Sage Canaday Has Epic Meltdown at Mont Blanc Marathon

LRC is full of idiots wrote:

I just came in here to say LRC is full of idiots.

Takes one to know one ......

MyLittlePony Size12 Men's Velcro Straps wrote:

https://youtu.be/phtI3GSmR1Y

4:42:00 to see Sage (sporting those compress sleeves for his protein deficient calves) turn on a switchback and realize he's about to get chicked again. ? Minute later the commentators are mailing his testicles back home giggling at him.

I hope he realizes that he must consume eggs and cheese to be able to run big races every other week without smelling lady farts like the rest of us .

“Protein deficient calves”?! Bahahaha

Jimbo. wrote:

Remember guys, Sage beated Anton Krupicka at Speedgoat 50k.

Sage has run 2:16

I knew a guy who had been raised as a vegan. He was 4'11 and legally blind. He insisted that it had nothing to do with his diet.

lol

more anti-vegan than running wrote:

I'm a meat eater but all this hate towards vegetables mirrors all the crap about electric cars years ago and now nobody in their right mind would think electric cars aren't the future. Same thing is going to happen to solar energy. Its like people hate stuff just because somebody they hate likes them. How about thinking for yourself instead of letting other people dictate what you hate or like.

Eating vegetables are good.

Electric cars still don't make any sense since they still rely on carbon fuel one way or the other.

Both things vegetables and electric cars are not related.

LRC is full of idiots wrote:

I just came in here to say LRC is full of idiots.

Thank you.

We would not have noticed without your wonderful comment.

Aside from this anti-vegan rallying and bashing Sage, pointing out Gerda and Paula Radcliffe's consumption post gets on something I've been noticed. Most women runners I know, whether they menstruate or are on a pill/IUD that that prevents menstruation, have dealt with some degree of iron deficiency at some point when they crank up the mileage (both women who eat meat and vegetarians/vegans, although being vegan definitely makes it a lot harder to keep your iron levels up). It might mild iron deficiency without anemia (maybe a ferritin level in the 20s and 30s), or it might be full blown anemia and single digit ferritin levels. Most women who are able to successfully stay healthy running 60-70+ miles per week recreationally eat meat (especially red meat)--and some of those who have seriously cut back on meat or gone vegetarian/ vegan have really struggled fatigue issues that once they got blood tests appeared to stem from iron deficiency. A lot of women pros actually eat quite a bit of red meat--Shalane says she has it at least 2-3x a week and more when she is at altitude, Steph Bruce says 5+ times a week, Gwen Jorgensen says daily, Molly Huddle and Desi both eat it grassfed steak regularly in marathon cycles, etc. There are a couple elite ultramarathon women or OTQ B standard qualifying level women who are vegan, to be fair, but most fast women actually eat quite a bit of red meat!

Both anecdotally among my friends, most of the people who seem to train well on a vegan diet are men. Most of the prominent examples of elite vegan athletes (Scott Jurek, for example) are men. Men have a much, much higher rate of hereditary hemochromatosis (maybe the only situation where a distance runner has to seriously worry about iron overload) than women, don't menstruate, and testosterone is related differences in iron metabolism/regulation/storage. I would hazard a guess that men have a whole lot more leeway in this area of dietary choice than women.

Man Card Regained wrote:

Tentatively, Sage has regained his man card by not engaging in these discussions (which makes him look weak and insecure when he does). Well done Sage - let your legs do the talking (albeit, even if it is a whisper at this point in your career).

Good morning Sage.?????

more anti-vegan than running wrote:

I'm a meat eater but all this hate towards vegetables mirrors all the crap about electric cars years ago and now nobody in their right mind would think electric cars aren't the future. Same thing is going to happen to solar energy. Its like people hate stuff just because somebody they hate likes them. How about thinking for yourself instead of letting other people dictate what you hate or like.

Electric cars.

Future, yes, maybe. Now?? Sure.

There nice, fast, work well.

BUT.

...Steamboat Springs CO has 12 electric car charging stations now!

Of course, the power source for YVEA utility is the Hayden Coal power plant.

Nothing like a Tesla Coal car!

The carbon footprint for one single charge is greater than an F150 eco boost gas truck.

Hype is ripe here on LRC.

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Pointing this out has little value when the norm for society is to eat meat. First place finishers eat meat, and so do last place finishers, and so do DNFers, and so do middle of the packers, and so do the runners who fade, struggle and fail to live up to their potential. You're focusing on the winners of races who are eating meat and trying to draw a conclusion, but you're way off base. First place finishers also use shampoo when they wash their hair.

Elvis Presley's impacted colon wrote:

And you meat eaters have to supplement your "diet" with Metamucil, milk of magnesia, ex-lax, fleet enemas, etc.

Um, no. What gave you that idea?

I think Sage might have a psychological quirk that is limiting him in his ability to place higher in races. I think it's his desire to always have total optionality and flexibility in addition to an aversion to commitment. He does not have a full time job where his day/time is committed in any way. He is not married to his live in girlfriend. His identity as a runner is "any surface any distance". I don't think he likes the feeling of "boxing himself in". He wants to run trails one day and then do something else the next. Nothing wrong with that if that's what you like, but it's probably not optimal in terms of placing highly at specific races.

dr phil here wrote:

I think Sage might have a psychological quirk that is limiting him in his ability to place higher in races. I think it's his desire to always have total optionality and flexibility in addition to an aversion to commitment. He does not have a full time job where his day/time is committed in any way. He is not married to his live in girlfriend. His identity as a runner is "any surface any distance". I don't think he likes the feeling of "boxing himself in". He wants to run trails one day and then do something else the next. Nothing wrong with that if that's what you like, but it's probably not optimal in terms of placing highly at specific races.

Sage has a psychological issue??

No way!

Narcissism IS NOT a psychological issue!!

Actually what I'm saying is there seems to be a high correlation between minimizing issues with iron deficiency (whether it's full blow anemia or just having a low level deficiency that is enough to impact performance) and eating meat for women athletes (where iron deficiency is pretty rampant at all levels--some estimate up to 50%:

). This is most prominent at the pro level, but seems to be true among high school, college, and upper recreational levels too. There's obviously a whole lot of value in eating a variety of plant based foods, and the appropriate serving size for a piece of meat is typically about 3 -4 oz, or half a small filet rather than the massive cuts given in restaurant servings and the like. It's not impossible to maintain healthy levels of iron as a vegan, but being a woman, high mileage distance runner vegan sure stacks the deck against you. Men seem to have fewer issues with this, although not universally so. Even websites promoting plant based diets for endurance athletes acknowledge this:

There are all kinds of environmental and ethical reasons to cut back on meat consumption, but it is not all unreasonable that many people (particularly women) would really struggle to be able to run higher mileage/more competitively without incorporating at least some meat in their diet.

I had asked Sage about his declining performance since going vegan on his Youtube. He didn't believe his diet had anything to do with his decline. I must strongly disagree as the law of causation would state otherwise. He was on the up and up, changed his diet and performance dropped.

mcguck wrote:

I had asked Sage about his declining performance since going vegan on his Youtube. He didn't believe his diet had anything to do with his decline. I must strongly disagree as the law of causation would state otherwise. He was on the up and up, changed his diet and performance dropped.

He's never eaten meat, right? Always been at least vegetarian.

What was he eating before that he's not eating now? I'm talking about Sage, specifically, not just some general definition of vegetarian.

Fine, but I can also say it's not unreasonable to assume that you can do just fine as an elite athlete without eating meat.

Sage just needs to consult with Dr. Frank Meza for possible ways to improve his marathon times.