Getting in shape for someone who’s overweight presents similar problems to those I face (a way oldster triathlete) in my daily training regimen; the problems run on parallel paths. Listening to a great interview on GTN (Global Triathlon Network), the ‘starting-to-run’ problems faced by Sam, who once weighed 364 pounds, and a woman who’s an osteopathic surgeon, Ilana, also … [Read more...]
LUMBERJACKS SET EXERTION LEVELS FOR TRIATHLON TRAINING
I was amazed to learn that a Swedish psychologist, Gunnar Borg, in the 60s, was studying the perception of physical exertion using lumberjacks for physical stress measurement and relating the amount of energy expended to ‘how they felt’ (from a great article in ACSM Health and Fitness Journal). From this study came the measurement “Rating of Perceived Exertion”, or the … [Read more...]
My Humbling Experience with Heart Rate Variability
I’ve been experimenting with HRV for some time now, trying to tie it into my triathlon training regimen and was going to figure all this science stuff out. Over the past several years there have been a lot of studies and training using Heart Rate Variability (HRV) as a tool, and it’s becoming a kind of buzzword in the athletic world. HRV is the small variation in … [Read more...]
WHAT IS MENTAL TOUGHNESS?
It's Probably Not What You Think. It’s a measure of your [unshakable] belief in being able to reach your true potential, despite obstacles and barriers. High levels of Mental Toughness means that despite everyday challenges, personal goals such as sales, race time, GPA or other goals and pursuits can be improved. As you might expect, higher … [Read more...]
TRIATHLETES BE AWARE….CAREFUL HOW MUCH COFFEE YOU DRINK!
Don't get me wrong, caffeine is great; just did everything wrong. I'm a minimal coffee drinker, but I decided to stop completely for a few weeks just to see if it would help to sleep more soundly. Sometimes I will drink coffee to push my triathlon workout a bit, but not often. Suddenly, I was in the middle of setting up for Super Bowl for two weeks; so I jumped to coffee … [Read more...]
THE BASICS: HOW TO SET A PR IN YOUR HALF MARATHON
Training for a PR for a half marathon showed up in the American College of Sports Medicine Journal, with concepts explained almost as bullet points. These ideas can be applied to almost any kind of endurance training, but I thought it was good; the old, standby ideas that always work (great picture, btw, by Larry Sillen). The three main ideas: 1) Increase … [Read more...]
WANT BETTER FOCUS, WANT TO IMPROVE YOUR MENTAL CAPACITY, TRY TRIATHLON!
The USA Triathlon Science Issue includes studies that show the decline, with aging, of cognitive abilities (and physical strength) especially after age 50. Through exercise (strength or endurance), for example, the University of Eastern Finland found that with increased muscle strength that aging men and women have better cognitive abilities. Researcher John Ratey, … [Read more...]
DIETS DON’T WORK (actually, they do…)
It's not often I directly reference a diet article, but this was a simple and obvious: Why do weight-loss programs fail?...which they seem to do quite often. One client [of John Berardi, fitness and diet coach for several Olympic programs, in an ISSA article] tried low-carb, then low-fat, and finally, balanced macronutrient diets with the same result each time; he lost … [Read more...]
5 Keys for Successful Triathletes (How I do/don’t do on that list)
Being really good at something really tests whether I've got the stuff. It's never a walk in the park....and occasionally it's a bit like whistling past the graveyard. In coaching triathletes, I can honestly only expect from someone no more effort than I'm willing to exert myself. So this great article in Triathlon Magazine by Ben Griffin pretty well lays out the simple … [Read more...]
SIZE MATTERS IN TRIATHLON AND FITNESS TRAINING
Referring to brain size. As you exercise more, various parts of your brain actually grow, sizewise, and including increased ability to perform their function(s). (from an extremely well referenced ISSA article by Alexander Van Houten) Take, for instance, the cerebellum; only about ten percent of the brain, yet contains more than half of all the brain neurons. The biggest … [Read more...]
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