Vegan: Strong and Long
Experiment Preregistration, T-3 Days
Overview
I have two BHAGs (Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals) planned for 2023:
First, the Devil’s Number Challenge (I made it up — come at me, bro) in May 2023:
Second, I’m aiming to complete GORUCK Selection, a 48-hour suckfest with a balance of PT tests, mono-structural endurance challenges (“The Long Walk”), and undisclosed challenges involving 60–150# of ruck and sandbag weights.
This experiment will cover the first training block working towards these goals, from May 30th to November 4th. The block will end with the GORUCK Recon Raider HTB, a 48-hour challenge that will involve extensive hill climbs with rucks and moderate-to-heavy weight (35–100#).
The overarching goal for the block is to build my aerobic base while slowly gaining bodyweight.
The Experiment
The training plan and diet (described below) have been in place for the last 2 months to provide a baseline for the experiment itself: observing the effect of a vegan diet on body composition, training progress, and my performance at the Recon Raider HTB. I’m choosing to experiment with the vegan diet for several reasons:
- To broaden my skill-set as a coach. I’ve explored paleo and low-carb approaches in the past, but I don’t have personal experience to help those who might want to strength-train using a plant-based approach.
- Based on the testimony and experience of previous Selection finisher, Alex Kiliniac, on how a transition to vegan eating improved his Selection performance.
- To settle my own curiosity. The strength community seems generally hostile to plant-based diets, but anecdote and recent research reviews suggest strength and muscle gains on greens and grains, so I’m testing it on myself.
Trial success would be defined as 90%+ compliance with the training program, 90%+ daily compliance to macro targets, and 95%+ compliance with the plant-based restriction (allowing room for mistakes and missed labels).
Subject Characteristics
Metrics:
Although body composition is not a trial goal, I’m recording it to track size and muscle growth and will do a side-by-side at the end of the trial.
Previous Training:
I’ve spent the last 18 weeks dialing in a training routine and program that I’ve been able to consistently execute for two months with room to progress.
The result of that experimentation is the program below:
Aerobic Base:
Each week includes five aerobic training sessions. The Sunday Long Ruck is flexible, and I plan to sometimes substitute it with fun events shared with the Triton Ruck Club, with a goal to aim to stay within 10% of the target Training Stress Score (TSS) for the week.
Because I have a long run-up to the RR HTB in November and the first major challenge next May, I’m dividing my aerobic work between rucking, running, cycling, and rowing to reduce the chance of overuse injuries and although for greater training volumes, though the specific types of training may change through the program as needed.
Strength Maintenance:
The program is built around three strength training sessions Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, each with two core heavy, compound lifts (one upper, one lower) followed by a circuit of dumbbell, sandbag, and bodyweight strength work.
The core lifts are completed under tight rest conditions to keep gym time from bleeding too long (3:00 for lower-body work, 2:00 for upper-body work)
Circuit rounds are determined by heart rate — when rest brings heart rate down to 120 bpm, I start the next circuit. The goal will be to stay calm and relaxed, training to get HR down as quickly as possible to complete more rounds per AMRAP.
Diet:
I’ve used the last two months to dial in my maintenance expenditure using the MacroFactor app, which currently sits at around 3200 calories. My weight finally started trending upwards at a daily intake of around 3150kcals with a macro split of 138g of protein, 104g of fat, and 411g of carbs.
The Plan for Progression:
Training:
The training program will progressively increase in training volume each week with semi-planned deloads every four weeks.
If recovery is excellent by the deload week in a block (planned every fourth week) as measured by performance, HRV, and subjective well-being, I’ll take a smaller deload.
Exercises in the circuits will change each block to maintain skill in other core exercises — drags, throws, pushups, situps, sled pushes, rope climbs, etc.
If recovery suffers as aerobic training volume increases, I may drop or reduce the Wednesday strength session
If all goes as planned, at the peak of training, I’ll be completing twice my current training volume and training about 20 hours a week.
Diet:
I anticipate that this will be the most challenging part of the trial. On my peak volume weeks, I estimate I’ll need to be taking in 4500+ calories to sustain my energy needs, which I suspect will be difficult to do with whole-food, plant-based sources.
On starting the plant-based diet, I’ll increase protein to 155 grams (.9gm/lb of bodyweight) as the starting point.
From there, I’ll experiment with the balance of carbohydrates and fats to find something that keeps the scale moving while allowing for plenty of fruits and vegetables (Twinkie-tarianism is not the plan).
I’ll be supplementing with creatine and vitamin B12. I’ll keep an eye out for indicators of other deficiencies (D3, calcium, iodine), but after reading the research, I’m not convinced that they’re necessary in advance, and I’ll be eating some fortified foods, so it’s less of a concern.
Fingers Crossed:
I would be glad to see a noticeable change in my rate of improvement —to get faster, more enduring, and gain muscle mass more effectively than I did with an omnivorous diet — but I’m not betting the house on it.
I haven’t been sold on any of diet trends — paleo, plant-based, fasting, keto, carnivore — and when I tested paleo and low-carb approaches on myself years ago, they didn’t provide any noticeable difference while being needlessly restrictive.
But what is life for if not learning?
If I do see a dramatic improvement from the vegan diet, I’ll stick with it after the HTB with less dedication to data collection. And if I don’t, I’ll reintroduce animal proteins one at a time, starting with eggs, then fish, dairy, poultry, and red meat to see how they make me feel.
And along the way, I’ll document the process, including the challenges, successes, and flubs that will inevitably arise when a strength-bro goes for vegan-cardio glory.
