Skip to main content

Posts

Homemade Nutty Granola

For athletes experiencing an increase in training volume, granola makes for a delicious and nutritious energy-dense food to help with meeting carbohydrate and energy needs. Granola makes for a delicious topping to yogurt or to enjoy by the handful. In our recent newsletter, Joey shared her scrumptious granola recipe. After she shared it with me, I immediately replied "I need to make this!"  Homemade Granola By Joey Mock, RD, LD, CLT This is an easy to make and delicious homemade granola recipe. Grab a handful and eat it as it is for a snack or add it to cereal, yogurt/smoothies, or top a salad with it. Mix up the nuts/seeds and dried fruits for variety each time you make it. Ingredients 4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats 1 to 1 ½ cups raw nuts and/or seeds (pecans, walnuts, almonds, pumpkin seeds, etc) ½ teaspoon fine-grain sea salt ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon ½ cup melted coconut oil or olive oil ½ cup maple syrup or honey 1 teaspoon vanilla extract ⅔ cup dried fruit, chopped ...

A new sport requires a beginner's mindset

  I first heard about the concept of a "beginner's mind" from my long-time friend Gloria. Back in 2015, she wrote a blog about the "beginner" triathlete. She wrote about her first triathlon and shared the following: "I can recall those early race memories with a warm heart and excitement because I remember how excited I was to learn from every race, to be excited about the possibilities or being better or learning something new. I remember being the newbie triathlete and didn’t care about rankings or qualifying but only in asking myself “did I give my best effort and what did I learn?” and being content with that." Considering that I've been training for and racing long-distance triathlon events for nearly 16 years, I miss the moments of learning something new. Although I always keep an open mind and I am willing to try new things to help me improve, there's something incredibly special about doing something for the first time.  Over the past ...

Is your good enough, enough?

Over the past decade, hundreds of athletes have come to me for help with daily nutrition, sport nutrition and training assistance. Most of these athletes have identified a specific limitation that is preventing them from optimizing performance, maintaining good health and/or advancing fitness in preparation for an athletic event. But I also hear statements like the following from athletes who are not comfortable with change.  "I eat good." "My workouts are good." Why be good when you can be great?  Last week we had our athlete Kaley in town for 2 days. Kaley traveled to us from the DC area and she is a developing triathlete athlete who is a super speedy swimmer and is very strong on the bike. However, she hasn't been able to master the bike/run combo to her potential so she made a trip to us to update her bike position on her tri and road bike and to work on bike handling skills. The first day of Kaley's trip was dedicated to Karel fitting her on two bikes (...

When new kit day causes body image dissatisfaction

After several months of waiting, we finally received our 2022 Trimarni kits. We have a new company , new design and new colors. We weren't sure how it would all turn out but we could not be happier! Receiving a new training or race day kit is a special moment. As an athlete, you do incredible things with your body on a daily basis. And when it comes to race day, you are often doing what others think is impossible. Every time you get dressed to use your body for sport, you deserve to wear clothes that make you feel confident, empowered and happy. A great mood boost can come from wearing clothes that make you feel so proud of your active and healthy lifestyle. Unfortunately, the long-awaited arrival of your new outfit may cause a mood drop - especially if you feel unhappy with your body image when trying on your new training or race day kit. When something doesn't fit right and you feel uncomfortable, it can mess with your head.  If you are an athlete, there is a good chance that...

How to improve your gravel biking skills

Last week (while dealing with Madison's declining health ) we had two of our athletes in town for a 2.5 day private training camp. The focus of the camp was improving off-road bike handling skills (gravel biking). We also included swim/run training in the camp as our athletes have several triathlons on their schedule. But with their first ever ultra-distance gravel event (150-mile) happening late summer, it was important that our athletes improve their gravel skills to that they can both feel more comfortable, safe and confident when training off-road.  Although the weather was not in our favor with predicted rain all day on Thurs and Friday (the two full days of their camp), we got incredibly lucky in that we were able to drive to two different locations and entirely miss the rain. Even better, on Thursday we were able to ride in a short sleeve jersey and shorts!  For Zach and Ashley's camp (husband and wife from Nebraska) we completed the following over 2.5 days:  Thurs...

The hardest part of having a pet

  For any pet owner, saying goodbye to a beloved furry family member can be one of the most difficult times in life. This past week was incredibly hard as we were so close to saying goodbye to our eldest cat Madison (14 years old). Although she is still with us, we aren't sure how much time we have left with our sweet, kind, affectionate and always-by-my side Madison.  On Saturday evening (1/29), Madison was acting completely normal. She was eating normally, following her normal routine and not showing any signs of concerns. On Sunday morning (1/30), everything changed. Madison stopped eating and drinking and started acting unlike herself. She became lethargic and wanted to be by herself. Although this had happened twice in the past (2019), we were a bit concerned with her being older. We took her to the vet on Monday (1/31) and the vet was concerned about her hat. She was quickly diagnosed with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (a feline type of cardiac disease that causes the...

Do athletes need regular blood tests?

A few millimeters of blood holds a vast amount of personal information. Although a blood test may appear costly and inconvenient, blood testing offers a quick, reliable and straightforward way of receiving a powerful amount of personalized information that can help you maximize health, overall well-being and performance.getting your blood analyzed with careful interpretation by a sport-specific professional can show how your genetics, training, nutrition, recovery and lifestyle factors impact your biomarkers.  Why guess when you can test?  Let's look into a few reasons why athletes (and fitness enthusiasts) should get routine blood tests:  Health - Blood tests are not just for optimizing performance. First and foremost, a blood test can check for certain diseases, conditions and deficiencies. Because every biomarker has a range or specific number that represents "normal," you can learn if you have a shortage or excess of a specific factor in the blood. A blood test i...