ten at Western States 100 past three years in a row. He narrowly missed making the top 10 North American ultra runners of the year list for 2018 (11th place in the voting). Not only does he compete at a high level, he also balances a career as an attorney, is a husband, and father of 3 young children.
Three years ago we started this podcast with the objective of giving you access to the best coaches, experts and professional athletes in endurance sport. Training for and competing in endurance sports is an ongoing learning process and that's why we exist. In today's show we'll celebrate three years of research, interviews, discussion and friendship. Plus we have two special guests. Coach David Warden of 80/20 Endurance, host of the Tri-Talk podcast, and co-author of a number of great books joins us to talk about testing to measure your training progress. Plus we have friend of the show and MHE coaching athlete Amy Miller to join our discussion about the three year history of the show.