Little Update

   Road rash healing, bruises and swelling gone down, muscles feeling perky again… I think I am finally
recovered from the big San Dimas race and fall.  Last week and the weekend are build periods before I head out to The Big Apple to race Battenkill in a little more than a week.  I’m happy to get some settled time at home to rest, swim, and lay down some training miles for the next set of races.
   The weather is starting to warm up here in Tucson … if it wasn’t already warm before.  But now the days hit the high 80’s and this week we’ll be looking at the 90’s.  Toasty!  But I don’t mind training in warm or hot weather… After spending 4 winters in New York and dreading every moment I had to go outside with the snow and blasting wind I will never complain about the heat again.

   Now that I’ve given that brief update on my Tucson training life I thought I’d write about something that is so important to athletics and been on my mind a bit recently. … Nutrition!!

   As an athlete what, when and how much we eat is so important to our performance that it can sometimes even be dangerous when given too much attention.  I’ve seem the results that changes in diet can do, both positive and negative. 
   Over the past couple months of training in Arizona I’ve tried to keep on track by eating healthy and looking at what I put into my body just as much as I look at how hard I go on my rides.  Sometimes eating smart is easier said than done, so keeping the perfect diet isn’t always so perfect.

Quality is key
   Fresh, Local, Wild, Organic (when I can afford it) … These are the 4 main ways I try to buy my food.
Every day we make decisions when it comes to quality.  The brand of shampoo we buy, the kind of gas to put in our car, the shoes we wear or train in.  When it comes to a lot of these decisions we try to choose the things that will benefit us most in the long and short run.  Why shouldn’t food be the same?  Since nutrition doesn’t often give the instant gratification of simple choices like wild vs. farm raised it is harder to notice the benefits.  But this is where it is most important to keep the long term in perspective for the sake of our bodies.  We wouldn’t run in cheap converse for a 10 mile run, so why eat salmon or chicken that has been crammed in a cage or tank eating who knows what?
   Living on a tight budget doesn’t make these decisions easy.  But when considering the importance of our bodies and how much we invest in training it’s the least we can do.

   When it comes to protein it’s pretty well known that meat packs the punch that nothing else can stack up to.  But the quality of that meat can say a lot also.  Studies show that vitamins, minerals, and other important components of meat differ greatly between feedlot/commercial and freerange/grass fed/organic animal protein.  Rather then getting cheap farm raised or hormone pumped meat I do my best to get wild, freerange, or grass fed meat.
   I also try to get the quality cuts of meat and the animals that will give me the most for what I eat.  For red meat, high in iron, I get either top cuts or try to get game meat when I can.  Like at Sprouts they sell frozen ground antelope, venison, elk, and even ostrich.  I stick to venison to get the leanest and highest quality red meat.  I try to get free range chicken and turkey, but still need to do more research on labeling to really understand the sneakiness between labeling meat “natural”, “freerange” and “grassfed”.  The same with eggs, when available I buy local eggs or get “freerange”.  Fish is in that same category, I always buy wild and mostly stick to salmon as it has the best omega-3 and vitamin content for the price.  Fish is great for inflammation and muscle soreness.  I’ve read that the oils in fish help repair muscle breakdown and so I try having it after hard workouts or races.
I think I would probably be vegetarian, if I weren’t an athlete.  But I also believe in sustainable eating and that can be supported through buying locally grown and raised food.

Quality over quantity
   Getting the most out of your training can come down to how you prepare just hours before or even the day before your workout or race.  As my focus has grown and become more fine tuned to understand my body in training, I have learned what works better at different times around my workouts.  Rather then thinking about how hard you will worked or did work in training and just putting down any food that looks good, think about how this specific meal or snack will benefit your preparation or recovery.  A good salad with nuts or meat can benefit your body so much more then chips, pasta or rice.  Vitamins, minerals and protein are the building blocks of recovering and working muscles.

It’s all Mental
   I have learned recently that just making one good or bad decision nutritionally can set up you up mentally for a whole string of other decisions.  Eating and appetite is all a matter of being in tune with your body, like a rhythm that can be smooth when you are surrounded by good options, or bumpy and rough when temptations of junk can blur your vision.  It’s not easy and maybe something unique to me, but when I decide not to have chocolate or sweets just once, I am able to go weeks without even feeling the need for it.  But it’s always important to listen to your body and don’t go through binge and purge cycles that won’t benefit in the long run.  Be consistent and don’t be afraid to indulge every once in a while.

When to Eat or Not Eat
   I’ve learned to appreciate hunger.  I eat meals and snack, but also try to not revolve everything around food.  I try to appreciate food not as a luxury but as a necessity and fuel.  I am by no means perfect or so strict that I eat only healthy 100% of the time, … Ice cream and chocolate are HUGE indulgences of mine.  But I try to eat when necessary and not just to fill time, which I can admit is easy to do when bored, studying, or just wanting to take your mind off something else.  I try to give my body time to assimilate the fuel I put down and whether it’s pre or post workout give some time to feel what you need most.

Timing is everything
There are 2 main periods of eating, long term and short term.
   Short term, I consider right before and right after working out.  The most crucial time that can make it a good or bad workout.  Just yesterday I experienced the downfall of eating too much too close to a workout.  I got home from swimming and was so hungry but I also had to consider that I was going straight into a ride after changing.  However, my hunger overwhelmed my training focus and I snacked on too many granola bars and fruit as I got ready.  As a result, I felt weighed down in the warm up and the knot of food in my stomach prevented water from going down during intervals.  So if it wasn’t enough having intervals up mt. Lemmon, I had food sitting undigested cramping up my gut.
   Better to go into a workout feeling a bit lighter and taking something with you to eat or drink while riding.  But there is also a crucial balance to not get hungry or feel weak, everyone is unique.
   Immediately after a workout there is that 15 minute window where your body needs the most important nutrients to recover.  Protein, carbs and electrolytes will help prevent muscle breakdown.  So if you don’t have fancy recovery powder, bars or drink, go for chocolate milk!  Protein, carbs (sugar), and fat.  That was a team favorite at Columbia.

   Long Term to me is more then 3 hours before or 3 hours after a workout.  This is when most of us break down mentally and food isn’t on the top of our thought list.  But to stay on top of things I try to keep lots of fruits and vegetables near by to snack on.  This is when the body stores carbs, so depending on your workout or race focus you may want to direct your diet towards proteins or carbs.   Keep in mind that a good source of carbs with high vitamins can simply come from fruits and veggies while maintaining a low glycemic index… blood sugar spike (not good during rest time).
To make good long term decisions I try to plan ahead and when tempted with junk I just go for some fruit or something healthy but tasty to see if that either satiates or at least detracts my hunger.

Paleo … Caveman Diet
   Everyone is different and you will learn what works and what doesn’t, but I have recently been reading the “Paleo Diet of Athletes” developed by Joe Friel and have become really interested in his way of food training (as I call it).  This is is basically the cave man diet.  Eliminating all things unavailable to the cavemen (or during the paleolithic period if you want to get technical).  So no wheat, grains, corn, dairy, legumes, etc.  It revolves around meat, fruits and veggies, and nuts.  It’s a bit strict and limiting, but is also adapted to athletes for best results.
   I am very interested in the timing aspect of it and how the way this diet is directed at athletes to train the body to work on fats, protein and carbs.  By eating protein and fruits and vegetables in the long term segments of our day the body stores and works on fat and protein.  While it says to eat carbs only at key moments in the short term or during a workout where your body will use it as a “bomb” of energy.  In this way, its a method of “food training” to increase your bodies ability to burn fat, and use carbs only when you tell it to and also get the most out of those carbs you put in.

   So this was my little food rant.  I am always fascinated by how our bodies work like a super complex engine to breakdown the fuel we give it and produce the energy to live our lives.
I don’t know if it’s the Italian in me, but I love food, I love cooking, I love eating and everything that goes along with it.  So being an athlete, this has its upsides and downsides.  I get to eat more since I have to fuel more, but I also have to make sure what I put in is what is also best for getting the most out of my training and racing.

.