Protein for Triathletes

If you do not get enough protein, your body will begin to take what it needs from muscle. Protein rebuilds tissues, boosts your immune systemenhances slow digestion and also lowers a foods glycemic index. It also prevents carbohydrates from skyroketing your blood sugar and then crashing. This is key for those long workouts where you are looking for a steady-release of energy. When your storages are running low, proteins are sent to the liver and turned into backup carbs.

You want to stick with lean high-quality proteins. These will give you more amino acids that will assist in rebuilding cells. Different proteins are absorbed at different rates. Whey protein is quikly digested making it great during a workout or in a recovery drink. Casein is great for a steady muscle rebuilding.

After long training sessions, who wouldn't want the added benefits of protein?

In good health,
Joe
www.eeathlete.com
joe@eeathlete.com

Interval Training

Interval Training:
Faster results in a shorter period of time.

Interval training is something that has peaked my interest over the past few months. After being introduced to it in running with speed interval training (fartlek), and most recently with P90X's Interval Training Plus workout, it is slowly becoming an obsession.

Interval training is nothing new and has been around for quite some time. Elite athletes use it to improve their performance. Now, exercisers from novices to the regulars are finding that interval training can not only improve their cardiovascular fitness, but also increase their body’s potential to burn fat.

The best part of this training is that you see the benefits fairly quickly, for some, in a matter of weeks.


Interval Training

Interval training is a very simple in nature. It is basically defined as repetitions of short bursts of high-speed/high-intensity work followed by periods of rest or low activity.

Cycling can be used as an example. You can alternate riding at a leisurely pace, a moderate effort and an all out sprint. You could also alternate between just a leisurely pace and a sprint. The duration and speed of each interval should be based on your need and level of fitness. The key is to let your heart rate drop during the recovery phase before jumping back into your high-intensity phase.


What are the advantages of Interval Training?

With interval training, exercisers are able to perform at higher levels of exertion than they would in a single sustained effort, such as long distance running. The recovery phase also allows time for the body to rid itself of some of the waste produced by working muscles. These waste products contribute to muscle soreness.

You are also participating in both aerobic, which requires oxygen to generate the energy needed, and anaerobic exercise, which requires stored carbohydrates for energy.

When you have high-intensity workouts, the body must use new muscle fibers. Once these recent recruits are trained, they are available to burn fuel even during easy-does-it workouts. "Any form of exercise that recruits new muscle fibers is going to enhance the body’s ability to metabolize carbohydrates and fat," Dr. Coyle said. (1)

As mentioned before, you will burn more calories. The harder you go, the more calories you will burn. You will still burn even if the bursts are short in duration. In the P90X Interval Plus workouts, some of the high-intensity exercises are only 10 seconds in length, but believe me that is all that is needed. And while you are burning all these calories, your cardio fitness will also be improving. This will contribute to your ability to exercise longer, as well as increase the duration of your high-intensity interval training.

Boredom, boredom, boredom! If you are bored doing interval training, you need to skip exercise and move on to alligator wrestling. As someone who embraces change, this is one of the top reasons for my newfound love of interval training. You are constantly changing and the variety is endless. You can turn your stagnate routine into an interval session just by changing the speed. The P90X Interval Plus uses lunges, jumping jacks, squats and push-ups, just to name a few. Intervals can also be applied to running, biking, swimming, etc.


What risks are involved?

Just like other forms of exercise, interval training is not for everyone. This form of high-intensity training can put strain on cardiovascular system. Anyone who is at risk (heart disease, high blood pressure) should consult your physician, as this type of training can provoke heart attack or stroke for those at risk.

For those who do not exercise regularly, jumping into an intense interval training program might not be for you. If you rush into a strenuous workout before your body is ready, you may hurt your muscles, tendons or bones. Instead, start slowly. Try just one or two higher intensity intervals during each workout at first. If you think you're overdoing it, slow down. As your stamina improves, challenge yourself to vary the pace. You may be surprised by the results. (2)


Conclusion

Interval training is tough and does require you to work hard, but the end results and benefits are worth the effort. Those who are not thrilled exercising to begin with can enjoy the full benefits of interval training in shorter workout sessions. As for endurance athletes, such as myself, the improved fat burning achieved means that we can no go longer before tapping into our stored up carbohydrates. This is also great news for those trying to work off those pounds, as well as those trying to avoid gaining extra weight.

Make sure you start each training session with about a 5 minute warm up to loosen up your body and enjoy the change that interval training can bring to your workouts.

Variety is the spice of life...

www.eeathlete.com

Resources

1) Jaret, Peter, A Healthy Mix of Rest and Motion, New York Times May 3,2007
2) Interval training: Can it boost your calorie-burning power?, Mayo Clinic Staff, Feb. 8, 2008
3) Interval Training, www.acefitness.org/fitfacts

Benefits of Yoga

Yoga has definitely made its way into the workout routines of athletes. Athletes, as well as trainers, have become more open minded and are willing to try anything that can improve performance. Yoga can definitely accomplish this. It increases balance, strength, flexibility and muscle tone. It also teaches focus and relaxation, integrating mind and body. Endurance athletes know all too well the importance of mental and physical strength.

Endurance athletes use yoga as part of their strength training routine. This is key component to avoiding injury. Yoga also is a nice break from high impact training sessions. Yoga will help in loosening up tight muscles and joints.
Some athletes use short yoga sequences as warm-up and/or cool-down. As most of us have been told or read in the past, breathing exercises center the mind and steady the pulse. Stretching increases range of motion, which supports and stabilizes the skeletal system, further preventing injury. Quiet meditation allows the athlete to focus on the task at hand.

The yoga workout that is recommended and used by our athletes comes from the P90X at home workout series. It is 90 minutes of love it or hate it fun. It focuses and everything, strength, balance, core, flexibility and relaxation. This is definitely not an easy routine and will take some time to get use to, but the benefits are well worth it. Also, the workout is broken up so that if you don’t want to do all 90 minutes at once, you can do the first 45 and come back later for the last 45. There are plenty of take aways that can be used before a race as well. There are plenty of breathing, relaxation and flexibility exercises that would allow you to come up with your own pre and post race routines.

Go outside your comfort zone and reap the benefits that yoga can have on your performance.

Namaste.

Joe
joe@eeathlete.com
www.eeathlete.com

Plyometrics

Plyometrics, jump training, is a type of training designed to produce fast, powerful movements, and improve the functions of the nervous system. This is primarily done for the purpose of improving athletic performance. Plyometric movements use the strength, elasticity and innervation of muscle and surrounding tissues to jump higher, run faster, throw farther, or hit harder, depending on the your training goal. Plyometrics is used to increase the speed or force of muscular contractions, providing explosiveness for a variety of sport-specific activities. Studies have shown that plyometrics can be beneficial for endurance athletes in becoming more efficient which can lead to faster times.

How do plyometrics work?

Plyometric exercises require that a muscle is:

1) Lengthened (eccentric action)
2) Shortened (concentric action)
3) Relaxed

One note. The second phase occurs immediately after pre-stretch and precedes the beginning of the concentric action. The shorter the phase (or time during the exercise), the more powerful the contraction of the muscle will be before the phase three. This teaches the muscle how to reach maximum force in the shortest amount of time.

How do they improve performance?
Plyometric drills/exercises excite the elastic component of the muscles so that the muscles are trained to react powerfully and explosively. By performing upper and body plyometrics (emphasizing the body parts which are most used during competition) several times per week, upper and lower body power has been shown to increase, in addition to improving performance. Together with weight/resistance training, plyometrics can dramatically improve power and performance. It is important to alternate upper and lower body plyometric exercises with weight lifting so that both the upper and lower body do not get overworked on a given day.

Safety
Plyometrics can be very effective to your training routine so long as the exercises are done properly, with safety and injury prevention as your primary concerns. Plyometrics are considered to be explosive and very high-intensity. Do not attempt plyometrics if you are injured, healing from an injury or believe to be overtrained. It is key to progress into plyometrics as improper progression can cause injury as muscles and tendons may not be ready for the demands placed on them. As the saying goes some times you need to go slow to go fast.

Tips:

-Always warm-up before doing plyometrics
-Land on a flat surface and as softly as possible
-Wear proper shoes, shock absorbant shoes
-Listen to your body. If you experience pain, stop.
-Start slowly. Increase in speed and difficulty.

Plyometrics has been an excellent tool in my off season training. My favorite plyometrics routine is Plyo X from the P90X series. It is a perfect combination of moves without going to crazy. It is a solid hour of several moves that will help improve performance. Since I started doing plyometrics, there has been a significant improvement in my times, as well as my overall performance.


In good health,
Joe
www.eeathlete.com
joe@eeathlete.com

Brick #1

This week has had some challenging workouts. Between the wind and heat, I have gotten a little of everything.

The Brick
My first of the year! I knew this workout was going to be tough once I hit the run portion with temps in the 80’s. This was the most comfortable I have been on the bike to date. I got into a smooth rhythm right from the start. The 30 miles flew by. Up next was the 4 mile run. I forgot how crappy your legs feel when you start the run. First couple miles were ok, after that it got hot. Luckily I had enough fluid to dump on my head as well as drink. Overall, not bad. I still have some work to do.

Swim(drills)

Same as usual. Hand paddles with the pull buoy, kick drills with the zoomer fins, 1-arm drills, fist drills and speed drills. I am slowly building up the length of my swim drill days. I do not want to risk shoulder injury. The ankle has me all paranoid. This is the first time in my triathlon career that I have swam more than once a week and I want to do it right.

4 mile run
Another hot one. I went at a nice pace. Right between 8:30-9 minute miles. The ankle felt good. Slowly making progress with the injury. I am still not going to push it. I am going to keep this pace for at least another week.

Swim 1.2 miles
This was straight laps. After about 5 laps, I fell into a nice pace. Nothing spectacular to talk about here.

In good health,
Joe
www.eeathlete.com
joe@eeathlete.com

Here We Go Again

Ok, I have been out for a while dealing with another rolled ankle. I was not a happy camper. I am back, but running slower and giving the injury the time it needs.

Here is this week’s schedule

Sunday – Brick, 30 mile bike/4 mile run
Monday – 45 minute swim (drills)
Tuesday – 4 mile run
Wednesday – 1.2 mile swim/20 mile bike
Thursday – 20 mile bike
Friday – off
Saturday – 10 mile run (hills)

Hopefully I can stay the course. First triathlon of the year is 4 weeks away.

In good health,
Joe
www.eeathlete.com
joe@eeathlete.com

Ok

30 mile bike
I had to keep this indoors on the trainer due to the weather. I worked my butt off. I averaged about 24 mph for the 30 miles. Yes, they are trainer miles, but they still produced a pool of sweat that leads me to believe that I burnt a ton of calories. Afterwards, I got a nice stretch in. My legs were a little sore from the previous days 5k, but nothing that didn’t loosen up after about 5 miles on the bike.

Strength Training
Well, this was my last strength training session until after race season. I think I have built up enough to get me through the next 3 months. The workout was all upper body and core, no legs involved. I worked semi-hard and moved fast from one set to the next. I am going to replace these workouts, with another day in the pool.

3 mile run
I have mentioned before that I am starting to feel a shin splint on my left calf. I am guessing this is from coming back to quickly from my ankle injury, as well as favoring the ankle when I first got back to running. The run was good. I mixed it up with some speed/hill intervals. I averaged 7:30 per mile. Unfortunately, I was forced to use the treadmill.

1 mile swim
Surprisingly, I felt strong in the pool. I thought it was going to be a so-so swim because I was still sore from my strength training session. This was the first time this year that I felt some gains in the pool. The mile was nonstop laps. Kind of boring, but the work needs to get done.

My midweek grade is a B-. I would have liked to been outside for my bike and run, but I can’t control the weather and it’s a little too cold for me to be running or biking in the rain so early in my training. This will change as the weather warms up.

In good health,
Joe
www.eeathlete.com
joe@eeathlete.com