Athletes in Motion

Athletes in Motion Podcast - EP 018 Ian Larios

March 08, 2022 Tom Regal and Kenny Bailey Season 2 Episode 18
Athletes in Motion
Athletes in Motion Podcast - EP 018 Ian Larios
Show Notes Transcript

Ian Larios has a lot of titles.  World traveler.  Fighter.  Chef.  Combining his love of cooking with his love of MMA fighting, he knew he could bring a new approach to food that can benefit elite fighters.  Their initial reaction?  Kicking him out of the gym.  Undeterred, Ian spent years hustling to reach his dream. From sleeping in his car to his big break supporting a comeback fighter, Ian finally got the recognition for his talents.  

Today he has helped champion UFC fighters like Daniel Cormier get the title belt.  With an uncompromising focus on the goal, Ian has literally traveled the world and back to achieve his dream. 


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Narrator:

Welcome to the athletes in motion podcast from race to recovery. With your hosts, Tom Regal, and Kenny Bailey.

Tom Regal:

Hey, Kenny, Hey Tom, how are you?

Kenny Bailey<br>:

I'm fantastic. How are you today?

Tom Regal:

I'm doing great. We have a wonderful guest today, Ian Larios, who's a nutrition specialist and a chef. Welcome Ian!

Ian Larios:

Thank you, guys for having me.

Tom Regal:

We're super excited to have you here. We're going to talk a bit about nutrition and about the sporting world and what you do. So tell us a little bit about yourself because you've got a great story. Yeah,

Ian Larios:

yeah, I got a pretty crazy story. So grew up in all over the place. My parents were teachers. So I grew up traveling all over the world. First was born in Reno, Nevada, left when I was about three months old, and we went to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Well, after that, we went to Peru after that, Czech Republic. Wow. After that back to Malaysia. After that, we went to the States for a year. And then my last in my senior year of high school was in Caracas, Venezuela. This is when I was like the murder capital. Like the craziest place

Kenny Bailey<br>:

was like flak jackets. Yeah. You stay in the coffee, get wood,

Ian Larios:

but it wasn't it wasn't too bad, beautiful country. And I loved it out there. But for my senior year, it was cool to kind of go out there. And, and yeah, I mean, I was so used to traveling that my parents were kind of apprehensive about asking me to move my senior year of high school, but I was like, one more country. So it was something that was so

Tom Regal:

that's all by senior year of high school.

Ian Larios:

That was all by senior year. So

Kenny Bailey<br>:

that was, what were they teaching that had them in so many different countries.

Ian Larios:

So my parents, my dad's a PE teacher, and my mom's a health teacher. Okay, so my dad was like, elementary school PE so basically, he just got to make obstacle courses, play all day and night. Then my mom was health teacher, so she got to do all that. And in the Upper Dublin High School, so Okay,

Kenny Bailey<br>:

so did you have to start learning those languages as well? Or did you stay mainly to sort of English and

Ian Larios:

Yeah, well, the school the school wasn't English was International School. So it's, like, it's a private private school saw the Yep, big oil companies and other companies in there, send their kids there. Um, but in Peru, I have friends I need to speak Spanish, just because it was predominantly the Spanish speaking. So I learned Spanish there and spoke fluent Spanish for most most of my life until we left and then I'd speak it every now and then. But I still understand it. I just don't I don't speak it. Yeah, as much anyway, whenever every time I go like a taco place or like a Mexican restaurant. I try to order in Spanish, but just to keep it fresh. I tried to

Kenny Bailey<br>:

do Yeah, kind of rolling their eyes like Thanks, guys. Thanks. Appreciate it. Wow, was there a country that you enjoyed more than others? As you were growing up? Was it like Malaysia seem to be

Ian Larios:

Malaysia for sure. We spent the most time Malaysia and I think that's where like, my love for food started. You know, because we'd go to all these different restaurants because Malaysia is really like a melting pot of different cultures. Yeah, Chinese, you have Indian, you have obviously, Malaysians. And it's a melting pot of all their cultures and all their foods. And so we are different restaurants growing up. And instead of like sitting at the table, this was before like, phones and yeah, Game Boys and all that. It was my parents were never by me. But that's a whole different story. I just walk around, I go to the back of the kitchens. And I just sit there and watch. And I was just fascinated because they'd have frogs that they were skinning and fish and they had a whole lives. They had like live wells where they'd pull out fish and do scale. And I was just fascinated. There's fire everywhere. I'm like, what's going on? It's awesome. And I was just a young kid, you know. So this is like a whole new world to me. And I think that's really where I got fascinated with food was in Malaysia, just cuz it was such a huge piece of, of everything we did there. All my parents friends from all over the world, but like what all brought us together was always food. And that's something that I think always interested me it was like, this is one thing that brings all people together whether they speak the same language or the same religion or whatever it may be, it's like good food brings people together. 100% And I think that's what like really kind of gotten me interested in it as far as I was like, this is something that I could bring people together with.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

So you went from high school. How did you when did you start formally sort of working as a chef? When did you decided that was your track? Or was it you sort of fell into it?

Ian Larios:

The funny thing was I started making YouTube videos like when YouTube first came out. No kidding. When I was yeah, when I was probably like, about 13

Tom Regal:

I gotta look those up.

Ian Larios:

I think I'm mad about mad about myself now was I deleted most of them? Because like, there's one still up, there's one still up because like, you're young and like all people found out about it. Yeah, they're all sharing it, I'll just get interviewed made fun of it. So I was like, I'm deleting these is, this is stupid. But there's still one up there. And it's Malaysian curry. And I'm in my, I'm in a kitchen, Malaysia, just a young kid, and was making like a curry from scratch. And my dad was filming. And it's cool. My dog walking around in the background. And yeah, every now and then I'll pull up that video. And it keeps into the perspective how long this journey has been and how it started in the early roots of it. So if I could go back, I definitely would undelete those videos or not delete them in the first place. But it was one of those. Well,

Kenny Bailey<br>:

yeah, today at that age, you would you would be getting a million hits and Exactly.

Ian Larios:

culture shift. Yeah. Where it's like now, all these young kids are getting super popular and getting crazy deals with endorsements. They go get their brand out there. You know, that was like the early days of like, doing what you're passionate about on. I guess a level like that wasn't the norm. Yeah, you know,

Kenny Bailey<br>:

does the recipe still hold up though? When you go look at the video. It is.

Ian Larios:

It's funny, because I haven't changed it. There you go, man. Sounds good. It's 10 plus years now. And it's definitely gotten better just because I've done it and made it so many times. But yeah, y'all still meet the recipe? Some of the for the highest level guys I work with. Okay, cool. So one of their favorites.

Tom Regal:

Nice. So then in high school, you made the decision to kind of go, oh, I want to be a chef. I want to go down the Yeah. So

Ian Larios:

in high school, so I started working in some kitchens. I had a summer job, my first summer job when I was 16. Working at the high up in Lake Tahoe was a prep Prep Center. They're beautiful, beautiful place. But during the summer, it was like, I think I was working 85 hours a week and a 16 year old. Yeah. Which I don't think was

Tom Regal:

necessarily, probably not. But

Ian Larios:

um, yeah, I was super intense. And I was doing all the grunt work for all the other cooks and all different restaurants, there was a huge resort, a couple of different couple different restaurants. And so I kind of realized there that I didn't want to be directly. I didn't want to be doing that for my whole life, you know? Because I was just seeing the effect that those long hours had and all those shifts there, you know, whether they were excessively drinking or chain smoking cigarettes, like all those guys were wild. Yeah. And I had no interest in kind of going that down that route. Like I love food, I love sharing my food, but I didn't want to just be stuck in a kitchen for hours on end.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

And that's very astute as a 16 year old, right, because making that decision obviously was a kind of a course changing life course changing deal doing that saying, look that I know I don't want to do that. I love this. Yeah, but I don't want to do that.

Ian Larios:

Right. Yeah, exactly. And I kind of figured that there's there's another there was another way. And I mean, that summer, too. I was making like a bunch of different sauces, and selling them to my parents friends. So I was like, I love like Indian curries, I'd make all different types of sauces. And then they could add whatever protein they wanted to.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

What are you doing for Super Bowl? I'm just completely off. Off topic. But

Ian Larios:

yeah, so then I realized that maybe there was a market and doing it like independently, you know, doing something where it was like being a private Cook, doing something along those lines. And I was always a huge UFC fan. And there's one day I stumbled upon a video of a guy that was working with fighters and he was doing pretty basic, I mean cooking technique, but applying his knowledge of nutrition to it. And that kind of set a light off in my head. I was like, that's what I want to do. Because there was I was such a big UFC I am yeah, I've always been a huge UFC fan. And I that's when I just started training. And it really opened my eyes to it because I was having a bunch of training partners that were not eating underperforming and having drastic weight cuts. And so I use the knowledge that I found online, and these were the early days of weight cutting. And I really just focused on that and trained myself and kind of they were my guinea pigs early on, you know, people that I was working directly with, and people I cared about and it was still like the real dark ages of us. So like you'd hear coaches be like, you know Apple and go to bed. And that was after training three sessions, you know?

Tom Regal:

So what is weight cutting just for people who are listening, that don't understand that process.

Ian Larios:

So weight cutting, essentially an MMA since there's a grappling aspect to it. The idea is, the bigger the fighter is the more of an advantage they have, which you think realistically, like, if you saw a bigger guy fight a smaller guy, you think, yeah, that bigger guy should win. Yeah. Most of the time. That's the case. But I mean, obviously, it varies. But the idea is to have the biggest size advantage. And so you'll weigh in the day prior. And you'll weigh in, let's say you find out 145 pounds, you weigh in at 145 pounds, but that day is built around cutting that water, wait to get down to that to get down to that 145. Okay, you're not walking in the cage at 145. But the shortest period of time possible. You want to weigh 145. Yeah, rehydrate, refuel, and then go out and fight and fight,

Tom Regal:

which is a day later, right.

Ian Larios:

24 hours.

Tom Regal:

24 hours

Kenny Bailey<br>:

It's a pretty, you know, we've had Dustin Dustin Ortiz?

Ian Larios:

And I've worked with Dustin. Yeah.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

So I mean, that's not that's a that's a fairly dangerous process, isn't it? Yeah, I mean, you're, you're putting your body through a lot of trauma

Ian Larios:

a lot. And I mean, your camp is built around losing the weight, like losing fat, getting your body fat lower. And then usually, the weight cut itself is a water cut. So you'll see, you'll see guys lose up to 10 15% of their body weight. Wow, just in that in that week, you know, in those three days, and then before that, I mean, they lost 1015, sometimes 20 pounds throughout the camp. So you're looking at like a drastic weight loss phase was still trying to perform very highly, you know, and it's not just like you're going in there to play pattycake with some, they're trying to rip your head off and rip your head off. Yeah, don't properly rehydrate. All that fluid in your in your in your head, that is insulation for your brain isn't there, you know, Mark fashions, and all that. So that's a whole nother that's a whole nother thing. Like if you if you can have the perfect weight cut, not properly rehydrate, and then go out there and have a three round war where you're just getting punched in the head hundreds of times. Yeah. the damaging effects of that are are more than just, you know, physical right then in there. It's it's long term damage that could be potentially happening. Yeah.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

So when you approached it, then you were looking at it going like okay, the Apple things not working. So make

Ian Larios:

sense to me, I was thinking that there's no way that the highest level of sport, these guys are eating apples, and recovering properly and going out there the next day and doing the whole thing, the same thing all

Kenny Bailey<br>:

over. So what was your What did you want to do differently? What was that different approach?

Ian Larios:

I wanted to make it like a food experience, but also apply something that can benefit them, but that Apple is not going to feel them. So it's like, what can I learn that can help people I care about more? That's what it stems from? Like, I've never really thought that I was gonna be able to do it. Like the highest level. That was a dream. Yeah, yeah. But I was like, how what's going to get me there? And I really thought that like doing it with people I cared about. And starting there was going to be the first step. Okay, so

Kenny Bailey<br>:

what is the it I guess, is what I'm trying to figure out? It's not the apple. So it's what is it like lean vegetables? Or what what what did you decided to change?

Ian Larios:

Well started incorporating, like, a lot of these guys were cutting out carbs completely for weeks on it, you know, so they were so depleted of glycogen that they were just it was they're underperforming as they would because they're doing a high intensity, you know, super explosive, multiple rounds, five rounds of you know, sparring. And they'd maybe have one solid round in them. And they just literally didn't have the gas tank that they needed. And so starting to give them that obviously, at first I was like, because the whole mentality of like, carbs Make You Fat. Yeah, you know, I was like, maybe like, maybe people say that in there. Right? And but then actually applying it and seeing that these guys were still losing weight, eating carbs every single meal. And doing those five rounds. Like they were not saying.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

Yeah, and I think you're it's funny that you should mention that because it's sort of like carbs are evil, right? If if all you do is do a 45 minute, you know, treadmill session and you're fairly sedentary, you know, having too many carbs and all that. Yeah, it may have an effect. To your point, their glycogen level. These are this is fuel this isn't food, right? Yeah. And this fuel in this whole notion that carbs are somehow evil. It's like, no, not really, you sort of need that because you're at a whole different level. I mean, the the the intensity level, the calories you're burning, what you need for muscle restore the whole nine yards. Yeah, it's an interesting thing to try to cut out a whole group of a whole food group because you know, you're you're trying to look good.

Ian Larios:

It's a fine line between like incorporating those and like let's say someone hasn't eating carbs for the past five weeks and has been training twice a day, coming in late and reintroducing that. It's a fine line between, like, their body responding well to it and not responding well to it. So that was the biggest thing was like, the pushback from the coaches as well. Like I got kicked out. Yes. And he told me that I didn't know what I was talking about. And that his way was the way it was his way or the highway. And I was like, alright, well, I'll jump on the highway then. Because this is like, this is what I'm gonna do. And I know that eventually you're gonna find out that that that way wasn't the right way. Yeah.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

So when did it catch on with other fighters when when you started working with them, because you've mentioned a couple times you've you've been working with pretty elite UFC fighters

Ian Larios:

that took that took a while. But it all kind of started when I moved to Thailand. So I went to school in Vegas for nutrition. I was literally couchsurfing there staying with some fighters that had camps and we were all broke. So it was like, everyone started at that point. You're either on the couch or the floor. And

Kenny Bailey<br>:

how did you get so lucky to get on the couch?

Tom Regal:

There you go. Take care of the chef!

Ian Larios:

There you go. Yeah, take care of the chef. So kind of started there. I met I met some gym owners there. And originally, my goal was to work with Mike Dolce. I don't know if you guys ever heard of him. But he was one of the probably most popular MMA nutritionist guys. And like, I admit, like, I used to sleep in the gym, while I used to sleep in my car in front of the gym that I used to workout at just so I can like have a chance encounter.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

So you're hungry? I mean, yeah,

Ian Larios:

it was, it was my only choice. You know, I didn't, I didn't give myself a plan B. I was, I was never great. I was never great at anything. But I knew I was resilient enough to give everything I had and into this, you know, and that was give me the best chance I had, you know, and that was the only thing I tell myself on those nights where I'd be broken Vegas and like, there'd be a UFC in town, I'd go down, and I couldn't afford a ticket. But I'd go down to the fight just to feel that energy. You know, just to feel like the energy of the fight weekend, and that's like, I'm gonna be here one day, you know, I choose the teams walking together, I'm like, I'm gonna be in that school one day, you know, just because it was like, and I go to the weigh ins, because the winds were free. And I'd see these coaches up on stage. And I'm like, and I'd take all that energy. And I told myself, I'm gonna be up there one day, you know, that's, that's, I'm gonna I'm going to put all my eggs in one basket and make sure that that happens at least

Kenny Bailey<br>:

once. So to get 100 feet on stage, you had to fly us a few 1000 miles to Thailand.

Ian Larios:

Exactly. I thought the best way was go to Thailand.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

This close.......I'm going to Thailand.

Ian Larios:

So there was a there was a place called Tiger Muy Thai still there. It's one of the biggest, most popular training destinations in Thailand. So fitness, obviously Muy Thai. But I knew a coach there that introduced introduced me to a chef that was working at the tiger Muy Thai training camp, they just opened a huge facility, huge restaurant. And he was having trouble incorporating like the nutrition facts and all like the I guess he wanted to have like a more structured nutrition program there. And he had he knew nothing about that. But he went, he went to culinary school. So I reached out to him on Facebook. And he basically said, Hey, if you come out here and help me with this, I can give you room on board. I could give you food nice.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

And the good news is because of you could because you were younger, like some people that may have been born and raised in Nevada, right, that idea of going there is gonna be a completely foreign Yeah, would be like scary and foreign. I don't know if I should do this. Yeah, I was you. It's like, Yeah, you were like, Yeah, anything, man. I've been doing this my whole life.

Ian Larios:

And so that was kind of I was, I think I was 2022 at the time. And so went there met him, kind of helped him restructure the whole program, made some really good connections, but I just started working with all these fighters, you know, like, word of mouth kind of got around, like, Hey, this guy is trying to help people nutrition, he's doing it for free. And I had some good testimonials from guys that were staying and the thing about moieties like those guys fight probably, sometimes two times a week. Wow, you know, four times a month. Yeah. And so they're staying active and to stay active. You need to be on top of your nutrition. You got to be on top of your recovery. And so I was probably working I was saying in the fighter dorms. So these those nasty broke fighters from all over the world. fighting all the time eating and sleeping in bunk beds. Yeah.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

At least you're off the floor. So yeah, it's true. I mean, graduated from couch

Ian Larios:

You know, but after that it was kind of a I met Actually no, there I met these brothers, Anthony and Andrew Leone who were Americans. And there was there's very few Americans out there. Lots of Canadians, lots of Europeans but there's very few Americans there are two wrestlers from New York that were eventually going to go to Bali and open up what they wanted to compare the tiger Muay Thai, you know, huge surfing community out in Bali. But no like real martial arts presents quite yet. And usually with surfing. There's a huge connection with surfing in jujitsu. Like lots of people, I do Jiu Jitsu surf and lots of surfers do Jiu Jitsu

Kenny Bailey<br>:

just because of balance and others

Ian Larios:

just just because like the community of it, okay, like, I mean, lots of Brazilians do jujitsu lots of Brazilian surf, but I think it's more so just like the the rush of it, but it's just there's something that's very common in the both of them, I think. And I think it connects with balance. And it's both they're both rough sports, so you got to do them consistently to be good at and like you're not just gonna like surf twice and be like, decent at it and you're not gonna do jitsu twice and be decent at it. And so anyways, they're going to their, their plan was to go to Bali and open up a martial arts gym. And I love Bali. Growing up in Malaysia, we should go there every Christmas, you know. And my goal was eventually to buy a house in Bali. Like once when I was like 11 years old. I told my dad like my goal is to buy a house here in Bali and live here. And so again, that was another moment where like a light bulb went off in my head, I'm like I can do in Bali. What what the chef's in Tiger Muay Thai was doing there. And so I just wanted to get there early. You know, it was one of those things where if I was early to the game, yeah, I felt like I could have have something that could be I mean, have to have something in the future, you know, have something like a restaurant or build something or have early access to the fight team. And so went out there. And it was literally to the super early days of it. But there was a couple guys that were making their pro debuts. And those were my first like legitimate pro athletes that I worked with, and so did full camp with them. There were two brothers, Gianni and Keanu Suba, who are still some of my best friends to this day. So we lived together, I cooked for him for eight, eight weeks, we did a full camp together. And that was the first time I got like a legitimate. It wasn't a legitimate paycheck.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

But you got something. Yeah, she

Tom Regal:

got some I got some

Ian Larios:

cash. And I was the first time where I was like, Maybe I'm onto something. Yeah, maybe this is something that if I keep at it, it will grow. And sure enough, it was one of those things where I just kept plugging away and then started flying to different countries. Anthony Leone had had a bad motorcycle accident and he got his like, toes ripped off. And he said he was never going to fight again. And him being who he is. took that as a challenge. And he used to find 135 pounds, and he was a big 130 fiber. Yeah. And he called me and he said, Hey, what do you think about me going down to flyweight, which is 125 pounds, which is where Dustin fights so it's a it's a much smaller weight class, smaller frame, but and this was coming off this motorcycle injury. And I was like, let's do it. Like it was a challenge that I thought was worth it. And I mean, he was probably 170 pounds at the time. Oh my gosh, right, coming off coming off that injury. And so he did it. And he was signed with a promotion called ACB in Russia, which is like this mobster. Crazy Yeah. Fight company where there's definitely not money laundering going on. And they have huge crowds, but they don't really Yeah. And so we did that. And he was super successful. I mean, definitely wasn't easy, but it was my first look at like, how I could improve, you know?

Kenny Bailey<br>:

Yeah, I mean, that's a that's a big challenge because you not only have to drop it you have drop healthy and like you said he's got to drop ready and he's got to drop a ball and he's got

Ian Larios:

to and he's got to fly across the world and be able to go perform now. And so we went to Dagestan together and Dagestan is a crazy is is it should be its own country in Russia. You know, that's where a lot of these guys were could be I don't know if you guys are MMA fans, but could be even regardless of his from there. And he's he's one of the biggest stars. He's retired now. But you'll see that's probably one of the biggest hotbeds of MMA right now just because they do combat Samba, which is basically MMA and PE School. I teach him that. And I just have cauliflower like these kids have cauliflower ears, they're all big scars all over their fastest, build tough, tough people up in the mountains in Russia, so it's just tough people. And we flew out there. It was for a title fight. And he fought a guy named Oscar Oscar off, who is number one ranked in the UFC right now. And he ended up beating Anthony. But that day, I was like, bro, that guy's gonna be like guys, world champion. And now he's number one contender in the UFC. And the crazy thing was that journey there was three years in the making. And it was a moment where I'd like had to step back and be like, my goal was to do this with people I cared about travel all over the world. And even though we didn't get the win, it was one of those things where I sat back. And I was like, This is crazy, because it's been Yeah, this is exactly what you wanted for yourself.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

Yeah, you didn't get the win. But you're at the dance. Right? Yeah. I mean, that's that he was. So you're sitting in your car outside? Yeah, a few years ago. And here, you're at the dance, right? And this guy's that close to winning. And

Ian Larios:

it was one fight one fight away. That was one fight away from the UFC, for sure. And his goal was to be in the UFC. And I mean, he had a thriving business in Bali, you know, he was, he'd been fighting for a while. And that was kind of his last, like, last shot at it. Yeah, so seeing that kind of like, fizzle out, because like, I wanted it for him so bad. Like, I feel like I wanted almost more. He wanted it. Just because I was still so young in my career, you know, like, I thought he was gonna be like, my guy that I was in the UFC, and we're gonna but I mean, that was towards the tail end of his career. And from there, I got to like the next week, I got an Instagram message from the guy I work for today, George Lockhart, who was one of the guys that kind of was working with all the champions Conor McGregor. You know, Cain Velasquez, when he was when he was the heavyweight champion, and he basically offered me a job on the spot through Instagram messenger, because he'd been following me and he'd been doing nice what I've been doing and and yeah, I mean, he that was a goal to work with UFC guys. And he basically offered me that on the spot. And, and yeah, I mean, I've had the chance to work with five UFC champions now. Nice, nice one that was only a champion. I've we've won four titles together. But then one was a new, a new champion that I worked with, for most of his career, and up until that fight, so

Kenny Bailey<br>:

so when you, let's talk about the process, right? You get introduced to these guys, you help us understand sort of, like how many months out the only thing I can equate it to is sort of bodybuilding or other where they're where they're bulking up at the beginning, right? Where when you look at bodybuilders, right? They're they're stacking on weight. They're trying to get the muscle definition, and then they start cutting, you know, a few months into it. Is it a similar process? Or what's the process when you win? How many like if you're four months out from a fight, or three months out from a fight? How do you how do you start with those guys? Is it the same across the board? Or do you have to tailor it as you get closer?

Ian Larios:

It's definitely tailored. Kind of depends how much weight they have to cut, but these guys don't do that bulking phase. I mean, usually outside of camp, they'll just these guys just eat what they want. So technically, they're bulking because they're at such a calorie surplus where like,

Kenny Bailey<br>:

yeah, it's not an intentional thing. They just like pizza. I don't want that. Adam calls it a dirty bulk. dirty bulking have been dirty bulking for 35 years now. I'm getting I'm just about ready to get my cut phase. I'm still at the dirty ball more

Ian Larios:

years or a couple more years are totally gonna cut. So yeah, I mean, it kind of depends on the guy, but like, let's say for example, for Daniel Cormier who was the light heavyweight, heavyweight champion and funny thing about DC is I waited in line at the Fan Expo, when I this was this was like when I was living in Vegas and I got a picture with them but I waited in line for like an hour and a half to get a picture with them. And add the picture on my Instagram. It's a picture of me when I was 20. And he was he was young in the game two I think he was only eight and now and then the night that he won and he won that the heavyweight title and he was like heavyweight champion at the time so he became the double champ have a picture with him nice and did like a side by side comparison of young me that waited in line. However starcher how it's going Vegas actually and then helping him win a heavyweight world title. But that was an eight week camp with him. So I showed up there since it was a heavyweight we were more focus on performance than anything. Certainly dialing in his recovery, his nutrition, but he obviously outside of camp he enjoys it since he was a heavyweight now he definitely enjoyed just food, being able to because he when you find a 205 you cut a substantial amount of weight and that camp would be 12 weeks, you know, just trying to get down to 205.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

So is it lean vegetables? Is it like our lean protein, vegetables,

Ian Larios:

lots of lean protein, but it's easy wrestling all the time. So lots of carbs, you know,

Kenny Bailey<br>:

what kind of carbs are you specifically?

Ian Larios:

Lots of he loves white rice. So doing jazz we'll do I'll do two Thai dishes for him. So white rice. Loves potatoes too. So just do healthy clean potato recipes. He loves tater tots. So I'll do like a homemade cat. Oh, especially, I mean, obviously, if you make it from scratch, you can kind of control more of the health side aspect of it.

Tom Regal:

You know, you can make all the flour. I don't. You don't take all the nutrition out of it. No,

Ian Larios:

no, that's, that's funny. They still taste good. Yeah, it still tastes the same.

Tom Regal:

I'm sure there. Do you think that

Kenny Bailey<br>:

because of your Asian influence, right, that you're making sauces and doing that I'm gonna make a gross assumption and tell me if I'm wrong. But I feels to me that some of the dishes coming out of Asia can be a lot cleaner, if you will, then American dishes, right? Yeah, were less processed stuff less fat. So by leaning on that more is that is it a safe assumption to think that you can still eat really fantastically good tasting stuff without having to load up with a ton of fat and, and you know, lard and everything else? Yeah, butter and all that. Yeah.

Ian Larios:

But so for sure. I mean, the biggest thing for me was like when I got when I started getting into was to do good food. Yeah, like just I wanted to make great food and like him being from Louisiana. He loved gumbo. Obviously gumbo, something that will stick to yours to your bones. And so I doing like a healthy rendition of that, that still can kind of fit in our camp structure that he can eat and still enjoy and like he loved it. It was one of those things where like he asked me to make it for him after the fight. Yeah. And I didn't change anything. Yeah, like it was still like it wasn't like he wanted to eat a bunch of pizza after the fight. He's like he made the gumbo that's all that's and you know, it's one of those things where I didn't feel like we were dieting and obviously he didn't need to technically diet for a heavyweight heavyweight fight but he also wasn't eating a bunch of pizza and a bunch of garbage garbage you know, he's he's a huge Popeye's fans so I do like a healthy air fried version of like that which he he's still to this day talks trash about. That's hard. It's hard to make like you're doing it forever. And he fries brown pretty close. Like it's air fry. Like

Kenny Bailey<br>:

don't go look at the belt again. See that? You don't get that doesn't equal Popeye's fried eggs. Yeah. So when you're cutting, so when someone's cutting weight, and you got an eight week program, how's that a little bit different than you know, corymbia? He obviously he doesn't need to worry about

Ian Larios:

it. Yeah, is it? So for example, I'm like I like Paul Felder, who's a huge he retired. He's in triathlons down. He's Ironman. Now, Stan, not they're crushing it. So if you guys look him up, he's huge.

Tom Regal:

He's not my age group.

Ian Larios:

He might be. But he's, yeah, he's he's crushing and triathlons. But with him. This was before he found that. So he always struggled with his weight post, like post fight, he'd probably get up to 195. And he fights at 155 pounds. So 195 190 I might be adding a couple pounds to that. So a few years. Let's say 190 plus or minus.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

But a handsome 190 That

Ian Larios:

always remind them how handsome he is. And so you find out 155 pounds. And so he trains so hard because he he's a workhorse. But he'd be doing sparring rounds, grappling rounds, things that are hard on the body. And obviously it affects you the next day. Sure. Yeah. You know, something where like, he can push himself now on the bike. And he can do 60 Miles 50 Miles and still be able to train the next day because he's in phenomenal shape. But he's not having that kind of wear and tear that you would if you're throwing bones at someone. Yeah, you know, and so structuring his camp prior to him finding triathlon was completely different, where it was like he needed to be in a calorie deficit for seven weeks straight, but it's obviously making it a calorie deficit where he could still perform, but like he fought in New Zealand and I came out from Bali four weeks before the fight. And he was about 185 pounds when I was there. And then he stepped on the scale in Auckland in New Zealand, for he was headlining that card and he was 150 155 and a half pounds, and it was a fairly easy way cut because we structured her properly. And I was there watching him train and I was kind of seeing how he was recovering. We're tracking all his sleep, his HRV so I was there every training session watching him seeing how he was feeling, seeing how he was responding to certain things that would we'd incorporate into his into his meals. So that was probably the most like I guess like the most hands on that I've been because I've been able to see Obviously, it's different when I'm when I'm like working with someone remotely, you get the perfect plan for someone, you know. But on paper, it might be the perfect plan. But how it actually applies to them and their body in training is a completely different thing. Yeah, so I was seeing it like actively, like play out in front of me, I need to readjust his car for this day, or he slept bad this day, we need to pull something back. And it was one of the heavier fighters that I've had. But it was one of the easiest weight cuts that he's had his whole career. And he had some horrible wobbly cuts.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

So throughout the day, when you see a fighter like that, you mentioned a couple of times, sort of like, you know, look at a sleep pattern, look at his recovery, look at sort of where he's at. naive and stupid question here. But is there a more? They always say breakfast is the more most important meal of the day? What At what point do you how do you lay out a particular day? Is it is it light, because you know, he's going to do training in the morning, and then you sort of feed it in the afternoon? Or how does that balance sort of work throughout the day.

Ian Larios:

So kind of just depends what he's doing. I mean, he has some early morning lifts, where we just do some, like fast burning carbohydrates in the morning, little bit of protein. And then most of most of the days were early, so we weren't going too heavy in the morning. So it's more so just getting bigger meals and after and kind of punishing what he lost. And again, I mean, when you're in a deficit like that, I guess the bigger meals you can have, at least for him, he was getting bigger meals in after the workouts just because we're having that gap in between Sure, between meals, you know, so it's like, if he had a 7am Lifting session, it's a 30 minute drive, there's no need for him to wake up at five just to eat a meal. Yeah, rushed, get less sleep, and, and kind of have to force that meal down. I'd rather have him with his schedule, have some sort of energy source that's relatively low calorie, a high energy, go train, and then re feed him after that. And then second breakfast, because that's what he was looking forward to. Yeah, like,

Kenny Bailey<br>:

only one person that doesn't look forward to second breakfast.

Ian Larios:

One person that would want to wake up an hour earlier, to force force down his son's dime, and come up for another two hours and then go to a strength conditioning session. And so it's kind of, and he'd usually forced a meal down before. But then he feel like he was still digesting and like,

Tom Regal:

your strength session isn't strict quality was

Ian Larios:

what it should be. And like you just feel for you just feel like your body is focused on digesting as opposed to, like, blood blood circulating through your body.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

Yeah, how much? Did supplements play? You know, you're a lot of these bodybuilders and other people taking like pre workout supplements and other supplements. Were those incorporated as well. Or was it you try to keep it as clean as possible?

Ian Larios:

Yeah, I mean, all the all the supplements we use are all third party tested and everything. Yeah, it's more so like, we'll use like creatine good. Like a fast burning carbohydrate, like a dextran or something of that sort. Just during the workouts just because he's doing high intensity workouts, so just kind of intra intra workout nutrition. And then every now and then we do some some probiotics if if he was having some sort of digestion issues, issues. But in terms of supplements, we take some joint stuff, some omegas wherever we felt like we were lacking in nutrition and didn't want to add a surplus of calories. We could kind of supplement there. But it wasn't like our

Kenny Bailey<br>:

you didn't have like a big giant we weren't relying on Yeah, supplement. What I find fascinating is what it's it's sort of a you're reacting, right? You're you're paying attention to what's going on. It's not just like to your point, okay, here's the plan. And you know, good luck. It's like, Uh, okay, let's see what we're doing here. You're not adding supplements just for the sheer sake of it's like, we don't want to add calories, but we do need to look at joint health. So let's do something here. Like, it feels like more surgical than it does just sort of, you know, carpet bomb, I guess. Is that a safe thing to say?

Ian Larios:

For sure. Because it's one of those things that's completely customized. You know, there's no nutrition you get out of the perfect nutrition plan, but it doesn't apply to everyone. Yeah, no, it's different for everyone. Everyone's gonna respond differently. Everyone's got different training levels. Everyone's got different goals. So it's like I'm sitting there watching like, that's all I do for three weeks. Yeah, my nutrition my everything doesn't really matter. That guy just hit yes. Because he's he hired me to be there to help him the best of my ability so um, I kept track his sleep, you know, I didn't want him looking at his sleep. So I logged him out of his his his app, and I just logged in, so he didn't have to think about it. Like if he didn't have good sleep and like his HR He was bad for that day and like his, his readiness score was down. I'd pull back and I tell his coaches to pull back a little bit. You know, just because I don't need him thinking like, Oh, I'm like, I'm under recovered. Yep. Yeah, under field. And

Tom Regal:

that's the psychological aspect of it, taking away from him. Right?

Ian Larios:

Exactly. Which, I mean, it's great to have the loop and all that and have you HIV, but sometimes, the mental aspect of shortening, you're unprepared would say, Oh, maybe I am unprepared. Yeah,

Kenny Bailey<br>:

there's a article coming out. And there's a study that's going on on people that are that are becoming like, they're, they're becoming stressed out because they didn't hit their 10,000 steps, because that's what their watch told them to do. Right? versus kind of what do I feel good? And what does well, so I think, I my theory is at some point in time, there's gonna be a backlash on on some of these devices. I think you're starting to see it because we started off, it's like, oh, cool data, and then start looking to date. And then we start relying on data. And then we forget about, you know, we're actually humans, and we change.

Tom Regal:

So how much technology are you using for that? Like, the whoop and stuff? Because they can't fight with a watch on right. So a lot of it, how do you track that calorie burn? How do you track that?

Ian Larios:

Well, I say we pretty much like a whoop, or an aura ring. And then we'll use a heart rate monitor, like a high level heart rate monitor, because watches and whoops, they they highly overestimate how many calories you're burning. Yeah, I mean, I'd say anywhere between like 30 to 70%. Yeah. Which is obviously that's a huge Yes. Yeah. But I just I get in bouts with guys where they're like, Oh, I burned 3500 calories today in my 45 minute grappling session, right? Like, no. I'm sorry. Yeah. That's cute. But

Tom Regal:

those calories? Yeah, no.

Ian Larios:

And I mean, I'll give you those calories. But you'll see. Yeah, you'll see tomorrow.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

Yeah, but you fight as well, right? I mean, I thought before Yeah. So you're kind of you understand sort of what that what that is. Do you think that as opposed to somebody that just comes in sort of off the street that is a good chef, nutritionist? For normal? You You understand you've been in that situation? I've been

Ian Larios:

in that situation, but I'm more so to it's just like you can't rely on like a watch is calorie data. Yeah. Just because it says you burned this many calories in a workout. So it's more so like, you can't rely on that. And like if you're not like, let's say you're not losing weight, or you feel like you've plateaued, and you're going based off your your watches, estimated calories burned, you're going to need to readjust and a lot of people don't. Don't do that just because they think this is right. Yeah, this, this is how many calories I'm burning, I should still be in a deficit, when really, they're under estimating how many calories they're eating. They're overestimating how many calories? It says they're burning, and they're not counting calories. Usually they're not counting calories on the weekend or

Kenny Bailey<br>:

Yeah, stuff. So I mean, this is a good transition. So for the average human that is getting their head cut off. Or, you know, trying to help the Russian Yeah, you know, money scene is that kind of the number one thing is just a gross sort of underestimate of kind of what they eat when they really start tracking it. Because you know, like, oh, yeah, well, I had a, you know, had a Coke, but I didn't really put that down because I didn't you know, I was at a restaurant. Is that where you see, like the biggest problem people have?

Ian Larios:

I think just as in terms of depends what their goals are, obviously, but I just know, from the people that I've worked with, that are just regular, just everyday athletes kind of workout three or four times a week, you know, they definitely underestimate those things are the watt they overestimate in terms of the watch. But in terms of like,

Kenny Bailey<br>:

what habit do you have to break usually when you start working with sort of regular athletes, if you will,

Ian Larios:

understanding that their goals are completely different, you know, it's understanding that there and the thing I try to push with them is like, I'm not going to treat them like a professional athlete. You know, I'd rather have them teach them how to have just better habits or have something that's like a lifestyle change something they can incorporate into their just daily life or their family's daily life that makes all them better, or all them happier, all them healthier. You know, we don't need to have this crazy, drastic change. You know, they're training three or four times a week. Like we don't need to look like a professional MMA fighter, you know, whatever their goal is, like, if they want to do a half a marathon, it's like, let's slowly build our miles up, fuel you and then do your half marathon you know, we don't need we don't need to be practicing to run a marathon for a half marathon. Yeah. And so like that mentality of having to make all these changes, and like, men can sustain they can sustain them, you know, the WWE For, you know, a couple of weeks, and then they'll fall off, and then once they fall off, then those old habits come back. And when those old habits come back, usually they come back harder than when they when they left, or when they stopped doing the first time.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

So what are your thoughts on prep meals? Are you like them don't like them?

Ian Larios:

Prep meals, I mean, as long as you can consistently do something, I'm a fan of it. So if it stops you from adding more more calories or more bad foods to your to your diet or more processed foods to your diet, they're great. You know, it's whatever you can I'm in people that have full time jobs and don't have time to go grocery store and cook and, and do all that. At least you know, how many calories you're getting in at least you know, your, your macronutrient profile? Yeah. And which most people I mean, realistically, they don't need to really know, or most people don't have the knowledge. I mean, people most people know what macronutrients are. But how that applies to like their training, like, goes completely over their head. So it's like sometimes trying like obsessing over macros, when there's really no need to, like, the scale, the scale isn't the tell. You know, like, if you're feeling good, you're performing well. There's really no need to obsess over that, you know, unless you have like a specific weight or Yeah, or something that you have to you have to be at this real No, no need to dig. Just have that be your obsession.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

Yeah, I think there's a interesting thing that you're just bringing up consistently, which is in in triathlon world, it's, you know, rate of perceived effort, or RPE. Yeah. That, to your point, your watch may say, you're doing something differently, but like, wow, I'm feeling good. Like, I, this is not bad. Like, I've had a great workout, but I look at Oh, my heart rate should be is higher than it should be, or whatever else you rate, a perceived effort is kind of something that's important. You should pay attention to. Right.

Ian Larios:

Yeah. And I mean, that's the thing too, like, you don't need to be a hero every day. You know, like, the thing about that, like, just because you feel good. And like, let's see, you're going off the metrics of your of your heart rate monitor, you can push more, doesn't mean you should it doesn't mean you wish, I

Kenny Bailey<br>:

mean, it's not a true Ironman. So clearly, you haven't Ironman training, because Because good is good and better. Must be better. Yeah. Faster.

Ian Larios:

Oh, come on, you know, sometimes less is more. Which I needed to I see. That's my my clients I work with, but I would never take that. My own advice in that sense. Because like, my rate of perceived exertion. Well, it says two to three. And when I look when I really look at it, it's about a four. Yeah. And is that consistent? Yeah, maybe not. But, um, I'll find out, you know, yeah.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

So Can Can Can you have beer during a training session? Is that an okay thing? Where does alcohol sort of fit in? No, in all seriousness, right, you know, like, because I was, you know, I tried to get myself like, okay, Friday night, I'm gonna have you know, it's gonna be my beer night kind of deal, or,

Ian Larios:

I mean, that's the thing you just got to depends. Depends if you can, if you track it. Yeah, for sure. But lots of people don't track it. Yeah.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

No, no, that's a Friday night. That's yeah, exactly.

Ian Larios:

A week, it's a weekend. Yeah. You don't want to put in five days of work. Just to have that six day. Blow it out. Blow it out. Yeah, you know, and you can go super heavy on that six day and it could set you back, you know, like a night of heavy drinking or a night of drinking. I was reading a study that was saying that your HRV rate is messed up for five days post post check an HRV is when your heart rate varies, okay. Yeah, sorry, we've

Kenny Bailey<br>:

said it a few times. So

Ian Larios:

so it's just more so like, it's basically just tells you how in shape you are and like, obviously, like alcohol and all that fun and has its place, but as long as you're tracking it, it can still obviously be incorporated to into being successful at whatever your goal is. But um, everything in moderation. You know, it's one of those things that if you can, if you can have it in moderation, and still still hit your goals, and by all means, why not? Yeah, I love pizza and cinnamon rolls, but since I'm doing 75 hard right now and just dreaming. Cinnamon Rolls I had a dream the other night that I ate a pizza and woke up

Kenny Bailey<br>:

like you had a piece on your chest and wait a second. Wait, that wasn't a dream.

Tom Regal:

So how far are you into the 75 hard because we had Abby on last year who was doing the 75 hard so how many how many are you counting?

Ian Larios:

I haven't been counting because I'm not halfway there yet. Okay, almost halfway there but I think I'm on today's day 35

Tom Regal:

Do you do your workout first thing this morning? I didn't

Ian Larios:

know I so I got I got to do today but yeah, my runs my runs are the easier one but I I gotta structure because cuz like yesterday, I got kind of got backed up and I did my run super late at night. And that kind of just, obviously doesn't help with my sleep. Yeah, I'm getting my heart rate up and getting all pumped up for a run at 11 o'clock at night and trying to go to bed at. Yeah, 1230 it's not not ideal. Yeah.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

Yeah, I think the challenge, I think you hit it sort of, especially weekend warriors, right. And for me, it's a difficult thing if I've had a long day, like 1011 hours, right? And I'm driving home. It's like, I know there's not. I don't want to spend the next 30 minutes cooking. Yeah, yeah, right. I don't wanna have cereal. Yeah, because that's generally my like, I'll just get a bowl of cereal. And so what I end up doing, and also as I get hungrier, like their burger keeps sounding better. Right, as as it goes along, where it's six o'clock, it was like, I could probably eat something clean. 730 I'm like, man, now I'm really hungry. I just, you know, kill it. It's, it's cheap. It's fast. It's easy. It's easy. Right? How do you you know, what are your recommendations on people that are doing those sort of long days? You know, they don't want to stop by the grocery store. They know, they don't have something at home. Is there another hour of cooking? Yeah. Right. And then I gotta clean it. aside. Yeah, exactly.

Ian Larios:

I mean, the biggest thing is honestly preparing to be successful. You know, if you prepare the day before, whether it's you make you prep a meal, grab a rotisserie chicken, grab some veggies, have that in the fridge, you know, just pull that apart. You know, throw some some potatoes in the microwave, throw them in the airfryer. Like you're saying, like, it's it's easy things that you can do. But it honestly all comes down to preparation. Like obviously, if you don't have any food in the fridge, that's not an option. But if you have food in the fridge that's prepped, or is just relatively easy. Yeah, you know, you're setting yourself up and like you're gonna have less resistance, you know, the more resistance you have. The harder it's going to be sure, you know, so you can set up a path of least resistance where it's like, okay, I have a rotisserie chicken in the fridge. I have an avocado. I have some potatoes. Yep. You're saying you know, you have you have a balanced meal? Yeah, you know, you have something that like you can, it's obviously you can throw some seasonings on there and like have a hot meal basically prepared to go for you at home, or take 1015 minutes. Or you can compromise and stop on the way home. But I mean, that's based off your goals and you prepare that and you have kind of have that ready at home, like you're setting yourself up to be successful. Sure, you know,

Kenny Bailey<br>:

because the challenge also there like prep meals, for example. It's like, you know, chicken and rice four days in a row is kinda, you know, yeah, again, I'm not training for a championship. It's, you know, yeah, I need to eat cleaner. I'm trying to do a better job. But maybe that's, that's what the sauces are all about, right is like just with rice seasonings. Yeah, cuz flavors and your seasoning.

Ian Larios:

You could have three sauces that are prepping me. I mean, it's you that gives us a barbecue sauce. And this low carb barbecue sauces. Yeah, there's, there's a lot of options out there.

Tom Regal:

Finding the stuff that doesn't have all the added sugars, for me is always the challenge because it just trying to reduce that part of it alone. And then it's like all these sauces, you start looking at, like sugars, the third item down on the list, and you're like, really, there is

Ian Larios:

a second. And it was one of those things where it's it's tough to do, but there's some good options out there. Yes, you can do that you like and do that. And I mean, it doesn't obviously you don't need to be like super dialed in every single day if you're just trying to just get in shape and trying to have a routine. But I think the more you can set yourself up to be successful. Yeah, those are those little things, you know, like, in my mind, like having that in the fridge is like my non negotiable, you know, having good food options is my non negotiable. Yeah, you know, I'm not gonna, and obviously, every now and then I won't, but I mean, doing 75 hard. I've really had to, like maximize my time that I have, because I obviously work a full time job as well here. And it's one of those things where it's like, it's easy to, I guess, try to not do those things where like, it's easy to like, stop and I grabbed like a burger Chipotle. You know, but it's also me kind of compromising, you know, I'm compromising my, what my I set for myself originally. Yeah, you know, and that was to stay on the diet, stay consistent. And consistency is everything if you can be consistent. That That's enough, you know, whatever it may be, and that's an anything good and consistency is consistency is everything.

Tom Regal:

Yeah, instead of hitting homeruns you can just base it off and just kind of keep consistent with something easy. It'll make it and you know

Ian Larios:

that success but the quote, there's a quote that I love and it says it's it's better to be consistently good than occasionally Great. Alright, it's one of those things where it's like, you don't need to hit a homerun every single time. Yeah, and a lot of people have their lives by doing one great deed, you know, doing one great day of working out and then they're just done for the rest of the six days. It was better to be good. And stay on track consistently. Yeah. Do it five, four days a week and then

Kenny Bailey<br>:

the amount of guilt I'm feeling right now. We'll talk about a great man before Yeah, well, I got lucky. So So what do you have coming up with so what do you got going on?

Ian Larios:

So I got a long race coming up. I'm actually prepping for the Bali hope Ultra which is us 57 mile race across the middle of Bali. So you go from basically coast to coast to the middle of the island. So you go through all sorts of different terrains as volcanoes. There's

Tom Regal:

that sounds fabulous. There's three

Ian Larios:

dogs that you got to pick your pace up on? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

It's gonna be pretty muggy there too. I mean, volleys? Yeah. Humid all the time, right.

Ian Larios:

Yeah. I think they said expect 97% humidity. Nice. Wow. So wow, that's gonna be interesting. I've never I've never run a marathon. So okay, so jump right ahead, jump right ahead. So my my mentality for training is I'm gonna run just under a marathon. I'll do it a couple days a week, we're all just just run slightly under marathon. So then on race day, my first marathon will be bigger. Yeah. On race. Yeah.

Tom Regal:

You'll do two marathons back to

Ian Larios:

back. Yeah, no, but the obviously my training volume has to go up. I'm not just running. I'm doing more of like a hybrid training program and still lifting a lot. I'll grapple every now and then. And then I was trying to get my miles up. So I got that in September, which is gonna be exciting. So tonight run so throughout the whole night, that isn't, that is going to be 10 hours as my

Tom Regal:

my goal. Nice. Sweet. So

Ian Larios:

hopefully, that's a realistic expectation for myself. Oh, yeah.

Tom Regal:

Yeah, you'll know, a few weeks before

Kenny Bailey<br>:

finishing is the realistic expectation. finishing strong finishing for

Tom Regal:

sure. Finish is the goal. Anything under 10? Would be great. Sub

Ian Larios:

Sub Sub 10 is yeah, what I'm gonna be Yeah, luckily, I got good friends there that will be my pacers for a few miles. Yeah. But I have friends too, that will run 10 miles and then at completely exhausted. Exactly. I got another 47 to go. Yeah. That's, that's coming up. And yeah, so I'm kind of just focusing on that. And, and, yeah, it'll be interesting. I, I need to set challenges for myself and have some sort of struggle. You know, I think I think in struggle, we see who we truly are. And putting a 57 mile race in front of me is something that I know I'm going to struggle with. And another training is going to be hard. But every time I struggled in life, I feel like I've hugely benefited from and in all aspects. So

Kenny Bailey<br>:

yeah, I mean, I've always said, you know, I try to do something that's gonna scare the shit out of me a little bit, right? Because that's what gets you up in the morning, that's for sure. That's what that's

Ian Larios:

that's what I think more people need to do those things, you know, cuz I think, I mean, this all started from me being I mean, there was no moment where I was confident that this was ever gonna happen for me, you know, there was no moment. I believed it would if I if I put the work in. And but I mean, sometimes sometimes we have that voice in our head that tells us we're not we're not capable of certain things. And that voice is still there. You know, it's there every day, but it's more quiet. When I when I struggle there, you know, the more I push myself and the more I let it know that I'm in charge, yeah.

Tom Regal:

When you're looking down the road, sometimes people forget to focus on what's in front of you one step at a time, how you're going to get through the race, you're gonna go one step at a time, you're just gonna keep going through, but if you keep looking down, it seems daunting and it gets bigger and 17 overwhelmed. Yeah, right. But you just

Kenny Bailey<br>:

put you're not doing 57 You're just doing a couple marathons. That's it. I mean, it's just it's, it really is. I mean, you should break it down, right? Hey, I'm

Ian Larios:

just gonna palm trees. I

Tom Regal:

know basically, you're gonna

Kenny Bailey<br>:

you're doing for half marathons right?

Tom Regal:

You can do a half marathon

Ian Larios:

I'll do right now. Right now.

Tom Regal:

Yeah, you break it down mentally and you'll be okay go on that. So how can we how can we follow you on social What are your socials

Ian Larios:

so I just have Instagram. I'm not quite a talker yet. I have been told that I need to to talk. And that's what it's called.

Tom Regal:

Tick tock. Tick tock. Yeah,

Kenny Bailey<br>:

I don't know. Yeah, I've been told that to

Ian Larios:

tick tocking Yeah, that will not be on Tik Tok. But my Instagram is Chef Larios le AR iOS. And, yeah, so the race. The cool thing about the race is it's for charity. So it's a charity in Bali that helps underprivileged youth get access to education. And it's in an area that's super impoverished where these kids really have no opportunity besides farm and be laborers. So this gives them access education. So again, I grew Abram great parents that pushed me to pursue my dreams. And if I can have that impact on one person to this race, and have a young kid from Bali, go to go to a good school or get access to something that they're passionate about, then I will have rip all my toenails off and nasty blisters to do that, because there you go. That's what it's all about.

Tom Regal:

That's correct. Well, what's the name of the race again,

Ian Larios:

just to Bali, hope Ultra. Okay, so

Tom Regal:

we will post all that stuff up. Yeah, make sure that we have the charity name and all the other stuff to donate to it. Absolutely. Fantastic. So I'm going

Ian Larios:

to try to kind of document the whole the whole training process as well. Okay, cuz, yeah, I know, I don't look like the normal Ultra runner with all my tattoos and kind

Kenny Bailey<br>:

of look like a normal Ultra runner. Actually, you're more into an ultra runner than

Ian Larios:

a gangster tattoo. Oh, no, no, no, no.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

Yeah. ultra runners have Yeah,

Tom Regal:

yeah, they're it's actually it's a great community. They look nothing like anyone thinks that they look like it's great. When you see them all together. You just go wow, it's just It could be anybody.

Ian Larios:

Yeah. The cool thing about this race is people from all over the world with the same same common goal is to help. Yeah, and Bali has done so much for me. You know, it's been a place where, where it all started, you know, if I didn't have that platform early on, things could have been very different. Yeah, no. So it's a place where it's my happy place. And it's where I want to build my dream home. It's where I want to build my family. So it's a place that I will get back to any chance I get.

Tom Regal:

And we want to come visit. Valley dude training camp was

Kenny Bailey<br>:

back in September. Recovery

Tom Regal:

and be fantastic. So thank you so much. It's been great to get to know you more and have great conversations. So thank you so much for having me. Really appreciate it. Kenny, this has been fantastic, everyone. Thank you for listening. We appreciate all your comments and, and all that fun stuff. So sums up five stars, whatever it takes. All of that helps the algorithms and gets us gets us out to more and more people. So appreciate everyone and we'll catch on the next one.