Great Scott!

Ditch the carbs, go gadget-free, lay off the long runs and listen to your body – Dave Scott unveils his guide to becoming the world’s greatest Ironman.

- Rob Kemp

Dave Scott is on great form. ‘The Man’, as the six-time Ironman World Champion is known, appears, at first glance, to be the best advertisement for a life devoted to endurance sport.

But for all the youthful style that 65-year-old Dave exudes, it soon becomes apparent during his exclusive chat with OFA that not all is as it seems. He opens up about how he’s made monumental changes in his approach to training and diet to not only remain fit and lead the next generation of champions, but to stay alive.

‘I gave athletes the wrong advice for 30 years,’ admits the icon of Ironman. ‘I wasn’t alone in doing so. Sports scientists, athletics coaches, people with backgrounds in exercise physiology, medical doctors; many were keenly aware that carbohydrates are really inflammatory, that they can cause a lot of gastrointestinal distress and that athletes become unhealthily dependent on their steady stream of glucose, but that when it’s consumed in such quantities, the knock-on effects for the body’s vital organs can be devastating.’ For the bulk of his career, Dave Scott followed a diet driven by carbs, that was predominantly fat-free, but, which he now insists, virtually poisoned him.

‘Back then I was myopic. I wanted glucose to be the answer; I wanted to consume gels and gummy bears and all the different drinks, and I could handle them, to an extent. But when you’re not exercising then the storage of them becomes a problem – there are very dangerous side-effects to that, including visceral fat and uric acid; they ruin your blood.’

KICKING AGAINST CONVENTION