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Showing posts from May 1, 2016

Get out of your own way

If you are training for a race that is happening in the next 6-8 weeks, you may find that this is a tough time of the year. While your excitement is building to put your fitness to the test, you may find that your motivation, focus and determination to train is like a rollercoaster - some days you are exhausted and struggle to get started whereas other days you have the energy to tackle what's on your training plan...and crave more. While all of this is normal for a hard working athlete like yourself, it's very easy to let your mind get in the way of the body. If you don't believe me, how many times have you felt so exhausted, tired and sore, struggling to even start a workout and then after the warm-up you feel great and surprise yourself with the energy that you thought you didn't have? ------------------------------- If you want to conquer yourself and reach your goals, you have to believe in yourself. It’s human nature to enjoy doing things that come eas

How do I fuel if.....

Writing an article for a magazine usually goes like this.... I pitch a lot of articles to a magazine and a few (or one or none) gets selected OR a magazine reaches out to me with an article topic for me to write about. Back in December, after I received confirmation that I would be writing three articles for Triathlete Magazine for the May ( Fueling the Vegetarian athlete ), June ( Sport Nutrition - progressing from short to long course racing ) and July ( Common fueling mistakes ) issues, I was asked to write a 2000-word, feature assignment for the March/April issue on "How do I fuel if...." with the following topics discussed: -I don't have time to cook -I'm trying to lose weight -I'm (going) gluten-free -I'm a female athlete -I bonk in races The article would include 5 different scenarios (each around 200-300 words or the equivalent of a short article) with specific advice, tips and suggestions for each topic, in addition to a sidebar of c

It's out of your control

As an athlete, you can control how you prepare for a race by focusing on one day at a time but you can't control what will happen on race day, until it is race day. And sometimes, even when you focus on what you can control (attitude, nutrition, pacing, clothing) things may not always go as planned so you have to adjust.  However, you can always be prepared to handle the controllables and uncontrollables.  Obsessing over trying to control certain situations or getting upset, angry or anxious about things beyond your control is the best way to steal away energy that you can use on race day. As an athlete, you have to be prepared for anything on race day and you can't let a race-day curveball like wind, rain, a modified course, temperature or hills keep you from doing what you trained to do on race day.... RACE! With this being my 10th year as an endurance triathlete but also a coach to many amazing athletes of all levels, I feel it is important for athletes to dis

Look closely - is there a local option?

Oh how I love blueberries. When I was shopping at the grocery store the other day, I saw a sale, 3 for $10 for blueberries. The winter deprives me of a wide variety of fruits so when it's time for spring, I get excited to add so many seasonal fruits to my diet. My mouth started to water as I put the blueberry packages into my cart. Blueberries don't last long in our house because I am quick to eat as soon as I get them. I may be short but I have big hands when it comes to a handful of blueberries. As always, I looked at the product label to determine if any of the blueberry options were local - I try to choose local as often as possible. Oddly enough, there were four different package labels so I started to further investigate. Product of USA: Fairfax, SC Product of USA: Winter Haven, FL Product of Mexico: Reedley, CA For the purpose of this blog, I purchased all three packages. In all other circumstances, I would have searched through all the blueberri

Understand your appetite tips

Struggling to understand your appetite? I find that far too many athletes are on the search for the perfect eating plan for weight loss, more energy and improved health. Sadly, this plan doesn't exist for the masses. Figuring out the ideal style of eating for you takes some work. Calorie or macronutrient -focused meal plans which offer no flexibility or options do not address normal hunger and satisfaction cues. Whereas I do like the idea of having a meal template for different meal and snack options to better understand your appetite,hunger and satisfaction and to create new nutrition habits, you can't expect a meal plan to be a forever approach to eating. Your diet will always evolve just like you evolve from baby, to child to adult to elderly adult. And when it comes to training for an event, a periodized approach to nutrition is also a way to support your extremely active lifestyle as you develop your skills, strength, power, speed and endurance. It takes time to work on