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Travel Advice From a Smart Guy...
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Saturday, 31 March 2018 23:10
By Matt Dixon (usatriathlon.org)
Long gone are the days when flying was fun!
Or so we’re told by those who remember the days of in-flight meals and sharp-dressed passengers. Today, flying is downright unpleasant. For athletes, getting from city to city can cause huge disruptions to workout schedules, recovery, sleeping and eating schedules not to mention suffering through flight delays and cramped conditions.
From choosing flight times to dealing with delays, reducing swelling and flight fatigue, Matt Dixon’s book "Fast-Track Triathlete" offers two dozen smart ways athletes can ensure that air travel impacts them less. Here are eight travel tips for athletes to make your next flight more “Meh” and less, “Argh!”
Maintaining Nutrition and Hydration
Make it your mission to be appropriately fed, hydrated, rested, and as limber as possible. However, you don’t want to consume too many calories. Going into a flight even a little bit hungry or semi-fasting is preferable to eating heavy foods like a burger and fries or fish and chips at the airport....
Full Effort...
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Thursday, 29 March 2018 23:15
By Denton Ketels (Magazine.grinnell.edu)
Madeleine Pesch ’16 likes to joke that she would never have found Grinnell if it weren’t for the “amazing pool” she first saw in a swimming-and-diving brochure. She went on to record plenty of stellar accomplishments in the Russell K. Osgood pool during her four years, but the double major in chemistry and gender, women’s, and sexuality studies (GWSS) meant taking academics just as seriously. Pesch’s balanced effort won her both the Honor G Scholastic Award and the President’s Medal, which is presented annually to the senior who exemplifies the ideal Grinnell student in terms of scholarship, leadership, poise, maturity, responsibility, and service....
In Defense of Late Sleepers...
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Wednesday, 28 March 2018 23:10
By Kelly O'Mara, aka the "Salty Triathlete" (triathlete.com)
Every weekend, some friend texts me wanting to meet at 7 a.m. (or, God forbid, earlier) for a ride. No, just no. It is Sunday. I am sleeping and riding at a reasonable hour. Like 10 a.m.
You’re laughing. You’re thinking, “10 a.m. is ridiculous, lazy, everyone knows you have to ride earlier than that. Who does this girl think she is?” I know you’re thinking that because everyone thinks that, because we’ve all been conditioned to believe earlier is better.
We think of early risers as go-getters, hard workers. We cajole people not to waste their days, and we wrap it up in a sense of moral superiority. Studies have found those who arrive at offices earlier are perceived as better employees—even if they’re working the same total number of hours at the late risers. Built into our society is the adage: “The early bird gets the worm.” There’s no saying like, “The worm would probably be better off sleeping in.” ...
Overtrained? Eat More!
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Tuesday, 27 March 2018 23:10
Use these three simple but effective nutrition changes to help dig yourself out of a hole.
By Jeff Gaudette (triathlete.com)
If you’re a fairly serious athlete, you’re bound to go through periods in your training cycle when you over do it. Even elite athletes, who have coaches literally monitoring almost every step they take, can fall into the trap of training too hard and pushing their body beyond its limits.
While finding the perfect balance between putting in the necessary miles and allowing for proper recovery is the Holy Grail, the reality is that many often overstep the tight rope that is optimal training and find themselves bordering on being overtrained and desperate for recovery....
Cheerleaders, Hardasses, Devil's Advocates...
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Monday, 26 March 2018 23:10
By Susan Lacke (triathlete.com)
The right tribe will make you a better athlete.
It’s widely known that the same stimulus will always yield the same results—that is, if you always run the same pace, in the same shoes, on the same course, you’ll eventually stop improving as a runner. You’ll plateau—or worse, get into a rut. That’s why so many training plans advocate for mixing things up with speed work, hill repeats, and training tools.
The same is true for your training buddies—though there’s something to be said for a long, quiet ride or a character-building solo run, it’s well-documented that training with others make us step up our game in ways we wouldn’t necessarily do when working out alone. This phenomenon is known in academic-speak as “social facilitation,” or performing better in the presence of others; You probably know it as “throwing down,” “talking shit,” or “I’ll-be-damned-if-I-get-dropped-today.” ...
