When In Home

One of the great benefits my employer gives its employees is the 980 schedule. This means that we are scheduled to work 9 hours, 4 days a week (Monday-Thursday), and 8 hours, every other Friday. It's such a great benefit. I really enjoy having 3-day weekends for half the year. It's a great aid not only for the ability to relax, but I am also able to get in longer work-outs that I normally wouldn't be able to fit into my schedule during the week. I am able to spread out my errands that I have to complete on the weekends over three days, and still have time on that Friday to do something for me. This past Friday was an especially productive one for me. I was able to catch up on LOST before the final season premiere on February 2nd (I had 3 episodes left to watch); organize piles of old mail and bills; clean my car (the inside); and get a long brick workout in.

My brick workout started on the bike, with a 5-minute warm-up in a low-gear set. The workout was suppose to simulate riding hills (as it was fairly cold out and didn't want to ride outside) so I rode up and down my small gear set, riding on a certain gear for 2 minutes before switching up or down to the next one. I started on the lowest gear, worked my way up to the highest gear on my smallest gear-set, and then back down again. Did this over and over again until my 45 minutes were up. Final vitals for the workout:

• Total time: 0:45:13
• Average heart rate: 167 bbm
• Maximum heart rate: 188 bbm
• Calories burned: 623 kcal

One of the best parts of having an indoor trainer, is that I can ride all day long indoors, while it's absolutely freezing outside. I love getting up sometimes in the morning before work, and riding for an hour and then heading to work. On a long workout (1:30+ hrs), I just pop in a movie, or check on the On Demand section and watch a movie while working out. Last time I watched Jurassic Park; such a good movie. I set up my bike on it's trainer right in front of the T.V. and just zone out. Or I could ride easy during a show or when the movie is on, but then when a commercial comes on, I crank up my cadence and push it as hard as I can until the show/movie comes back on. Here is what my set-up looks like:

After pumping my legs through a nice indoor hill workout, it was over to the gym for my other half of the brick workout. I could not run outside, because it was hardly 10°F and with the brutal wind, I did not feel like suffering that much on my day off. I went over the the gym that my apartment complex has for all of its tenants, and ran on the treadmill. I started the workout with a 5-minute warm-up again, because my muscles all tightened up from the walk over to the gym (although I ran) because it was so cold out. I then ran for an hour, trying to stay within heart rate zones 1 and 2 while amping up the speed on the treadmill to a near sprint for 20-30 seconds, 4-5 times.This was a relatively easy workout, being that zones 1 and 2 are considered the recovery and aerobic zones. I finished the work-out with the following vitals:

• Total time: 0:59:42
• Average heart rate: 169 bbm
• Maximum heart rate: 185 bbm
• Calories burned: 836 kcal
• Total calories burned (01/29/10): 1,459 kcal

At this point in my day, I felt really good. The last three episodes of LOST were phenomenal, the work-outs were exhilarating and left me feeling very good and motivated. I get back to my apartment, and all those feelings went away. I went to take a shower, and the water was freezing! So I had to deal with my sweat from the gym freezing on my way to my apartment, and then had to take a cold shower; brr! For the rest of the day, our building was out of hot water and heat in the building for some reason. Luckily, they fixed those problems before too long, and we got hot water/heat again before the night was over. 

I finished my night off, watching the 103rd running of the Milrose Games, and catching Bernard Lagat claim his 8th win in the Wanamaker Mile in a time of 3:56! Then watched the Winter X-Games and Shaun White in the super pipe prelims was crazy!

If I can finish this post off with a video I watched, posted on twitter by @TrekBikes as a motivator for anyone. It's a video on Levi Leipheimer, a professional cyclist who is one of my favorites:

Motivation

Nutrition Part 2: The Paleo Diet

1. The Paleo Diet:  Developed by Dr. Cordain, is based on the early nutrition of the caveman during the Paleolithic times. Paleolithic peoples only ate what they could hunt or gather; fruits, vegetables, and lean meats. These foods all fall under the optimal food category, according to Dr. Cordain. Dairy, grains, and legumes are considered non-optimal foods and should not be eaten.

2. The Diet for Serious Athletes:  The Paleo Diet for athletes is designed to: quicken recovery, lead to optimum health and performance, and prevent muscle catabolism. The Paleo Diet's five stages of eating for the serious athlete include

Stage 1: Eating before exercise
Stage 2: Eating during exercise
Stage 3: Eating immediately after exercise
Stage 4: Eating for extended recovery
Stage 5: Eating for long-term recovery

3. Benefits: 

• Increases intake of branched chain amino acids
• Decreases omega 6: omega 3 ratio
• Lowers body acidity
• High in trace nutrients

Check out The Training Bible & The Paleo Diet for more information.

Nutrition Part 1: Fuel for Triathletes

First off, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and welcome back!

The Bay State Team has been a great resource for me in my short triathlon career. Not only do I get to socialize and train with a group of people that all share the same interests, but we also have sponsors and meetings where we have speakers that discuss different triathlon topics with all of us. At the January meeting we just had, we had one of our sponsors and team dietitian discuss with us Fuel for Triathletes.  She discussed with us the proper foods to eat and to avoid, as well as the proper amounts, for endurance athletes.

We were told that the main sources of energy for athletes is in protein, carbohydrates and fat.

Protein: The daily recommendation is 1.2 to 1.7 g/kg body weight (the lower end of the range is appropriate for endurance athletes; the higher end for strength and power athletes at the early stages of training). Multiply recommended intake in grams by 4 to calculate energy intake from protein (there are 4 kcal per gram of protein).

Examples of proteins are animals: fish, shellfish, chicken, turkey, eggs, lean pork, lean ham, buffalo and lean red meat; plants: natural peanut butter, nuts-almonds, walnuts, pecans, cashews, pistachios-soy, beans, lentils, hummus, tofu, and seeds; dairy: lowfat milk, cottage cheese, string cheese, yogurt, greek yogurt.

• You need protein for muscle growth and to repair muscle damage after exercise. 
• You also need protein to make red blood cells, which move oxygen to muscles, and white blood cells, which help fight infection.
• Your body uses protein to make hormones and enzymes, which help regulate metabolism.

They are many more key points about protein, but I will not be including them in this post. If you would like to learn more, leave me a comment, or wait until I post later about it again.

Carbohydrates: The daily recommendation is 5 to 10 g/kg body weight (the lower end of the range is appropriate for off-season and recreational athletes; the higher end for athletes who train for several hours a day and for ultraendurance athletes). Multiply recommended intake is grams by 4 to calculate energy intake from carbohydrate (there are 4 kcal per gram of carbohydrate).

Examples of carbohydrates are grains: whole grains are good source of fiber and can decrease your risk for heart disease and help you lose weight; fruits and veggies: good for decreasing risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer and help you lose weight; milk and yogurt: helps you build healthy and strong bones and teeth.

• Carbohydrates are the best fuel for working muscles.
• Plan to include carbohydrates in all your meals and snacks.

Fat: The daily recommendation is ≥ 1 g/kg body weight. Multiply recommended intake in grams by 9 to calculate energy intake from fat (there are 9 kcal per gram of fat).

However, there are "good" fats and "bad" fats. Examples of "good" fats include: olive or canola oil, nuts, olives, avocado, peanut butter.

• You need fat for energy.
• Fat also helps your body to use some vitamins as well as plant chemicals known as "phytochemicals."
• Fat helps move substances in and out of cells, and it helps keep your brain and nervous system healthy.

Now that you have a brief synopsis of the main sources of energy needed by endurance athletes, there are other sources of intake that is essential. 

Vitamins and Minerals: Vitamins and minerals do not give you more energy, but they help to unlock the energy stored in food so your body can use it as fuel. Your body needs calcium, magnesium, fluoride, and vitamin D to keep bones strong.

Fluids: Fluids are essential for everyday use for everybody, not just athletes. But here are a few guidelines about fluids for athletes:

• Drink at least 16 oz of water or other fluid 2 hours before an event.
• Top off drinking 8-16 oz of water 15 minutes before an event.
• Drink 5-10 oz every 15-20 min of exercise.
• Use a sport beverage if exercising longer than 60 min.
• Avoid caffeinated beverages.
• Avoid carbonated beverages.
• Drink as much as possible within 15 minutes of the end of an event or training.
• Continue to drink to replace fluids lost through sweat plus more.
• Rule of thumb - one "gulp" equals one ounce.

Nicole Cormier is a registered dietitian and founder of Delicious Living Nutrition. DLN is a nutrition consulting company that comes into your home for nutrition counseling. They offer a variety of services catered to improving your quality of life and creating balance. You can check out her website for information about services, resources and contact info at Delicious Living Nutrition.