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Showing posts from August 13, 2017

Traveling tips for the perfect race-cation

Enjoying the sunset in St. Croix. Although I consider myself a competitive triathlete, triathlon is an outlet, a stress reliever and an opportunity for me to have my “me” time. Triathlon is much more than the hobby that keeps me healthy and active but it provides me with valuable life experiences. For me, one of my most favorite things about triathlon is having the opportunity to combine traveling and racing - two things that enrich my life. Traveling to a race, although a bit stressful and expensive, can be a fun and exciting experience, filling you with lots of great memories in your triathlon journey and showing you different places and faces.  Feeling cheesy in route to Madison, Wisconsin.  When planning your next race-cation, there are a few important considerations that you need to take into consideration to help you minimize the stress and oh-$h!t situations (let's get real here, traveling is not easy-breezy). My tips below are not requirements but rather suggestio

Avoid late-season training burnout

Since starting my 2017 back in November, my motivation for training is still high and I am itching to race my last race of the season, the IM 70.3 World Championship, in just 24 days! I'm actually getting a little sad that my 2017 season is coming to an end. Although I look forward to the fall, when I have the opportunity to exercise without structure and enjoy our amazing fall weather, I really do love training with a purpose and being in the race environment. But with a close to one season comes the start of another season and I can't wait to make my return back to Ironman distance racing after this 2-year intentional break from training for the 140.6 mile distance. Ironman Austria and Ironman Wisconsin will make Ironman #12 and #13 for me in 2018! Although it's normal to experience motivational highs and lows throughout a season, there can be a great risk for burnout when you have been training hard for a long period of time, in preparation for an important event. Typ

Banana chocolate chip muffins

I don't know how it happened (since I am known to be a monkey when it comes to banana) but somehow we ended up with 4 extremely ripe bananas on our counter last week. Since the bananas were too ripe for my liking and I don't like to waste food, I decided to make banana muffins - with a chocolate twist. This recipe was super easy and quick and you likely have all of the ingredients at home. So the next time you find yourself with 4 spotty brown bananas, be sure to refer back to this recipe so that you can yum over your delicious homemade chocolate chip muffins. Enjoy! INGREDIENTS 4 medium-sized ripe bananas 1/4 cup melted butter (cooled) 1/4 cup applesauce 1 egg 1 tsp vanilla 1/2 cup shredded carrots 1 tsp baking soda 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour 3/4 cup Ghirardelli chocolate premium baking chips 60% cacao bittersweet chocolate 1/4 cup chopped walnuts DIRECTIONS Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease your muffin tin Peel bananas and place them in a bi

Why your sport nutrition product is not working for you.

As a sport dietitian, I receive a variety of sport nutrition products from companies to test out for taste, effectiveness and practicality. So guess who also gets to try out all types of sport nutrition products - Karel! Because Karel and I are firm believers in the effectiveness of sport nutrition products in training and racing, we have no trouble consuming safe, well-formulated, reputable engineered products to optimize our performance. Additionally, we don't just use sport nutrition for performance reasons but we also use sport nutrition products for health reasons, as fueling/hydrating your body properly during training and racing can protect your immune system and will keep your body functioning well during training/racing stress. I remember not too long ago, having a conversation with Karel as he was reminiscing from his teenage cycling days, when he was racing at a national level in Europe. Check out this stud... Karel was telling me all about all of the s

Feeling flat post race - embrace the recovery

It felt so good to be back on my tri bike for a structured training session with Karel on Saturday. It took a full week for my legs to feel full again after the Lake Logan half Ironma n as I was left with a "flat" feeling in my legs for several days post race. Here's how my week of training went after the race: Sunday - AM 90 min EZ road bike spin on the Swamp Rabbit Trail w/ my friend Meredith Monday - PM 90 min EZ road bike spin on the Swamp Rabbit Trail w/ Karel Tues - AM 3000 yard interval swim w/ Karel, PM 30 min outside EZ run with Karel Wed - Day off (private camper in town) Thurs - AM 90 min skill focused ride on tri bike (private camper in town) Friday - AM 40 min treadmill run Sat - AM 3.5 hour ride w/ a 20 min strong effort at 2 hours followed by a 30 min treadmill run w/ a 20 sec surge every 5 minutes. Sun - AM 11 mile long run w/ a 6-mile interval run on the track. Late afternoon 2800 yard interval swim. With my big season race approaching