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It gets fun now...
First a little update from the nutrition blogs... experiment went well. I definitely made a good shift from being carb dependent on my workouts and felt great. Now I am into pretty heavy training and have started to re-introduce carbs back into my workouts and pre-post recovery periods, but at about half to 3/4 of the rate I was before. So far so good
Onto the next topic, "it gets fun now". This is mainly for my IM athletes. We have been at this training for a few months now, some of it has been fun, and some of it has been tiring. Around this time, the lull can come into play.... the excitement of beginning your training for a Ironman may begin to wear off, but the race is not close enough yet to get overly excited for the race itself. The fatigue will be setting in, the long hours away from home get longer. So how do you handle it?
The next few months will be what you make it. It can be overwhelming, it can be boring, your mind can talk you out of workouts, etc. Or, it can be new, fun, exciting, a test of will power to overcome your brain trying to talk you out of that 2nd workout that day, the early morning workout. From here on out, most of the training will become a mental game (as will most of the IM race. Coincidence?).
How do you beat the mental game of all this "crazy" training? We'll go back to the new, fun, and exciting part. This training is really what you make it. Most have never gone through this training before. Some have never trained for a marathon, some have never completed a century ride, and some have never swam over 2 miles, and if they have, they haven't trained for all 3 at the same time. This can be overwhelming, or it can be new, fun, and exciting. So you put in 100 miles on the bike on Saturday and now you need to drag yourself out of bed Sunday and do a 1-2 ride and then a 20 mile run. Your tired from a full week of work and workouts, what is your attitude going into the workout? Look at it as seeing if you can complete this task you have never attempted before. Instead of questioning why your doing this to yourself, telling yourself you don't want to do this, etc, get excited to complete this workout that you never have before. For most of us, when we started, we never thought we would be doing what we are doing. That can be overwhelming, or exciting. Your choice.
The mind is a beautiful thing, and is also our own worst enemy. Start shifting your thinking now, during training, and it will be easier on race day to stay focused and excited. The lull will still come in training and racing, but how you handle it when it comes on is what matters. Also, if your not great at time management, IM training will make that very clear. As much as possible, learn to work the training around your family and life instead of making training all consuming and pushing the rest to the side the whole time. If that means early morning wake up calls sometimes, it does. If that means you don't meet up with a group for every workout, then that is ok. In fact, its not a bad idea to do some training (yes even the long days), alone. Race day there is not drafting on that 5+ hour bike leg, and rarely will your friends be right at your level and be right next to you race day. So it can be important to also be used to some alone time for long periods out there, remaining focused, and controlling your thoughts when you don't have someone else to take your mind off everything.
Bottom line, enjoy this. Enjoy the training. We put in many many hours and miles to make it to ONE day. Thats a lot of pressure to put on ONE day. I've seen many make it to that one day and something go horribly wrong. Be proud of what it takes to get to that one day, and it will make that one day fun regardless of the outcome!
Onto the next topic, "it gets fun now". This is mainly for my IM athletes. We have been at this training for a few months now, some of it has been fun, and some of it has been tiring. Around this time, the lull can come into play.... the excitement of beginning your training for a Ironman may begin to wear off, but the race is not close enough yet to get overly excited for the race itself. The fatigue will be setting in, the long hours away from home get longer. So how do you handle it?
The next few months will be what you make it. It can be overwhelming, it can be boring, your mind can talk you out of workouts, etc. Or, it can be new, fun, exciting, a test of will power to overcome your brain trying to talk you out of that 2nd workout that day, the early morning workout. From here on out, most of the training will become a mental game (as will most of the IM race. Coincidence?).
How do you beat the mental game of all this "crazy" training? We'll go back to the new, fun, and exciting part. This training is really what you make it. Most have never gone through this training before. Some have never trained for a marathon, some have never completed a century ride, and some have never swam over 2 miles, and if they have, they haven't trained for all 3 at the same time. This can be overwhelming, or it can be new, fun, and exciting. So you put in 100 miles on the bike on Saturday and now you need to drag yourself out of bed Sunday and do a 1-2 ride and then a 20 mile run. Your tired from a full week of work and workouts, what is your attitude going into the workout? Look at it as seeing if you can complete this task you have never attempted before. Instead of questioning why your doing this to yourself, telling yourself you don't want to do this, etc, get excited to complete this workout that you never have before. For most of us, when we started, we never thought we would be doing what we are doing. That can be overwhelming, or exciting. Your choice.
The mind is a beautiful thing, and is also our own worst enemy. Start shifting your thinking now, during training, and it will be easier on race day to stay focused and excited. The lull will still come in training and racing, but how you handle it when it comes on is what matters. Also, if your not great at time management, IM training will make that very clear. As much as possible, learn to work the training around your family and life instead of making training all consuming and pushing the rest to the side the whole time. If that means early morning wake up calls sometimes, it does. If that means you don't meet up with a group for every workout, then that is ok. In fact, its not a bad idea to do some training (yes even the long days), alone. Race day there is not drafting on that 5+ hour bike leg, and rarely will your friends be right at your level and be right next to you race day. So it can be important to also be used to some alone time for long periods out there, remaining focused, and controlling your thoughts when you don't have someone else to take your mind off everything.
Bottom line, enjoy this. Enjoy the training. We put in many many hours and miles to make it to ONE day. Thats a lot of pressure to put on ONE day. I've seen many make it to that one day and something go horribly wrong. Be proud of what it takes to get to that one day, and it will make that one day fun regardless of the outcome!
Update on the fourth sport
Using no sugars for fuel during workouts the last few weeks is still going well no matter how much time I put in, and following it up with a diet that matches to get the body to use more fat for fuel is still going well. After the initial shock, I am now back to a "carb load" every few days, and then I let my body use that for a couple of days before loading again. That is added back in due to the volume of workouts I am doing. (I've now met a few people who have stuck to this paleo/primal way of eating and they would not do the same carb load that I am.)
Workouts are feeling great, and this week I definitely felt the shift in my zones. The first couple weeks my workouts went ok, times stayed fairly even, some days I felt a little low energy. Typical results, so no surprise there. But this past week everything seems to be clicking more and my paces got a bit faster in the same zones and I have much more energy.
I've been finding others out there now making the change also in the endurance world. I had found quite a few who werent putting in a lot of workout time, but it has been nice to find those who are associated with endurance sports and operate this way. Also, I recently one of the Olympic nutrition coaches went ahead and wrote a book on it. Metabolic Efficiency Training by Bob Seebohar. We talk a lot about efficiency in s/b/r, but rarely talk about efficiency in the fourth discipline. We do talk about how much fuel to take in, but we don't always talk about ways to make ourselves more metabolically efficient. Less fuel = less GI distress. For those who have walked into a porta potty on 70.3 and 140.6 courses will know how prevelant GI distress is for athletes the longer they go!!
Ew.. yes.
One way to make sure you are letting your body become efficient is to make sure you stay in your precribed zones, especially on your endurance bike/run days. You may want to go a little faster, but then your sugar vs. fat burning scale tips a little more into the sugar burning, and endurance zone is meant to train your body to become more efficient at burning fat for fuel. And if you decide you want to experiment with no calories on the long slow days, make sure you eat a decent, tame meal before the workout.
Workouts are feeling great, and this week I definitely felt the shift in my zones. The first couple weeks my workouts went ok, times stayed fairly even, some days I felt a little low energy. Typical results, so no surprise there. But this past week everything seems to be clicking more and my paces got a bit faster in the same zones and I have much more energy.
I've been finding others out there now making the change also in the endurance world. I had found quite a few who werent putting in a lot of workout time, but it has been nice to find those who are associated with endurance sports and operate this way. Also, I recently one of the Olympic nutrition coaches went ahead and wrote a book on it. Metabolic Efficiency Training by Bob Seebohar. We talk a lot about efficiency in s/b/r, but rarely talk about efficiency in the fourth discipline. We do talk about how much fuel to take in, but we don't always talk about ways to make ourselves more metabolically efficient. Less fuel = less GI distress. For those who have walked into a porta potty on 70.3 and 140.6 courses will know how prevelant GI distress is for athletes the longer they go!!
Ew.. yes. One way to make sure you are letting your body become efficient is to make sure you stay in your precribed zones, especially on your endurance bike/run days. You may want to go a little faster, but then your sugar vs. fat burning scale tips a little more into the sugar burning, and endurance zone is meant to train your body to become more efficient at burning fat for fuel. And if you decide you want to experiment with no calories on the long slow days, make sure you eat a decent, tame meal before the workout.
The fourth sport
The fourth sport is my emphasis this year, nutrition. My research was done over the winter, some on my own research time, and some research in talking with, and reading up on what other professionals have experimented with. The first 7 days are done, and going well.
What is the experiment? To buck all the endurance world teachings (ok, not ALL, but the vast majority you will find out there) and not live off a carb heavy diet...even during IM training. I am back into full on IM training, and all of my workouts are done on water. Add some glutamine and amino acids and I have my concoction. My food is the opposite ratio you typically see with endurance athletes also. About 50% protein, 25% fat, 25% carbs. Think extreme Paleo Diet for Athletes. Its a little dramatic for where I will eventually end up once this 3 weeks is over, but the nutrition will not go back to what it was the last couple of years of my endurance training. I dabbled in this a time or two before, but not early enough in the year and would go back to my default nutrition.
Why the experiment? To help my body make the shift to using more fat for fuel. Why? Because if we are properly stocked, we have about 2,000 calories stored as carbohydrate in the body, but the average person even with low body fat, carries roughly 80,000 calories stored as fat. When you are talking about long distance racing, it is clear fat is the winner for energy supply. The trick is to make sure you are actually tapping into that fat storage, and that your body doesn't always go to the calories from carbs. When you teach your body to rely on the carbs, you have to replenish very often, and run a greater risk of GI distress from ingesting the right amount of calories to keep you going for hours. Since the body can only process a fraction of calories you expend, you are fighting a losing battle when you depend on the carbs for fuel. Most people know this, but how to actually make the shift is not as known.
There are a few ways to begin to tap into your fat cals more than your carb cals, and I am going a little extreme for how much time I am putting into workouts right now. I do have some guidance in this. I made the shift from using fuel for workouts to no fuel (besides water and electrolytes) on my own about a month ago, and then consulted with a nutritionist on how much protein to put in to make the rest of the shift and still get enough calories to get my workouts done. **So that means don't take my breakdown of cals from above and expect to have stellar results since we are two different people**
If you really dive into nutrition, we as athletes put a lot of time into working out and racing, and we typically treat that as open game to indulge. Indulging every now and then is not bad. But remember when you were a kid and indulging was a treat? Most adults in our society today indulge everyday. I was guilty of it to the first time I trained for Ironman and could basically eat whatever I wanted and the weight still came off. A funny thing happens though, the body adapts. Mine did, and what worked before, did not work as well the second time around. So, enter experimentation. We already tear up our bodies enough, then we put in more items that the body essentially views as toxic, and there is where most athletes stall performance wise. If your working out all you can based on your life circumstances, and your manipulating your workouts to get the most of the time you have available, where do you go next? Nutrition.
So far so good. My hard workouts suffered a little bit with some lack of sugar, but overall, the shift seems to be happening. I am also feeling better day to day. My review so far on making this shift is thumbs up. Eventually those ratios will change a bit and I'll be adding back in some of those carbs that I love so much! But for now, I am going to let the body make the change. I'll let you guys know how the shift went in a couple of weeks.
What is the experiment? To buck all the endurance world teachings (ok, not ALL, but the vast majority you will find out there) and not live off a carb heavy diet...even during IM training. I am back into full on IM training, and all of my workouts are done on water. Add some glutamine and amino acids and I have my concoction. My food is the opposite ratio you typically see with endurance athletes also. About 50% protein, 25% fat, 25% carbs. Think extreme Paleo Diet for Athletes. Its a little dramatic for where I will eventually end up once this 3 weeks is over, but the nutrition will not go back to what it was the last couple of years of my endurance training. I dabbled in this a time or two before, but not early enough in the year and would go back to my default nutrition.
Why the experiment? To help my body make the shift to using more fat for fuel. Why? Because if we are properly stocked, we have about 2,000 calories stored as carbohydrate in the body, but the average person even with low body fat, carries roughly 80,000 calories stored as fat. When you are talking about long distance racing, it is clear fat is the winner for energy supply. The trick is to make sure you are actually tapping into that fat storage, and that your body doesn't always go to the calories from carbs. When you teach your body to rely on the carbs, you have to replenish very often, and run a greater risk of GI distress from ingesting the right amount of calories to keep you going for hours. Since the body can only process a fraction of calories you expend, you are fighting a losing battle when you depend on the carbs for fuel. Most people know this, but how to actually make the shift is not as known.
There are a few ways to begin to tap into your fat cals more than your carb cals, and I am going a little extreme for how much time I am putting into workouts right now. I do have some guidance in this. I made the shift from using fuel for workouts to no fuel (besides water and electrolytes) on my own about a month ago, and then consulted with a nutritionist on how much protein to put in to make the rest of the shift and still get enough calories to get my workouts done. **So that means don't take my breakdown of cals from above and expect to have stellar results since we are two different people**
If you really dive into nutrition, we as athletes put a lot of time into working out and racing, and we typically treat that as open game to indulge. Indulging every now and then is not bad. But remember when you were a kid and indulging was a treat? Most adults in our society today indulge everyday. I was guilty of it to the first time I trained for Ironman and could basically eat whatever I wanted and the weight still came off. A funny thing happens though, the body adapts. Mine did, and what worked before, did not work as well the second time around. So, enter experimentation. We already tear up our bodies enough, then we put in more items that the body essentially views as toxic, and there is where most athletes stall performance wise. If your working out all you can based on your life circumstances, and your manipulating your workouts to get the most of the time you have available, where do you go next? Nutrition.
So far so good. My hard workouts suffered a little bit with some lack of sugar, but overall, the shift seems to be happening. I am also feeling better day to day. My review so far on making this shift is thumbs up. Eventually those ratios will change a bit and I'll be adding back in some of those carbs that I love so much! But for now, I am going to let the body make the change. I'll let you guys know how the shift went in a couple of weeks.
Triathlon seminar
On April 3rd, I will be hosting a tri seminar at MIHP along with Tracy Ryckaert. I am pretty excited about this seminar! There are a few clinics hosted out there, and they are great to get a little bit of information on a few topics, get people interested (never a bad thing!), and get people thinking. I felt it would be a great opportunity to take it a step further though, and go more in depth, get a bit more into the nitty gritty. The most common road blocks that I see with athletes is a) not enough information, b) too much information that has caused confusion, c) improper execution of the plan that the athlete chose, d) improper hydration and fueling. For many this can lead to a lot of frustration once the novelty of starting a new sport has worn off, and they are looking to improve. My goal with this seminar is to help these athletes.
The seminar will run 3-4 hours and will cover the following topics:
Session 1 will consist of a variety of topics regarding everyday training, getting the most out of your training plan, common training plan mistakes and how to fix them, how to choose a plan/coach best suited for you, differences between HR training/training by pace/power, testing protocols, and periodization.
Session 2 will be focused on race nutrition and will consist of how to properly fuel leading up to a race, fuel during a race, how to experiment to find your optimal race day nutrition for all race distances, and the differences in some of the more common fuel choices out there
Session 3 will be led by Tracy Ryckaert from MIHP and will include the top 5 injuries they see at the clinic for triathletes, and have everyone doing a assessment to identify their own personal weaknesses and you will leave with some exercises to address those weaknesses.
This will be a great opportunity for people to learn the top 3 topics that I see come up again and again with athletes! If you would like to attend, please let me know asap, and I will reserve you a seat!
The cost will be $75 per person, $60 per person (got the final word on facility charge and it wasnt as bad as I thought) and will be held at MIHP in Warren, MI on April 3rd from 9am-12pm. I hope to see a few of you there!
The seminar will run 3-4 hours and will cover the following topics:
Session 1 will consist of a variety of topics regarding everyday training, getting the most out of your training plan, common training plan mistakes and how to fix them, how to choose a plan/coach best suited for you, differences between HR training/training by pace/power, testing protocols, and periodization.
Session 2 will be focused on race nutrition and will consist of how to properly fuel leading up to a race, fuel during a race, how to experiment to find your optimal race day nutrition for all race distances, and the differences in some of the more common fuel choices out there
Session 3 will be led by Tracy Ryckaert from MIHP and will include the top 5 injuries they see at the clinic for triathletes, and have everyone doing a assessment to identify their own personal weaknesses and you will leave with some exercises to address those weaknesses.
This will be a great opportunity for people to learn the top 3 topics that I see come up again and again with athletes! If you would like to attend, please let me know asap, and I will reserve you a seat!
The cost will be $
Inspiration
I love the olympics!! I don't have too much of a preference, summer or winter, I enjoy watching as much as I can of both. I do love sports in general, so that is a obvious reason. But the other reason is passion. *Most* of these athletes are barely making it, and the families have made sacrificies.... years of sacrifices... most of the time. They truly love what the do. You would have to in order to do this for years for not much money, many of them just waiting to compete in the olympics. Sure, they compete elsewhere, but for most, they know they are going for the olympics and years of preparation go into it.
We multisport athletes, while not at olympic level, tend to show quite a bit of passion to. I love that about this sport. Many of us never thought we would be doing some of the things we are doing. I love that about people in general who as adults, still find something to push them, motivate them, and stretch their limits. Life is for living, and complacency is a killer. It doesnt have to be running biking or swimming, but Ive noticed some baddddd (or sad) things in people who don't have much passion for anything and just kind of go through the motions of going to work and coming home. I would love for everyone to find some passion for something that pushes them, no matter what that is. I think it is healthy for themselves, and for the others who are close to them.
As we go into the start of the real training season, and many of the IM'ers start our journey, keep that passion fueled. Know your reason for getting up every morning, and completing workouts when you might not really want to. Keep that big goal in mind!
I stole this from someone, but it is a great quote:
"There's a difference between interest and commitment. When you're interested in doing something, you do it only when circumstances permit. When you're committed to something, you accept no excuses...only results."
****** In another week or so I should have a announcement about a seminar I will be hosting in late March or April. Im pretty excited about it since I would love to get some more in detail info out there to people who would like to get into more nitty gritty!
We multisport athletes, while not at olympic level, tend to show quite a bit of passion to. I love that about this sport. Many of us never thought we would be doing some of the things we are doing. I love that about people in general who as adults, still find something to push them, motivate them, and stretch their limits. Life is for living, and complacency is a killer. It doesnt have to be running biking or swimming, but Ive noticed some baddddd (or sad) things in people who don't have much passion for anything and just kind of go through the motions of going to work and coming home. I would love for everyone to find some passion for something that pushes them, no matter what that is. I think it is healthy for themselves, and for the others who are close to them.
As we go into the start of the real training season, and many of the IM'ers start our journey, keep that passion fueled. Know your reason for getting up every morning, and completing workouts when you might not really want to. Keep that big goal in mind!
I stole this from someone, but it is a great quote:
"There's a difference between interest and commitment. When you're interested in doing something, you do it only when circumstances permit. When you're committed to something, you accept no excuses...only results."
****** In another week or so I should have a announcement about a seminar I will be hosting in late March or April. Im pretty excited about it since I would love to get some more in detail info out there to people who would like to get into more nitty gritty!
Winter running
Winter is in full force here in Michigan. Great for those of us who like winter sports! Bad for those of us who love to run outside year round. Many move to treadmills, or just tough it out on the unplowed roads. Most neighborhood streets are left untouched these days and it can be dangerous when the packed snow gets slick. A few of my clients are logging some serious mileage for winter right now and they often wonder what to do when it is snowing, or the roads are too slick.
If you can stand the treadmill, hit the gym for the treadmill. Even if you cant stand the treadmill, there are some days you will have to suck it up and use one. Its never good to slip and break something vs. just sucking it up and running on the treadmill! My suggestion for those that choose the treadmill is to mix up the workout with some intervals, some incline changes, bring your mp3 player, and make the best of it. I suggest mixing it up on the treadmill a bit more due to the extremely repetitive nature of running on a treadmill. We already are at risk for overuse injuries as endurance athletes from repeating the same motion over and over. Add in the repetitive nature of the treadmill, same motion, same muscles being used with each step, no incline changes, no turns, no uneven surfaces, and some people can aggravate their legs or nagging injuries even more. When I am stuck on the treadmill, I will typically set the incline at .5% to 1.0% incline for the whole run, and I will also move the incline around a bit every 3-5 minutes. Unless I am specifically doing hill repeats, it varies between 2-5%. I don't go much higher than that for a normal run. This at least gets you to use some different muscles every so often. It can also break the boredom a touch.
If you are like me and cant stand the treadmill at all, look around your neighborhoods and parks and learn which neighborhoods and parks plow and salt regularly. Then, hit those whenever possible. Going to Stoney is fine on the weekends, but most who work don't make the trip before or after work in the dark by themselves. Its a bit safer in the neighborhoods in the dark. So, scope out your area and see which areas are taken care of the best and run there whenever the weather isn't great but you don't want to hit the treadmill. Yak Trax are also great for running outside, but if you aren't in a couple inches of snow they can be a tad awkward and feel fairly clunky on longer runs. But, they do help if your going to venture out on the snow filled roads!
If you can stand the treadmill, hit the gym for the treadmill. Even if you cant stand the treadmill, there are some days you will have to suck it up and use one. Its never good to slip and break something vs. just sucking it up and running on the treadmill! My suggestion for those that choose the treadmill is to mix up the workout with some intervals, some incline changes, bring your mp3 player, and make the best of it. I suggest mixing it up on the treadmill a bit more due to the extremely repetitive nature of running on a treadmill. We already are at risk for overuse injuries as endurance athletes from repeating the same motion over and over. Add in the repetitive nature of the treadmill, same motion, same muscles being used with each step, no incline changes, no turns, no uneven surfaces, and some people can aggravate their legs or nagging injuries even more. When I am stuck on the treadmill, I will typically set the incline at .5% to 1.0% incline for the whole run, and I will also move the incline around a bit every 3-5 minutes. Unless I am specifically doing hill repeats, it varies between 2-5%. I don't go much higher than that for a normal run. This at least gets you to use some different muscles every so often. It can also break the boredom a touch.
If you are like me and cant stand the treadmill at all, look around your neighborhoods and parks and learn which neighborhoods and parks plow and salt regularly. Then, hit those whenever possible. Going to Stoney is fine on the weekends, but most who work don't make the trip before or after work in the dark by themselves. Its a bit safer in the neighborhoods in the dark. So, scope out your area and see which areas are taken care of the best and run there whenever the weather isn't great but you don't want to hit the treadmill. Yak Trax are also great for running outside, but if you aren't in a couple inches of snow they can be a tad awkward and feel fairly clunky on longer runs. But, they do help if your going to venture out on the snow filled roads!
Follow up to "Nutrition, from a different angle"
My dad asked me a good question... its nice to know things that I brought up in the last blog about what some of the causes are for so much overeating in our society, but even if we know, what do we do? Seems simple, but sometimes, it is not. I was talking to a couple of different people about the book, and I made the comment to each of them that it seems if they have figured out that certain food stimulates the brain in many ways that are the same as a drug will stimulate the brain, that we might have to think the same as helping a drug addict to make the brain switch. The book does touch on how to change the pattern, etc. The main thing that has to happen is you have to change your habits to re-establish new habits. Retrain the brain to no only get over its addiction to all the sugar, fat, and salt that overwhelms our foods, but to think a different way when confronted by the food, and to make better choices. After a while, you have created a different way your brain will react. Then a new pattern is created.
This is easier said than done in todays society. What is our main obstacle? I have thought about this based on my own life experience, some things are mentioned in the book, and other research I have done. The main obstacle in everyday life is that we are bombarded with ads, tv commercials, great packaging, smells, too big of portion sizes which leads to the brain thinking it always needs more, etc. Lets think about this.... if you are trying to help a drug addict, or someone addicted to smoking, or drinking, do you take them to places that trigger the desire? Do you invite a alcoholic over to drink with you if they are trying to stop? Do you take them to the club where they know a dealer is? Many addicts have to move, stay away from certain friends, crowds, and even away from locations that remind them of what they desire as to not trigger a relapse. Sometimes family members are enablers even though they want to help the person. So families need to get involved, and get on board and if they dont, the person can fail. It is proven that most everybody has the capacity to overeat and desire foods more often the more they are presented with the food cue. So in a society completely saturated in food marketing, gigantic portion sizes, and a overabundance of sugar, fat, and salt, how do you change the pattern? Its like waving a beer around in front of a recovering alcoholics face every day. Drive down the street on your way home when your hungry and you are bound to hit numerous food ads, fast food restaurants, etc sending the cue to your brain. Then comes the desire.
Work.... day after day, is how you change the pattern if you are in a bad pattern with your eating habits. Start with portion size, learn what a proper portion size is. Learn what a serving is (1 box is not 1 serving, sometimes there are 4 servings in something that looks like it should be 1 serving) making more meals if possible, say no to things you know you should be saying no to, avoid places for a while that you know will be very hard to resist. By breaking the pattern, and creating a new pattern, it will become easier to resist in the future. Creating a meal plan for yourself during the week so you know when and what you are eating, will help you avoid making a rash decision. If you are out and about, teach yourself what the menus are for fast food restaurants, Subway, etc, so that when you stop, you can make a informed decision. There are good books out there such as "Eat This, Not That" out there to help guide you.
So, back to making this about training since most of you are athletes reading this page.... there is always a time during the year where we kick back, don't train as much, recover, and are not strict with our diets. However, once that month or two is done and you have gained a couple of pounds and let the body heal, its time to start asking yourself "will this help me, or hurt me?" before you eat it. Most of our eating in the Prep phase and up through Race phase should revolve around proper fueling for workouts and proper recovery. If your looking to lean out a bit, will that meal help or hurt your goal? If your looking to recover well after a long weekend of workouts, will that food you are about to eat help, or hurt your recovery? If you can start to think of food in those terms as a athlete, your diet will naturally become better, and it should help your racing, training, and recovery.
This is easier said than done in todays society. What is our main obstacle? I have thought about this based on my own life experience, some things are mentioned in the book, and other research I have done. The main obstacle in everyday life is that we are bombarded with ads, tv commercials, great packaging, smells, too big of portion sizes which leads to the brain thinking it always needs more, etc. Lets think about this.... if you are trying to help a drug addict, or someone addicted to smoking, or drinking, do you take them to places that trigger the desire? Do you invite a alcoholic over to drink with you if they are trying to stop? Do you take them to the club where they know a dealer is? Many addicts have to move, stay away from certain friends, crowds, and even away from locations that remind them of what they desire as to not trigger a relapse. Sometimes family members are enablers even though they want to help the person. So families need to get involved, and get on board and if they dont, the person can fail. It is proven that most everybody has the capacity to overeat and desire foods more often the more they are presented with the food cue. So in a society completely saturated in food marketing, gigantic portion sizes, and a overabundance of sugar, fat, and salt, how do you change the pattern? Its like waving a beer around in front of a recovering alcoholics face every day. Drive down the street on your way home when your hungry and you are bound to hit numerous food ads, fast food restaurants, etc sending the cue to your brain. Then comes the desire.
Work.... day after day, is how you change the pattern if you are in a bad pattern with your eating habits. Start with portion size, learn what a proper portion size is. Learn what a serving is (1 box is not 1 serving, sometimes there are 4 servings in something that looks like it should be 1 serving) making more meals if possible, say no to things you know you should be saying no to, avoid places for a while that you know will be very hard to resist. By breaking the pattern, and creating a new pattern, it will become easier to resist in the future. Creating a meal plan for yourself during the week so you know when and what you are eating, will help you avoid making a rash decision. If you are out and about, teach yourself what the menus are for fast food restaurants, Subway, etc, so that when you stop, you can make a informed decision. There are good books out there such as "Eat This, Not That" out there to help guide you.
So, back to making this about training since most of you are athletes reading this page.... there is always a time during the year where we kick back, don't train as much, recover, and are not strict with our diets. However, once that month or two is done and you have gained a couple of pounds and let the body heal, its time to start asking yourself "will this help me, or hurt me?" before you eat it. Most of our eating in the Prep phase and up through Race phase should revolve around proper fueling for workouts and proper recovery. If your looking to lean out a bit, will that meal help or hurt your goal? If your looking to recover well after a long weekend of workouts, will that food you are about to eat help, or hurt your recovery? If you can start to think of food in those terms as a athlete, your diet will naturally become better, and it should help your racing, training, and recovery.
Nutrition, from a different angle
**This will be a longer post... I feel it is worth it though**
The subject of nutrition comes up very often for endurance athletes.What to eat, how much, when, etc. The caloric numbers are out there,the ratios are out there, but for most, I believe that it is deeperthan the numbers. Not all calories are created equal, timing isimportant, etc.
One of the perks of many hours of endurance training is eating mindlesscalories. My question, mainly for myself was, when does this become abad thing? For myself, I found out this past year when I stoppedworking out as much. I was so used to being able to eat any caloriesjust to get calories for so long that I had conditioned myself. I hadbeen reinforcing the behavior for so long that I was wired to continuethat way when I needed to stop and change.
I began thinking, wow, I can see where this gets out of control forpeople. I preach consistency, reinforcing good technique and goodhabits, until it becomes habit to a client. Then they no longer have to"think" about it, it just is. This is very clearly done with food,unfortunately it seems to be heading the wrong "reinforcing" way formost. I think we all *know* this to a certain degree, but why don't wechange the behavior?
Obviously it is hard to change a behavior once it is learned. It takeswork to override it, and then create a new behavior. I have read dietbooks, I have read sports nutrition books, etc. If you can follow theguidelines, most diets will get you to where you want to be. Mostsports nutrition books will get you to race day fueled properly. Butonce you can't follow the diet anymore mentally, or race day comes andgoes, what habit do we go back to and why? This is what was plaguingme.
I wanted to go a little further into the mindset of eating instead ofeducating myself even more on the diet guidelines. Many problems withmy athletes training can be fixed if we fix their mindset, so I wantedto see what was out there on the food side of this thought process.
One of the better books out there that I have ran across so far that deals specifically with this is "The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite" by David A. Kessler, MD.David was a former FDA commissioner. I'll try to just touch on a coupleof points on this book, there are too many and I could type all night.In the book he meets up with top scientists, physicians, and foodindustry insiders uncovering the facts about how we have lost controlover our eating habits. Very, very, eye opening to hear how the foodindustry gets us to not only eat way more than we ever should, but alsoget us to keep coming back repeatedly, for more. Americans used toconsume no more than the food they needed to burn. Overweight peoplewere rare and typically stood apart from the rest of the population.Most can agree that scenario is flipped in many communities. Overweightseems to be more the norm. Going out to dinner, or stopping atMcDonalds was a rare treat before, it is now the norm.
They food industry spends tons of money to alter our food to create aexperience that wires your brain to want more. They also put mucheffort into marketing to create a trigger, even when your body may notactually need food. Most food companies start by making the food moreprocessed. It is cheaper and can be manipulated for flavor much easierthat way. As stated by one food consultant in the book, "by eliminatingthe need to chew, modern food processing techniques allow us to eatfaster. When you're eating these things, you've had 500, 600, 700, 800,900 calories before you know it. Literally, before you know it" Chewingallows your brain to send the signal it is full. When you eliminate theneed to chew as much, you can eat much more, and quickly hit the brainsreward centers. The main ingredients that hit the brains reward centersin food is sugar, fat, and salt.
The title of Chapter 3 of the book is simple "sugar, fat, salt make useat more sugar, fat, salt." The most palatable foods contain these 3ingredients, and the food industries job is to find the right amountthat keeps us coming back for more. What is more shocking is how mostof the foods are pre-packaged with a combination of these 3 things inthem already, and then once they are shipped to their final location tobe served, more is added on once cooked. So even when you think you areordering something healthy, most of the time you would be shocked tosee what was really in it, and what its caloric value was. From a highlevel food industry exec, "higher sugar, fat and salt make you want toeat more. It gives food a high hedonic value, which gives pleasure, sothey try to bring as much into the equation as possible."
It is mind boggling how they can load hundreds of calories into onesmall food object. Much research has come to the conclusion that sugar,fat, and salt are reinforcing. They reinforce the desire to keepeating. One scientist interviewed who had conducted extensive researchon animals found that the breaking point at which the animals will nolonger work to get fat and sugar, will no longer work for the "reward",is slightly lower than the breaking point for cocaine." Adding foodsrich in sugar, fat, and salt in our mouths stimulates neurons in ourbrains, and the more you add these, the more neurons fire. This makesthe message to eat stronger. The stimulations that happen, producerewarding effects similar to the rewarding effects that drugs provide.In the short term, highly palatable foods make us feel better, likedrugs will. No wonder its so hard to change many peoples eatingpatters. It seems to me it would be almost as hard as getting a drugaddict to not only get clean, but change their patterns after to stayclean.
So, think about that the next time you are trying to clean up yourdiet, and either lose weight or perform better. Before you gomindlessly into another diet, evaluate your relationship with food, andtry to change how your look at food. Try to change your thinking tousing food for fuel versus food for pure pleasure. Your "diet" may gomuch better this time around if you can rewire your brain to thinkdifferently about it and create different reinforcing behaviorpatterns. And, do your research on what you are eating in order to makebetter choices when eating out. And yes, that might mean you have toget used to more "bland" foods or get really good with spices
The subject of nutrition comes up very often for endurance athletes.What to eat, how much, when, etc. The caloric numbers are out there,the ratios are out there, but for most, I believe that it is deeperthan the numbers. Not all calories are created equal, timing isimportant, etc.
One of the perks of many hours of endurance training is eating mindlesscalories. My question, mainly for myself was, when does this become abad thing? For myself, I found out this past year when I stoppedworking out as much. I was so used to being able to eat any caloriesjust to get calories for so long that I had conditioned myself. I hadbeen reinforcing the behavior for so long that I was wired to continuethat way when I needed to stop and change.
I began thinking, wow, I can see where this gets out of control forpeople. I preach consistency, reinforcing good technique and goodhabits, until it becomes habit to a client. Then they no longer have to"think" about it, it just is. This is very clearly done with food,unfortunately it seems to be heading the wrong "reinforcing" way formost. I think we all *know* this to a certain degree, but why don't wechange the behavior?
Obviously it is hard to change a behavior once it is learned. It takeswork to override it, and then create a new behavior. I have read dietbooks, I have read sports nutrition books, etc. If you can follow theguidelines, most diets will get you to where you want to be. Mostsports nutrition books will get you to race day fueled properly. Butonce you can't follow the diet anymore mentally, or race day comes andgoes, what habit do we go back to and why? This is what was plaguingme.
I wanted to go a little further into the mindset of eating instead ofeducating myself even more on the diet guidelines. Many problems withmy athletes training can be fixed if we fix their mindset, so I wantedto see what was out there on the food side of this thought process.
One of the better books out there that I have ran across so far that deals specifically with this is "The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite" by David A. Kessler, MD.David was a former FDA commissioner. I'll try to just touch on a coupleof points on this book, there are too many and I could type all night.In the book he meets up with top scientists, physicians, and foodindustry insiders uncovering the facts about how we have lost controlover our eating habits. Very, very, eye opening to hear how the foodindustry gets us to not only eat way more than we ever should, but alsoget us to keep coming back repeatedly, for more. Americans used toconsume no more than the food they needed to burn. Overweight peoplewere rare and typically stood apart from the rest of the population.Most can agree that scenario is flipped in many communities. Overweightseems to be more the norm. Going out to dinner, or stopping atMcDonalds was a rare treat before, it is now the norm.
They food industry spends tons of money to alter our food to create aexperience that wires your brain to want more. They also put mucheffort into marketing to create a trigger, even when your body may notactually need food. Most food companies start by making the food moreprocessed. It is cheaper and can be manipulated for flavor much easierthat way. As stated by one food consultant in the book, "by eliminatingthe need to chew, modern food processing techniques allow us to eatfaster. When you're eating these things, you've had 500, 600, 700, 800,900 calories before you know it. Literally, before you know it" Chewingallows your brain to send the signal it is full. When you eliminate theneed to chew as much, you can eat much more, and quickly hit the brainsreward centers. The main ingredients that hit the brains reward centersin food is sugar, fat, and salt.
The title of Chapter 3 of the book is simple "sugar, fat, salt make useat more sugar, fat, salt." The most palatable foods contain these 3ingredients, and the food industries job is to find the right amountthat keeps us coming back for more. What is more shocking is how mostof the foods are pre-packaged with a combination of these 3 things inthem already, and then once they are shipped to their final location tobe served, more is added on once cooked. So even when you think you areordering something healthy, most of the time you would be shocked tosee what was really in it, and what its caloric value was. From a highlevel food industry exec, "higher sugar, fat and salt make you want toeat more. It gives food a high hedonic value, which gives pleasure, sothey try to bring as much into the equation as possible."
It is mind boggling how they can load hundreds of calories into onesmall food object. Much research has come to the conclusion that sugar,fat, and salt are reinforcing. They reinforce the desire to keepeating. One scientist interviewed who had conducted extensive researchon animals found that the breaking point at which the animals will nolonger work to get fat and sugar, will no longer work for the "reward",is slightly lower than the breaking point for cocaine." Adding foodsrich in sugar, fat, and salt in our mouths stimulates neurons in ourbrains, and the more you add these, the more neurons fire. This makesthe message to eat stronger. The stimulations that happen, producerewarding effects similar to the rewarding effects that drugs provide.In the short term, highly palatable foods make us feel better, likedrugs will. No wonder its so hard to change many peoples eatingpatters. It seems to me it would be almost as hard as getting a drugaddict to not only get clean, but change their patterns after to stayclean.
So, think about that the next time you are trying to clean up yourdiet, and either lose weight or perform better. Before you gomindlessly into another diet, evaluate your relationship with food, andtry to change how your look at food. Try to change your thinking tousing food for fuel versus food for pure pleasure. Your "diet" may gomuch better this time around if you can rewire your brain to thinkdifferently about it and create different reinforcing behaviorpatterns. And, do your research on what you are eating in order to makebetter choices when eating out. And yes, that might mean you have toget used to more "bland" foods or get really good with spices
ugly shoes
It is no secret that I have always been a shoe freak. Even when I was young, my parents would give us kids a certain amount we could spend for basketball shoes, track shoes, regular shoes, etc. If I wasn't happy with the shoe I would find under that amount I would save up my own money to pay for the rest. I remember going as far as flipping the shoes over, looking at the bottom to make sure I liked the WHOLE shoe. At some point I did know it was a bit far, but, it didn't stop me!
In my almost 6 years in the endurance world now, I have bought, and thrown away, a fair amount. (that may be a understatement). One thing I did learn very early was that I hated any shoe that did not feel natural. I have bought and returned upwards of 80% of the shoes I have purchased. Nike Free's came along, I went into those. They toyed with the structure a bit as the models have been released so I have gone back and forth using them each year. Growing up, I ran barefoot. The only time we put shoes on is if we were on the street or our gravel road. We had a good deal of property though, so rarely did we wear the shoes. In track, I hated our training shoes, the spikes felt great when we got to wear them on race day!
I attribute all of the above to my shoe "issues". All companies seem to really like to build up the shoe, and it just doesn't feel natural. I wont go into all of the current trends out there now trying to backtrack now that books like "Born to Run" have come out. And for now, I'll leave my opinions out of this post. But, for my own personal satisfaction, I finally purchased the Vibram FiveFingers. Ahhhhhh Thats all I can say. Now THAT is what I have been searching for! They really do feel like taking your shoe off and running barefoot! The rubber on the bottom doesnt impede the barefoot feeling at all, but just protects your foot. I don't think I'll be able to take them into T2 or anything, getting those toes in there takes a bit more than the 30 seconds I spend in there. So, bummer there. But, these will turn into my regular running shoes once I let the pampered feet get used to running in them for longer periods.
I will also actually promote them. Here is why......any running form class, seminar, dvd, etc that you pick up tries to get you to go into this "natural" run form. Lean from the ankles, dont heal strike, high cadence, and so on. This naturally happens when you take your shoes off and run barefoot. Once you let the senses in your feet dictate how you run instead of dulling them, that "natural" running form naturally happens. You want to protect your heal, you tend to lean forward more and pick up the cadence a bit so your not on your foot for too long. Built up shoes dull these senses and stabilize the many many bones, tendons, etc that are in our feet naturally protecting our feet (and the rest of your leg that get the brunt of the impact when the feet don't). Even if you don't run in them often, it will help you learn how it should feel when you put your trainers back on and hit the road. And there is nothing wrong with that!
So, check them out if your run form could use a little help. Break yourself into them slowly, especially if you are used to a very thick, or structured shoe.
In my almost 6 years in the endurance world now, I have bought, and thrown away, a fair amount. (that may be a understatement). One thing I did learn very early was that I hated any shoe that did not feel natural. I have bought and returned upwards of 80% of the shoes I have purchased. Nike Free's came along, I went into those. They toyed with the structure a bit as the models have been released so I have gone back and forth using them each year. Growing up, I ran barefoot. The only time we put shoes on is if we were on the street or our gravel road. We had a good deal of property though, so rarely did we wear the shoes. In track, I hated our training shoes, the spikes felt great when we got to wear them on race day!
I attribute all of the above to my shoe "issues". All companies seem to really like to build up the shoe, and it just doesn't feel natural. I wont go into all of the current trends out there now trying to backtrack now that books like "Born to Run" have come out. And for now, I'll leave my opinions out of this post. But, for my own personal satisfaction, I finally purchased the Vibram FiveFingers. Ahhhhhh
Thats all I can say. Now THAT is what I have been searching for! They really do feel like taking your shoe off and running barefoot! The rubber on the bottom doesnt impede the barefoot feeling at all, but just protects your foot. I don't think I'll be able to take them into T2 or anything, getting those toes in there takes a bit more than the 30 seconds I spend in there. So, bummer there. But, these will turn into my regular running shoes once I let the pampered feet get used to running in them for longer periods. I will also actually promote them. Here is why......any running form class, seminar, dvd, etc that you pick up tries to get you to go into this "natural" run form. Lean from the ankles, dont heal strike, high cadence, and so on. This naturally happens when you take your shoes off and run barefoot. Once you let the senses in your feet dictate how you run instead of dulling them, that "natural" running form naturally happens. You want to protect your heal, you tend to lean forward more and pick up the cadence a bit so your not on your foot for too long. Built up shoes dull these senses and stabilize the many many bones, tendons, etc that are in our feet naturally protecting our feet (and the rest of your leg that get the brunt of the impact when the feet don't). Even if you don't run in them often, it will help you learn how it should feel when you put your trainers back on and hit the road. And there is nothing wrong with that!
So, check them out if your run form could use a little help. Break yourself into them slowly, especially if you are used to a very thick, or structured shoe.
Welcome
Welcome to my blog. Please check back soon for new entries.
