“They Wouldn’t Be Traumatized Their Whole Lives”
+ the carb-loading myth
Good afternoon everyone.
When I was 18 and preparing to compete at the state cross country meet, my teammates spent the night before the race doing what endurance athletes are told to do: eating absurd amounts of carbs. Pasta. Bread.
Me? I viewed carbs mostly as a vehicle for butter. I remember asking the server at a chain Italian restaurant for extra butter not once, but twice.
Anyway. Fast forward to today.
A new meta-analysis reviewing more than 160 studies suggests that carb-loading—the practice endurance athletes swear by, and that Michael Scott famously attempts ten minutes before the Dunder Mifflin Scranton Meredith Palmer Memorial Celebrity Rabies Awareness Pro-Am Fun Run Race for the Cure—is based on a flawed understanding of how the body actually fuels endurance performance. The researchers argue that sustained energy has less to do with maximizing glycogen stores and far more to do with maintaining stable blood sugar throughout competition.
The takeaway? Carb-loading—especially with ultra-refined carbohydrates—is neither necessary nor optimal for peak athletic performance.
Real food 365 days a year is what’ll make you a great athlete, not cramming in carbs the night before your half marathon.
Alex Honnold—famous for free-soloing El Capitan in Yosemite—is attempting to free-climb a Taipei skyscraper tonight. Honnold, a father of two, gave an interview to The New York Times this week.
NYT: "But it’s not just that you have more to live for. It’s that your loss would be felt in a deep way for more than just Sanni [his wife].
Honnold: “Kind of. I mean, baby Alice wouldn’t remember. Baby June probably wouldn’t remember. She’ll be four in another month. It’d be felt, and obviously it’d be super hard for Sanni, but they’d be well provided for. I don’t feel like I’d be leaving them in the lurch. They wouldn’t even necessarily be traumatized their whole lives.
In Alex Honnold, we have an early contender for Running On Butter’s Father of the Year.
After all, baby Alice wouldn’t remember her father plummeting to his death in Taipei. It’s not like Netflix is live-streaming it or anything (they are). And besides, the kids would be well provided for. The North Face contract would presumably cover June and Alice’s wedding costs, rendering the need for a father largely obsolete.
“They wouldn’t be traumatized their whole lives” is the new metric for paternal success that ROB completely endorses.
It’s a standard I’ll be sure to reference someday when my future wife expresses concern about me emotionally burdening our children with stories from the dark years—when butter was rejected by the masses.
Last week, I stumbled across a New York Times piece from 2016 on Venezuela’s fractured, state-run healthcare system. In short, the government seized control of hospitals, and many people, especially children, died as a result. Basic necessities like antibiotics and oxygen became scarce, if not impossible to obtain.
My favorite line came from then-president Nicolás Maduro: “I doubt that anywhere in the world, except in Cuba, there exists a better health system than this one.” Yes, of course. Havana—the global vanguard of medical innovation.
I find this piece worth revisiting because socialism is once again being rebranded as compassionate and humane. We are told “the warmth of collectivism,” as Mayor Mandomi puts it, is what will usher in fairness and a higher quality of life.
But the historical record tells a colder story: when the state centralizes control over essential systems, quality deteriorates, shortages follow, and the most vulnerable pay the price.
ROB is firmly opposed to socialism (unless, of course, government-run grocery stores begin supplying Amish butter at a fraction of the price. In that case, comrades, we have nothing to lose but our chains.).
Ski mountaineering is making its Olympic debut in Milan next month. It’s like regular skiing except instead of riding the chairlift, you walk up the mountain. Call me crazy, but I would enjoy this.
Lindsey Vonn is returning to the Olympics. Her first Games were in 2002. I was three years old. Now, the perimenopausal athlete is aiming to bring home another Olympic medal. Go, Lindsey!
The NIH will prohibit the use of human embryos from elective abortions in research.
Tennessee lawmakers chose not to move forward with a bill that would have provided legal protections to chemical manufacturers. Similar laws in two other states have limited lawsuits against companies like Bayer, which has already paid roughly $11 billion to settle claims from farmers were injured by glyphosate exposure. At its core, the bill would have made it harder for injured individuals to seek compensation. Its failure to advance is a MAHA win.
Lord, we’re ready for your return. We’ve hit peak decay as a society:
To end on a more encouraging note: this week I started reading Charlie Kirk’s last book he wrote, Stop, in the Name of God. So far, really good. Highly recommend. If you don’t have time to read it, you’re exactly who needs to read it.
State run Healthcare systems like Venezuela..Look no further than Canada today as the publicly funded system is crumbling and care is becoming non existent. And if the system can't provide the care and the vulnerable struggle to live, the healthcare providers ie doctors are just suggesting MAID (medical assistance in death) for compassionate reasons. Looking for a cure that ails you...how about death. This is what public funded health care (socialized health care) gets you. Once you start sliding downhill, it is hard to stop.
Awesome post Vance. I always wondered about how effective the carb loading really is.