As if we weren’t excited enough about CampWILD, we have exciting news: Dr. Allen Lim is coming to speak to TeamWILD athletes!!
Personally, I can’t wait to hear Dr. Lim speak at CampWILD. His natural approach to fueling and hydration has encouraged me to get in my kitchen and cook more natural, healthy dishes. His cookbook, The Feed Zone Cookbook, is also close at hand in my kitchen.
We asked Dr. Lim to share a bit of his story with our WILD athletes. Check it out:
Originally born in the Philippines with parents and parts from China, Dr. Lim first immigrated to the United States as a small child with parents following the proverbial American Dream. That narrative has held tightly amidst the culturally dichotomies he’s experienced as both a child and adult. At the age of 6 while dressed in a Mexican poncho and sombrero for the annual Cinco de Mayo parade, Dr. Lim remembers being suckered punch right in the gut for not being Hispanic. It was a formative experience that taught Dr. Lim how to run, and run fast he did. But soon after learning to run, Dr. Lim became dissatisfied with the pace his little legs could carry him, falling in love, instead, with cycling for both it’s high speed and freedom.
That childhood love affair led Dr. Lim to scheme a way of earning a college degree in cycling. After realizing that studying philosophy only transformed his suffering on the bicycle into a confused abject existential angst off the bike, Dr. Lim quickly switched to a B.S. in Physical Education from the University of California at Davis, rationalizing that the short shorts would at least help with his pervasive tan lines. By talking his way into graduate school after initially being rejected for poor grades and an even poorer attention span, Dr. Lim eventually demonstrated his true sense of delayed gratification by taking 10 years to earn his PhD through the Department of Integrative Physiology in the Applied Exercise Science Laboratory at the University of Colorado at Boulder. It was a length of time only outdone by the length of his dissertations on subjects ranging from the pulmonary physiology of (young and attractive) female cyclists, load carrying in Eastern Nepal, and the use of a one of a kind rear hub power meter Dr. Lim helped to develop called the PowerTap.
With that small bit of notoriety, Dr. Lim was then asked to work with the notorious Floyd Landis. Surprised and a little disgusted that Floyd had never seen the movie Star Wars, Dr. Lim attempted to show Floyd the movie. Bothered by the morality tale, Floyd walked out of the screening. At that point, Dr. Lim realized he took on more than he could handle and after being metaphorically suckered punch right in the gut by the pervasive culture of doping in professional cycling, Dr. Lim once again found himself running. Joining the very small TIAA-CREF cycling team as the director of sport science, Dr. Lim began testing athletes not for the presence of illegal drugs, but for biomarkers that might be indicative of doping – a project that has morphed into what is now known as the Biological Passport. By the 2009 Tour de France, Dr. Lim had helped riders like Bradley Wiggins and Christian VandeVelde achieve top ten places in the prestigious event while riding clean with the Garmin professional cycling team – an accomplishment that we now know is akin to hitting a 2 meter target from an X-wing fighter to blow up the Death Star all while being shot at by Darth Vader. Up until that point, Darth had managed to avoid the explosions, so when Lance Armstrong asked Dr. Lim if he would help him use the “force” instead of the implied “dark side” to win the Tour de France, Dr. Lim, sensing the little bit of good still in him agreed, optimistically hoping that if he could win Vader over that the Rebels might actually succeed. In the end, the Rebels with the help of the US Federal Government and US Anti Doping Agency finally blew the top off what can only be described in hindsight as a very dark time.
A year or so before that explosion, Dr. Lim was fortunate to have the support and belief of amazing friends and family as he set out to begin a new chapter in his life. Deeply troubled by the epidemic of short cuts that affects all aspects of our environment, food, sport, business and lifestyle, Dr. Lim decided to start from scratch by building a small company appropriately called Skratch Labs that is driven to bring healthy and authentic alternatives to the chemical shit show that has become the world of sports nutrition. With a best selling cookbook called the Feed Zone and an all-natural sports drink, Dr. Lim is slowly and finally building something that he truly believes in and trusts. It’s the American Dream.
I can’t wait! Dr. Lim will be speaking during CampWILD and Scratch Labs will be at the expo as well. If you’re not going to be able to make CampWILD, be sure to check out Scratch Labs. I can’t recommend their hydration mixes highly enough. He also has two books out right now. The Feed Zone Cookbook offers some fantastic recipes. Simple, quick, and healthy is the order of the day. Dr. Lim’s newest book, Feed Zone Portables, will change your thinking on fueling before, during, and after your runs. If you’re anything like me and have a budget category for all your processed, crammed-into-a-small-package “gooey stuff,” then Dr. Lim can save you a bunch of money and get fueling your body with much higher quality food. His portable recipes also taste amazing!!! I mean who doesn’t love sweet rice, blueberries, and chocolate all put together in a tasty package for your run or ride? Dr. Lim offers alternatives that are hard to ignore.
