Book Review: Racing Weight - How
to Get Lean for Peak Performance
While I’ve never made a resolution
I couldn’t break, the beginning of a new year is always time a good-time for
goal-setting and self-reflection. And as this year marks the start of a new
decade, it seems like the perfect opportunity to go back over the past ten years
and see how things have or have not changed.
Ten years ago, I was still in college, didn’t own a cell
phone and was downloading music off Napster; I was also ten pounds heavier than
my current (as of a few days ago) off-season weight of 135 lbs. But this no
Lifetime movie about beating the freshman fifteen - during college I was a rower
and the heavier weight was a slight advantage for that sport. Now as a cyclist,
I’ve shed those extra pounds and can barely open a jar of spaghetti sauce with
my flimsy arms.
But both as a cyclist and during my rowing years, I’ve been
fairly happy with my body, both in its appearance and performance. How could the
hefty rower and the spindly cyclist both be satisfied? The mysteries of weight
and its relationship to endurance athlete’s performance are unlocked in Matt
Fitzgerald’s Racing Weight: How to get lean for peak performance.
Warning: this is not a
diet book. This is a book about your diet.
A lot of this is what you already know - basically weight affects your
performance like a seesaw. Weight goes down and performance goes up. And if
you’ve had your hand in the Christmas cookie jar for the past month, you might
find yourself moving a bit more slowly or those of us who peeled off the
spandex, stepped into a pair of comfortable pants and spent too much time around
the cheese plate at holiday parties, there’s a bit of respite.
According to Fitzgerald, a slight (slight only! – so
do not reach for that cookie jar again) off-season weight gain is nothing
to fret over, as our bodies could use a break from the stress and tension of
maintaining our ideal performance weight. Breathing a collective sigh of relief,
let’s move on to the rest of Fitzgerald’s book.
Fitzgerald’s motivation for the book came after working and
speaking with endurance athletes (cyclists, triathletes, runners, swimmers,
Nordic skiers and rowers) and hearing how frustrated they were with their weight
and how it hindered performance.
If you’re ever wondered how each sport affects the body,
Fitzgerald gives a short summary on average weight and BMI % for elite males and
females. But more important than who this book is written for, is who it isn’t
written for - those who exercise to solely to achieve aesthetic goals. If you’re
idea of a workout is forty minutes on the elliptical trainer to fit into an
outfit for a Friday night date, this is not your book.
A lot of the book is detailed tools on determining your
ideal nutrition needs and to help achieve your performance weight via managing
your nutrition. Both the make-up of meals and their timing during your day are
essential to a healthy diet. And what makes up a healthy diet? Fitzgerald
offers some different advice from other books on the market.
As Snackwells fought against fat and Dr. Atkins battled
against carbs, Fitzgerald has had it with athletes relying too heavily on…drum
roll… protein. Protein? Yes, protein. Don’t go out of your way to eat too much
of it and have it make up only between 10-25% of your diet. The protein fad, as
Fitzgerald terms it, bled from the “fanaticism for protein in team sports and
recreational bodybuilding” and has influenced endurance sports “to a degree.”
The average American gets enough of it in their diet to not seek out
supplemental sources of protein.
Other nifty sections include food diaries from some top
runners, rowers, cyclists, and triathletes that offer a quick glimpse of what a
training diet should look like. And to follow up, there is a recipe section in
the back. If you’re a bad cook, however, there are no tips to save you from
burning the noodles or scorching the scones. That’s another section of the
bookstore.
There are a few things missing from the books, as there
will be from anything written for a general audience. Vegetarians, vegans and
other dietary issues are noticeably absent, though ultra-runner Scott Jurak,
mountain biker Jeremiah Bishop and cyclist Phil Zajicek’s food diaries offer
insight into eating and training with high blood pressure, being a vegan, and
Crohn’s disease. If you’re got detailed questions, see a nutritionist. But if
you’re a DIYer who’s got a basic handle on both training and nutrition, this
book offers the means to improve both your diet and athlete performance.
Publisher: VeloPress
Format: Paperback, 288pp
ISBN-13: 9781934030516
ISBN: 1934030511
Matt Fitzgerald is a prolific journalist and an authority
on sports nutrition and endurance sports. Since 2005, he has authored 10 books,
including Brain Training for Runners and The Runner’s Body. He lives in San
Diego, CA.
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