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Showing posts from February 3, 2019

Pumpkin Pecan Maple Oatmeal

Deep into winter, it's time to spice-up your plain bowl of oatmeal with this delicious recipe filled with pumpkin, pecans and maple syrup.   Pumpkin Pecan Maple Oatmeal By Joey Mock, RD, LD, CLT Ingredients 1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats 1 ¾ cups soy, almond, or low fat cow's milk ¼ cup canned pure pumpkin ½ teaspoon vanilla extract ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg 2 Tablespoons chopped pecans Pure maple syrup, to taste Preparation Combine oats and milk in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil stirring occasionally. Reduce heat and simmer, continuing to stir, about 4 minutes. Stir in pumpkin, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg. Continue to simmer about 1 minute until heated through. Top with pecans and a drizzle of maple syrup and serve immediately. Enjoy! Adapted from: Damn Delicious  Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal recipe

Hydration and Performance

The first step to optimizing performance is mastering your daily hydration needs to maintain proper body functions. Fluids are critical to optimal health. They replenish what has been lost through normal physiological processes, such as respiration, sweating and urination. To optimize cardiovascular and thermoregulatory functions, it's important to subscribe to a comprehensive fluid-replacement program. Identify the best beverages to consume and plan your fluid intake - frequency and volume - around and during exercise.  To help simplify this confusing topic, I highly suggest to listen to the  Purple Patch Fitness Podcast  with Andy Blow from Precision Hydration.   Matt and Andy go into the specifics of hydration and why athletes should pay more attention to hydration needs on a daily basis and during training.  If you are like most athletes and desire specific guidelines and strategies for optimizing hydration intake, I feel you'll really find my book Esse

In pursuit of race weight

With January behind us, there's a good chance that you are getting a bit more serious with your training and diet. Motivation is high, all with hopes that this will be the season when you reach your BIG performance goals. With an extreme drive to succeed, you may be looking for the many ways that you can optimize performance. Body composition has and will always play a role in performance. Many athletes are on a never-ending pursuit to achieve the perfect weight for race day. However, being lighter isn't always better. I've touched on this topic many times in the past but I don't think it can be discussed too much. In a media-driven world, body image has become an obsession among athletes - particularly how you compare your body image to the body image that you see on others. In today's "visual" society, it's not hard to compare how you look to other people. This may cause you to question your looks and lose confidence in your abilities. With

The Ventum makeover

When Karel learned about the custom paint work of Mike Furtek of Kcycle Design  in early 2018, he couldn't pass up the opportunity of a receiving a complimentary custom paint job on his Ventum. Karel's bike was flashy and certainly stood out in a crowd. With a new season approaching, Karel wanted a makeover on his bike. Something a bit more his style - black. This time around, Karel paid for the paint (a special and very specific type of paint) and let Mike go to work, creating another incredible design. Once again, Mike created a masterpiece and a one-of-a-kind bike. The pictures don't really capture the details of the deep shiny black paint. Mike did an incredible job hand painting this bike. Karel also has a new handlebar setup by 51 Speedshop , along with his Dash Cycles aero combo, Alto Cycling wheels and new 4iiii  dual-side powermeter. Saturday was Karel's first time since November (IMFL) outside on his Ventum and he was riding happy for all 3.5 h