Free Your Mind

This is just a quick blurb on the importance of mental preparedness in training.  As the season approaches for many of us, triathlons/runs/weight goals, staying mentally tough will be paramount to your success!  A few tips:

FILL YOUR LIFE WITH THANKFULNESS!
I was recently reading in Men's Health magazine about how a life of gratitude towards friends, family, spouse, children will alleviate stress and allow for freedom in many areas such as sleep, daily body renewal, muscular ailments, sickness, and more.  Here is the diagram they used to show the percentage of people who are regularly thankful toward different people in their lives:

I encourage you to be part of these percentages! (Except the column "Your Wife" since it refers to the percentage of people that say their partner is not appreciative)  Being thankful will affect your training and your recovery throughout the season.

SCHEDULE YOUR TIME!
Some of you are coached, some are self coached, some are beginning the goal setting process.  Wherever you are in your journey toward achieving your training goals, scheduling out your time each day, week, month will put your mind at ease and provide structure to your goal.  This can be as simple as setting the days and amount of time you would like to exercise.  It can be as precise as blocking out the exact time of your workouts each day.  Prepare well beforehand so you don't have to think about it later!  A friend once explained to me about the battle in our minds between the emotionally driven side and the logical side. 
The example was of a person who is planning out his next day's activities.  That evening before he is fully aware and thinking logically on how to wisely use his time.  He makes a plan for when he wakes up until the next evening and it all sounds great.  But when he wakes up the next morning everything changes.  His emotional side now desires to stay in bed which begins to hinder the wonderful plans he made the previous night.  His emotional side has beat out the sure fire logic of the plan he made!
I know this story does not apply to everyone but how many times do we allow the emotion of the moment to overcome what we know is good and right?  How many times do you talk yourself into a workout only to get to that deciding moment and flake out?  Or be completed excited about going home to eat an avocado salad only to give in to that favorite fast food restaurant on the way?  Make a schedule, set up barriers to free yourself from the emotionally driven decision and execute.
(For the example above, he suggested setting your coffee maker the night before to begin making coffee at a certain time so you have no choice but to get out of bed, sneaky!)

COMPLETE EACH ROUTINE!
This last tip is minor but effective in creating good habits mentally in exercise.  FINISH EACH WORKOUT in the time you set or time you were given.  If the run is 30 minutes, go the entire 30 minutes.  Never get into a habit of stopping even 1 second short as this will flow over into the overall effectiveness of your routines.
For those competing in races this year, this becomes important those last few miles of the race where you begin to question why you did this to yourself or if you are able to finish.  If you have pushed through before then you know you can succeed again! 

In everything you do work at with all of your heart, not for others as this can lead to boasting and a prideful heart.

These are 3 simple yet effective tools for mental preparedness in whatever you desire to accomplish.  Do great this year!  

Shin Splints

Status:
Currently injured with Medial Tibial Stress.  The pain is on the inside of the tibia between the calf and ankle.  Specifically, I can feel small pockets of inflammation on the edge of the tibia where the posterior tibialis muscle, under your Achilles tendon, connects to the tibia. 

Cause:
Ran 13 Miles for time 2 weeks ago.  After going back to training logs, it seems as though my "training load" was fine to accomplish the workout and I had been running 4-8 miles in weeks leading up during single runs.  Known causes can be: poorly fit or old shoes, muscular imbalances from leg to leg, hip tightness, over-pronation in the foot, poor form, running mostly on hard surfaces, progressing too quickly in distance, and under recovered muscles.

First rule after an injury, look back at training and see what you have done different recently.  For me, I have never experienced an injury around my shin but have been running for over 14 years!  One month ago I bought a new pair of the same shoes I have been wearing for 4 years without issue.  I am weekly working on muscular imbalances through strength training as well as improving form.  And training has been progressive to this point.  BUT I noticed as I looked back that I have not had a massage or seen the chiropractor in 3+ months (always use training as an excuse to get massages!), and I have not spent the time to foam roll/recover as much as I should.  In training, I have added in calf raises every other day to add strength to this area.  Over worked calves, under recovered calves and general tightness from not  seeing the chiro/masseuse led to this problem.  Easy find!

The Fix:
IMMEDIATELY stopped running the next day to keep from "inflaming" the issue.  Let my coach know what happened so he could adjust my schedule accordingly.  Waited one week to see if symptoms would subside on their own.  When the pain did not decrease, scheduled to see the chiropractor and get a massage.  Throughout the 1st week I began recovering everyday with foam rolling, compression socks, stretching, and an extra anti-inflammatory diet.  Cycling also provided relief as moving increases blood flow which aids the healing process in needy areas.   

At the chiropractor, she quickly identified the problem and immediately provided relief through a hip adjustment, foot adjustment, and calf release.  Then used dry needling in the irritated area and calf to create small lesions so my body would send extra blood to the area for faster healing.  The needles also provide a acupuncture-like muscle tension release.  With a little icing, ultrasound work to break up scar tissue, and professional taping of the area, I was already ready to hit the road again for a mid afternoon run (not really).  One day later I already feel improvement and look forward to the next run!

Training Adjustments:
Not much!!  Apart from not running, and this is why I love multi-sport, my weekly training load did not change and continued as if nothing happened.  With bike, swim, and strength training, there are always plenty of options for workouts.  The main point in this is that my goals this year did not need change because of an injury.  The problem is addressed, the training is adjusted, and we heal to run again.  This is the right progression!   

The Truth about your Unique RMR

Resting Metabolic Rate, or Basal Metabolism, is unique to each individual when you are born.  When we refer to our "metabolism" slowing down or speeding up, this is the number we are referencing.

Do you know your RMR?

When we are born our body requires a very specific amount of calories to function at optimal levels.  Hormones, brain function, blood circulation, organ function, skin rejuvenation, cell reproduction all require X amount of energy to work properly.  This all adds up to our RMR.  After our first day of life we begin interfering with our unique RMR calorie number. 

Main contributors:
1. What we eat and how much
2. What physical activity

*There are other potential factors such as disease, genetics, injury to name a few that also play a role in affecting RMR.

As most people age we hear, "my metabolism is slowing down" more and more.  This metabolism we refer to and RMR are one in the same.  As we eat unhealthy foods, our body takes what good calories it is given and works with those.  As we lose muscle mass, our body simply doesn't need as many calories to function because muscle burns calories while at rest.  And over time our body becomes able to survive on the amount of "good" calories it given each day. 

Does this reduction in necessary calories affect my body?

Yes!  Again, our bodies REQUIRE from birth a specific amount of calories for optimal performance.  If we reduce that amount through poor eating habits and/or lack of exercise then something will suffer.  Our body has a priority checklist for every function.  When you begin to freeze, your body pulls blood to your core, effectively sacrificing your extremities for survival.  Same with RMR.  As we reduce good caloric intake, the body sacrifices less necessary functions like skin rejuvenation, digestive processes, potentially parts of brain function, and especially muscle mass. 

To Do's for Athletes:
As athletes we put extra strain on our body through exercise.  The main way we hurt our RMR is by not putting healthy fuel in our bodies.  To make sure we accomplish our workout, RMR is reduced to allocate calories to your workout.  The affect of this lower RMR is when we do not workout it becomes easier to gain weight as fat because it takes less food calorically to exceed the lower RMR.  As we age it becomes even more important to raise your RMR to combat weight gain and/or muscle loss. 

1. Eat More - This may cause initial weight gain BUT will fuel your body and begin raising your RMR to match the new intake.  Over time you will stop losing weight and be able to build AND maintain muscle mass which will in turn burn more calories.  Eventually leading to weight loss/better weight management
2. Build Lean Muscle - This will only happen with more food so EAT!

RMR takes a significant amount of time to reduce or adjust.  From an athletes perspective, the best weight management tool is using exercise to manage weight.
 

Calorie Counting the Right Way

Calories .... What just went through your mind?  Track them, eat them, fuel, bad, I eat too much, I don't eat enough, love them, and the list can go on. 

Energy .... You need it daily!  We wake up, hit the snooze button, wake up again and from then on tirelessly work to provide for needs in our life.  We're busy.  And our body is busy as well from the moment we roll out of bed.  Digestion, brain function, heart pumping, muscle work, skin rejuvenation, cell reproduction, and breathing give us the life we need to perform in our tireless work habits.  Our body naturally requires energy.

Fats, Carbs, Proteins .... The calories by which we create energy for everything above.  Proteins rebuild muscle and tissue, fats are the building blocks of all cells as well as transfer agents for nutrients, and carbs provide quick energy for all systems.  Each have their place and ARE GOOD FOR YOU!

Now what ...

1.  From wake up to sleep we inherently burn calories through our body's natural functions.  This is called our RMR, Resting Metabolic Rate.  Without adding other exertion, we need to eat X amount of calories to sustain life.  Now, our bodies are amazing in that if we provide it with LESS calories, it will adapt over time to rely on this reduced calorie intake.

2.  We add on top of that daily activities and exercise.  Now our body needs X + Y amount of calories to sustain quality life.  Our metabolism moves at a specific pace to each person in burning these calories.  Metabolism pace is dictated by what kind of foods we intake and how often we eat.  Along with metabolism, lean muscle mass burns calories while fat does not.

3.  Clean foods such as raw vegetables, raw fruit, unpackaged/unprocessed meats, and clean dairy provide GREAT calories.  These foods tend to be more nutrient rich than processed foods and simply more easily digested.  

To the main point ....

If our daily RMR is 1500 calories, add 500 calories for daily activities, and burn 500 more calories during your 1 hour run, then we theoretically need to eat 2500 calories that day to maintain quality life.  That's outrageous!  You may say "I don't want to gain weight" or "I can't eat that much food".   
YOU ARE RIGHT!  (If you continue eating processed foods, sugars, and unhealthy fats). 

Example:
If you eat 1500 calories of clean foods, and 1000 calories of unhealthy sugars, simple carbs then your body will use a high percentage of the clean food and only a small portion of the other calories.  The rest gets stored as a harder to metabolize fat and you feel horrible during your workout.  We want to maximize the amount of calories that your body uses.  So when you eat clean your body is more likely to use nearly all of the calories supplied without storing anything extra.  Great analogy for this is water in your car versus gasoline.  You body will, in your best interest, choose to not use the "empty calories".

Adaptation:
In response over time your body will reduce it's RMR so that you can use the extra calories for everything else.  This reduction in RMR means now that you need less fuel to function, BUT when you take away any activity the body will store the extra and weight gain will occur with even less food than before.

*Now you need 1000 calories instead of 1500 so anything you eat over 1000 will cause weight gain.

Solutions:
1.  Eat clean, healthy foods so that your body utilizes a larger percentage of those calories. 
2.  If you want to lose weight, eat a few hundred less calories from your total, not from your RMR (only count CLEAN CALORIES, just suck it up and take the extra weight if you want the cookie then workout later to get rid of it!)
3.  Find out your RMR and fat/carb burn during workouts through testing.
4.  Eat more often, up to 6 times each day, to increase metabolism.  Maintain 3 larger meals with snacks between.  Lunch is your largest meal, followed by breakfast, then dinner.  Eat Breakfast!
5.  Have fun and enjoy your diet, eat variety!

Great Resource: Rich Food, Poor Food by Jayson & Mira Calton