Nutrition and Training. The 2 primary ingredients for a successful 24 hour race. On Nov 7th Tedd and I will race in the 24 Hours of Fury, Phoenix AZ. On February 13 Tedd, Tim and I will be racing in the 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo, Tucson AZ. We are all racing SOLO, of course. We may be a part of the most influential racing team of our time, but we are not Team Racers. We don’t ‘Pass the Baton’, we don’t do ‘the handoff’, we don’t believe in ‘high 5s’, we will never support the ‘group hug’.
So what is nutrition? How does Back of the Pack Racing stay in the back of the pack. Check out my refrigerator. The answers are right in your face. Or should I say “In My Face”. Or, as a great friend once said, in ‘The Garbage Gut’. Let’s be clear, Back of the Pack Racing is not Front of the Pack Racing & it is NOT We Will Dominate You Racing. There are strict boundaries of athleticism that we will never cross. Our nutrition plan assures this.
As you review the contents of Judd’s fridge you may have a few questions. We have the answers.
1) Q: Why so many cans of salsa? A: Why not. Be prepared, as they taught us in Boy Scouts.
2) Q: Why only 2 bags of Cheetos? A: I eat dinner, you know. It’s 7:30 PM, 2 bags are history.
3) Q: Why the water? A: My uncle, the great Uncle Judd says ‘You must take a bath every now and then’, so my bath water is fresh.
4) Q: Why the eggs? A: Hell, I don’t know. I think my mom dropped them off 2 years ago.
5) Q: Tortillas & Cheese? A: Check out the photo below, the usual for breakfast & lunch & dinner.
6) Q: Why the Bud American Ale and Tecate? A: Brett Favre and Adrian Peterson have backups. So Fat Tire and Dale’s Pale Ale deserve a backup or two.
7) Q: V8? A: Well, Back of the Pack Racing supports monthly cleansings. A daily dose of vegetables is good enough for a cleansing once a month. One cup, once a month. It works.
8) Q: Miracle Whip? Crap, the aliens must be back.
So, what is the breakfast, lunch and dinner of a champion? What else? A Salsa + Cheetos burrito. What else would one do to maintain such exceptional performance in the back of the pack? NOTHING!
Training. Well, RIDE – for the physical aspect of ultra endurance events. Mental conditioning is another important element that so many forget. Mental conditioning basically boils down to effectively dealing with the monotony of hours and hours on the bike. Lately my mental conditioning is dominated by a healthy (unheathly?) addiction to death metal. I’ve forced myself to listen to Rob Zombie’s award winning song “Ride” for days / weeks, over and over. It takes an unbelievable amount of mental toughness to listen to the same tune for weeks, non stop. This mental toughness is required for ultra endurance events. In addition, it takes a very special person to actually enjoy listening to the same tune for weeks on end. I’m that special someone.
Check out the training song.
So, the training regimen is based on a theory of bionic chaos. One must not allow the body to experience a zone of comfort. High performance athletes live on soy beans, tofu, organic nuts & vegetables, and spiritual harmony. Once this utopia is destroyed, most likely at mile 125 and at 4AM, the high performance athlete hits the ‘wall’. Well, us Back of the Pack racers never hit the wall – we live on the ‘wall’ and the ‘wall’ is our friend. Once the body understands that there is no limits, that one can survive on Cheetos Burritos alone (+ beer of course) then the ‘wall’ just becomes another building block of athletic superiority.
So, all the critics may ask, “How does someone establish and execute such an insane nutrition and training routine? This genius must have way too much time on his hands !”
Yep, I have way TOO MUCH time on my hands. But great men stay productive. The definition of productivity can be debated.
Until next time – go enjoy a Cheetos Burrito for breakfast, dude.
BACK OF THE PACK RACING 