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Showing posts from September 8, 2019

8 tips to improve your transition time

Many athletes waste precious time in the transition area. It's not a place for rest, high-fives, hugs or taking in calories but instead, a place where you transition quickly from one sport to the next. Transitions offer a unique opportunity to save time without much physical cost. However, for many triathletes, the transition area brings great physical and emotional stress as it is an unfamiliar component of triathlon racing that is only performed just a few times per year - on race day. Stressing about your transition area layout, the order that you will put on your gear and who's around you will only give you added frustration, anxiety and energy. Here are a few tips for a smooth and quick transition: Create an auto­pilot plan ­- You need a repeatable plan that requires little thought. Write out your plan from swim to bike and then bike to run in advance. Do not ignore any details. Create order to your plan so that your transitions are smooth and effective. Continue...

The 365-Day Running Journal - a look inside

We are getting close to the release date of my new book "The 365-day Running Journal." With only a few weeks to go, I wanted to share a few snippets of educational material that you can find within the journal to help you get more out of your exercise regime. While this book is called a running journal, you don't have to be a runner to log your workouts, record your milestones and maintain motivation through inspirational quotes and tips. Cross Training Running more doesn’t always lead to running better. Although a certain amount of training stress and specificity is needed for training adaptations, running harder, longer or more often is not the answer. As with any type of sport, there are potential side effects to the age-old “more is better” myth. To reduce the chance of an overuse injury, you need to let your run-specific muscles heal. Cross-training can be defined as engaging in different types of activities from your main sport. Since running is full-body,...

Injury and mental health

Injuries are an unavoidable part of sport participation. While there are ways to reduce your risk and some injuries result from accidents, almost every athlete will experience some type of injury during an athletic career. While some injuries can be managed with just a little disruption to training (I call these niggles), some injuries cause substantial physical and mental stress.  It's normal to feel frustrated, annoyed and sad when you experience an injury. Depending on the severity of the injury, your emotions may change on a daily basis. Every person has his/her own emotional reaction to an injury as well as how to best emotionally cope with a setback. It should be noted that injury process doesn't just include the time immediately after an injury until the injury is healed but it also includes the rehab process and the time needed to return to optimal fitness. Because sport/exercise/training is often used as a healthy coping mechanism to manage stress, to boost ...

Running Journal Giveaway!!

A big thank you to Meg and Kelly with Fillnow Coaching for hosting a giveaway for my new book "The 365-Day Running Journal." Check out their Instagram to read the many inspiring responses of how others would use this journal for health, wellness and fitness. If you are interested in hosting a giveaway to help me promote my new journal/book with your athletes/community, just send me an email. I just realized that I never selected a winner for my last giveaway on August 28th, so I'd love to give you one more opportunity to select your favorite running store for a chance to be entered in the giveaway for my new book. When it comes to running gear, we love to shop local. Spending money at your local running stores helps keep the money local. They also take up less space, and make less waste. Not to mention, they usually buy locally and live locally. Lastly, your voice gets heard. If there is something you want to see sold in a store, or you have a problem, the o...

IM Kona: 5 week countdown

This was an exciting weekend as we watched the Facebook live coverage of the Ironman World Championship in Nice, France. We had four athletes racing (along with a few of my nutrition athletes) and it was great to track them throughout the event. The professional races (all women raced on Sat and men on Sunday) were super exciting to watch. The bike course looked exceptionally challenging but then again, it also reminded us of our riding in Greenville. Except in Greenville, we have much worse road conditions. But we lucky to have narrow, quiet roads, long climbs, twisty descends, punchy hills and everything between  - except for flat roads. Sadly, we have none of those where we live. As for my training, I was able to get back into a routine this week - although my mind was not always present. As the week went on, my head space/mental state got a bit better. Karel and I often swim together and we enjoy riding outside together. When it comes to running (back when I was running mor...