Ridgelake's Group - Filled up with Fantastic Folks! (Page 17)

teresa - 2008-03-25 10:47 AM There was an interesting talk at my tri club meeting last night. After a nutrition talk, a dentist spoke. He was raised in a family of dentists and had no cavities until he started training for triathlons. Within a year he had 10. Nothing changed in his diet so he did some research and discovered a trend of an increase in cavities in endurance athletes due to the slow infusion of sports drinks. A gatoraid has 8 tsps of sugar. Sipping on that adding shot bloks and in 1 hour you have coated your teeth with 14 tsps of sugar. Multiply that by multi hour workouts and the bacteria in your mouth are having a hayday. His suggestions were to chew gum during long rides with xylitol being the first ingredient. Xylitol increases your saliva production which is your natural defense against mouth bacteria. Next, drink your sports drinks quickly instead of sipping on them. Eat your electrolyes if you can and always rinse with plain water after you drink or eat carbs (sugar). There you go..great tips to keep your pearly whites gleaming at the finish line

Cool stuff, Teresa!  I would have never guessed!! 

Heya, have fun camping! 

Tapering.  The reading that I've done have indicated that you want to maintain the intensity level that you're accustomed to training at.  But the distance is shortened.  You want to give modest levels of stress to the various systems involved without taxing them to the degree that you're breaking down the body.

The day before, I'd suggest something like 15 minutes of each discipline.  Moderate pace, but enough to get the heart rate up to a moderate level. 

Basically, don't go near your long distances for either event.  Don't go high intensity in either event.  Do go at a moderate pace in each event.

Hope this helps!

Alex,

I'm sorry to see that you've been forced to make these decisions.  Racing can be very encompassing.  But whether you race or not, I do hope that you realize that this is a lifestyle, being active and fit.  It is part of who you are versus what you want to try to do.

Not sure if that makes sense or not.  But regardless, best of luck to you with everything. 

Scott, a good question.  And I'll respond with a few questions.

1)  What length races do you want to do?

2)  How much more training time do you reasonably have?

3)  How is your body taking the training volume/intensity that you've been putting in?

Scott,

Thats great that you have that much control over your schedule.  Defintely a huge help!

A few thoughts come to mind regarding training. 

1) Listen to your body.  And your heart.  Your body will tell you if its ok with what you're putting it through.  It seems that since you've cut back on your pace that you've really had good success with training effectively.  It would seem that you could reasonably go for more. 

If thats what you really want to do.  Some people are just thrilled doing sprints.  Others want the increased challenge of Olys, HIM, and ultimately IM.  Thats a call that you and your wife need to make.  I do think that you're smart to keep it to the sprints and olys your first year.   It takes a whole lot longer than most people realize to build up the endurance for even an Oly, much less a HIM. 

I guess my thought is to get some experience with doing tris and dus this year.  And as you continue this LIFESTYLE of fitness and health over the next year, if then you decide you want to go longer (HIM+), then you'll have a much better background to do that. 

But ultimately, listen to your body.  And listen to your heart.

OK Everyone!  March is over and April is here.  Time for the (public) checkin to see how everyone is doing.  What went well last month?  What did not?  Whats your goal for April?

I'll start.  March was dominated by a foot injury that I suffered in late February.  The initial injury spot seems to be healed, but now I'm left with Plantar Fasciitis.  I have no idea how long this will take to resolve.  I've had it before, and its no fun. 

Because of my foot, I did minimal running in March.  I also did only a little biking.  Once the foot got well enough, I could bike.  But then I aggravated my knee.  An old injury that pops up every now and then. 

So thats the bad news.  The good news is that my swimming has really come on.  I've taken time that had been going to running and moved much of it to the gym.  My upper body is a lot stronger than it was 6 weeks ago.  And its showing up in my swimming.  I averaged a 1:47 per 100 meter pace in late January during the Postal Swim.  Last week, I swam a 1500 meter time trial in 25:25, or a 1:41/100 meter pace. 

I've also been able to stay active.  Despite the injuries, I only had 2 off days in March.  One can almost always find something to do. 

For April, it looks like much of the same.  I need to get my foot healthy.  My knee too.  With the weather finally turnign positive, I hope to get out and ride some.  And I'll continue my swimming.