Secrets of the river rat

Liver, like a little life preserver for rats.... and maybe me too?

I'm a bit superstitious in a very scientific sort of way.  You see, I need my crazy theories to have at least a little bit of documented research behind them - even just some minor study from the middle of last century - before i run with em.  Well that and they can't directly violate any known 'laws' of physics (after all, I am a trained physicist, or was anyway as by now most of the training is long gone - in fact i can't even remember the title of my thesis which was written less than 18 months ago). 

This still leaves alot of mysterious ground that i can happily mine for secrets for how to remain a force to be reckoned with, despite my limited training.  It's a good thing too, because in my experience, most of the ground is pretty barren.

I have found one secret though.  And i've used it enough that i think i'm ready to pass it on.  Now keep in mind that i'm not saying i understand why it works, or even that it actually works at all - but whatever is going on it has, at least to my subjective mind, made a difference in my performance at ultra-endurance related tasks.

Now that i'm thinking about it, i might have mentioned it before.  Maybe it is a sign of my age that i'm no longer able to remember what i've written about.  No matter, i'm penning this post without access to the web (or else maybe i'd check) and so will probably upload it anyway and risk sounding like a broken record.  Besides, many of the dozen or so people who might actually read this entry might not have  been in on it the first time i spilled the beans.... so here goes.

Liver.


I take mine as powder.  When i started using it i would mix it with water.  it was absolutely awful.  Now I mix it in vegetable juice - the thicker nature of which suspends the powder better so it doesn't leave a terrible gag-inducing sludge at the bottom of the glass.  It's almost palatable, although i still can't stand liver in more 'normal' forms.

I start taking it 2-3 weeks before a big race/effort - my "A" races so to speak.  One tablespoon a day of ground up, defatted, descicated (i'm not even sure what that means) enzyme rich goodness. As i mentioned, i'm not sure what it does or why it works, but i follow my regimine religiously (or superstitiously) and it hasn't failed me yet.  It doesn't make me faster.  it doesn't make me feel super-human.  But somehow it lets me keep going, and going, and going, and going.  You get the idea.

And for the minor study from the middle of last century that supports the ritual?  Try googling 'rat liver study' and see what you find.  I'm particularly excited to see how things play out during my next effort (coming as it does so quickly on the heels of Untamed New England) which is a pre-swim of the END-WET course.  It should take me about 10 or so hours i figure to swim the distance (27 miles).  I only hope that the rats in the study weren't near their limit when they were rescued after two hours...

note - in preparation for Untamed (and just due to my love of general fitness) i had been swimming once a week for about 15 minutes for the last 3-4 months, with one 'long' swim of 45 minutes and one 'medium' swim of 30 minutes. I will attempt the swim about three weeks from now....  During those three weeks i will likely focus on increasing my swim endurance slightly (while recovering from the damages of the adventure race, which can be severe), aiming to be in the water for 60-90 minutes of my 120 weekly total.