Injury Prevention - Running

Triathletes are all about variety. That’s why the results of a recent study regarding running injuries—or rather how to prevent them—are welcome news. Published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, researchers recruited 69 male and female runners to determine whether there was any relationship between step-by-step strike differences and running injuries. The participants were split into two groups—those who had sustained a running injury in the past year and those who had not.

After putting participants on treadmills and assessing things like their “stride-to-stride variability of strike index,” contact time, flight time, stride time and stride length, the researchers made some complicated calculations to determine each runner’s “coefficient of variance.” Put simply, this showed how much each person’s foot strike varied from one step to the next. What they found was that those who had greater variability were less likely to have suffered an injury in the previous year. The assumption is that when you have less variance upon striking the ground, you load the same tissues step after step. However, when there is greater variability in each step, you spread the work around.

Since overhauling your stride can be a tricky endeavor, the two easiest ways to ensure variability in your strike pattern are to train on different types of terrain and to rely on more than one pair of running shoes.

Varying Terrain

From grass to dirt to gravel and even sand, there are many terrain options that exist beyond pavement. “Your stride will naturally adjust depending on terrain,” explains Dara Wittenberg, a USA Triathlon and USA Track and Field-certified coach in Boca Raton, Fla. “There’s nothing repetitive about running on trails—your tempo varies, stride varies, strike varies. The diversity of running surfaces can help eliminate the incredibly repetitive nature of running, add strength, and decrease risk of injury.”

Using More Than One Pair Of Running Shoes

Switching up your shoes is another measure that you can take to offer your legs and feet some variety. “Some athletes will buy three pairs of the same shoe and alternate through an older, middle and a newer pair,” Wittenberg says. “Others will choose a pair with a lower heel drop that mimics barefoot running a bit more and then have a pair with more support for long-distance training.”

The Takeaway

The good news is that many triathletes are already taking these measures, perhaps more with comfort and enjoyment in mind, rather than injury prevention. Regardless of the motives, adding a bit of variety in your life—whether it be via terrain or footwear—will do your body good over many miles.

Article courtesy of Triathlete.com, Photo courtesy of Movieit.co.uk.

The Ultimate Guide to Nutrition for Triathletes

Swim, bike, run, and repeat. Seems simple, right? But if you think that’s all there is to triathlon training, think again. What you eat while you train is just as important as how you’re training. “Nutrition is the fourth leg of any triathlon,” says triathlete Kim Mueller, RD, owner of Fuel Factor athletic nutrition coaching in San Diego. “A healthy diet has to be part of your lifestyle before training can make an impact. You have to dial your nutrition in from the get-go.”

Whether you’re going for a sprint triathlon or an Ironman, your training regimen will have your body at it’s max. You’ll be burning through more energy than most people use in an entire day. And that means you need to eat more. But just like you need the right training plan to dominate the race, you also need the right fuel to power you through. So we asked the experts for their best advice and put together a step-by-step nutrition guide that will bring your tri-performance to the next level.

3 MONTHS BEFORE THE RACE

Eat Real, Not Processed

Forget frozen pizzas and energy drinks. Processed foods contain all sorts of funky ingredients that can cause inflammation throughout your body, slowing your recovery time and weakening your immune system, Mueller says.

Since scrapping all processed foods is easier said than done, start small. At the grocery store, Mueller suggest skimming food labels before you hit the check out. If you don’t recognize an ingredient, don’t buy the food, she says. If you are feeling deprived, focus on adding whole foods like fruits, vegetables, and lean meats to your plate—rather than keeping processed ones at bay. Behavior psychologists have found that it is easier to add a behavior than to take one away.

Pack More Produce

“Focus on eating foods—especially produce—with a variety of colors. Try to hit all of the colors in the rainbow,” Mueller says. The colors of fruits and vegetables are clues as to what vitamins and phytochemicals they hold. Eat them all and you are guaranteeing yourself a wide range of antioxidants and nutrients to lessen the oxidative damage and inflammation caused by your training.

Fiber-rich fruits, vegetables, and whole grains (not white ones!) are also great sources of healthy carbs, which should be any triathlete’s best friend. Endurance athletes primarily run on stored energy—called glycogen—that’s converted from carbohydrates. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends that endurance athletes consume 2.7 to 4.5 grams of carbohydrates per pound of bodyweight each day. Three months out, when your workouts aren’t quite as grueling as they could be, you can stick to the lower half of that range. So a 150-pound man should be consuming about 405 to 540 grams of carbohydrates a day.

Take It Easy on Protein

While your prescription for protein does increase while training (it’s a great source of amino acids that can help rebuild muscles after a workout), fight the urge to go mow down on a T-bone every night, says Carmichael Training Systems coach Nick White, who helped Craig Alexander win two Ironman World Championships. You’re not a bodybuilder. You’re a triathlete. As such. you need about 0.5 to 0.8 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight, according to the American College of Sports Medicine. And again, it’s safe to shoot for the low end if your workouts aren’t particularly grueling, Mueller adds.

So, that same 150-pound man will need to consume between about 75 and 97.5 grams of protein three months out from the big race. Notice that’s far fewer grams of protein than carbohydates. White advises keeping your carb-to-protein ratio between 4:1 and 7:1. If you aren’t into lean meats for your protein fix, try out Greek yogurt, edamame, or skyr. Bonus: Many whole grains—such as quinoa and lentils—also contain ample supplies of protein for a one-two nutritional punch.

1 MONTH BEFORE THE RACE

Fuel Your Workouts

As your workouts peak in intensity, you need even more carbohydrates to ensure proper glycogen storage and energy. Before any workout, fuel up with some whole food carbohydrates and follow your cool down with some more carbs and a bit of protein, White says.

However, if your workout lasts more than two hours, you shouldn’t wait until your workout is over to replenish your energy reserves in order to maintain intensity. “Your body only has so many calories saved up inside. You’ve got to replace them while you are exercising,” says White. During moderate- to high-level exercise, you are burning between 500 to 1,000 calories per hour. And your body typically only stores about two hours’ or exercise worth of carbohydrates. Try eating sports gels or beans mid workout. They are calorie-rich sources of simple carbohydrates and are easy to consume mid workout, he says.

Feed Your Immune System

When your workouts peak in intensity, so does the oxidative damage in your body and your need to protect yourself from illness. If you hit all of the colors of the rainbow with your food choices, eating a lot of produce with a range of antioxidants, you will prevent the majority of the sniffles, Mueller says.

If you find yourself still feeling run down or sick frequently, up your barriers with a multivitamin that includes Coenzyme Q10, which can be especially helpful in speeding recovery, suggests White. And no matter how busy your schedule is with long endurance workouts, you still need at least eight hours of sleep a night. Sleep gives your body needed time to recuperate from your workouts, he says.

Rehearse Race Day

Plan a few extra-long workouts so that you can experiment with different day-of nutrition options. While you should focus on carbohydrates for before, during, and after your workout, you’ll want to steer clear of fiber (more on that during your one-week-out plan), Mueller says. Remember the sports gels and beans you’ve been eating during workouts? They are perfect course companions.

Last but not least, before you begin your rehearsal workouts, you should weigh yourself. Then, once you complete your workouts, weigh yourself again. You should have sweat out no more than 2 to 3 percent of your total body weight. If you lose any more fluids, you’ll experience a significant drop in performance and can risk your health, she says. Adjust your day-of hydration plan accordingly. Write down whatever nutrition and hydration choices work for you in your training log so you’ll remember what to do come race day.

1 WEEK BEFORE THE RACE

Hydrate

The morning of the race is too late to start thinking about your hydration strategy. Start putting back between 64 and 96 ounces of water a day based on your activity level. Keep water with you at all times and you’ll easily sip through your allotment in 24 hours, Mueller says. Another word to the wise: Lay off drinks that contain caffeine or alcohol, as they can actually cause dehydration.

Carboload

A time-honored tradition of endurance athletes, carboloading allows your body to be packed full of glycogen on race-day so you’ll avoid running out of reserves and hitting the proverbial wall. Starting about three days before the race, start consuming about 3.5 to 4.5 grams of carbs per pound of body weight, Mueller advises. So if you weigh 150 pounds, consume between 525 and 675 grams of carbohydrates each day leading up to your race. Since you won’t be working out much—if at all—you can increase your glycogen concentration big time in a matter of days, she says.

Forget Fiber

Rather than munching fiber-rich carbohydrates like before, you should now focus on easily digestible simple carbohydrates that are low in fiber, so you don’t experience any digestive distress (there’s a reason some triathletes sport diapers) mid bike, run, or swim, Mueller says. You can now turn to simple—even white—grains such as white rice, white bread, and white potatoes. Fruits are safe as long as they do not contain seeds or tough, edible skins. She recommends bananas, mango, papaya, cantaloupe, and melons.

RACE DAY

Fill Up Your Engine

Eat lower fiber carbohydrates and a small amount of protein to help stabilize your blood sugar despite skimping on fiber. A slice of plain toast with peanut butter, smoothie, pulp-free juice, yogurt, mango, or PureFit nutrition bar can all be part of a great pre-race breakfast, Mueller says Don’t eat less than two hours before race time to prevent your digestive system from competing with the rest of your body for oxygen; it takes at least one hour to process every 200 to 300 calories you consume, she says.

Stay Focused on Your Plan

Now is not the time to take an interest in improv. Execute everything—from your breakfast to your mid-race gel packs—just as you wrote them down in your training log a month ago, Mueller says. And no matter how eager you are to cross the finish line, don’t skip water pit stops. Not drinking enough water is the biggest nutritional mistake that triathletes make. Dehydration can lead to cramping, headaches, dizziness, and nausea, all of which can slow you down more than grabbing a cup from the sidelines, she says.

Refuel and Replenish

Despite the urge to head straight for the beer garden, your first line of liquid nutrition should be alcohol free. While the American College of Sports Medicine recommends consuming 0.5 to 0.75 grams of carbohydrates per pound of body weight immediately after the race, it’s best to get the bulk of those carbs from a smoothie or sports drink so that you also replenish fluids. No matter how much water you drink during the race, you will be slightly dehydrated when you cross the finish line, Mueller says. They can also help to replenish sodium that you've sweated out.

And there you have it. The ultimate triathlon nutrition guide, courtesey of www.mensfitness.com

Autumn Swim Evaluation with ASA Coach Laurie Dormer

With the end of the tri season looming, now is the perfect time to reflect upon the past season and think seriously about how to reach your full swimming potential in the future. The chances are that you won’t be racing for a few months, which gives you plenty of time to make significant improvements to your stroke and swim fitness.

At this stage of the year there is no single magic fix, but rather a range of things that you can gradually implement and improve upon to make your swim technique better. I hesitate to suggest anything too specific because every swimmer is different. Not only this, but each one has different facilities available in terms of pool time, technical support and training partners.

If any of these environmental elements are holding back your day-to-day training, now is the time to research new ways and means of improving them. For example, if you need more pool time and technical support (due to inadequate local facilities and resources) then consider travelling to occasional training camps or making guest visits to triathlon or masters swimming clubs. Even a few occasional visits will inspire and motivate you for many weeks of quality training back in your home environment.

Once you have thought about new ways in which you can improve your current swim training environment, it is a really good idea to remind yourself of the fundamental principles of swimming.

Mistakes to avoid

The most fundamental mistake that triathletes make is to think that hard work alone will ensure success. This statement is only ever true when the word ‘effective’ precedes the word ‘hard’. This particularly applies to swimming because it isn’t a natural activity for human beings: we’re not built for it like marine animals, so in order to swim well we need to adapt to a very particular environment. In this environment we are weightless and denied oxygen, whilst propulsion relies on complex movements.

Improving efficiency

You can train thousands of metres each week, but without a good skill base and regular fault correction you will be rehearsing failure by grooving faults into your subconscious. I always tell my athletes: “It’s not how many metres you do, it’s how you do the metres!”

Your stroke efficiency is of prime importance since, with skill, you will use less energy and travel faster. Without skill, you’ll burn more energy, swim slower and suffer more during the subsequent bike and run phases. Therefore, you must pay attention to detail and listen to a coach when they correct a fault, and then repeat it correctly in each and every stroke until it becomes automatic. Remember that you have to repeat a movement correctly 10,000 times before it becomes natural. If you repeat incorrect techniques, you are rehearsing failure.

Design your own training

Once you have made plans to improve your stroke efficiency, it’s time to start thinking about your training programme, which needs to be cleverly structured in order to be successful. To achieve this you need to implement three main things:

1. Keep it specific

If you want to improve an energy system, you must swim a session that uses that system. This requires training in particular intensity zones identified by specific heart rates. Speed endurance training is the most applicable to triathlon and demands a heart rate of 20-30 beats below maximum. This should be done over any repeated distance between 50 and 400 metres, resting 10 to 20 seconds between efforts. This is demanding work and should be limited to around 15 per cent of your total weekly swimming distance. You don’t need a heart-rate monitor; just calculate a rough figure by taking your pulse immediately after each hard rep.

2. Overload yourself

Not only must you use the energy system that you’ll use during a triathlon, but you have to make it work harder than it is normally used to working – that is, overload it. By doing this in small amounts you will encourage your body to adapt to the new training stimulus.

3. Progress gradually

It’s important to gradually increase the load on each energy system (over a period of weeks) to keep overloaded. Otherwise, within a few weeks you’ll get used to a level of intensity and you’ll stop improving. You should undertake a varied training programme incorporating all of these principles. Within the training cycle you should also allow regular adaptation periods, to give the body time to adapt to the physiological demands made on your body. By doing this and following all the advice above, you’ll take one big step closer to improving your swimming this autumn and being faster next season

Article courtesy of Triathlon Plus magazine.

Fuel your training with these healthy balanced meals

As athletes we place a lot of physical and mental demands on ourselves. Training and racing will require our bodies to continually respond and adapt to stress, this extra demand has an energy and nutrient cost. A well-chosen diet offers many benefits to all athletes irrespective of event, sex, age or level of competition. Benefits include:

• Enhanced recovery within and between training and events
• Achievement and maintenance of an ideal body weight and physique
• Reduced risk of injury and illness
• Consistent in achieving high level performances

A varied health diet that meets energy needs which is based largely on nutrient rich choices such as vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, beans, legumes, cereals, lean meats, fish and dairy foods should ensure an adequate intake of all the essential vitamins and minerals. Excluding any of these food groups increases the risk of missing out on important nutrients. In essence, fuelling is vital for optimal performance.

Here are some easy to make well-balanced meal ideas:

Lemon Chicken Salad

Ingredients

1 Breast of Chicken

Some Mixed Lettuce Leaves

1 Red Onion

1 Raw Carrot

Juice of Half a Lemon

1 Clove of Garlic

Parsley

Cherry tomatoes

For the Dressing:

12ml of Udo’s Choice® Ultimate Oil Blend

White Wine Vinegar

Dijon Mustard

Method

Slice the raw chicken into strips. Place in a bowl. Crush the garlic and add to chicken along with the lemon juice and parsley. Cover with cling film and place in fridge for at least an hour. Using a griddle pan cook the chicken strips. Slice the carrot into baton strips and place into a salad bowl. Add the mixed lettuce leaves, quartered cherry tomatoes and sliced onion.

To make the dressing: In an empty jam jar place a heaped teaspoon of Dijon, add 2 dessert spoons of Udo’s Oil and a cap full of white wine vinegar. Place the lid back on and store in fridge.

To serve: Place the chicken strips into the salad, add the vinaigrette and toss.

Serves: 4

Quinoa Super-food Salad with Udo’s Oil Dressing

Ingredients

100g Quinoa

400ml Water (Boiled)

Low Salt Vegetable Stock Cube

150-175g of Edamame Beans (Frozen)

Seeds of 1 Pomegranate

½ Red Onion (Diced)

Feta Cheese (Crumbled)

Baby Spinach Leaves

Optional: Toasted seeds (sunflower, sesame, pumpkin)

For the Dressing:

30ml of Udo’s Choice® Ultimate Oil Blend

30ml of Aged Balsamic Vinegar

30ml of Honey

2g Dijon Mustard

A Squeeze of Lemon Juice

Mint & Basil

Method

Cook the quinoa in vegetable stock for 12-20 minutes, depending on how al dente you like your grain. Once cooked, drain any remaining water and allow to cool in a large bowl. Next, cook the edamame beans in boiling water for about 4 minutes until tender.

 Drain and add to quinoa. Prepare the remaining ingredients and gently toss with the edamame and quinoa mix. To make the dressing: Simply combine all of the ingredients and mix. Use raw agave nectar in place of honey if you’re watching blood sugar levels. Drizzle as much of it as you fancy over the quinoa.

To serve: Place the quinoa salad on a bed of baby spinach leaves and top with crumbled feta cheese.

Optional: Toast the seeds in the oven with a bit of soya sauce if desired. This should take about 5 minutes in a hot oven.

To garnish sprinkle with seeds and desired herbs (mint and basil go well).

Serves: 3 to 4

Courtesy of Triathlonireland.com