Brad Kearns tackles more interesting Q&A from Primal Endurance podcast listeners and book readers. Submit your questions at www.primalblueprint.com/endurance and they will get covered on the air. Some recurring themes are coming through with many questioners. In particular, the questioning how "180-age" aerobic maximum heart rate limit applies to real-life goals and the desire to open up the throttle now and then and get race ready. While the questions relate to the specific needs of the individual, the answers are presented in a manner that applies to a broad audience. Listen and enjoy learning about the challenges and successes of your endurance peers, and come away with plenty of practical tips to help improve your training and competitive results.

Host Brad Kearns talks to WHOLE Athlete Podcast hostess Debbie Potts—author, personal trainer and 6-time Hawaii Ironman finisher. Debbie relates her story of suffering from sudden and severe adrenal burnout while racing at the peak of her career, and her awakening and recalibrating toward health with her WHOLEistic Method.

For you type-A athletes who are accustomed to burning the candle at both ends, this is a very important podcast to listen and reflect upon. Debbie was a knowledgeable and carefully trained athlete, a super healthy Paleo-style eater, and an inspiration to her personal clients and training partners. Out of nowhere her health fell apart, upon reflection a logical consequence of simply doing more than her body could handle – even though she felt energized and empowered during her journey. It was a journey featuring 15 ironmans in 11 years, with busy days starting at 4:30 AM running her own studio and training clients. Then suddenly, all that was precious to her was taken away and she plunged into serious health dysfunction. Enjoy the show from Debbie's home in Bellevue, Washington, and check out her WHOLE Athlete podcast too.

Host Brad Kearns talks to Dr. Marc Bubbs, sport nutrition lead for Canada Basketball and the men's Olympic Basketball team, and progressive healer in Toronto. Marc is the author of The Paleo Project, a book about personalizing your approach to paleo eating and living. Mark applies a comprehensive approach to his elite athletes and ordinary citizens he treats at his Toronto clinic. He offers interesting insights on a wide range of topics, including:

- Paleo & Performance

- Olympic medical teams view of Paleo

- Mental game - how food impacts cognition

- Napping and performance

- Gut health in NBA players

Some interesting one-liners from Marc:

Acute medical care is phenomenal but when there is no distinct pathology present, the patient must seek alternative care pointed toward wellness

90% of modern disease is lifestyle related, but physicians get very little training in healthy lifestyle practices or prevention.

It's important for athletes to focus on process, not outcome. This will prevent choking and lead to greater long-term enjoyment and fulfillment

if you don't get enough sleep, your reaction time decreases four-fold - for example, a baseball player looking for the pitch will struggle royally just because he missed some sleep.

Overreaching vs overtraining: Slightly exceeding your capacity delivers fitness benefits. The trick is to balance that fine line and avoid overtraining.

Testing for gut health: Gut health is a hot topic in alternative health circles, but few people can specify what is a healthy gut and what is a compromised gut. Dr. Mark suggests you can obtain a complete stool analysis to reveal levels of good bacteria, bad bacteria, and inflammatory markers. Dr. Marc mentions the Microbial Organic Acids Tests (MOAT) from Great Plains Labs and the Complete Stool Analysis (CSA) from Doctor's Data. If things look suspect on these results, you then seek alternative health care.

All in all, a great show for endurance athletes to delve deeper into the world of functional medicine and alternative health care.