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Professional athletes don't get to the top by accident. It takes superhuman levels of time, dedication, and focus—and that includes paying attention to what they put in their bellies. In this series, GQ takes a look at what pro athletes in different sports eat on a daily basis to perform at their best. Here's a look at the daily diet of James Lawrence, one of the baddest men alive.

An Ironman, if you don’t know, is the most murderous and sadistic triathlon there is: a 2.4-mile swim followed by a 112-mile bike ride, capped off with a marathon. Best known for the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii, it’s a race that many top athletes wouldn’t dream of attempting.

This summer, James Lawrence did 50 of them in 50 days, starting in Hawaii on June 6, then Alaska on June 7, and after that all 48 contiguous states. “There’s a difference between training for one Ironman and 50 Ironmans,” he says.

“I wasn’t eating just to fuel for the moment or that day, I was eating for today, tomorrow, and the next day. There’s an incredible compounding effect of nutrition. A lot of people tend to think that if you’re an athlete and have the right amount of exercise, that kinda gives you the green light to just shovel shit into you.”

Which is kind of how the thing got started. Lawrence is a father of five, and decided to run the 50 races this summer to promote awareness of childhood obesity. “We’re huge on eating dinner as a family,” he says. “The reason we’re obese is because not many people are preparing food anymore. We’re in a society of fast-paced, instant-gratification attitudes, so a lot of people aren’t taking the time to do home-cooked meals anymore.”

"I believe in a B-plus average when it comes to eating. It’s hard in today’s society to be an A-plus Nazi vegan all the time."

A standard go-to for those family meals is the stir-fry, or something else that allows for piles of whatever vegetables are on hand. Potatoes or rice supply the carbs, and meat rounds out the protein.

“Typically, I go for either steak or chicken. I’m definitely not vegetarian, I’m not a vegan. It’s kind of the trendy thing to do now, be a plant-based athlete. And I would say I am a plant-based athlete because I consume a ton of greens. Lots of salad, lots of green vegetables, but I also don’t shy away from the meat lineup.”

There’s little he does shy away from, actually. During training for the 50-50, he ate anywhere from 4,500 to 6,500 calories a day (the discrepancy comes from not counting calories, but just eating when he was hungry). During the main event, his intake went up to 8,500 calories each day, half of which he consumed during the race: 2,000 calories between the swim and the bike ride (usually eggs and potatoes), then another 2,000 on the bike (mostly sandwiches handed off to him during the ride).

But he trained knowing that he and his family would be moving from state to state and race to race in an RV, with little time to pick up or prepare meals along the way—so he had to be sure his body was prepared to get through each race on “normal” food. He invited people in every state to join him on the last leg of the marathon, and most dinners and bike sandwiches were supplied by coordinators in each city. Lawrence didn’t have the luxury of relying on a highly specialized diet when so much of what he ate was out of his hands.

“Sometimes I had sushi, because it’s what was available. I had a porterhouse steak one time, a beet burger another time with mozzarella and mushrooms on it. My body became such an efficient burning machine that I could eat anything.”

There was one thing Lawrence had to make sure to avoid—anything spicy. The idea of eating something cayenne-heavy, then churning on a bike for hours, is enough to make even an Ironman gag. (Or worse.) It’s times like those that a taste-testing wife is a huge advantage. “Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a good doughnut when it’s presented to me. I believe in a B-plus average when it comes to eating. It’s hard in today’s society to be an A-plus Nazi vegan all the time. There are guys out there who make it work, but I don’t want to be those guys. I can maintain an average life with a B average, eating clean 80 percent of the time and allowing myself to indulge in some of the delicious treats this country has to offer.”

Pre-workout breakfastOatmeal with walnuts, coconut, and honey

Post-workout breakfast6 scrambled eggs with cheese, hash browns with peppers and avocado

Grazing throughout the dayNutsFruitBeef jerky

LunchSteak enchiladas, green salad

DinnerShrimp curry with squash, mushroom, broccoli, and cauliflower, with rice and raw cucumbers

Luke Darby is a contributor to GQ, covering news, entertainment, and the environment. A Louisiana native, he now resides in Cleveland, and his writing has also appeared in Outside, the Dallas Observer, and Marie Claire.Related Stories for GQReal Life DietDads