145: The Pitfalls of High Volume Endurance Training

In this episode, I break down the real costs when volume is mismanaged. I share what I’ve learned firsthand while building toward Ironman Arizona—how I fuel hard work without under-eating, protect muscle, keep hormones in check, and use recovery and sleep as performance tools. This isn’t fear—it’s a framework. If you’re pushing big miles, you need a plan that matches your ambition: smart nutrition, balanced programming, intentional recovery. CHAPTERS: 00:00 Introduction 03:47 Balancing Strength and Endurance Training 09:58 Energy Deficiency in Endurance Training 24:57 Nutrient Deficiency and Endurance Essentials 36:38 Muscle Wasting and Reduced Strength 45:04 Disordered Eating in Endurance Athletes 52:59 Hormone Disruption from High Volume Training 58:49 High Risk of Injury in Endurance Training 01:03:49 Conclusion and Final Thoughts ORDER MY BOOK HERE: https://www.amazon.com/Go-One-More-Intentional-Life-Changing/dp/1637746210 FOLLOW: Become a BPN member FOR FREE - Unlock 20% off FOR LIFE https://bpn.team/member IG: instagram.com/nickbarefitness/ YT: youtube.com/@nickbarefitness

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:06Nick Bare?

  Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of the podcast. Today's episode is titled, working title, "The pitfalls of high-volume endurance training." The pitfalls. Now typically, we're talking about the benefits, the performance amplification, the physical and mental, emotional results that you get from endurance training.

• 0:41Nick Bare?

  But this episode is a little different. And I have some, uh, some things that I want to share before we get into some of these pitfalls.

• 0:50Nick Bare?

  Some of the pitfalls I'm going to share. One, energy deficiency. Two, nutrient deficiency. Three, muscle wasting and reduced strength. Four, disordered eating. Five, hormone disruption. And six, high risk of injury. Those are some of the things that you can experience with high-volume endurance training.

• 1:17Nick Bare?

  And I want to preface this episode to say, the intent of this episode is not to steer you away from endurance training, but to provide you information on what you may experience with endurance training, especially when it comes to high volume.

• 1:37Nick Bare?

  Now, if you're just going out and running a few miles a couple of times a week, or you're hopping on a bike here and there, you're jogging, you are incorporating cardiovascular conditioning for the health benefit, you probably are not going to be experiencing some of these pitfalls that I'll be describing in detail. This is more applicable for an individual or an athlete who is training in, in terms of high volume.

• 2:11Nick Bare?

  If you were training for a marathon, if you were training for a triathlon, an Ironman, and, and an ultra marathon, if you're going from race to race to race, or you just love endurance training and you're pushing it to the physical limits.

• 2:28Nick Bare?

  You may experience some of these pitfalls. All of these things that I'm going to share today are things that I have personally experienced, some of which I am experiencing right now. As many of you know, I am in the depths of an Ironman triathlon prep. As of today, of recording this episode, we are exactly 30 days out from Ironman Arizona, which is November 16th, 2025. So for the last 14 weeks, I've been training a lot. Anywhere from, you know, my prep started training roughly 16, 16 hours a week.

• 3:12Nick Bare?

  And right now I'm training anywhere from 20 to 22 hours a week. It's a lot of time on the bike. It's a lot of time spent on, uh, on my feet, running, and there's a lot of time swimming. But it's just part of training for an Ironman triathlon. Over the last seven years of my life, I have prioritized endurance training. And I've learned a tremendous amount along the way. But I want to share this.

• 3:50Nick Bare?

  I believe, I still believe strongly that a training program that incorporates both strength and endurance is superior. Superior for the short term and for the long term. For performance benefits and health benefits. A training program that balances strength and endurance is far superior than one that is just strictly strength and one that is strictly endurance.

• 4:31Nick Bare?

  Now, many, but not all of these pitfalls can be minimized by prioritizing nutrition and slowly increasing training volume. But these pitfalls that I'm going to describe, like I said, in detail, they will be exposed, they will become more obvious and evident as training volume and intensity increases. Now, the last thing, or one of the last things I want to share before we dive into some of these things, like I've mentioned, I believe the most optimal training program is one that balances strength and endurance.

• 5:11Nick Bare?

  But with that being said, there is a time and place when you are pursuing a very specific goal that requires specification to the training. I've been saying this for years now. If I am training for an Ironman triathlon, I know that I have to refine and maximize my performance in the swim, in the bike, and the run. And that getting bigger and stronger in the gym might not benefit my swim, my bike, or my run. So the training that I do has to be specific to the goal that I'm trying to accomplish.

• 5:56Nick Bare?

  If my goal is to deadlift 700 pounds, well, I'm going to be spending more time in the gym deadlifting, and I'm going to be spending less time swimming, biking, and running. This is applicable to all things in life. Specific goals require specification when it comes to the work required to prepare for that goal or that event.

• 6:24Nick Bare?

  So when it comes to an Ironman triathlon, or an ultra marathon, or a marathon, an endurance focused event where you want to

• 6:35Nick Bare?

  perform at your best, you want to reach your full potential. That requires some specific training. And through that specific training, some of these pitfalls may become exposed. Again, I share this not to steer you away from endurance training, but to inform you so that you can incorporate some solutions along the way to avoid some of these pitfalls.

• 7:03Nick Bare?

  So broad strokes,

• 7:07Nick Bare?

  to have you thinking as I discuss some of these things.

• 7:12Nick Bare?

  How do you solve some of these potential problems? One, proper nutrition.

• 7:20Nick Bare?

  Proper nutrition in terms of quality and quantity of food that you're consuming and fuel. Now I talk about nutrition and fuel, what you're consuming throughout the day, day to day, and then fuel what you're consuming around these training sessions. And that is specific to macronutrients, your protein, your fats, your carbohydrates, which equate to the sum of your calories, and then micronutrients, vitamins and minerals. So proper nutrition is one way to avoid some of these pitfalls.

• 7:59Nick Bare?

  Another way, take your easy days, truly easy, so that you can go hard on your hard days. One of the ways you do this is by monitoring heart rate and perceived effort.

• 8:13Nick Bare?

  Another way is to prioritize sleep. Also to include rest and deloads.

• 8:22Nick Bare?

  Potentially having seasons of training, being in in-season versus off-season. There's a lot of people that jump from race to race to race. I've seen some people's yearly race or competition schedule and it stresses me out because it's within 12 months, they're doing 15 races. And that puts you at risk for a lot of problems.

• 8:49Nick Bare?

  Not just energy and nutrient deficiency, but overtraining, burnout and injury along the way. So I'm a big fan of having seasons of training. Or in my case, I, I like to select one race or competition or physical goal or ambition that I pursue a year. At this point in my life, I, I, I put one goal on the calendar and go after that within the, the calendar year. And I believe that's a, a healthy approach.

• 9:24Nick Bare?

  And then the last, but certainly not least

• 9:30Nick Bare?

  thing that you can incorporate to avoid some of these consequences is strength training. Cross training. The beauty of strength and cross training is that it can prevent and alleviate a lot of these consequences from too much endurance training.

• 9:49Nick Bare?

  So those are, those are all the things that I wanted to share prior to jumping in to the first one. And that is energy deficiency.

• 10:04Nick Bare?

  One of the things that I have experienced in many of these endurance preps that I've done

• 10:14Nick Bare?

  is energy deficiency. Feeling fatigued, feeling exhausted, brain fog, lack of mental clarity, lack of vitality.

• 10:28Nick Bare?

  I would argue that almost more so in an Ironman prep than any other prep that I've done, because the volume is so high, I experience energy deficiency more than say a marathon, or even an ultra marathon prep. I think my high rocks prep honestly was the best that I felt of all the preps I've done, because it was a really strong balance of endurance, strength, and cross training, which that in itself could be another discussion in podcast episode. But energy deficiency, it is a pitfall for high volume endurance training.

• 11:10Nick Bare?

  And I know so many endurance athletes who've experienced this, like I said, myself included.

• 11:19Nick Bare?

  And I've experienced it in these large training blocks, and I'm experiencing it right now in the depths of this Ironman prep. Like I've said, it is just tired throughout the day, because you're dedicating, committing a lot of your energy to training, to these big workouts. Yesterday is a good example. Yesterday was a three hour and 40 minute training day. It was a nine mile run. It was some core strength work after that, then 90 minute BO2 max bike workout, which is a big effort, and then a one hour swim. And then within that

• 12:04Nick Bare?

  one hour, I swam 3,000 yards. It's a big day of training. And a lot of my energy is directed to the workouts itself, which in honesty can sometimes feel selfish. But it's for a specific goal for a specified duration of time.

• 12:29Nick Bare?

  Endurance training doesn't just tax your muscles and your heart. Which I think a lot of people think like when, when you go and put yourself through a workout. Yes, it's, it's a big tax on your cardiovascular system. It's a big task on the muscular system. They both need time to to recover and rest. But it also is a huge stressor. It heavily stresses your central nervous system. And it does this in a few ways. Now, if you've ever finished a big workout and the next day you wake up, or maybe even the next two days you wake up and you feel just

• 13:14Nick Bare?

  mentally and physically drained. More so than just your muscles hurt. But like whole body depletion. That is most likely the result of an overtaxed central nervous system.

• 13:30Nick Bare?

  Long endurance training sessions can affect your brain by reducing motor drive to muscles. Because they want to protect your body from complete energy depletion. And brain chemicals like dopamine and norepinephrine become depleted. Causing and resulting in mental brain fog.

• 13:55Nick Bare?

  One of the biggest issues that affects the central nervous system is that cortisol increases. And the body's stress response becomes blunted. Resulting in constant fatigue.

• 14:10Nick Bare?

  This past weekend is a great example of this. From doing this for they have said seven, eight years now. This type of training.

• 14:24Nick Bare?

  I can pretty well and accurately to predict the way my body is going to respond to the behaviors of training. This past weekend, we had an Ironman training camp in Fredericksburg, Texas. It's a big training camp. So we arrived Sunday. As soon as we arrived, it was a 16 mile run. And it was about 2:00 PM when we got started. And it was hot. It was probably 85, 90 degrees Fahrenheit. And for middle of October, it's still warm. It's toasty. Exposed in a beating down sun. So that 16 mile run was taxing in itself.

• 15:09Nick Bare?

  And then right after that, went into a one hour, 45 minute bike ride. Climbing a lot of hills. Next morning, woke up, did a 100 mile bike in the hill country of the Fredericksburg, Texas area. It was a lot of climbing. Climbed roughly 54, 5500 feet of elevation. I felt like I was climbing the entire ride, which was very taxing over the course of 100 miles. And then right after that, off the bike into a five mile run. And then next morning, a 10 mile run and got in the truck and drove home.

• 15:54Nick Bare?

  That last workout was Tuesday morning, that 10 mile run. Wednesday, I was tired. I was sore, but, but not overly taxed and fatigued. Thursday, woke up and central nervous system was just wrecked. The muscular system was, was wrecked as well. I mean, my, my legs, my body was tired and sore. But it was a, it was a deeper kind of more than tired exhaustion. I could tell that cortisol was elevated.

• 16:39Nick Bare?

  My sleep was disrupted, which we'll talk about here in a little bit. My weight was increased. I could, I could tell I had a lot of inflammation and my, my body was holding on to fluids. I was sitting five to six pounds heavier than I normally was. So that big effort did a number, not just on my, my muscles and my heart, but my central nervous system. My central nervous system was taxed. Cortisol was extremely elevated.

• 17:14Nick Bare?

  That is one of the results of these high volume endurance training efforts and blocks and programs and races and competitions. You might be experiencing chronic fatigue and brain fog and exhaustion. And it is because of a taxed central nervous system and elevated cortisol. Another reason for energy deficiency is just not consuming enough food and fuel. And this is one of the reasons that critical fueling and nutrition is so important before, during and after workouts.

• 17:59Nick Bare?

  It is a fuel, but also replenish. During big effort endurance training sessions, you're tapping into your glycogen stores. Glycogen is the way the body stores carbohydrates in the muscle and in the liver. So if I consume a big carbohydrate meal today.

• 18:24Nick Bare?

  Or over the course of the day, I'm consuming a lot of carbohydrates. It's going to take roughly 24 hours to consume that meal, those carbohydrates, digest it, assimilate it, meaning breaking it down and then storing it. And the way that carbohydrates are stored is as glycogen in the muscles and in the liver. And your body can tap into glycogen stores to use for energy. And when you go into big workouts, especially endurance workouts, you're going to be tapping into your glycogen stores. Well, if you don't fuel your body, if you don't replenish your glycogen,

• 19:10Nick Bare?

  you are going to experience fatigue due to energy deficiency.

• 19:17Nick Bare?

  It is so important to stay on top of nutrition in these high volume endurance preps. One of the things that myself and Dr. Kyle Gillette talked about in a podcast a few weeks ago was REDS, which is relative energy deficiency in sport. And this is when an athlete or an individual

• 19:41Nick Bare?

  is burning more calories than they are consuming consistently for a long period of time. So what happens when you're burning more calories than you're consuming in the short term?

• 19:55Nick Bare?

  You might lose a few pounds. You might be a little tired, your performance might not be as strong. But when you do this consistently over a long period of time, which you might not even be aware of, a lot of people who are experiencing REDS, don't even know they're under consuming. They're just not eating enough because they're not aware of it. But when you do this for a long period of time, it starts affecting more than just your energy and your performance. It affects or can affect your sleep. It can affect your mental processing. It can affect your endocrine and hormone production and maintenance.

• 20:40Nick Bare?

  Can affect relationships. It can affect your entire life. Uh, reds is a big deal and a big issue with endurance athletes. And it's all because of an energy deficiency. You are deficient in energy because you aren't consuming enough nutrition. Or you're just taxing your body too hard. Uh, and cortisol is consistently high. One of the reasons for energy deficiency as well, uh, could be from sleep disruptions. Often during large training blocks, and I have definitely experienced this. When I'm really deep into a prep. My sleep often becomes pretty disrupted.

• 21:25Nick Bare?

  Well, I can fall asleep very quickly, but throughout the night I'll wake up multiple times. Uh, and this is because of a consistently increased level of cortisol. Cortisol being a stress hormone. And when cortisol is raised and then it is elevated and it consistently stays high. That will wake you up throughout the night. It doesn't allow your body to actually rest. So it's like this, this one-two punch of you're training at very high volumes and intensities. And you're overtraining, you're under recovering. You might not be consuming enough calories to keep up with the energy demands.

• 22:10Nick Bare?

  So cortisol is off the charts. It's, it's raised and it's elevated. And then on top of that, because cortisol is high, you can't sleep. So now you have sleep disruptions that are just digging this deeper hole of an energy deficiency. You keep digging that hole until you either rest or recover properly. Or in some cases, you start consuming more nutrition and calories and you dig yourself out of reds. But cortisol is something that should and needs to be managed in a, uh, in an endurance prep and build.

• 22:49Nick Bare?

  And something I think a lot of people don't take into consideration is other life stressors. So if you're in a high-volume training block,

• 22:58Nick Bare?

  that in itself is a stressor on the body. And if you're in a period of

• 23:06Nick Bare?

  time in your life where you have a lot of other stressors, that could be family-related, could be health-related, it could be work-related, it could be anything. All of these stressors compound on top of each other. Your body has a really hard time distinguishing between one stressor and the other. It just feels the effects of stress. So if you're just stacking stress on top of stress on top of stress, that compounds and your body cannot recover properly and it digs you into a deeper energy deficiency.

• 23:45Nick Bare?

  So I believe that

• 23:48Nick Bare?

  energy deficiency, chronic fatigue, mental brain fog, being exhausted, tired, lack of motivation, drive, kind of all of these things

• 24:03Nick Bare?

  that endurance athletes sometimes experience in a high-training, high-volume block can be managed by

• 24:14Nick Bare?

  deloads in training, rest and recovery, managing cortisol, managing stress, staying on top of nutrition and chlor consumption throughout the day, but also around training itself before, during and after, and then prioritizing sleep. But if you don't prioritize all of those things and you're not aware of those things, it will lead to energy deficiencies where you're just digging this hole deeper and deeper and deeper. And the deeper you dig this hole, the more you tax your central nervous system,

• 24:50Nick Bare?

  the harder and the longer it's going to take to fill that hole back up and get yourself out of that rut. Okay, the next pitfall that endurance athletes may be experiencing,

• 25:04Nick Bare?

  especially like I've said in these high-volume training blocks, that's nutrient deficiency.

• 25:10Nick Bare?

  As endurance athletes, the type of training that we do,

• 25:15Nick Bare?

  it's harder on the body.

• 25:19Nick Bare?

  It excretes more vitamins and minerals because of the way that we train, our energy demands, sweat, we lose a lot of minerals through sweat.

• 25:34Nick Bare?

  And our bodies just require more vitamins, minerals, micronutrients, macronutrients,

• 25:44Nick Bare?

  to keep up with the demands, especially as volume intensity increases.

• 25:54Nick Bare?

  So we created a product, and I'm going to share this product with you right now.

• 26:01Nick Bare?

  That when this episode goes live, which is October 27th, we are launching this new product on October 27th. It is called Endurance Essentials. We created Endurance Essentials for endurance athletes because there are some vitamins and minerals, and I'm holding Endurance Essentials in my hand right now, the bottle. There are some vitamins and minerals that most endurance athletes are deficient in,

• 26:38Nick Bare?

  especially in high-volume training blocks. And if you are deficient in these vitamins and minerals,

• 26:45Nick Bare?

  it can lead to some of these pitfalls that I'm about to share with you and discuss.

• 26:52Nick Bare?

  A lot of these pitfalls that endurance athletes experience from nutrient deficiency is low energy levels, reduced performance, reduced recovery, disrupted sleep.

• 27:10Nick Bare?

  It is compromised immune function.

• 27:18Nick Bare?

  It is putting you in a compromised position of potentially risk of injury due to weaker bones and muscle function. As an endurance athlete, as an athlete as a whole, when you have nutrient deficiencies, you put yourself in a compromised position, not just to underperform and not reach your full potential of performance, but of not feeling your best, of not feeling optimized with vitality and energy and good sleep and recovery and muscle function, all these things.

• 28:01Nick Bare?

  That's why we created Endurance Essentials. A product that fills the gaps of what most endurance athletes are deficient in. One serving is three capsules. I'll go over the formula briefly and dive into why and what. So vitamin D, 5,000 IU's, this is per serving. Iron, 25mg. Magnesium, 300mg. Zinc, 15mg. And vitamin K2, 125 micrograms. So vitamin D. Low vitamin D status increases risk of stress fractures, shin splints, and delayed bone

• 28:46Nick Bare?

  healing. It also supports protein synthesis, muscle contraction, and energy production at the cellular level within the mitochondria. Vitamin D also regulates immune function, which is typically compromised during hard training. I have personally found that when I go into these big training blocks, it's much easier for me to get sick or pick up something that is spreading, especially now that my daughter, Charlie, is going to school and she's bringing back something new every week. Immune function is not just compromised from Charlie bringing all these things back, but

• 29:29Nick Bare?

  because I'm in a big training block, hard training block. Vitamin D also regulates, helps to regulate hormones and recovery support.

• 29:40Nick Bare?

  The thing about vitamin D is athletes who are training use more vitamin D

• 29:47Nick Bare?

  that is accessible within the body for muscle repair and energy metabolism. So it's really important to supplement with vitamin D. You can get it through supplements like Endurance Essentials. Get it from nutrition sources, food and sunlight as well. That's why it's so great to spend time in the sunlight because you can get vitamin D and replenish vitamin D stores from being in the sun. The second thing I was about is iron. Iron is super interesting. So we know that women who train with a focus on endurance

• 30:28Nick Bare?

  are at greater risk for an iron deficiency than men. And a lot of that is due to the menstrual cycle that women go through monthly.

• 30:40Nick Bare?

  When you are deficient in iron, it is called anemia. Iron is lost through excessive sweat and endurance training increases the production and destruction of red blood cells. And if the destruction rate is slightly greater than or outpaces the production, especially during heavy training blocks, well then hemoglobin levels drop. Less hemoglobin means less oxygen delivered to the muscles, which means fatigue and poor performance. There's this very interesting and it's it's kind of minor, but it's still super interesting. When I heard about this for the first time, I was like, there's no way this is true, but it is true.

• 31:26Nick Bare?

  It's called foot strike

• 31:30Nick Bare?

  hemolysis. I believe that's how it's pronounced. Hemolysis, foot strike hemolysis.

• 31:39Nick Bare?

  And what that is and what it means is when you are running, especially running because of the foot strike. I don't get this from other type of low-impact endurance training. Running is definitely the most taxing on the body when it comes to endurance training. Just from like the repeated force of your your foot striking in the ground, especially on hard surfaces. But what this foot-strike hemolysis hemolysis is, it's the repeated pound on hard surfaces from your foot.

• 32:14Nick Bare?

  And that compresses blood in foot capillaries. And it creates enough mechanical force to actually rupture some red blood cells.

• 32:26Nick Bare?

  And when those red blood cells are ruptured, that's when hemoglobin levels drop and it affects iron levels. And that's when you experience fatigue and poor performance. Now, you can replenish iron through your diet and red meat is a great source of iron. So if you're in a big endurance training block, eat more red meat, which will help supply iron.

• 32:55Nick Bare?

  But iron deficiency

• 32:59Nick Bare?

  significantly contributes to low energy, low performance, low drive. It can be a huge problem with endurance athletes, like I said, especially with women.

• 33:16Nick Bare?

  Magnesium, magnesium is excreted through sweat. Stress itself increases magnesium excretion. And athletes use more magnesium for muscle contractions and ATP production. So compared to the average individual, an athlete is just utilizing more magnesium that is within the body because it's requiring more energy, more ATP production.

• 33:47Nick Bare?

  Magnesium also helps manage the nervous system by controlling or helping to control cortisol production. Again, cortisol production is not necessarily bad. But when it's too high for extended periods of time, that's when it becomes bad. We want increased cortisol, not just consistently elevated cortisol.

• 34:11Nick Bare?

  Magnesium is needed for DNA repair, protein synthesis, and muscle rebuilding. And it also regulates muscle contraction and fluid balance. Magnesium being an electrolyte. And without magnesium, your body actually can't efficiently produce or use energy during training. Magnesium is also great for muscle relaxation and can help you sleep better. If you're having a problem just like winding down at night. If you have restless leg, magnesium supplementation can significantly help with that. Zinc, zinc is often overlooked by endurance athletes.

• 34:56Nick Bare?

  It is a cofactor for many enzymes involved in energy production or ATP production at the cellular level. Zinc is essential for protein synthesis, tissue repair, cell growth, and it's crucial for immune cell function. It also supports hormone regulation and it's lost in sweat during these long, intense endurance training sessions. Now, vitamin K2 is super interesting. Vitamin K2 was added to this formula because it works in a complementary way alongside vitamin D.

• 35:39Nick Bare?

  Now, vitamin D can help supply calcium to the bones. To help maintain and build stronger bones, which is great for endurance training. You need strong bones to support the impact and the stress that you're putting your body under. Why vitamin K2 is so important is because it controls the traffic of that calcium. It ensures that it directs it to the bones. Without vitamin K2 alongside of vitamin D supplementation, calcium doesn't always go where it's supposed to. Which is where we want it to, and that is the bones.

• 36:24Nick Bare?

  That is endurance essentials. That's why we included each in every one of those few vitamins and minerals. Because most endurance athletes are deficient in them. Based off of the style of training and the lifestyle that comes alongside of it. Another pitfall. Muscle wasting and reduced strength.

• 36:52Nick Bare?

  Now, right now, in this Ironman training block. I have definitely lost muscle. I have lost weight. And I've definitely lost strength. Specifically, upper body strength. And a lot of that is because I'm not prioritizing strength training right now.

• 37:15Nick Bare?

  You know, I'm training for this Ironman, which like I've said. At this point in the, the block, it's anywhere from 20 to 22 hours a week. And based off the, the demands of my schedule with the business. And my family and life.

• 37:36Nick Bare?

  It's hard to find a few extra hours to do significant weight training. Alongside of that. And also, I have a specific goal, and that is the Ironman triathlon. And significant amounts of weight training. May or may not contribute to that effort. Now, as soon as this race is over, I will be back in the gym throwing weights and iron around. On a regular basis again, and I'll put some weight back on for sure.

• 38:07Nick Bare?

  But being lighter and still being fueled. Has allowed me to recover better. For the style of training that I'm doing and perform better. Faster than when I was sitting a little bit heavier.

• 38:23Nick Bare?

  But endurance training itself. Isn't inherently muscle wasting. But it can be, especially when paired with poor fueling nutrition. Or recovery, or lack of strength training. And that in itself can lead to muscle and strength loss.

• 38:45Nick Bare?

  Now for a second, let's talk about the catabolic state and the anabolic state.

• 38:53Nick Bare?

  A catabolic state within your body, it's a process that breaks down larger molecules into smaller ones. It is energy releasing. When you are catabolic, your body is typically using energy to perform. And when you are catabolic, this is when your body might start breaking down muscle to use as energy. And if you're in a catabolic state for too long, you start breaking down more and more and more muscle. And it outperforms the ability to rebuild and repair.

• 39:33Nick Bare?

  Being catabolic in a catabolic state, that can be muscle wasting or muscle reducing, strength reducing.

• 39:43Nick Bare?

  Being in a catabolic state often occurs during stress, fasting, or intense exercise. It can break down muscle fat or glycogen for energy. And having high levels of cortisol promotes being catabolic. Now here's the thing, just because you go and say run

• 40:09Nick Bare?

  20 miles, let's just use 20 miles for example.

• 40:13Nick Bare?

  When you are running,

• 40:16Nick Bare?

  your body is utilizing energy. It is trying to find and resource energy for that specific

• 40:26Nick Bare?

  mode of effort, that run. In that case, you are probably in a catabolic state. You're definitely not in a rebuild state. You're in a breakdown state. But as soon as that run is over and you rest and you recover and you eat food and you consume protein and you replenish, it goes from being catabolic to anabolic. You start recovering. You start rebuilding.

• 40:52Nick Bare?

  So as long as you recover properly afterwards, you're not going to, in the long term, see any difference from being catabolic for that 20 mile run, for example. But when you're catabolic or in a catabolic state for too long, that's when muscle wasting and breakdown exceeds your body's ability to repair and rebuild. Okay, so that's being in a catabolic state. That's when muscle wasting and reduced strength can occur over a long period of time. When you're in an anabolic state, this is the process that builds larger molecules from smaller one, usually using energy.

• 41:37Nick Bare?

  This supports growth, repair, and storage. And being in an anabolic state, which is when you're in a fed state, catabolic is most likely a fasted state, anabolic is a fed state. It's essential for muscle building, bone formation, and hormone synthesis. This is why nutrition, or one of the reasons nutrition is so important before, during, and after training.

• 42:10Nick Bare?

  Now, what affects muscle and strength status while in a focused endurance training block or build or prep? It is your calorie consumption, making sure you're consuming enough. This can limit your body's

• 42:32Nick Bare?

  muscle wasting potential.

• 42:36Nick Bare?

  Protein intake, prioritizing protein.

• 42:41Nick Bare?

  I've always been a fan of a high protein diet. Carbohydrates are the fuel source. Fats, a fuel source, but also very important for bodily functions.

• 42:56Nick Bare?

  To include many, but especially hormone production and then protein, the building blocks of your body for growth, repair, replenishment.

• 43:11Nick Bare?

  Uh, resistance training and cross training, maintaining that stimulus while you're in endurance training block can limit the effects of muscle wasting or losing strength.

• 43:24Nick Bare?

  Uh, glycogen depletion, like we talked about earlier.

• 43:28Nick Bare?

  This is why it's so important to consume carbohydrates post-workout is to replenish your, your muscle and liver glycogen that was used during training and then rest, recovery, and sleep. If you prioritize those things, you can limit the effects that endurance training has on muscle wasting or reduced strength. Calories, not being in a deficit for too long, protein intake, uh, resistance or strength training. You know, cross training, glycogen replenishment, rest, recovery, and sleep.

• 44:08Nick Bare?

  So we're trying to avoid with endurance training.

• 44:14Nick Bare?

  To put it, put it simply is.

• 44:17Nick Bare?

  The stimulus of endurance training itself is not going to burn muscle away.

• 44:24Nick Bare?

  But it's things that we don't do in combination with, they're going to cause or result in muscle wasting and reduce strength. And this comes down to prioritizing, I said, calories, nutrition, protein, sleep, recovery. Nutrition is so important, is so important.

• 44:47Nick Bare?

  You can keep. A lot of your size on in these big endurance training blocks, but it requires focus, it requires planning, it requires intentionality.

• 45:00Nick Bare?

  Endurance training itself is not muscle or strength wasting. Something that I don't think enough people talk about. When it comes to the pitfalls of endurance training. That, that. Not everyone experiences, but I believe many do is disordered eating.

• 45:21Nick Bare?

  And I believe a lot of it comes from the old mindset that if you are lighter, you will be faster. And there's some truth to that. Now, I'm lighter now than I was 14 weeks ago. And I might be a little faster. I wouldn't say significantly faster, but I definitely feel like my body recovers a lot more efficiently at this weight than when I'm sitting heavier. And it makes the workouts just a little bit easier, if I'm being honest.

• 45:59Nick Bare?

  But there's a difference between being lighter and being under fueled. And I am someone who has grown up over the last, wow, 21 years of disordered eating. When I was 14 years old, I had a severe eating disorder. And for most of my life after that, I've experienced disordered eating at different levels of intensity at different parts of my life.

• 46:41Nick Bare?

  You know, sometimes disordered eating or unhealthy relationships with food are more intense than others. And it's typically when I'm in a training block while I'm preparing for a race or competition. Because when I commit to a race or a competition and I put it on the calendar and I let the world know, I take that very serious. I'm fully committed and I feel the pressure. When I feel the pressure and I'm committed, I oftentimes like to feel the need or I feel the need to control variables that are within my control. One of those being food and nutrition.

• 47:25Nick Bare?

  I like to dial in, for better or worse. You may view it as a discipline. You may view it as a disorder. When I'm not in a big training block...

• 47:38Nick Bare?

  A lot of those unhealthy relationships with food, they just go away. Maybe not go away, but they, uh, they aren't as evident or upfront.

• 47:52Nick Bare?

  And I'm very aware of this.

• 47:55Nick Bare?

  You know, for someone who, for anyone, if you're listening, if you've had an eating disorder in the past, like I first started experiencing mine when I was 14 years old. And for anyone who doesn't know the story, mine got pretty extreme to the point where I was hospitalized because my body was essentially shutting down, my organs were shutting down. And it took a few years to really remend healthy relationships with food and viewing food as fuel and something to enjoy as opposed to something negative.

• 48:34Nick Bare?

  But that consumed me when I was a young teen. And ever since then, there have been periods in my life where it has consumed parts of my life, all consuming. And for anyone who has ever experienced eating disorders or disordered eating or unhealthy relationships with food, you probably know that it doesn't ever go away. It might become dormant from time to time, but it never fully just goes away and disappears. And I share that because as someone who has once had an eating disorder and still occasionally struggles with disordered eating,

• 49:19Nick Bare?

  I'm very observant. And I watch and I see the habits that some of these athletes, especially endurance athletes that I'm around, just the behaviors that they practice, the disordered eating that they try to hide

• 49:39Nick Bare?

  just to be lighter, to be leaner, to be faster, to look more shredded,

• 49:49Nick Bare?

  to control a variable that is controllable on their own terms.

• 49:57Nick Bare?

  I see this all the time with endurance athletes. And I share this to say that.

• 50:05Nick Bare?

  It's important to be very aware.

• 50:09Nick Bare?

  Because

• 50:12Nick Bare?

  disordered eating, unhealthy relationships with food and eating disorders, when paired with endurance training, that's a recipe for disaster.

• 50:22Nick Bare?

  That is the, the perfect formula for REDS, Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport. That is the, the perfect formula for

• 50:36Nick Bare?

  reduced energy, brain fog, hormone disruption, which we're about to talk about, disrupted sleep, elevated cortisol, nutrient deficiency, all the things.

• 50:53Nick Bare?

  Yeah, sometimes athletes, I, I saw someone online talking about this the other day and I thought it was so accurate. I can't remember exactly who was talking about it, but they said that there's many endurance athletes, and they were talking in context of triathletes, become more focused on the scale, how much they weigh, how much they're losing as opposed to their training performance in splits. The priority becomes, how lean can they get? How light can they get? What's the scale say as opposed to how fast am I becoming? How well am I recovering? How great am I sleeping?

• 51:32Nick Bare?

  We should be putting the, the focus, the priority on

• 51:37Nick Bare?

  performance, on the splits, on the recovery, on the feeling, the wellness, the vitality as opposed to the scale.

• 51:50Nick Bare?

  But as I've trained with many different athletes over these last couple of years, I see it very frequently. Disordered eating, avoiding certain foods, under fueling.

• 52:04Nick Bare?

  Being afraid to consume in excess of calories or nutrition because they think they're going to gain weight, or they're going to slow down, but it actually is the opposite. Being under fueled and under recovered is what slows you down and hurts your performance, and drains your energy, and drains your motivation, and digs you into a deep, deep, deep, dark hole. So I just want to bring awareness to that, so that people can be aware and conscious that it is not rare for endurance athletes, people who train high-volume endurance,

• 52:49Nick Bare?

  to experience disordered eating. The next pitfall to discuss is hormone disruption. Again, I've experienced every one of these pitfalls, and you know when you're in a big training block and your hormones are disrupted and off. I first experienced this in my last Ironman prep in 2020, 2021. Proper hormone production is, it's affected by the environment that is created during

• 53:34Nick Bare?

  high-volume training blocks. And if we don't prioritize nutrition, sleep, rest, and stress management, we can completely disrupt our hormone production, which leads to a cascading, multiple negative effects, not just on performance, but recovery and vitality of life and sleep and everything.

• 54:06Nick Bare?

  A lot of it is, is due to cortisol. So cortisol, like we've talked about, the stress hormone. I mean, if we think about it, so much of high volume endurance training is learning how to manage cortisol, cortisol production. And that's why nutrition and sleep and rest and recovery is just as important as the training itself.

• 54:39Nick Bare?

  But chronic excessive endurance training can keep cortisol elevated even at rest, even at rest, which promotes muscle breakdown, suppressed immune function, it impairs sleep, and it reduces hormone production. So in males, we're talking about testosterone.

• 55:01Nick Bare?

  Chronically high and elevated cortisol reduces testosterone production. Being in a catabolic environment can suppress testosterone, ultimately an energy deficiency. Being in an energy deficiency for too long can suppress testosterone.

• 55:19Nick Bare?

  A lot of people will experience this when they go on a drastic diet and they cut calories too aggressively, way too fast. In the beginning, they start losing weight and they feel better and they look good. And then when they're in this extreme caloric deficit for extended periods of time, that energy deficiency will and can suppress testosterone production in men.

• 55:47Nick Bare?

  Being sleep deprived will reduce testosterone production. Having healthy hormone levels is very dependent on sleep, especially restorative sleep, not just any sleep. Getting enough sleep in terms of quantity of hours, but also quality, deep sleep and REM sleep. It is vital for healthy hormone production. And nutrient deficiencies will impair hormone synthesis or hormone production. Now in females, women experience similar effects, but this is mainly affecting estrogen and progesterone.

• 56:29Nick Bare?

  And when cortisol is too elevated for extended period of times, same things of sleep deprivation, nutrient deficiencies, elevated cortisol. Women who are overtrained and have hormone imbalances might also experience menstrual cycle disruption or having irregular menstrual cycles.

• 57:01Nick Bare?

  And then the last hormone that I want to talk about is growth hormone. I think when a lot of people hear growth hormone, they think of bodybuilders because

• 57:08Nick Bare?

  these big jacked bodybuilders sometimes take and use growth hormone to stimulate more muscle production. But we naturally have growth hormone within our body. It is produced, it is regulated. Growth hormone rises after we exercise naturally to promote muscle or tissue repair. It is part of our body's natural recovery process. But when we are chronically overtraining or we don't have adequate protocols for recovery, this will blunt and affect growth hormone secretion. And it slows muscle repair.

• 57:53Nick Bare?

  It affects bone strengthening and fat utilization.

• 57:59Nick Bare?

  So when we don't prioritize rest, recovery, nutrition, cortisol is spiked, it's elevated, it's not coming back down, it's even staying spiked and elevated at rest, we will start experiencing hormone disruptions, which leads to, like I said, a cascading events of negative consequences that we just don't want to experience. But we may and probably will to some extent in these high volume training blocks.

• 58:33Nick Bare?

  Some of these things that I'm talking about can't be completely avoided, but they can be managed and minimized with the right amount of planning and intentionality.

• 58:46Nick Bare?

  And the last pitfall I want to talk about is high volume endurance training does put you at a high risk of injury.

• 58:55Nick Bare?

  And this results from just over and repeated use.

• 59:01Nick Bare?

  You know, think about when you're on a run. This morning I ran 10 miles. That is the same movement for one hour and 15 minutes. 10 miles. Foot strikes the ground, which I run on hard surfaces. I run on roads.

• 59:20Nick Bare?

  Over and repeated use, day in, day out. You're on a bike, your legs are spinning, the same repeated use over and over again.

• 59:30Nick Bare?

  That type of volume and exposure to that repeated use puts you at a risk of injury. It just does. And a lot of the injuries that endurance athletes experience are from overuse or repeated use.

• 59:48Nick Bare?

  You know, patterns, I guess is the best way to describe it. Overuse patterns. You put yourself at a high risk of injury from nutrient deficiency.

• 59:59Nick Bare?

  This could be compromised muscle, tendon, ligament. People who

• 1:00:08Nick Bare?

  who are suffering from reds, that we've talked about, relative energy deficiency in sport. A lot of times, people who have reds for long periods of time will start getting muscle strains and tears and ligament and tendon strains and tears because their body is deficient in the right nutrients to heal and repair.

• 1:00:35Nick Bare?

  You put yourself at a high risk of injury when you lack or neglect cross-training. Again, this is why I think strength training is so important.

• 1:00:45Nick Bare?

  And if you don't do it, or practice it a lot during the actual build or prep itself, this is the beauty of an off-season.

• 1:00:57Nick Bare?

  You know, when I'm not in a big prep like this Ironman training block, when I'm in my, if you will, off-season, it's a pretty even split between cardiovascular conditioning, primarily running, and strength training. I'm building up those muscles that become weak. I am building durability and strength. Cross-training

• 1:01:23Nick Bare?

  can reduce risk of injury significantly.

• 1:01:29Nick Bare?

  Also, I think what puts most people at risk of injury, maybe most frequently, is when you increase training volume or intensity too quickly.

• 1:01:43Nick Bare?

  You know, if you go from 20 miles of running a week, and you jump into a new training program at 50 or 60 miles a week, just like that, from one week to the next, the chances of you getting injured are very, very high.

• 1:01:59Nick Bare?

  And in the past, I don't get injured much anymore, but when I first started training, I first started running a lot, I had every injury under the sun. I experienced all of them. And looking back now, it's because I increased training volume and intensity way too fast. It should be this slow build, allow your body to adapt and recover and get used to the stimulus and slowly increase volume, slowly increase intensity.

• 1:02:29Nick Bare?

  And the last thing is ignored recovery protocols. Rest, true rest,

• 1:02:36Nick Bare?

  sleep, deloads. A deload is an intentionally designed and structured part of a training block that has a reduced amount of training volume and intensity. I've incorporated

• 1:02:53Nick Bare?

  Two full deload weeks in my prep so far. And this prep. And that's weeks where my volume is reduced, my intensity is reduced. To allow my body to recover more efficiently. So when I go into the next training block, it is primed. So rest, sleep, deloads. And like I've talked about before, having your seasons of training. Not going from race to race to race to race, but having a race, having a competition, setting a goal, working towards that goal, accomplishing that goal. And then truly allowing your body and your mind to rest and recover.

• 1:03:35Nick Bare?

  There's a risk of injury, high risk of injury with high volume endurance training. But there are ways to mitigate that risk. It's being smart, having a plan, it's being intentional. So that is the episode. Those are some of the pitfalls of high volume endurance training that I wanted to share with you guys. Again, not to steer you away from some of these big endurance efforts. But to bring awareness to them. So you can make a plan, implement these protocols, stay ahead of it. So you can avoid the pitfalls, or at least minimize the pitfalls.

• 1:04:17Nick Bare?

  But knowledge is power and power allows you to make a plan. So I appreciate you guys. I love you. Thanks for tuning in. And we'll see you in the next episode.