EliteRunning.com interview
November 9th, 2007 by ScottLast February I did an interview with EliteRunning.com. We discussed my training, transition to becoming vegan, racing, and ultrarunning in general. I’m commonly asked a lot about these topics and feel this interview provides some insight.
November 10th, 2007 at 4:46 pm
What a great interview – I read it some time ago but with fresh eyes today. Thanks! I also recently got the Yiannis Kouros video and highly recommend readers to watch it, especially prior to a long run. Having a physically exhausting week, that arm swing he has came to my mind and really helped during my run today when I was really tired. What a great “muse”!
And good info about eating vegan – it’s so much better for our environment. I love that you are O positive and have de-bunked the blood type theory of eating! I can hear Peter D’Adamo yelling WAIT!!
In all – lots of great info in that interview, and inspiring as well! Good luck again in the next race!
November 11th, 2007 at 8:36 am
Actually the increase popularity of Soy based products has actually resulted in increased Rain Forest in Brazil being cut down to grow more Soy. As always, there are tradeoffs.
Anyway, I enjoy the blog and really enjoyed the Spartathlon report.
November 11th, 2007 at 7:40 pm
yes, there are countless acres of amazon rainforest being destroyed to grow soy, but the majority of soy consumed worldwide is not consumed by humans, but by livestock. it takes about 2 acres of land to support each head of cattle, plus land for producing soy and grains to feed the cattle. using this same amount of land to grow crops could feed several times more people than using this land for raising livestock. simple logic shows that if you cut out the middle man (i.e. the livestock) much less land would be needed to feed the worlds exploding population of humans.
btw scott, thanks for posting the link to that interview. enjoyable read.
November 11th, 2007 at 11:57 pm
Thanks Geoff. Do you recall your source? What I read (and I don’t recall where I read it) indicated it was the popularity of soy with humans that was driving the increase. Made me feel guilty about the 3 cartons of soy milk I had in my frig. But I like to be as informed as much as possible (pros/cons) so I appreciate your post.
November 12th, 2007 at 10:46 am
hey chris, the info. i was stating was from a story on NPR (i believe it was on the program “Living on Earth.”) that I heard a while back. I can’t seem to find a link to that story but in searching I did find a couple similar stories written around the world. here’s a link to one in “The Scotsman” that puts the world’s soy consumption by livestock at over 90% of total consumption: http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=550182005
This article doesn’t go into the alternatives to the world’s food production model as the story I heard on NPR did, but I don’t think it takes too much explanation to figure out that using 90% of the world’s soy to feed livestock which then feeds fewer people than the soy would have in the first place isn’t very efficient.
November 12th, 2007 at 10:40 pm
Thanks Geoff!!
November 20th, 2007 at 11:40 am
I’m also a vegan and have much much greater recovery time while training for rowing. I haven’t gotten injured since becoming a vegan, while I used to get tons of injuries. I think it also controls my mood a lot more. Also, isn’t it so, Scott, that you do a lot of raw food? I’m working on incorporating more of that into my diet as well…
I do minimal soy, don’t like processed foods that much really.
Anyway, also loved the quotes in regard to Dean Karnazes.
November 7th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
Unfortunately eliterunning archives only go back to June of this year. Is there anyone who has a link to this interview from another site? Thanks