Zach Bitter is an elite ultrarunner and last December at the Desert Solstice 24-Hour Race in Phoenix, Zach broke the American 100-mile record with a time of 11:47:21. He went on to also set a new world record for distance run in 12 hours, covering 101.66 miles. Zach uses a high-fat, lower-carb, moderate-protein diet to maximize his performance and he’s extremely in tune with his nutrition, body, training and racing with lots of great tips for endurance athletes racing any distance.

On this show we talk in detail about:

-Zach’s diet for training, racing and everyday eating habits, concepts of Optimized Fat Metabolism (OFM), his thoughts on health vs. performance, how he once was high carb, and more.

-How he’s experimenting on himself during runs to determine his fat-burning ability at certain paces in glycogen-depleted states.

-Zach’s thought’s on Jeff Volek’s FASTER study, and how he is participating this month.

-His performance at the Desert Solstice, setting new records and details on that day, his nutrition and what he’ll change going forward, and more

-What’s up next in 2014 and his next race this month, including goals to get on the US 24 Hour Team for this year’s World Championships

-Health talk, including Zach’s cholesterol numbers and how they went up after going high fat low carb, but why he’s actually healthier

-Training talk, and specifically how Zach incorporates speedwork into his ultra training with success

-What data he uses and doesn’t use in training

-Knowing how and when to take rest

-Zach’s lifestyle

-and more!