Week 10, Training for a 50K Trail Race

 This has been a recovery week, and I surely needed it. After finishing my 16 mile trail run, I spent the rest of my Sunday getting plenty of rest and recovery. Unfortunately I did not sleep well Sunday night through Wednesday night. Each night I felt like I was having hot flashes, and was nauseous. Looking at my sleep tracker I was very busy tossing and turning all those nights. Needless to say My week didn't start off well. 

Week 10 Training Plan: (6th - 18th October)

Monday: Rest and Recovery, Mobility 30+ minutes.

Tuesday: Glute & Core Strength 45 minutes, Mobility practice 30 minutes.

Wednesday: Glute & Core Strength 45 minute, Mobility Practice 30 min.

Thursday:  Easy run 3.1 miles on the flats keeping Zone 2, Strength 30 minutes.

Friday: Easy run 3.1 miles on the flats keeping Zone 2, Mobility 30 mins.

Saturday: Tour De Cure ride 4.5 hours with some significant climbing.

Sunday: Trail run 14 miles keeping Zone 2 as best I can with the hills.

Luckily Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were rest days from running and riding but I still needed to get in my strength workouts, and my mobility workouts. I was fine doing those, but mentally I was struggling. I also felt like I was coming down with a cold. My eyes were heavy and itchy, I had a slight sore throat and some post nasal drip, not to mention my energy level was a 2 out of 10. 

By Thursday I had enough of being tired. I called off my late morning and afternoon work commitments and tried to nap. This nap was semi-successful in that I did sleep, but not for as long as I was hoping for. Needless to say I was still able to get some sleep Thursday into Friday and even woke up feeling refreshed. 

Friday I had to take my car in for service in the morning, then was going to do my run when I got home. This was a great plan especially since it was going to get into the low 90's again. On my morning run the temp was already 75 degrees when I started, but the light felt like it was 5pm. It's definitely fall even if the temps are not fall like. 

Friday evening I prepared all my food and water for Saturdays long ride. This helps me rest better knowing I'm all ready for the morning. The good news about these rides is there are plenty of places along the way to stop and refill my water bottles. The ride was going to be around 6 hours in length so I packed enough food for 200 kcal an hour plus water with Clif Hydration at 20 ounces an hour. In all the ride  went really well, we all stayed together and enjoyed a nice lunch break in Pescadero. The air was so clear that when we go to Hwy1 you could clearly see the ocean. Also by this time the temperature had risen and we were all feeling quite warm. I was able to get a few bits a pieces of video from the ride, but unfortunately during the last descent my camera flipped down and I didn't know it. When I got to the bottom of the descent I saw my camera pointing at the ground and realized I may have missed the entire Kings Mountain descent. Oh well, I'll just have to ride that road again and make sure that darn camera stays facing forward.

**Here is the video from Saturday's Tour de Cure ride.**

Sunday's run ended up getting cancelled. Long story short, my long run from last week ended up causing a strain in my left calf. It was fine most of the week, however when I got off my bike after Saturdays ride, something went pop and it hurt the rest of the day. With my event coming up in only 6 weeks I need to stay healthy so the run had to be canceled. 

These things happen in training, and you just have to go with them. When we try to push through is when we create bigger problems. So instead of running, I will be focusing on recovery through rest, ice, compression and gentle mobility exercise to keep the knee and ankle moving while I'm not running. We shall see how next week goes. 

Part 2: Cycling Equipment for the Commuter: Locks, Lights and Racks

Part Two:  The other accessories 

Last weeks blog I discussed the basics you will need to become a bicycle commuter. I talked about the bicycle purchasing process, wheels, tubes and tires, pedals and helmets. This weeks blog topic for cycling commuters will cover the next few highly recommended items you will need to become a safe commuter. Lets start with keeping your bicycle safe.

Hopefully you wont have to take such extreme precautions.

Locks

First thing to know is that NO lock is 100% thief proof; EVERY lock can be broken by a motivated thief. Learning good locking techniques (secure wheels to the frame, remove lights and computers, etc.) and accurately assessing the threats are critical to prevent the wrenching pain of a stolen bike.

My experience has been nothing but positive with the Kryptonite and OnGuard brands.  Both brands cover all the types of locks including cable, chain, u-lock and combo u-lock with cable. However the OnGuard also has locking skewers so you won’t have to bring a second lock for your wheels.

Another consideration when locking your bike is the make sure it’s in an area you will feel safe coming back to in the dark. If you have a nice beautiful top of the line bike be careful of using that as your commute as thieves are guaranteed to go after your bike before the others on the rack. If you have to use your racing bike for commuting check with your company to see if there are bike lockers and how to get one for your prized bike. Lastly making your bike more secure than the other bikes parked around it will increase your chances of coming back to an untouched bike.

Lights

There are four sides you can be approached by a car, front, left side, right side, and rear. You need to be protected and visible from all sides. You will want a red rear light at minimum two would be great. I use the two rear light set up and one is one flash while the other is on steady. The sides are a bit tricky as there are few lights out there but you can find a few valve attached ones and a few spoke attached ones as well.

The reason I believe we need lights from the side is that when you only have reflectors you can’t be seen until lights are shining on you and sometimes that may be too late. But when you have lights on you are more likely to be seen earlier and given the space you need to go on with your commute.

A few of my favorites are the Light and Motion brand and the Nite Rider brand.  Both of these brands make battery operated and rechargeable battery pack lights. I highly recommend to use the brightest light you can afford, preferably at minimum 300 lumen. Not only will it illuminate your way, but you will get more respect from motorists. I've found the brighter the light, the more respect from motorists.

Panniers and Racks

Last but not least is your rack and pannier set up. Without this you will have nothing but a backpack option to bring your work stuff with you. In the last blog I mentioned the rivets (threaded eyelets) for attaching a rack to the bike. However if you do not have these you can still install a rack by using the seat post as your attachment site. The seat post attachment has limitations though. Many racks have a maximum weight limit so you will have to pack light, and these also cannot be attached to a carbon seat post as the weight of the rack cam crack the seat post.

Seat post rack

A rack is a rack so as long as it fits and supports the amount of weight you plan to carry any brand will work. When it comes to the bag this is a different ball game. There are trunk bags, trunk bags that expand into a trunk and saddle bags, single side bags, double side bags (saddle bags), water proof, wire baskets, really just about anything you can think of. My personal preference is the trunk pack that opens up to have saddle bags attached to it.  It provides plenty of room for commuting to work, your lap top fits perfectly in the saddle bag, cloths in the other saddle bag and lunch in the top trunk. And when you aren’t commuting just going for a ride it can be folded up into just the trunk pack.  Whichever one you choose keep it simple, light, and multifunctional (water proof is always a good choice) so you won’t get caught not able to bring something with you.  

Thanks again for reading and stay tuned next week for the conclusion of bicycle commuting when I talk about how and what to pack. If you have any questions please feel free to add them at the bottom here or email me at VeloGirl@gmail.com.

Book Review: The Feedzone Cookbook (Fast and Flavorful Food for Athletes)

Book Review: The Feedzone Cookbook (Fast and Flavorful Food for Athletes) by Dr. Allen Lim and Biju Thomas

Who would know how to better feed hungry athletes than the chef and scientist who nourished the pro cyclists during the Tour de France?  Dr. Allen Lim and chef Biju Thomas share 160 of their energy-packed, wholesome recipes with elite and non-elite athletes alike in this amazing cookbook.

With recipes targeted specifically with food timing in mind: pre-workout, workout, and post-workout, this book covers it all using common ingredients such as rice, eggs, sugar and salt.  There are also many vegan and gluten-free recipe options.

Many of these recipes are designed to fuel hard-working athletes with high-calorie demands, and hence are unapologetically low-fat or low-calorie.  Lim and Thomas also encourage readers to use their recipes only as a foundation and to freely experiment with different ingredients to find out what works best for the individual athlete.

My favorite section of this book was the “portables,” which were originally designed to give riders an alternative to pre-packaged bars and food. Lim and Thomas discovered that after consuming only sweet, dense energy bars, cyclists would develop a bad stomach, or as they refer to it as, “gut rot.” This led to the birth of the infamous “Allen’s rice cakes” which are made from a mixture of calrose white rice (easily digested carbs), scrambled eggs, (protein), bacon (provides fat and a savory flavor), brown sugar and soy sauce.

Personally, I’ve been using Accelerade gels and ClifBar shot blocks for years to fuel me on the bike and run, so my tastebuds were yearning for something different- something sweet and savory- like Allen’s rice cakes.

I’m not a huge fan of bacon, so I opted to test out the Levi Leipheimer-approved Chicken Apple Sausage rice cakes. The ingredients were simple- calrose rice, chicken apple sausage, eggs, brown sugar and low-sodium soy sauce.

I scrambled the eggs and cooked the chicken apple sausage together with the seasonings.

Afterwards, you mix everything together with the rice and press firmly into a rectangular pan.  Let it sit for 15 minutes and then cut into small rectangular squares.

Lim and Thomas recommend wrapping them in parchment-lined aluminum foil, or Martha Wrap.  I settled for aluminum foil, which was rather difficult to unwrap with one hand while riding.  In the future, I may use snack-size Ziploc bags for ease of opening.

These fit nicely into the back pockets of jerseys, and are ready-to-eat.  For those inquiring about the food safety component, the authors write that the rice cakes are prepared normally at 7am, wrapped and left unrefrigerated in the van, and the cyclists eat them anywhere from 12pm-5pm without having food safety issues.  Also, you can store extras in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

These rice cakes were a nice change from the sugary gels and gummies, and my tastebuds and stomach were happy during my long bike ride.  I actually looked forward to eating “real food” to fuel my muscles while riding and did not have any G.I. issues.

As athletes, we are constantly bombarded with new diet trends, food products and supplements claiming to make us faster and stronger.  I admire Dr. Lim and Thomas’ utilization of real foods that can easily be purchased at a local store or on the road when traveling for a race.  Their goal in their own words- “is to optimize and thrive- to use real food as a real weapon.”  In my own words?  I would definitely want these two at my Feed Zone during a race and handing off rice cakes to me, so having this cookbook in my kitchen already makes me feel like a pro.

-Written by Julianne Kanzaki, MPH, RD

B.L.I.N.D. Date Bars, by Julianne Kanzaki

“There’s nothing worse than almost marrying someone, breaking if off, and having to start over with a blind date.  It’s like failing your senior year of high school and having to go back to kindergarten.”
 -Cindy Chupack

Nutritious B.L.I.N.D. Date Bars for your Endurance Training and Racing

~By Julianne Kanzaki

Ahh, the month of February.  Heart-shaped chocolates and truffles.  Romantic dinners with wine and red roses.

However, for those individuals whose significant ‘others’ take the shape of a bike, a running trail or a pool, perhaps now is a good time to start thinking about ‘dating.’

At the peak of Ironman training when I was juggling double-workout days and working full-time, it was hard to properly fuel my workouts given my time constraints.  As a result, I would go into a training session either starving and burn out too soon, or I’d eat a substantial snack that would in turn, need substantial time to digest.  By that time, the sun had set, and so had my motivation.

Enter, the blind date.   A colleague of mine noticed my dilemma and kindly shared her creation- a mixture of natural energy consisting of dates, lime juice and nuts.  Oh, the joys of simple nutrition!  I appropriately nicknamed them B.L.I.N.D dates (Blended Lime juice In Nutty Deliciousness). 

Just as real-life blind dates can sometimes be a pleasant surprise, these little creations were surprisingly delicious, and served their purpose well.  Not only were they easily digestible, but the energy from the dates was quick-burning, and the monounsaturated fats and protein from the nuts kept my stomach satisfied.  They conveniently fit into a gym bag or into the back of a jersey pocket for energy on the go.  Try it for yourself!

B.L.I.N.D. Dates

Original recipe developed by Praveena Kumar, MS, RD

-2 c. nuts (almonds, cashews, pecans, walnuts, pistachios)
-2 c. pitted dates
-1/2 c. dried sour cherries
-2 Tbs. flaxseed
-juice from 1-2 limes

Directions: Using a food processor, combine the above ingredients.  Add enough lime juice to bind the ingredients enough where they can be easily rolled into balls. Enjoy!

Feel free to get creative with this basic recipe…try adding a scoop of protein powder, other dried fruit, shredded coconut, or even morsels of carob or chocolate for a sweeter variety.

Love is complicated enough.  Keep your nutrition simple.  Happy “dating!”

-Written by Julianne Kanzaki, MPH, RD.  Nutrition questions or comments? Feel free to contact her at fusion.nutrition@gmail.com

Aerobic Base Training = Going Slower to Get Faster

That's right! Building a successful base by training at a slower, aerobic pace, will actually help your overall endurance sport performance - Jamii North,  NORTH FITNESS     

One of the hardest concepts for an athlete to understand and implement is base training. It is counterintuitive to run or bike slowly in order to gain performance later in the season. It is also very difficult to take a step back from the intense training you were doing a few weeks ago, and bring the speed and pace way down. But if you have the discipline to train aerobically for a period of time, when everyone else is still hammering away, it will pay you great dividends down the road.

First and foremost you need to take a break from your sport of choice if you haven’t already. I prescribe a 3-4 week transition phase at the end of each season and immediately follow it with base training. Transition is a time to rest and recover both physically and mentally. We do not take total time off because the fitness loss takes too long to make up. Instead I give my athletes maximum flexibility with their training, plenty of rest, and tell them to leave the heart rate monitor at home. This gives them a few weeks to refocus before we begin structured base training. You cannot train hard year round without taking regular periods of reduced volume and intensity. If you attempt to you will in all likelihood find yourself burned out, over trained, and perhaps injured. You will also find your performance degrading rather than improving. Most athletes build base in the fall and winter when there are not a lot of races.

Physiology of base training

There are two basic energy systems you use when training; anaerobic and aerobic. Unfortunately, you cannot build both your aerobic and anaerobic systems at the same time with great success. The idea behind base training is to train your aerobic energy system specifically and solely. Why is this important? The more work you perform aerobically, or in the presence of oxygen, the more efficient you are. Prolonged aerobic training produces muscular adaptations that improves oxygen transport to the muscles, reduces the rate of lactate production, improves the rate of lactate removal, and increases energy production and utilization which all occur slowly.

Fat being the primary fuel source for the aerobic energy system, over the course of a base period your body learns to more readily break down and utilize fat as an energy source. As an added bonus this adaptation helps post exercise fat metabolism as well. This is an important factor, especially for long distance athletes. The fat we have in our bodies could provide enough energy to perform long distance events back to back, whereas muscle glycogen depletion can occur in as little as one hour. The less muscle glycogen you utilize, the more efficient you are. Contrary to the aerobic system, the anaerobic system consumes carbohydrate rapidly and the byproduct is lactic acid.  This system is used up in a relatively short amount of time, but allows for very high intensity bursts.

Other adaptations of aerobic training include increased stroke volume of the heart, capillary density, and mitochondrial density. Stroke volume increase simply means that your heart pumps more blood per beat. Mitochondria are structures within muscle cells that produce energy from fat and carbohydrate oxidation. Regular endurance training has been shown to double the concentration of these structures. By increasing capillary density we can effectively transport more blood to the working muscles. The process of building capillaries occurs gradually. Because high stress training breaks down capillaries, base training is best for allowing the slow growth of capillaries.

Base progression

There should be progression during base season as with any other training period. I normally prescribe 12-16 weeks of base training every year. This will vary with athlete's fitness level, and the type of event they will be peaking for. Over the course of base I progress from the low end of the aerobic energy system and gradually proceed in steps to the high end. The heart rate zones I use fall into the 75-90% range of lactate threshold or 65-85% of max heart rate. I also incorporate specific strength training at an aerobic level. This entails different types of high cadence cycling and slow hill running or even walking. These work outs also increase in volume throughout base. Base training is an excellent time to work on form and economy as well. As intensities increase later in the season it is harder for the athlete to concentrate on form. By establishing good economy habits early in the season the athlete will carry them forward. It also important to keep the athlete's mind moving with drills and technique work when they are training at low intensity to keep boredom at bay. Base training does not mean you will never move fast. Run strides, foot speed drills, and fast pedal work will all be integrated but for short bursts and few repetitions. Towards the end of base I start power work but use brief durations and full recovery between efforts.

How does this transfer into performance gain?

Let me give you a hypothetical example. Suppose athlete Susie runs a 7 min. mile at lactate threshold. Her fastest aerobic pace, or aerobic threshold, is an 8 min. mile. We start off Susie's base training at the low end aerobic zones at which she runs a 9 min. mile pace. Over the course of her 12 week base program the above mentioned adaptations occur. At the end of the base season she now runs a 7:30 min. mile- aerobically. This is the base for Susie to build on for the rest of her season. Improving on the previous season is now more obtainable with proper training. If Susie's race is an Iron Man in which the aerobic energy system is used predominantly this improvement in aerobic speed is crucial.

Now the hard part?

The hard part of base training is having the discipline to train at these low intensities. It may mean running very slowly or even walking. It may mean separating from your training group in order to pursue your individual goals. It also means avoiding the contest of egos that group training often turns into. If you can find a training partner with similar goals and fitness level you may be able to train with them, but more often than not what I see is a base work gone awry when taking part on group rides and runs. Even spending short amounts of time above your aerobic zone degrades the work out.

Ride slow and you too can enjoy the GREAT views!

The area between the top of the aerobic threshold and anaerobic threshold is somewhat of a no man’s land of fitness. It is a mix of aerobic and anaerobic states. For the amount of effort the athlete puts forth, not a whole lot of fitness is produced. It does not train the aerobic or anaerobic energy system to a high degree. This area does have its place in training; it is just not in base season. Unfortunately this area is where I find a lot of athletes spending the majority of their seasons, which seriously slows their aerobic development. The athletes heart rate shoots up to this zone with little power or speed being produced when it gets there.

Another issue is having accurate zones. I regularly performance test my athletes in order to ensure their zones are correct and to confirm their training. After performing many of these tests, and comparing them to race data, I get a very clear estimate of lactate threshold. I use a percentage of LTHR to determine individual zones. I also recommend validation through clinical testing (yes an actual blood draw, though expensive is very informative). I have witnessed athletes using zones that are several years old, assuming fitness has improved over this time their zones would no longer be accurate and they may have spent an entire base season training the wrong energy system.

You have to let your anaerobic system atrophy during base in order to have a sustainable level of fitness to now work at the higher intensities. This means you will lose some of your anaerobic endurance and the ability to sustain speed near lactate threshold. Expect to lose some top end coming out of base, but this is what you are going to spend the rest of your season working on. It often takes several seasons to see the result of sound base training if you are a novice athlete. Be patient, it is a process that is slow and cannot be rushed, but the sooner you get started the faster you will be amazed at your results.

Now get out there are start riding slowly!