Archive - Ultra Running & Destroying The Colorado Crush On A Plant Based Diet With Robbie Balenger

In today’s episode, Nick talks with ultra-endurance athlete Robbie Balenger about his accomplishments, recovery techniques, diet, and running career. While he has admired Robbie for some time, Nick met Robbie for the first time in Leadville when the two ran the Leadville 100. Robbie had formerly completed the 2019 Transcontinental run, and his competition of the Leadville 100 was part of what he dubbed the ‘Colorado Crush” - a multi-month undertaking consisting of the Leadville trail series, the Colorado trail, and all fifty-eight Colorado peaks.

By way of background, Robbie shares that he spent a number of years in Austin before moving to his current city of Denver, CO. He moved to Austin for family, but stayed for the fun, getting into the food and bar scene and spending a lot of time partying. Eventually, though, Robbie started falling in love with running and endurance training, and he found that it provided a healthy form of the same elation he pursued through partying. Seeing that partying didn’t help him be his best for his work, and finding in running a substitute for the physical boost partying gave, Robbie found himself more and more invested in the sport.

His races quickly evolved -a half marathon led to a marathon, and then to an eighty-mile race. About two and a half years after his first fifty-miler, Robbie was running the Transcontinental. His move to Denver only deepened his drive to run, and transitioning to a plant-based diet aided his performance as an athlete. Robbie’s aim in changing his diet was primarily to enhance his performance, but it also had a secondary grounding in concern for environmental health. While Robbie is a committed advocate of plant-based eating, he also explains how people can care for environmental needs even without adopting his plant-based diet; for one thing, they can pay close attention to sourcing when purchasing and consuming meat.

Even with rigorous training and a plant-based whole food diet, Robbie’s body was seriously challenged by the Transcontinental. He dealt with hallucinations and paranoia, shin splints, tendonitis, and more. But after the first month of running, his body adapted and the work became somewhat easier. As he settled in and ran, he was able to do a lot of thinking; ultimately, Robbie feels that he came away from the race with a deepened sense of self-confidence, growth in trust of/reliance on others, and a clearer sense of how to define himself as a man.

Shifting gears a bit, Nick asks Robbie to share about NuCalm, one of Robbie’s sponsors and a company Nick and his team are interested in exploring. NuCalm offers a unique concept for recovery centered on the fact that recovery at base is rest. It’s difficult during races to get good sleep, so Robbie decided to use NuCalm’s three-part system to enhance his sleep quality and foster cellular recovery during the Leadville 100. He tried the system throughout the Colorado Crush, and continues to use it as part of his regular routine. His results have been profound, and offer great possibilities for runners looking to boost recovery both during and after races.

Finally, Robbie shares about how cycling fits into