Well, 2023 just took an interesting turn!

Posted on January 25, 2023 by Rob Gray

I am well known for being able to juggle a high profile job at Google, train like a professional athlete, and still be a good Dad. Well, this just took an interesting development. On Friday I was laid off along with 12000 of my colleagues. I always thought I was reassuringly expensive, like a Dimond Mogul, Specialized S-Works, Remy Martin Louis XIII Grande Champagne Cognac, Emirates First Class etc etc. You get the picture – these things are expensive, but reassuringly so.

Likewise, my team at Google was expensive but reassuringly so. We achieved higher output than many teams that were literally 10 times the number of people. I made many friends, and learned a lot along the way. But is has now come to and end.

In 2023 I will be a full time athlete and also grow my coaching business. I’ve already got a good lineup of races for the first half: In April I have Ultra355 Mexico (355 miles non stop) and Ironman Texas, and in June I have the Comrades Marathon. Once I get back from SA, I will focus on preparing for the Ultraman World Champs which take place in November in Hawaii.

I will now have time to actually post stuff of social media and hopefully also do some cool YouTube videos.

Below is a longer version of my LinkedIn post (which was limited to 3000ish characters)

Friday was my last day at Google. Technically, Mar 31, 2023 will be my last day, exactly 13 years to the day after my official first day. I say official first day, because I actually started working in the London office at Belgrave House 6 months before that, when the new consulting company that I had founded snagged Google as the first big client. I was brought in to assist with the marketing strategy and execution for Google Enterprise, a little-known and frankly underfunded part of Google that had fewer than 400 employees and no significant amount of revenue. For perspective, Google Drive did not even exist back then. A few days a week turned into 4 days a week, then 5 and often 6. It was just like working at a startup, except with rich parents who could bail you out if you got it wrong. Before I knew it, Dave Armstrong had somehow convinced me to join as a full time employee, and wow it has been quite the adventure!

I started in London, moved to California, and now live in Colorado. I went in as a marketing leader and I came out the other side running a product management team, a knowledge / learning team, and an M&A integration team. I went in having never done an Ironman race and I come out the other side having done over 20 Ironmans, 5 Ultramans, winning the Ultraman World Championship in 2017. And possibly the best work/life story of all: With 7 of my Google colleagues, we broke the world record for the longest swim relay in 2019 (we swam 959km in the Google pool at “The Quad” in Mountain View). That’s a reflection on the amazing culture of this company that I absorbed and embraced.

Whatever mistakes I made along the way, I always learned from them and made sure that I used those learning opportunities to become the best version of me. When I started managing people back in 2012, I was not great at it. I was kind of in corporate drone mode and had a “company first” approach to how I managed the team. I soon realized that this approach did not get the most out of people and that I had to adapt. I’m proud to say that by viewing my team as humans, with human needs, aspirations and goals that go way beyond their job, I have become a much better people manager. I’ve learned as much from them and they have learned from me.

My proudest measurable achievement is not related to growing revenue, boosting profits, and optimizing an organization. Yes, I am passionate about all those things and love that part of my job. But no, the most meaningful measure of success for me was achieving a manager feedback score of 100% for the past few years. I am confident that even now, if you had to survey my team (including those that were affected by this layoff), I would still hold their vote of confidence. My relationships with them transcend that of the company, the quarterly objective or the performance rating. And guess what? This approach builds a trusting, loyal, passionate and productive team that will in turn lead to greater revenue and profits.

So what is next for me? Not getting another full time job, that is for sure! The silver lining of getting laid off is that it forces me out of my comfort zone into doing the things that I should be doing anyway. I will be spending 2023 as a full time athlete, coach, dad, husband, pro pizza chef and amateur barista.

I’ve run a part time coaching business for the past 8 years, but I’ve never had the time available to add more clients or to scale that business. I now do have time to take on 2-3 athletes (or aspiring athletes). If someone you know wants to do an Ironman, a marathon, or simply wants to get fitter and healthier, I would love the opportunity to work with them. I know first hand the struggles of trying to perform at a high level job and also be a good parent and spouse. I would get great satisfaction from helping others to become the best possible versions of themselves. You can send them to https://robgray.org/coaching/

I have really enjoyed speaking at events. I’ve spoken at a number of annual kick offs and corporate team events, where I talk about the parallels of winning at Ultraman and winning at business: creating the right strategy, building a great team, knowing your competition, technology as a competitive advantage, and the discipline to bring it all together. Working at Google, I was limited in terms of what public speaking I was allowed to do, but now I am Free! Free at last! For me this is high impact work that only requires a few days of time commitment, and is personally very fulfilling.

I would like to thank all the people who continue to reach out in support. As is hopefully clear, I am not looking for another full time job. But many of the people that worked for me are. These are some of the best people I have ever worked with. They were hand picked by me and are in the top 1% – if you need people to run sales productivity tools (including salesforce), learning and knowledge platforms (LMS / CMS admins), technical architects, product managers, please let me know. This is really a golden opportunity to acquire top talent.

This coming Thanksgiving, I will leave no stone unturned in my efforts to win a second Ultraman world championship title, at the age of 47! It will be a massive undertaking, but it’s now or never and I need to seize this opportunity. If there is anyone in your network who runs a brand that would like to be involved in this project, please reach out. In this modern world of content marketing, it’s a fantastic opportunity to create amazing content around an incredible story.

Finally, thank you to all the Googlers that have become my friends over the past 13 years. You know who you are. You are more than colleagues; you are friends, mentors and muses. I will miss the time we had, but our time together is far from over.

7 signs that you are ready to take on an Ultraman

Posted on January 5, 2023 by Rob Gray

Click here for Ultraman Coaching

For many people, the thought of Ultraman sounds a little crazy; 3 days, each of which takes about as long as an Ironman, seems intimidating at first (and indeed it should!). Ultraman originated as a challenge to circumnavigate the Big Island of Hawaii using swim/bike/run. It starts with a 10k point to point swim from the Kona pier, ending at Keauhou bay. You then jump on your bike and continue south before climbing up to Volcano, 90 miles in total. Day 2 is 171 miles from Volcano to Hawi, and day 3 is a 52 mile run from Hawi back to Kona.

So how do you know if you are ready to take on this challenge? Of course I have done this race many times, and I’ve also coached a lot of people of various abilities to success at this distance. So I have a pretty good handle on what is required to take this challenge on. Note that you do not need to be fast in order to finish Ultraman, but you need a strong mindset and a lot of persistence. Here are some signs that you are ready for Ultraman:

You’ve done 10+ Ironman distance races and you are ready for the next challenge

Youv’e checked the Ironman box, but let’s face it, these days it feels like everyone is doing an Ironman. That feeling of the big challenge that first attracted you to Ironman is no longer there, and it feels like you could do an Ironman pretty comfortably. If you want to get out of your comfort zone, then Ultraman could be for you! For me, just that uncertainty of the 10km swim on day 1 felt really daunting, and honestly in my first Ultraman race I wasn’t sure that I would actually finish. Plus, the requirement to have a crew adds a whole new and interesting dimension to the event. If your teamwork is not up to scratch, you will fail!

You enjoy suffering. Actually more than that – you relish suffering

Suffering is par for the course at Ultraman. I have never done this race without experiencing the highest level of suffering at least once, and usually for extended periods of time. I mean let’s face it, even driving from Hawi back to Kona is a little bit painful. Riding it on a bike is no mean feat either. But running it!? Come on! You must be kidding me. Nope, there is no joke here. It is for real. But once you are in it, it actually doesn’t seem that bad. Until it does. Then it feels worse than you imagined it would. Finally it’s over and waves of relief are washing over you. The next day you wake up and enjoy the first of many days being unable to walk unassisted. Other than that, it’s great!

You are able to deal with adversity and unexpected situations

We’ve already covered suffering, which you may think is similar to adversity. But these are different things altogether. You see, adversity consists of multiple things whose sole purpose in life is to prevent you from finishing, and to inflict even more suffering on you than the regular default level of suffering. Some examples from recent memory include crew members not showing up, jellyfish stings, life-force-draining currents, gale force winds, extreme rain, extreme heat, suicidal goats, erupting volcanos, malfunctioning equipment, road raging humans, vehicle failures, random spontaneous personality disorders, alligators. That is to name just a few. These things come up, and how you deal with these types of things will determine your readiness to take part.

You want to race in Kona, but on the scenic parts (unlike Ironman which is on the least exciting/scenic part of the Big Island)

For many, racing the Ironman in Kona is the ultimate dream. And then you race it, and realize it’s basically a bike ride on a highway through a lava-laden desert. In stark contrast, the Ultraman in Hawaii circumnavigates the entire island, covering 7 of the 8 distinct climate zones (we skip polar tundra but you are welcome to experience that before or after the race). Anyway, it really is a beautiful experience, and doing it by swim, bike and run is slow enough to really take things in vs doing it in a vehicle.

You have the financial means to do this race

This is often a surprise to people, but wow the costs add up quickly!

Entry fee: $1500-$2000 depending on which race.

Travel: flights for you and your crew, $2000-$8000 depending on where you’re traveling from. Obviously doing a local Ultraman is an easy way to eliminate most of this cost.

Accommodation: 3 days of the race plus at least 2 days before and usually 2 days after. That’s 7 days of housing that can easily reach $2000+ really quickly. Usually a lot more.

Food for you and the crew. Over and above your race nutrition, the costs for 3 meals a day (for you, your crew, and your family if they come along) adds up really quickly.

Equipment: at least one bike, but you are allowed a spare bike too. One TT bike is already expensive, so laying out another $4k-$8k on a second bike hurts the wallet. You can of course rent a second bike, which will only set you back a few hundred dollars. Or you can wing it and just go with one bike. Most people get away with this, but due to the adversity faced (see above) the chances are quite good that something happens with your primary bike. In 6 Ultraman races, I’ve rendered my primary bike useless on 2 occasions. One was a random tri bar pad failure and I had to switch to the second bike. The other was a crash rendering my bike unrideable, however I did not switch to the second bike due to my body being rendered as equally useless as the mangled bike.

Coaching is also important, especially for first time Ultraman athletes. You could probably go it alone but you are bound to make mistakes that render all the above costs useless, and all that could be avoided by working with an experienced coach. This could be an investment of $300-$500 per month for at least 6 months.

So in summary, you’re probably in for at least $6K, more likely $10K+ which is obviously a significant amount of money.

You are physically capable

This sounds obvious, but you would be surprised at the number of ill-prepared people I see attempting Ultraman. So what kind of shape do you need to be in?

Swimming: Ultraman has a 10k swim. A 10K swim is hard. For Ultraman races with a lake swim, your swim performance can be quite predictable. For Hawaii, you are faced with currents and rough waters, which means that being a stronger swimmer is important. If you cannot consistently swim long intervals faster than 1:50/100m, then you should focus on improving your technique. In our experience with coached athletes, by focusing on swim technique they can get to consistent paces of 1:40/100m and faster without any improvements in fitness. That is the ballpark you need to get to in order to comfortably swim the 10K without risking the day 1 cutoff time.

Biking: It’s hard to measure biking ability in a way that is helpful in a general sense. Watts/kg is a relatively good way of estimating what it takes, though. A rough benchmark if you want to finish the race is around 2 watts/kg. Of course, conditions could impact that, but for normal conditions that is the general benchmark. For a 75kg athlete this would be around 150 watts that you would need to average on day 2. For day 1, you first have to swim and therefore that will have the most impact on your ability to make the cutoff.

Running: You don’t need to be fast to complete a double marathon in the cutoff time of 12 hours (a 12 hour double marathon is 13:44/mile or 8:32/km which is basically a fast walk). But you do need the stamina and endurance to make it. Just being on your feet for 12 hours is hard, and ideally you’d want to have a buffer in case things go wrong. You should aim to be able to hit around 11:30 per mile which gives you a 2 hour buffer for the inevitable disasters.

You have the time to do the training

You will need to have at least 15 hours per week available for training, especially in the last 4-5 months before your race. In addition, you will need to schedule at least a few weeks of 25-30 hours of training (not consecutively, but spaced out within the last 3 months). We have had athletes complete Ultraman on 10-12 hours per week, but they were really in danger of the time cut off every day, and that is not a fun way to experience Ultraman.

If you’re ready to start your Ultraman journey, sign up today!

If Lionel Sanders did Ultraman, by how much would he win?

Posted on December 15, 2021 by Rob Gray

In a recent video on his YouTube channel, Lionel hinted that he would like to do Ultraman… I thought it would be interesting to dive into that idea in more detail.

I have no doubt that he could win, as he clearly has superior talent on both the bike and run. The big questions in my mind would be:

His 70.3 performances are quite consistent, but as the distance increases, the consistency seems to go down. Would that mean more potential for mistakes in Ultraman?
Nutrition seems to be a challenge yet to be fully solved for him. I think this is less of an issue on day 1, but more important on days 2 and 3.
Given that his livelihood depends on triathlon, and there is no prize money in Ultraman, essentially the long recovery time after Ultraman would mean he can do less racing afterwards, and therefore limit his earning potential. UM Hawaii is well placed in the season (November) to be the last race, but he would have to qualify. In his video he says that Bob Babbitt could probably get him in, but there is no precedent for that. All other high profile athletes have had to qualify (Dede Griesbauer, Chris “Big Sexy” McDonald), and from even higher profile mainstream sports, ex pro baseball player Eric Byrnes, could not get invited to the World Championships on fame alone. They all had to qualify if they wanted to race.
With that in mind, he should definitely wait for me to retire from Ultraman, and when he is nearing retirement from Ironman racing, he can race Ultraman without having to care about its impact other races.

My Infinite Quest

Posted on November 23, 2018 by Rob Gray

I often get asked the question “Why do you race Ultraman and what keeps you motivated to keep coming back?”

Rob Gray about to swim in ocean

For me, it’s simply to achieve my ultimate human potential. I’ve discovered something that I’m good at, and my quest is to be the very best that I can be through detailed analysis, wise planning, smart execution, an extremely strong work ethic, and a positive attitude. All of this is underpinned by surrounding myself with experts who contribute to the goal, and most importantly making sure that the quest I’ve chosen continues to bring me joy.

Joy is an incredibly important part of this, and is an often overlooked aspect of people’s lives. I see many corporate executives who are on a quest to be “successful” without really thinking about what that means to them. Often, the focus is on status, money and possessions, neither of which directly result in joy. In my 20s and early 30s, I was obsessed with climbing the corporate ladder. I got promoted multiple times, and then at one point, when I was in a relatively senior position leading a global product marketing team, I looked at my boss and realized that everyone more senior than him spent an inordinate amount of time focused on their work. That’s what made them successful; regardless of how much they talked about work/life balance, the reality is that they were successful because they spent a huge amount of their energy focused on the job.

I often think about the legacy that I will leave for my kids. The interesting thing that I observed, being around the kids of successful people in Silicon Valley, is that kids don’t care at all about money, or whether their parents are CEOs of some huge tech company. They are more impressed if their mom or dad can do a cool magic trick! Or at least, spend some time with them! When I was growing up, I was fortunate to have parents who worked from home, and could spend a lot of time doing cool things with me. On many days after school, I’d be practicing rugby with my dad or playing music with my mum. After I had kids, I realized that making time for them is one of the most valuable things that I could do. At the same time, when they look at what I’ve achieved in my life, it dawned on my that they couldn’t care less if I was “Senior Vice President of XYZ”, and that they would be more inspired by observing me accomplish feats of human performance.

When I think about the lessons that I want my kids to learn, I want them to choose a path in life that brings them and others joy, I want them to choose a path that aligns with their god-given abilities and traits, and I want them to leave no stone unturned to reach their maximum human potential in that area. Whether is sports, art, music, science or entrepreneurship, I want them to have a strong work ethic, believe in themselves, and do everything in their power to achieve their goals. I want them to know that on their quest there will be really tough times, and really great times, but that neither of those lasts forever. Persevere through hardship, and bask in the happiness, but don’t let either of those affect you too much.

I want my kids to choose things in life that bring them joy. Not to say that they never do things that are boring, difficult and unpleasant, but that the path they choose is one that will ultimately bring them joy. For me, I love riding my bike for hours, swimming in the ocean and running through hot lava fields. I realize that is certainly not for everyone, but it does bring me joy. I feel alive. In the throes of a competition like Ultraman I feel like my mind, body and soul are deeply connected, working in unison to push me towards my goal. This year, I’m better than last year, and the year before that. It’s a long, slow process of continual improvement that honestly has no end. I cannot see a time when I say “I have achieved my full potential”. But this year, I’m one step closer.

Race Report: Ironman Texas 2018

Posted on July 24, 2018 by Rob Gray

To join the Ironman Texas Training Group, click here

I was looking forward to an interesting experiment this year, because weather conditions were similar to 2017, except for a hotter run. 2017 had wind on the bike for some people but I missed that (wind only picked up once I was done on the bike). But my training was vastly different in 2018 vs 2017, so the goal was to have some quantitative data showing how much difference it would make going “all in” vs “minimal”.

In 2017 I had a minimal approach to training: no swimming until 3 weeks before, and total training averaged about 13-15 hours per week in final build.

In 2018, I averaged 20 hours per week in final build. I swam a lot, was in best swim shape ever, and also in best bike shape ever. Run was pretty decent too, although I was sidelined with an injury for 10 days about 4 weeks out from race day.

Race morning was better logistically in 2018. I stayed at the Westin which is right there within walking distance of T1. In 2017 I had a 10 min drive, which was not really a hassle at all, and a lot cheaper. Breakfast was similar, bagel with almond butter, but this year I also added Sportea, a really amazing tea that I happened to discover purely by accident. Now, it’s a training and racing staple. I’ve reached out to them and they’ve offered a discount code for first time buyers to try it out. You can find out more on my gear page.

After eating and drinking, I walked over to T1 to finalize my bike setup and nutrition. Tires (Conti Supersonics) pumped to 95PSI, nutrition was iced Sportea in the XLAB Torpedo between the bars, my maltodextrin/fructose/gingerbeer blend in an aero bottle on the downtube, and gummy worms in the bento box.

mmm gummies in my lunch box

It’s a long walk over to the swim start, and similar to 2017 I arrived with less time than I would have liked. I got close to the front of the self-seeded rolling start, maybe 6 rows back. This was a wetsuit swim (vs non-wetsuit in 2017), which makes the comparison a bit difficult, although my wetsuit and non-wetsuit times are very close (within a minute).

There was a bit of commotion at the start, but I quickly settled in and swam alone the whole way. With about 500m to go, I saw one of my coached athletes, George, about 2m away from me. Being the terrible coach that I am, I sprinted him for the line finishing about 8 seconds ahead. I can’t let those athletes get complacent!

Swim comparison – 1:05 in 2017 (non wetsuit), 57 min in 2018 (wetsuit), but as I said my wetsuit times are traditionally not much faster than my non-wetsuit times. So conclusion #1 – swim training does actually pay off!

I got on the bike and felt great. I didn’t see my swim time at the exit, but I saw that the time of day was exactly 1 hour after the gun went off, so I knew that I’d had a decent swim to be out and through T1 in 60 mins. My power was great – I was riding about 280w and it felt pretty easy. I slowly made my way through the field – at that point the peletons had not yet formed – so it was plain sailing for at least the first 30 mins.

I don’t know where I got this image – if you are the photographer please let me know and I can give you credit!

Just before the toll road, I came up to a Latin-American group. I say Latin-American because the group was made up entirely of riders from Colombia, Argentina and Brazil (they had names and flags on their kit). There were about 15 of them in a very tight paceline. I put in a big surge to get past all 15 of them in one go, but they managed to stick to my wheel for a few minutes. Finally, I implemented a few 600w microbursts that Matt Bottrill has me doing in training, and I managed to drop them. After that, there was just a small group ahead that seemed to be riding legally. I rode up to them and went onto the front so that I could ride my pace. It was now about an hour into the race, and I was super happy with my average power, which was sitting at 265w (a bit higher than planned due to the dropping of the Colombians). About 3 minutes into my turn on the front and I heard the dreaded thump of a flat tire. I’ve been prone to “ghost flats” (where you imagine a flat tire but it’s fine), so at first I thought (hoped) I was imagining it, but I looked down and it was as flat as a pancake… dammit. I pulled over and tried to just inflate the tire again (since I had sealant in the tubes already). However that didn’t work at all, so I ended up changing the whole thing. It took a lot longer than I would have liked, but I wanted to be extra careful since I only had one CO2 cartridge left.

Before the flat, I was really close to the front of the field, and ahead of Sam Gyde and Dan Stubleski, who I hoped would catch up to me and then we could ride together. However they both passed me while I was fixing the flat on the side of the road. A few peletons passed me too, and I knew then that it would be a hard task to get back and pass them.

With the flat tire now fixed, I got back on the bike and eased back into the race. After a few minutes I found my first group of maybe 20 riders. They could have actually ridden legally and helped each other a lot if they just hadn’t been riding like idiots. Basically, they would all ride past me and then sit up, forcing me to slow down. Then they would accelerate again as I tried to pass them. We concertina’d like this for about 15 minutes, until I got tired of riding like that and just put in some big efforts to get past them all. I rode away from them, and didn’t see them again for the rest of the day. I was pretty annoyed at this point, not so much because of the drafting, but because my 2018 vs 2017 experiment was getting off track with all these spiky efforts I was putting in. In retrospect, I probably could’ve just sat 12 meters off the back of one of these groups and ridden it in at about 180w (that’s literally what my power was sitting behind them, vs 265-280 being in the front, with surges to 360w to get past).

Check out the peleton!

For the final 10 miles I was completely alone, with the exception of passing Caroline Gregory quite close to T2.

Bike comparison – 4:30 in 2017 on 240w NP, 4:32 in 2018 on 240w NP. However I got a flat tire that sidelined me for 10 mins which messes it up a bit. Before the flat, I was on track for around 4:16… I was at 265w NP in the beginning, and my initial splits were a bit faster than Sam Gyde who ended up riding 4:18 this year. Once I got back on after the flat, I was of course surrounded by all the peletons which made it hard to put out even power. I was easing off to stay legal, and then hammering past the pace lines to get back onto my own pace again. But take the flat out and I would have come in on 4:22. I am on a smaller Dimond this year with a much more optimized position, which I think played a role too.

Run plan was to hit 7:15 pace (in training I was hitting 6:50s pretty easily) and slide in under 3:10. I was bang on 7:15 for the first 10 miles and then I just slowed to 7:45 pace for the next 10, I was not really able to do much about it. I believe the cause of my run fatigue was the spiky nature of the bike ride. It literally went from feeling super easy 7:10 pace at mile 9, to super hard 7:40 at mile 10.

As I was getting close to the end of the run, I saw that if I pushed it a bit I would go under 9 hours. I had to dig really deep, but I timed it perfectly coming in at 8:59:24 – 36 seconds to spare!

Run comparison – even with the fatigue on the run, I was 8 mins faster than 2017.

Conclusion: high training volume definitely helps, but in the end I was only 13 mins faster in 2018 vs 2017. Perhaps you could add another 10 mins because of the flat. I think 23 mins is definitely worth the extra work, 13 mins might be depending on what your goals are. The faster your overall time, the more difference 13 mins will make. Personally, for me it’s worth it. If you consider what I thought I was capable of on the run, there is even more time on the table. But in that particular example, I prefer to use reality vs what I thought I could have done. I’m fortunate enough to have set up my life in such a way that I’m able to train a lot without it affecting family life etc. but if you’re someone that is sacrificing a lot personally, just to get in 20+ hours per week, you could probably still do pretty well on much lower volume and with a focus on quality.

New Ironman Boulder Bike Course 2018

Posted on March 11, 2018 by Rob Gray

Boulder 2018 has a new bike course. I think it will still be relatively fast, even though you have a few short, sharp climbs. Compared to previous years, there is less time spent on 36, and in 2018 you will descend Nelson road (FAST) instead of climbing it.

Here is the strava route and here is the GPX file. I made the turnaround on Hygiene road at a place which will make the course 112 miles, so let’s hope the organizers do the same! Also, here is the course in Best Bike Split, which as the name suggests, will allow you to predict your bike split.

Here is my summary of the new course:

start with out and back on diagonal – this will be flat and fast
west on Neva rd – slight uphill but still fast. Short kicker of a hill at the end
36 to Nelson – rolling
Nelson eastbound – FAST – not technical but bring some extra balls since you may have a tailwind too.
St Vrain – gradual uphill with a kicker at the end
Hygiene eastbound – fast – road surface a little rough but not too bad
Hygiene westbound – gradual climb with a short kicker
36 Hygiene rd to Lyons – quite fast and potential cross wind
66 east – flat and fast – potential small debris from trucks
75th, 73rd back to diagonal – fast and rolling

There are not really any technical sections – the time for good bike handling and confidence is on the Nelson and Hygiene eastbound sections, but they are not technical at all.

Finally, enjoy the beautiful scenery!

Vegan phase – extended into mediterranean phase

Posted on February 22, 2018 by Rob Gray

After burger phase, I adopted for pretty much the complete opposite – Vegan Phase. This project has changed from last year, where I only ate “bad” foods, to now focus on different popular diets and whether there is any material difference in how they affect my training, general well being, and weight loss (if any).

It also helps me to be more empathetic with athletes that I coach who are following a particular diet. That was a big reason for choosing vegan, since I’ve never really excluded meat, eggs and dairy from my diet before, and I was interested in how it would affect me. I was still sticking to the calorie counting of 2000 calories per day, just to provide some consistency across the various diets.

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Over the 2 weeks of vegan, sticking to the same calories as the burger phase I did not lose any weight, and this is what I noticed:

training was fine, no problems at all
recovery was good too
I never felt hungry, which is also probably why I did not lose weight
I was surprised at how much carbohydrate I consumed daily
on some days, the sheer bulk of food actually made 2000 calories quite hard to eat (unless I included nuts, then the calories would add up FAST)
I found it very difficult to eat enough protein without supplementation

Ok so let’s focus on the last 2 points (calories and protein). Most people will be surprised when they see I did not lose any weight during the vegan phase. Most people report weight loss within the first 10 days of eating vegan. I believe the biggest reason for this is that they are not counting calories. If I had not been counting calories, I’d have been able to get away with about 1500 calories per day without feeling hungry. I’ve come to the conclusion that hunger is one of the best indicators of weight loss. If you’re not hungry, you’re probably not losing weight. If you want to lose weight, you should become comfortable with the idea of being hungry. The only times I’ve been somewhat satisfied and still lost weight was when eating a high protein diet.

Talking of protein, I did find it really difficult to get in my goal of 0.7g per pound of body weight. I base the 0.7g on various research studies I’ve read over the years. It’s a hotly debated subject, and I’m not saying I have the answer, but it’s less than bodybuilders suggest, and it’s more than the “anti-protein people” whoever they are, suggest. From practical experience, that seems to be the right number for me if I want to maintain muscle mass during periods of high activity.

I ate a lot of lentils, quinoa, and other plant-based sources of protein, but I’d struggle to get in over 80g protein per day. Sure I could buy supplements to get it easily, but I wanted to avoid supplements during this phase. Even at that level of 80g per day, I felt a lot of discomfort in the gut when eating that high a volume of lentils and quinoa. My recommendation for vegans would be to either supplement, or to become ok with eating eggs. Most vegans are vegans due to ethical reasons, but in my view there are good options for humanely raised chickens. Personally I am ok with eating eggs, so no problem there. But I am also ok with eating meat, which is why the next phase I basically took my vegan diet and added dairy, eggs and fish back into it, thereby pretty much adopting the Mediterranean diet.

In my view, the med diet is the best one for me as an athlete. It’s largely based around vegetables, I feel very good all of the time, I recover well, and it’s easy for me to get enough protein without supplementation (although I have no issues with protein supplements and regularly take them for convenience reasons). Plus it is expected that one drinks red wine every night (in my interpretation anyway). Also, in my view there is no reason to avoid grains (such as in the paleo diet) or gluten (unless you have celiac disease). Since I am free from these afflictions, it works really well for me. Having said that, if you wish to be vegan I think it works really well, as long as you also supplement. If you want a great source of protein, take a look at these good supplements from Arbonne.

So overall this has been an interesting phase of the experiment. I’ve made some great tasting dishes and felt very good health wise. It’s not quite as fun as eating burgers or ice cream, but it is more enjoyable in the sense that I did enjoy eating good wholesome food for all my meals.

Burger Phase – 14 Days – Zero Weight Loss

Posted on January 30, 2018 by Rob Gray

I’m going to blame the lack of accurate calorie information for this one. Last year I lost 1kg in 10 days, but I had more food from accurate sources:

home made burgers are very accurate because you can measure everything precisely.
Chains like McDonald’s or Burger King have reasonably accurate calories, but who wants to eat there when you have much better options around!
This year I had no chain burgers other than Red Robin, and I never had any homemade burgers.

Despite the lack of success, I did have a great time trying some new burger places.

Mad Love from Red Robin

Biggest surprise was Red Robin’s Mad Love burger, which despite being a chain restaurant was actually a phenomenal burger.
Mountain Sun’s Junk Burger was fantastic. I’ve lived in Boulder for almost 3 years and (disgrace!) have never been to Mountain Sun. It was superb.
I had several burgers from Ted’s Montana Grill. The Avalon is really good!
Larkburger is a local chain, and I love their fresh ingredients and clean-looking food. You can tell it’s prepared from scratch (and the 20 minute wait time backs that up!)
Roadhouse Boulder Depot was great – I can’t remember the name of the burger but it was very good.
Fate Brewing Trifecta burger has an amazing reputation, but did not deliver this time around. It wasn’t juicy at all, and the flavors just didn’t do it for me.
Wendy’s was another great fast food option. The Dave’s Single was good, but the Baconator was not good at all.

Here’s the video.

For the next phase, I’ve decided to go super healthy with a strict vegan diet. And no junk vegan stuff, just whole foods with nothing processed other than some Ezekiel bread, and rolled oats if you consider that processed. Protein is going to be a challenge, but I’m stocked up on lentils, beans, peas and quinoa so hopefully I can get enough in. I don’t plan on supplemental protein unless absolutely necessary.

Thoughts on motivation

Posted on January 27, 2018 by Rob Gray

Someone recently asked me how I stay motivated throughout the year. Pondering my answer, I realized that I very seldom feel demotivated, which got me digging deep into my psyche to figure out why this is the case. Also, speaking to many of my friends who are professional athletes, it seems like many of them struggle a fair amount with staying motivated throughout the season. So why is it that I do not feel demotivated much, and is it something that can be learned or is it just an intrinsic part of my psychological make up?

The answer was not immediately apparent to me, but upon some reflection I realized that there are several aspects to how I stay motivated, or looking at things another way, how do I not get demotivated?

I don’t always expect to feel motivated. For example, once my most important race of the year (Ultraman World Champs) is done, I just enjoy Christmas and the New Year without even thinking much about any structured training. In fact, the only training I do is just whatever I feel like doing. I have no expectation to feel motivated, and I don’t need motivation in order to train. I just train if I want to, and if I don’t feel like it, I don’t train! So the thought of motivation never enters my mind. If I did feel compelled to train, that is when I might notice lack of motivation. But since there is no structure, there is actually no need to feel motivated.
I have a big goal. My single goal of the entire year is to win the Ultraman World Championship. That is a big goal, that seems to motivate me when it really matters. When those days surface when I don’t even feel like getting out of bed, I just get up and do *something*. Once I start my workout, usually I feel much better about 30 minutes into it. At the back of my mind, I know if I can just execute day after day, I will have the edge on my rivals. Or at least they will have to also have extreme commitment in order to be consistent in their training and match me on race day. You can also have short term big goals, such as riding to the next state, or riding farther than you ever have before. I often throw in goals like that during the year as I think them up. For example, this year (in summer) I’m going to do a ride from Boulder all the way to Beaver Creek and then back the next day; a ride of 150+ miles each way with 25000 ft of elevation gain over the 2 days.
I’m also flexible. The flip side of my previous point, is that if I still feel terrible 30 minutes into my workout, I’m going to just stop and take an easy day. There is no point drilling myself into the ground when I should be resting. So basically I listen to my body, but the 30 minute warmup is like the truth serum that helps my body be honest with me! Too many times I’ve felt terrible waking up and after 30 minutes of exercise I feel fantastic, even to the point of having some of my best workouts.
I have rivals. Going into the 2018 Ultraman World Champs, there are some fantastic athletes turning up. Inaki De La Parra who beat me in 2016, Petr Vabrousek who has completed 190+ Ironman races, David Hainish who is an absolute beast on the bike. Maybe even Chrissie Wellington, since she’s heavily into the Ultra scene right now. All these guys (or girls) that could be turning up motivates me every single day. I was doing a 3 hour ride indoors today, with 4 x 20 min intervals around half ironman pace. That was just such a grind and I wanted to stop, but the thought of my rivals kept me in the saddle, suffering to the very end.
Be accountable to someone. The other thing that got me through that workout today was the fact that my bike coach would be looking at my workout. It would be easier to just get the workout done than to make up an excuse or try and explain myself. Other ways of being accountable could be to be part of a training group (because people are expecting you to turn up), or even just arranging to meet with a training partner drives some level of accountability.

Those are just a few that I can think of; there are no doubt many more ways to stay motivated. The most important thing is that motivation comes from within yourself. If motivation comes from an external source, such as a motivational speaker, or watching an exciting event on TV, it will not last long. The trick is to use those external motivational sources to spark the flame, but then look within yourself to keep on putting wood on that fire!

2018 Race Weight Project – Ice Cream Phase (2 weeks) done – 9 lbs lost!

Posted on January 15, 2018 by Rob Gray

The ice cream phase of “race weight 2018” was a success! 9.4 lbs (4kg) in 14 days is much more than I expected… I put it down to very low sodium (and therefore no water retention) and very accurate calories (it’s all packaged, with calorie values on the tub).

Despite the rapid weight loss, it was not easy at all. I was hungry all of the time, so it took a lot of discipline not to eat more. On the plus side, my “cheat meals” were very healthy – I’d have a bowl of fresh tomatoes with spinach some balsamic vinegar and a little olive oil. 150 calories max. I had that about three times during the 14 days (over and above the 2000 calories per day of ice cream). It feels really odd to have a cheat meal that is so healthy, but it’s honestly just as rewarding as when you have a bowl of ice cream during a normal diet where you’re eating healthy food all the time.

Here is a long video that goes through all 14 days. I start with a short summary, so you don’t have to watch the whole thing. But if you want something to watch on an indoor trainer ride, then you have plenty of material there!

Training went surprisingly well – I don’t think I had a single bike or run workout where I struggled. I did suffer on some of the swims, I think because they are such high intensity that if you have any caloric deficit you just fall apart. The same thing happens when eating normally, if I do a hard swim without adequate fuel. So not very different to normal. Training volume is relatively low – 12 hours for week 1 and 14 hours for week 2.

With ice cream done, I’m very excited to move onto burgers, although I suspect the weight loss will be only 2-4 lbs over the 2 week period. However it will most likely be a lot more nutritious and satisfying than the ice cream phase.

Having sampled a lot of ice cream over 2 weeks, I thought I’d list my favorites. Here are my top 5 of the 20+ that I ate.

Haagen Dazs Caramel Cone
Haagen Dazs Peppermint Bark
Ben & Jerry’s Cookies and Cream Cheesecake
Private Selection Denali Extreme Moose Tracks
Tillamook Marionberry Pie

Onward and upward onto the much-loved burger phase!