athletes

Super Bowl Sunday!

Watching the Super Bowl this past Sunday was so fun!  Obviously I wish that the 49er’s won being from the Bay Area and all, but it was still an exciting game to watch nonetheless.  Football players are so strong and so intense!  They must have stronger bones than any other human on earth!  The way they take and make tackles without getting more hurt blows my mind.  I am an elite runner, which is basically the opposite of a football player, but it is interesting to investigate any similarities that I might share with some of these incredible athletes.

For anyone that watched the super bowl yesterday, you know that there was a power outage that led to a 30-minute delay during the game.  It was so cool to watch the football players during this time.  Instead of whining on the sidelines about something that was completely out of their control, they were all out on the field doing exercises and drills to stay warm and ready to go back to battle.  This was the first time that I realized that I do some of the same stuff that football players do! Read More…

Summer Training and Summer Nutrition

Summer is here!  I love this time of year!  The very beginning of summer is the best.  Three months ahead of vacation, sun and fun.  My summer running training is always a blast also.  I love the feeling of getting up early to avoid the heat and finishing my runs with the sun beating on my back.

This summer my training kicks of with preparation for the Olympic trials 10k, which will be held in Eugene, Oregon.  My legs have been feeling great and my workouts have been a breeze so I can’t wait!  The race will be on the track, so that means 25 laps!  As I have gotten older, this race scares me less and less because of the strength that I have built over the years, especially now that I have done a marathon.  When I was in college though, I will never forget toeing the line for my first 10k on the track.   I was so scared!  When the gun goes off however and the race starts at a steady pace (rather than a sprint), I quickly learned that I need to just find the right my pace rhythm and the laps just fly by.

Fueling for this race and for my training is the most important part of being a runner.  I obviously want to keep my bones strong and healthy in order to prevent injuries, but more importantly a lifetime of health.  I measure my nutritional success by keeping track of my menstrual cycle.  While us girls don’t usually like talking about our menstrual cycle, it is very important as athletes.  If we lose our period, we lose estrogen and estrogen is what helps us absorb our calcium keeping our bones strong.  It may not seem like a big deal if we lose our period on the outside, but inside we can be compromising our bone health.  Read More…

Ups and Downs

Lately my races haven’t been quite as fast as I would like them to be. Since running my first marathon this past January, it has taken me much longer than I thought it would to recover. While my times have still been good and I have even won a few races since the marathon, I just thought that I would be performing at a slightly higher level. When I get stuck in a rut like this, it reminds me to take a step back and look at the situation in a different perspective. I remind myself that a few races that are sub par don’t really matter in the grand scheme of life. I remember that I have two beautiful, healthy children to come home to (along with a very, loving husband) after every run, workout and race.

There is so much more to life then just our athletics. Sometimes its hard to think that life will go on after a bad race or loss in any other type of sporting event. We must always remind ourselves that in the bigger picture, it really doesn’t matter. We eventually will forget about our less than perfect performances and look forward to the ones in our future with much room for improvement. In addition, we can always learn from our bad races and games too. For me, I can take a step back and remind myself not to take out too fast or too slow when the gun goes off. I can also look at my training and evaluate whether I am doing too much or not enough in my interval workouts. For someone else, they can also step back and take a look at how they can make their game better and fix it!

No matter what it is that makes us not perform exactly how we want to, we can always learn more about ourselves from it. More importantly too, we can also always remind ourselves to keep our sports in perspective in the bigger picture in our lives. Write down all of the things that are important to you OTHER than sports as a way to teach yourself how many special things you have in your life. School, friends, family, pets, good health, STRONG BONES, any type of other hobbies or fun that you have outside of your athletics. When I do this, it helps me relax and take some pressure off my races and training. What always ends up happening then, is I end up performing even better than I did before because my mind is finally at ease and my nerves calm down. As competitive athletes sometimes it works better to be a little less intense, take a step back and just breathe. Not being too hard on ourselves is sometimes the answer to success!

NUTRITION TIP OF THE DAY: Coconut water! Drink lots of it! Now that summer is around the corner, the temps are going up and we need to be extra careful about hydrating. Coconut water is like a natural gatorade. There are tons of electrolytes which will help you replenish and recover from sports. Stores sell it everywhere these days, so don’t hesitate to give it a try when you see it!

The Olympic Trials

I ran my first marathon in the Olympic trials this past January and it was a blast! In order to participate in the race you have to run a certain time in either the marathon or the half marathon to qualify. I was able to qualify by running a half marathon (because I had never run a marathon leading into the race) only four months after having my daughter. The training into the race was intense! I was running up to 90 miles week to prepare and some of my workouts seemed nearly impossible on paper.

Training for the race was not only running lots of workouts, but also paying attention to my nutrition. There were times in my past during high school and college when I would neglect the importance of nutrition and this led to many problems, such as loss of my period and a negative impact on my athletic performance. While training for the marathon, I was not only adamant about eating lots of extra healthy fats, proteins, carbs, leafy greens and fruit, but I was very serious about taking lots of nutrition while actually working out.

During workouts I would have up to three energy gels, would sip on electrolytes in between intervals and would always follow my workouts up with a 300-calorie recovery drink that included a perfect balance of protein and carbs. I would have the drink ready before the workout so that I could literally start sipping on it the second I was done. The 30-minute half hour window after an intense workout is a critical time for your body to intake calories to start the recovery process.

Getting in the habit of paying careful attention to your nutrition as an athlete is crucial. Without supporting our sports with healthy, balanced foods we cannot perform and recover at an optimal level. More importantly however, it is imperative as women that we support our sports nutritionally so that our general health (including our bone density!!) is not compromised.

I was able to finish the Olympic trials marathon in a very fast time of 2:35, which put me in 16th place. I would never have been able to become the 16th fastest marathoner in the country in my first marathon if it were not for the amount of thought I put into making sure I got plenty of the perfect foods to support my training and the race. Even in the race, I ate three energy gels along with a sugary electrolyte drink. Not only is the marathon a time to focus on nutrition, but ALL sports are, so whatever your sport may be, make sure you are paying attention to fueling your body at an optimal level. This way your body will be happier and thank you by performing better and staying healthy!

Nutrition tip of the week: Spinach smoothies!! We make smoothies a lot in our house. They are great because you can put so much stuff in them! From peanut butter, to protein powder the list goes on. Another thing we like to do it put frozen fruit in so that it comes out nice and icy. More importantly however is using smoothies to get dark, leafy greens into your body. Dark, leafy greens not only have tons of vitamins, but they also have calcium; they are critical for an athlete’s diet. The problem is sometimes they are kind of boring to eat, so putting them in your smoothie is a perfect solution! It really doesn’t alter the taste at all and as long as the green color of your delicious smoothie doesn’t freak you out, this is a fantastic way to get those leafy greens into your diet!

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