Finding Ultra: Revised and Updated Edition

Part of the reason for my meh review of “Finding Ultra” isn’t so much the book itself but my expectations going in. Based on the title, I was expecting it to be more about ultra running. Furthermore, I expected Roll to describe how he went from being a sedentary out-of-shape 40 year old to an endurance athlete. First, he’s not an ultra runner, he’s an Ironman triathlete. But the bulk of “Finding Ultra” is about a challenge Roll and a friend came up with to complete an Ironman on five different Hawaiian islands in five days. I think Roll’s impulses are pure. He had some dark days of alcoholism in his twenties, which he shares with the reader. He wants to inspire people by demonstrating what he’s overcome. But right away (even as a white male) I was bugged by the strong whiff of white male privilege in “Finding Ultra.” Roll’s grandfather was a champion swimmer at Michigan, Roll’s father was an attorney, they summered at the family vacation cottage, Roll went to an elite prep school and then had to make the difficult choice of attending Harvard or Stanford. (He was sure to list all the top colleges he got into.) The whole vibe of this book was basically the opposite of the true ultra vibe, which is humility. Roll isn’t even humble-bragging but pretty much just flat out boasting. All of Roll’s stuff about the merits of the plant-based diet and how cut he is start to sound like sermonizing or an infomercial, like he’s trying to sell the reader something (which I think he might be; I didn’t get far enough in the appendixes to find out). After his rough spell with drinking, which—granted—landed him in a drying out facility, Roll meets his super-hot yoga teacher wife, practices law, and they build their dream house in the California hills. Yes, more challenges, poor guy. I don’t want to take anything away from the author; I think his work ethic is enviable. Roll pushes himself harder in every aspect of his life than anyone I know and deserves everything he’s earned. Yet he’s somehow hard to respect, because for the most part his adversity has been self-created. It’s not like he was some poor kid from the projects who started running. He was a bored corporate attorney who decided to do triathlons. There are probably a hundred of those in every major city. I get that alcoholism is a disease, and Roll was definitely an alcoholic. That’s the truest and most meaningful section of the book. Yet I’m even skeptical about why it’s included in “Finding Ultra.” The drinking happened when Roll was in his late twenties or early thirties, well before his actual decision to change his life and become a triathlete. I think it actually might just be inserted to counter the argument that here’s another white guy who’s been given every advantage and has to create challenges to keep himself from getting bored. Yeah, cynical of me to think that, I know. But Roll and his buddy very literally create the challenge I mentioned earlier of Ironmanning around Hawaii. If you’re going to make up your own challenge, it may as well be in paradise, right? Spoiler alert here, but the sad or funny thing, depending on your perspective, is that they failed. They couldn’t do the 5 triathlons in 5 days. It took them 7 to complete. Yeah, this would kill me if I even tried it, but let’s remember it’s a self-made boys’ adventure in Hawaii. How many people even have the time or money to train for such a thing? I couldn’t even afford all the plane tickets. And Roll spends like 200 pages giving us the play-by-play of this challenge. I now know more about bicycling saddle sores than I ever wanted to.

This certainly is one of those books you pick up intending to read 10 pages and next thing you’ve read 200 without moving. Rich is not only an exceptional wordsmith and storyteller but the story itself is riveting.I just turned 30 and I actually heard about Rich 5 years ago somehow when i was living in Los Angeles shortly after MY dui. I totally understand those feelings of hating to admit there’s a problem, hating going to AA meetings knowing you need your card signed (not me, these people have a problem but not me). Funny enough when he talked about immediately going back to drinking after the DUI..the day after I got out of the drunk tank I went to get gas and had an open 12 pack in the passenger seat, 1 open in the cup holder, I had very much been drinking, and I LOCKED MY KEYS IN THE CAR. At the gas station minutes from the jail I just left. There was no denying this one. I was a damn fool and I knew this was it. I called a towing company, waiting in panic for the guy to arrive. He unlocked the car, no questions asked, and left. That was God saying “last favor buddy. Get your life together”And I did, for the most part. Rich went to the 109 day rehab (loved lighting the inventory on fire by the way) and I went to Hoffman, a retreat in Napa.Flash forward 5 years, I have moved to Gaithersburg (15 mins north of Bethesda) met the love of my life (after also being cheated on but not days after a marriage! Man that was brutal) anyway lots of parallels. And throughout the years I would always come across Rich’s Before and after, it’s always been this temporary motivator and truly an incredible before and after but I still ate and drank and continued to be an alcoholic. Last February my then fiancé was diagnosed with MS and despite both being gluten, dairy loving fiends at the time we discovered if we wanted to beat this Illness it was going to have to be through food and supplements. So we started on a program called the wahls protocol, which overall helped enormously, my wife Hope’s condition growing to borderline progressive right before the wedding and then being nearly symptom free for the last several months.The Wahls program was much like Rich’s eating program, lots of veggies but also lots of meat, particularly organ meats. We made the switch to strictly plant based about a month ago and the changes have been remarkable. Her hair stopped falling out. We both felt light and relaxed, anxiety levels at an all time low.We then spent this week after her dance recital gorging on junk food and alcohol (okay, much more me than her) and yesterday, massively hungover, I bought this book and sat down to read it. And I was immersed in Rich’s journey, inspired by his persistent self doubt, his frequent setbacks, and his amazing tenacity. I also found it incredible that within a year of working very hard and visualizing his dreams of being a great swimmer, he became that at age 16. I loved that he couldn’t complete his first race in his 40s despite being a vegan that trained hard because he took the time to reassess and start anew, and those were some of the biggest takeaways for me in this book. Persistence amidst self doubt and failure. Burning to the ground and starting anew. The power of humility. And how possible massive transformation really is.Personally I am currently at the part in Rich’s journey where he’s at the breakfast table mumbling about doing a juice fast. Getting back on the wagon and going full throttle, plant based.Hope and I also bought two of Rich and Julia’s cookbooks and the recipes are AMAZING, but I got burnt out. A lot of the really good ones take many hours to make, and we both work 80-90 hour weeks. I hope they consider making a recipe book for quick on the go fuelings.But man, what a book. Gonna check out his podcast next. I’m a fan! And was fascinated by the many parallels. Thanks for sharing your story Rich.

This guy is full of himself. Privileged. Very little useful information if you are looking to help yourself get better or learn how to eat to fuel distances. This was more of his life story (in his eyes traumatic—but everything bad was his doing). If you are looking for a long distance running book to motivate you without the focus being on the person (and instead on the experiences, information, etc), get Born to Run instead.

A man in existential crisis hitting bottom and finding his way out one moment at a time.Athletic endeavor tames the emotions, transporting us beyond the scattered discursive mindset.Putting one foot in front of the other sets a cadence for cleansing non-essential thinking and emotions that arise naturally as part of the struggle of everyday modern life.Eventually, there is quiet, serenity...the empty mind without the trying.When we rest, reveling in the expansive, calm, even openness, free of grief and psychological pain we felt before the physical effort, we discover clarity, absent of petty judgment of self and others.Reflecting on the "before" versus "after" the effort states of mind and heart, we see how the rest of the world lives mostly in the "before" mindset.Our compassion elevates because we see transformation between "before" and "after" within ourselves.We wish we could bottle this transformative elevation and distribute it freely to all to provide everyone with the experience of life as joy and love with less pain and suffering.We revisit the effort daily or every other day to refresh the clarity and flow state.So that we are able to view the world zoomed out.Without the grimy myopic lens of stress and cynicism.

I came across Rich Roll and his exploits through my wanderings around the internet looking at all things triathlon and ultra athletics, which is my current ‘thing’ in case no one’s been keeping up lately.Rich lays out his whole life from high school, college swim champion, heading for international sporting star only to discover a love for alcohol, drugs and parties, wrecking all hope of sporting glory forever. Then his continued destructive, choatic, drunken lifestyle through to his battle to get clean. And then his descent into junk food fueled, overweight, middle age from which he finally wakes up and becomes one of the world’s top ultra athletes, as a vegan, in his 40’s. It really is an inspiring book for anyone who has been through the chaos of addiction and has come out the other side with a new found desire for a healthier, fitter life – even if you don’t want to be an ultra athlete.Rich also describes, fully, his experiences through his first two ‘Ultraman’ (a double length Ironman) races, and also his adventure with Jason Lester in creating and completing the first ‘Epic 5’ challenge (5 Ironmans in 5 days), now a staple on the ultra athletics calender. It’s astounding to realise just how much the middle aged human body can do and to hear it all from inside the mind of one of these competitors gives a whole new view of these extreme sports people.And there’s certainly lots of food for thought also, literally, for anyone who is vegan, or is considering or training on a vegan diet. It’s certainly changed my diet as i recently went back to being a vegan half way through reading this and yesterday ran 15km at 50 years old, the farthest i’ve ran since i was in the army in my 20’s.Worth a read!

Not sure when last I was so utterly captivated by a book. This is the true story of Rich Roll who went from being an unhappy over-overworked lawyer with alcoholism to one of the world’s top ultra athletes...as a vegan. No mean feat at the age of 43! He is married to a kick ass chef wife (Julie Piatt) who is so cool with her hippie plant based yoga lifestyle. This book is inspirational on so many levels; wellness, love, working through tough times and overcoming obstacles, digging deep and pushing your body to its absolute limits, courage to take the first step, plant based lifestyles, becoming your most authentic self and accepting that often life takes you on a journey that you may not have planned but ultimately exceeds all expectations. I highly recommend this book!

As a vegetarian for most of my life, I found Rich's story hugely inspirational. The background into his life is shared in a personal way which really helps to set the scene, and the transformation that follows - driven by a plant based diet - is nothing short of incredible. I've moved to a vegan diet (for the first time ever) since reading this book, some of the recipes/foods recommended is a little overwhelming - but combined with the Plantpower Way I've been able to take on board ideas at a slower pace, and both books have helped hugely to provide added motivation to keep going. Also I listened to the audio book version, which was a nice touch as it was read by Rich Roll himself.

This has been an absolute pleasure to read. I am the type of person who will take as much as I feel necessary from a book, then will happily put it down and move onto the next. With FINDING ULTRA, I read every word from start to finish with ease and captivation. I was excited to return to it, and disappointed that it would be so late and I would have to go to sleep! The sort of book you think about when you're not reading it.If you are looking for something that will challenge your world views, inspire and motivate you to be better, this would be a great option. The book is by no means just about running, as the title or cover may suggest. Roll started his relationship with sport and fitness as a competitive swimmer with no running ability whatsoever. This autobiographical account of his journey to finding Triathlon and ultra distance racing gives a well rounded account of his motivations and leaves you feeling like you could do it, or at least improve vastly.Just buy the book and read it. It's a nicely written, easy read that will have you recommending it like I and so many others do.

Great book for any sport and health junkies, I especially like Jungle Juice of kale, carrot, apple and spirulina my friends call that diarrhoea but it's simple magical stuff in the morning and during tennis games. Book is about diet which can change your energy levels, mood and modern family less ignorant about what we eat. I'm terrible cook so started with Mashed Potatoes ...then Veggie Burgers both success so also recommend to try few recepies.