Took a glance at Barry Sears' Zone Diet last night at the bookstore.  It
appears to be pretty good stuff.  I particularly enjoyed seeing the
chapter on athletic performance as that's one of the areas in which I've
really seen huge improvement since paleo.

Let me start by saying that I'm not overly athletic.  I am a good athlete
and have pretty good musculature for a guy 5'8", 160 pounds.  But superman
I'm not.

A couple of months ago bet a friend of mine that I could run a marathon on
a total of four miles of training.  (I am not a runner, I lift weights
using high intensity protocol). There was no other training than that four
miles.   (I ran one mile on Monday, two on Wednesday, and one on Friday).
Sunday I took off intending to see how far I could go and ended up
quitting at 10.  Not because I was tired, because I was HUNGRY.  I lost
the bet, but the guy was simply amazed.  I know I could have made it at
least twice as far if I hadn't run out of fuel.  [Suggestions on how to
refuel in longer endurance events?]

Another example.  I have not been known for my lower body strength.  When
I was four years old, I broke my femur so severely that I spent six weeks
in traction and six months in a cast from under my armpits down to my
midcalf on one side and my knee on the other.  That six months caused
atrophy and lack of bone growth in my legs and hips.  I've always been a
little more top heavy, musculature-wise, since the only way I could get
around during the time in the cast was to use my upper body to pull myself
over the shag carpet in the house.  Anyway, lately I've been working on my
squat trying to get some of the musculature built up.  Again I am 160
pounds wet, but yesterday I was able to squat two sets of 420 pounds, 12
reps per set!  They guys at the gym were pretty surprised.

It has occurred to me that the average paleo man was probably a lot
stronger than the average person today.

Any other athletic stories out there?