Gu and Gatorade and PowerBars have long been quick energy fixes for endurance athletes. For a couple bucks a pop, you can energize yourself with some maltodextrin in it's various forms for a good 45 minutes until the calories are burned and you pop another gel or sip some more drink or take another chewy bite of a vanilla crisp energy bar. All of those energy sources are great products for endurance sports, but they hold little water to a much more cost-effective source of energy: WORDS.
Words are free and when used in the right way, can energize someone much better than maltodextrin. You don't even have to re-say them every 45 minutes to an hour.
When you are at the Beach2Battleship Iron Distance Triathlon in Wilmington this weekend, or the City of Oaks Marathon in Raleigh, remember to not just cheer for those athletes during the race, but speak words of encouragement before their difficult endeavor and speak words of recognition after the amazing feat of athleticism they have just accomplished.
Endurance Magazine's Ramblin' Rose Women Only Triathlon Series wrapped up in October and capped off an amazing first year of our "green" initiative, "Race Without A Trace". All of the athletes who participated in the series, as well as the Carroboro Classic Endurance Festival, The Tarheel 10-Miler and Franklin 5000 helped contribute to a cleaner environment with respect to the amount of event-related waste they reduced and recycled.
Rather than hand out throw-away plastic bottles at the finish, the Endurance Magazine/Sport Often team hands out re-useable plastic bike bottles participants can use to fill up at one of our many water stations. In addition, race packets including flyers and coupons are all distributed digitally via e-mail. Shirts, bags, and other items are handed out at packet pick-up without plastic bags as well.
Earlier in the year, it wasn't unusual to find our team sorting compost, recycling, and trash in the few bags of waste generated at our events. As the year wore on and more people became aware of our different recycling, trash and compost bins, our job became easier and the environment a little bit cleaner!
Posted by: Joe Nuss in Nutrition, Fuel on
Oct 27, 2008
It's not an old wives tale, breakfast really is the most important meal of the day. A nutritious, well-balanced morning meal not only sustains your energy levels better than endless cups of coffee, but it also can help:
- Boost weight loss efforts. Research shows that breakfast eaters are more successful at losing weight and maintaining that weight loss compared to breakfast skippers.
- Sharpen your mind. People who consume a high-fiber breakfast stay more alert than those who start their day with a high-fat meal, according to research.
- Protect your cardiovascular system. A study revealed that people who consumed whole-grain cereals rather than refined cereals had a lower risk of heart disease.
- Strengthen your immune system. The right breakfast choices help you start your day with immune-boosting vitamins and minerals.
Following are some tips on finding a breakfast that's healthy and enjoyable.
Posted by: Joe Nuss in Run, Off Road, Gear on
Oct 27, 2008
Vibram Five Fingers KSO - $80.00
If performance footwear existed twenty years ago when I was a private in the Marines, I didn't know about it. But, I did know an old gunnery sergeant who taught me how to make the most out of the gear I had with a few minor adjustments, like wearing my polyester dress socks underneath my standard issue hiking socks to wick moisture away from my feet on long marches. He also gave me the name of a shoe repair shop in San Diego where I could get my combat boots refitted with better soles - Vibram soles.
Posted by: Joe Nuss in Cycling, Charity on
Oct 02, 2008
Mojo Rider Raising Money Madness -- Story Sam Scott, Photo by Bill Fehr
Michael Gibbons jumps into things. Four years ago he chanced upon the Charlotte Criterium, and the next week he was a newly minted cyclist.
Posted by: Joe Nuss in Nutrition, Fuel on
Oct 02, 2008
Apples have many nutrition benefits. They are low in calories, have no fat, and are high in both soluble and insoluble fiber. A study published in the September 2002 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reports that the flavonoids (plant pigments with antioxidant activity) found in apples may reduce the risk of many chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer, stroke, type-2 diabetes, and asthma. Quercetin, an antioxidant flavonoid found in high concentrations in apples, is thought to be responsible for apples' potential benefit in preventing lung cancer.
Posted by: Joe Nuss in Untagged on
Sep 22, 2008
I just started reading (and haven't yet finished) A Dog in a Hat - An American Bike Racer's Story of Mud, Drugs, Blood, Betrayal, and Beauty in Belgium. It's the true account of cyclist Joe Parkin's journey into the whirlwind professional world of Belgian cycling in the late 1980's.
If you're like me (you love to ride, but haven't ever found the inclination to learn much about the pro's) A Dog in a Hat (a Belgian phrase used to reference something familiar, yet decidedly out of place) is a must read to understand some of the history of the sport of cycling.
I referenced the movie and book North Dallas Forty which revealed the darker side of pro-football, because A Dog in a Hat will surely draw lines in the cycling community, like North Dallas Forty did in football. Many will say the things Parkin talks about (like the prevalence of drugs) are simply not true. Some will disagree.
The Endurance Magazine team was out in force at the Mission Man triathlon this weekend with our events director, Thys, taking second place overall. Having done this event every year in its existence, I have to say it may have been the best weather to date. Either that or the extra shade on the new run course made it seem that way! Oh yeah, we turned a few heads in warm-up with our new Team singlets.
Posted by: Joe Nuss in Triathlon, Training, Swim on
Jul 24, 2008
Great minds think alike. I recently discovered one of our blog readers "invented" copying Hemingway's style for Endurance Sports Writing long before I did. In fact, he dooes it much better than I have... Check this link out and scroll down for "The Old Man and His Wetsuit."
http://triguyjt.blogspot.com/2008/03/hemingway-and-holly.html
Posted by: Joe Nuss in Training, Run, Lifestyle on
Jul 09, 2008
A dock ran out into the sound just behind the beach house where the children played and swam and each day chased the lizards from the worn planks that grew hot long before the sun was fully up in the midday sky. It was midsummer and other fathers drank and played cards while their children napped in the afternoon, but I mixed a bottle of Gatorade Endurance and sprayed Bullfrog on my back and shoulders and began my run. It was a cheerful beach town and people waved and said hello as I ran along the road on my way to the beach where I would run to the pier and back. It was a windy day and the ocean was choppy like it is in The Gulf Stream painting by Winslow Homer minus the sharks though I knew they were really there because I had seen them before. The soft sand worked my calves too much so I ran closer to the ocean where the sand was firm. Still, the heat and the sand and the wind made the run seem harder than it should have been for that distance. It felt good and I ran past the pier without caring that I didn't have enough Gatorade to run this far.
