Reasons to include omega-three fats in your endurance sports nutrition plan

A new study by Iranian and German researchers provides evidence that fish oil supplementation may enhance lung function in athletes. Forty teenage competitive wrestlers were separated into four groups. Two of the four groups received fitness training. One of these two groups also received daily fish oil supplementation. The other two groups received no fitness training, and one of these two groups also received daily fish oil supplementation.

The researchers took several measurements of lung function in all of the subjects before and after the intervention period. They found increases of 41 percent in one-second forced expiratory volume (the volume of air subjects could forcibly exhale in one second) and 53 percent in total lung volume in the fish oil-supplemented groups compared to the non-supplemented groups.

From Wrestlers to Endurance Athletes

Although this study involved strength/power athletes, the results should be of interest to those in 10K training, half-marathon training, marathon training, and triathlon training because the lung function variables measured are associated with endurance performance. But before you get too excited, note that no study has ever found that fish oil supplementation actually enhances endurance performance. For example, a 1997 study by Norwegian researchers found that fish oil had no effect on aerobic power, anaerobic threshold, or running performance in soccer players.

Previous studies have, however, shown other intriguing effects of fish oil supplementation in athletes. A 2008 study published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology, for instance, showed that fish oil supplementation increased heart stroke volume (or the amount of blood the heart pumps with each contraction) and cardiac output (or the total amount of blood pumped by the heart) during low- to moderate-intensity exercise. Again, there is no performance effect shown here, but it is clear that fish oil supplementation does effect the underlying physiology of athletes in ways that can only be described as beneficial.

A Smart Sports Nutrition Strategy

The apparent benefits of fish oil are probably related to the known ability of the omega-3 essential fats in the oil to enhance the flexibility of cell membranes and the elasticity of blood vessels. Omega-3 fats also improve nervous system function and have anti-inflammatory effects.

Because omega-3 fats are scarce in most foods and generally lacking in the American diet, daily supplementation with an omega-3 source such as fish oil or flaxseed oil is widely considered to be a good idea, for health reasons. So even though it still remains to be seen whether endurance athletes can reap specific performance benefits from such supplementation, a daily dose of 2 to 3 g of the omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA combined can contribute to your overall well-being.

An endurance sports nutrition recipe to help boost muscle recovery

Sure, you deserve dessert—especially when your 10K training, marathon training, or triathlon training kicks into high gear. But do yourself a favor and indulge in a dessert that can also help you feel better during your next workout.

Kimberly Day, a triathlete and Founder/Chief Decadence Officer of Decadent Health LLC (www.decadenthealth.com), has created the following dessert featuring pomegranate juice and blueberries, which are loaded with antioxidants. Why do you, as an endurance athlete, need those antioxidants? Because during intense and prolonged exercise, the muscles produce large amounts of free radicals—unstable oxygen molecules that cause fatigue and post-exercise muscle soreness. Antioxidants are compounds that neutralize free radicals and counteract these effects. So dig into the following dessert knowing that it’ll both satisfy your sweet tooth and help promote muscle recovery.

Blueberry Pomegranate Sorbet
Makes 6 servings

¾ cup xylitol
½ cup filtered water
2 cups pure pomegranate juice
1 cup fresh, puréed blueberries

1. Combine xylitol and water in saucepan and stir over medium heat until xylitol dissolves.
2. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat.
3. Cool completely.
4. Whisk in pomegranate juice and puréed blueberries.
5. Place in ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer’s instructions. If you don’t have an ice cream maker, place in freezer-safe container, and freeze.

Nutritional Info (per serving): Calories 196, Total fat 0 g, Cholesterol 0 mg, Carbs 67 g, Fiber 1 g, Protein 1 g

Endurance sports nutrition advice on supplementation

Taking a daily multivitamin/multimineral supplement is a personal choice for each endurance athlete. It certainly is not a necessity just because you might happen to be in 10K training, marathon training, or triathlon training. That’s because a balanced diet high in fruits, vegetables, and mostly unprocessed foods should provide you with the vitamins and minerals you need to stay healthy.

Yet, while it is within the power of each of us to get our vitamins and minerals from our diet, few of us actually do. Particular vitamin and mineral deficiencies are very common in our society, even among athletes who tend to make some effort to control their diet quality. While athletes who have one or more of these common deficiencies would always be best advised to improve their diet, a multivitamin/multimineral supplement can benefit their health and performance while they try to eat better. Here are just a few things to think about if you find yourself shopping for a multi:

• Consider a “real food” multi. These are supplements that contain extracts from real foods and/or vitamins and minerals in the forms found in real foods instead of individual, stripped-down vitamins and minerals, which the body actually treats as foreign chemicals.

• Choose supplements with minerals in chelated form. This means the minerals are attached to proteins, just as they are in real foods, which aids absorption.

• Pick a formulation with enzymes. Certain enzymes help your body absorb vitamins and minerals.

• Eat with your supplement. Take your chosen vitamin and mineral supplement with a meal. This, too, will aid absorption.

• Be careful with iron. Consult your doctor and have your iron levels checked before supplementing with iron. Because iron-deficiency is relatively common in endurance athletes, and especially female runners, many take iron supplements as a form of insurance against deficiencies. But this may lead to iron overload, which can have serious health effects. A recent Swiss study found iron overload in 15 percent of the male participants in the Zurich Marathon.

Details from a new study linking this compound with muscle recovery

L-carnitine is a natural compound comprised of the amino acids lysine and methionine. Its primary function in the body is to transport fatty acids across cell membranes so that they can be metabolized in the mitochondria. Some endurance athletes supplement with l-carnitine in the belief that it increases the body’s fat-burning efficiency during exercise. Unfortunately, studies have repeatedly shown that l-carnitine supplementation has no effect on fat utilization either at rest or during exercise and no effect on endurance performance. While l-carnitine is essential for fat utilization during exercise, it appears that athletes get as much as they need in the diet (mostly by eating meat) and that supplementation offers no additional benefit.

New Research on Muscle Recovery

A study conducted recently at the University of Connecticut, however, suggests another possible benefit of l-carnitine supplementation: enhanced post-exercise muscle recovery. Eighteen men and women received either a daily l-carnitine supplement or placebo for three weeks, then performed a single weightlifting workout. After a one-week “washout” period, the entire protocol was repeated, with the subjects who received the placebo the first time getting the supplement the second time.

The researchers found that biomarkers of muscle stress were significantly reduced after the weightlifting session when preceded by three weeks of l-carnitine supplementation. The study’s authors concluded, “These findings support our previous findings of l-carnitine in younger people that such supplementation can reduce chemical damage to tissues after exercise and optimize the processes of muscle tissue repair and remodeling.”

A Closer Look

But here’s what those in half-marathon training, marathon training, and triathlon training really need to know about this study: L-carnitine supplementation made no difference in how quickly muscle strength and power were restored after the workout. Since the whole point of accelerating muscle recovery through supplementation is to hasten the restoration of muscle function specifically, these results offer little cause for excitement.

It is also worth mentioning that the participants in this study were non-athletes. Supplements that are found to have physiological effects in non-athletes often have no effects in athletes, because training has the same effects as the supplements.

The Bottom Line

So while l-carnitine supplementation is safe, it seems to be useless in terms of enhancing endurance sports performance. If the results of the University of Connecticut study are enough to make you curious, however, you can find l-carnitine supplements in both pill and liquid forms at most supplement retail stores. Typical recommended dosages are 1 to 2 grams daily.

How to get the most out of your 10K training, marathon training, or triathlon training as you age

Sure, age is just a number. But as that number inches upward, typically so do your race times. That’s because the physiological processes of aging start to slow you down by reducing your aerobic capacity, muscle power, muscle recovery capabilities, and so forth.
 
You can, however, blunt the effects that aging has on endurance performance by tweaking your 10K training, marathon training, or triathlon training in little ways that most younger athletes simply don’t consider. Aging athletes, for example, should factor in a bit more time for strength training to promote strength maintenance, injury prevention, and optimal body composition. And while getting regular sports massages can help athletes of any age, older athletes in particular stand to benefit from them because they can help speed muscle recovery. Even eating right and supplementing with sports nutrition products such as ARX become more important as we age.

Younger endurance athletes tend not to do these little things, in part because their youth allows them to “get away with” inattention to general health, muscle recovery, and injury prevention. But the older we get, the less we can get away with. So start doing these little things today to gain a competitive advantage over those who don’t.

Sports nutrition advice for weight-conscious individuals in half-marathon training, marathon training, or triathlon training

Every endurance athlete knows that body weight (as well as body composition, or body-fat percentage) affects endurance performance. It pays to be light and lean. Consequently, the average endurance athlete struggles to attain his or her optimal body weight just as much as the average non-athlete struggles to attain a healthy weight.

Non-athletes commonly diet, or reduce their food intake, to lose weight. For those in half-marathon training, marathon training, or triathlon training, however, it’s often not so simple because endurance exercise places high energy demands on the body and reducing food intake can deprive the muscles of the energy they need for optimal performance and subsequent muscle recovery.

Short-Term Slim-Down Study

There is some new evidence, however, that endurance athletes can lose weight through dieting without sabotaging their training if they take a careful approach. In a 2009 study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, scientists from George Washington University placed 10 competitive cyclists on a reduced-calorie diet (up to 40 percent) for three weeks and modified their training to include morning workouts in a fasted state (no breakfast). All of the subjects submitted to a variety of tests, including body composition and resting metabolic rate measurements and a performance test—both before and after the intervention.

The diet yielded no changes in fat burning during exercise, maximum power output on the bike, or power at VO2max. However, the cyclists’ rating of perceived exertion during two hours of submaximal exercise decreased (meaning the same effort felt easier) and their body composition and power-to-weight ratio improved significantly.

This study shows that endurance athletes can shed excess body fat relatively quickly and maintain their performance while on a fairly restrictive short-term diet. But there was no control group, so we can’t rule out the possibility that the diet prevented these cyclists from improving their power output and power at VO2max over the three-week study period.

The Diet’s Downside

I actually spoke with one of the participants in the study, who told me that the diet was not easy. He struggled with all-day hunger throughout it and went straight back to his normal eating habits as soon as the intervention was completed. So while the diet was effective in the short-term, it was not sustainable in the long-term. Undoubtedly, his performance and that of the other subjects would have begun to suffer if they had kept up caloric deficits of as much as 40 percent much longer than three weeks.

Other studies, involving athletes in weight-class sports such as rowing and wrestling, have shown that the severe dieting methods engaged in during the final weeks and days before competition do in fact sabotage performance. So there is clearly a limit to what we can get away with.

Developing a Smart Endurance Sports Nutrition Plan for Weight Loss

Based on the totality of available research, I believe that those in half-marathon training, marathon training, triathlon training, or any other type of endurance-sport training should generally try to lose excess body fat gradually through sustainable improvements in diet quality (get specific tips on how to do this in my earlier blog Weight Loss for Endurance Athletes) and sensible increases in training load whose primary intent is to boost fitness. Occasional efforts to lose weight more quickly are OK, but avoid cutting calories so much that your training suffers, keep these efforts relatively brief (2 to 4 weeks), and use them early in the training process, not close to races.

How adequate sleep can enhance your half-marathon training, marathon training, or triathlon training

Nothing promotes muscle recovery—and full-body recovery—from the stress of exercise like good old-fashioned sleep. In fact, lack of adequate sleep is itself a stressor, so if you consistently under-sleep, you will not recover from your workouts as quickly and you will also be unable to handle as much marathon training or triathlon training as you could handle if you did sleep adequately.

Consider this: As few as four nights of partial sleep deprivation result in skyrocketing levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which inhibits muscle recovery and repair. In addition, research in non-athletes has shown that short-term partial sleep deprivation increases circulating levels of C-reactive protein, a biomarker of inflammation. Therefore, the muscle damage-related inflammation often caused by training is likely to be exacerbated by inadequate sleep.

Muscle Recovery Aside

The impact sleep has on athletic performance doesn’t stop with recovery. Insufficient sleep reduces the body’s ability to process glucose, and therefore to produce energy. Human growth hormone, the muscle-building hormone that plays the biggest role in rebuilding tissue after exercise, requires sleep for full activation, so the less sleep you get, the less muscle you wake up with. Sleep loss also weakens the immune system by reducing the activity of interleukins, molecules involved in signaling between cells of the immune system.
 
The latest neuroscience suggests that sleep even plays a crucial role in relation to motor skill refinements—such as those that make you a more efficient swimmer, cyclist, and runner. During sleep, the brain’s motor center appears to “practice” movements performed by the body during the day. So, in a sense, if you miss out on sleep, you miss out on some of your training.

The Pros and Pillow Time

Looking for real-world evidence that endurance training increases sleep needs? Take a poll and you’ll find that most elite endurance athletes sleep a lot. Marathoner Deena Kastor sleeps 10 hours a night and takes a two-hour nap every afternoon. Most amateur endurance athletes find that their sleep needs increase as their training load does. This may be because exercise causes the muscles to release particular cytokines that induce sleepiness and prolong sleep.

The effect of exercise on sleep needs, however, has been little researched. Some athletes go by propound rules of thumb, such as the suggestion that every mile a runner runs each week increases his sleep needs by 10 minutes per night. But there is no scientific basis for these formulas. They may be accurate for everyone, or just some people, or nobody. We just don’t know.

Snooze So You Don’t Lose

So how do you determine how much sleep is enough? Sleep experts believe that there is a high degree of variation in sleep needs between individuals. It’s best to sleep until you are “slept out,” regardless of how much time it takes. In other words, you should sleep long enough so that you awaken spontaneously in the morning and couldn’t sleep more if you tried. And you will probably find that it takes longer to sleep yourself out when your marathon training or triathlon training is in high gear. Quite simply: Trust your body and do as it tells you.

Endurance sports nutrition advice to help you meet your daily calorie and fluid requirements

It’s probably pretty obvious to you that your half-marathon training, marathon training, or triathlon training ups your food and fluid needs. I know my hunger and thirst certainly increase in direct proportion to my mileage. But compared to your non-athletic friends, how much more food and drink do you really need? Check out the following, which provides a comparison of the approximate one-day calorie and water needs of a 150-pound person who does not exercise and a 150-pound person who completes one hour of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise in a warm (70 degrees) environment. (Note that hydration needs can be met through pure water, other drinks such as fruit juice, and water-containing foods.) This listing gives you a ballpark estimate of what your endurance sports nutrition plan should contain to keep you optimally fueled.

150-Pound Non-Athlete’s Daily Needs:
2,000 calories & 75 ounces of fluid

150-Pound Endurance Athlete’s Daily Needs:
2,775 calories & 87 ounces of fluid

An endurance sports nutrition recipe to help you meet your performance and weight goals

Just like sedentary folks, endurance athletes often resolve to lose a little weight once the New Year rolls around. That’s because those of us in serious marathon training or triathlon training know that a lean body composition is needed for optimal endurance performance. So, what’s the key to getting leaner? You need to consistently satisfy your appetite without consuming excess calories. This lunch, created by Kimberly Day, a triathlete and Founder/Chief Decadence Officer of Decadent Health LLC (www.decadenthealth.com), provides lasting satisfaction with a modest amount of calories due to its high protein and fiber content. Try it to fill up without filling out.

Chili Out
Makes 4 servings

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cups onion, chopped
1 cup red bell pepper, chopped
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
1 pound ground turkey
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
½ teaspoon allspice
½ teaspoon marjoram
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
1 cinnamon stick
½ teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
28 ounces black beans, drained
28 ounces tomatoes, chopped and undrained

1. Sauté onion, red pepper, and garlic in olive oil.
2. Add ground turkey and cook until brown.
3. Add cinnamon, paprika, chili powder, cumin, allspice, marjoram, nutmeg, and cinnamon stick and cook 2 to 3 minutes.
4. Add salt, pepper, black beans, and tomatoes and simmer 45 minutes.
5. Serve warm.

Nutritional Info (per serving): Calories 459, Total fat 15 g, Cholesterol 90 mg, Carbs 47 g, Fiber 18 g, Protein 34 g

Endurance sports nutrition advice for those who can’t deal with dairy

If you’re lactose intolerant, you probably know it. The most common symptoms are gas, bloating, and stomach pains following the consumption of milk or dairy foods. Some lactose intolerant individuals are able to consume particular dairy foods (i.e. yogurt) without consequences, others are able to consume small amounts of milk and diary foods with minimal discomfort, while still others must completely avoid all dairy products.

What’s the problem?
Lactose intolerance is caused by the body’s inability to produce an enzyme called lactase that is responsible for digesting the natural lactose sugar in milk. When undigested lactose enters the large intestine, it produces the symptoms that every lactose-intolerant individual knows all too well.

Who’s at risk?
With very rare exceptions, nobody is born lactose intolerant. After all, mother’s milk contains lactose, and infants must produce large quantities of lactase to digest it. Lactase production, however, normally drops significantly after the age of weaning. But the amount of that decrease varies significantly between individuals, depending largely on ethnicity. Persons with northern European ancestry tend to continue producing enough lactase to drink milk throughout life, whereas persons of African, Asian, and Native American ancestries typically become lactose intolerant. There are plenty of exceptions, though, and even many who can consume diary foods as young adults develop problems later in life due to a continuing decline in lactase production.

How do you treat it?
Dealing with lactose intolerance is a fairly straightforward matter. Just avoid consuming the dairy foods that give you problems, or limit your consumption of such foods to amounts that do not produce symptoms. It may take a little trial and error to figure out exactly what you can and cannot get away with.

Why should endurance athletes be careful when ditching dairy?
Excluding diary foods from your diet means missing out on the unique combination of nutrients they provide—particularly protein and calcium, which are very important to those in marathon training, triathlon training, or any other endurance sport training. Fortunately, many other foods are rich in protein, such as meat, eggs, fish, and nuts. But when it comes to calcium, dairy foods contain much greater amounts of the mineral than almost any other foods. The average American already gets significantly less than the recommended amount of calcium per day (1,000 mg for men and 1,300 mg for women), and if you do not consume any dairy foods due to lactose intolerance, it is even more likely that your calcium intake will fall short—unless you make a consistent effort to get calcium from other sources.

Which calcium sources are best for lactose intolerant individuals?
The top non-dairy natural sources of calcium are sardines (324 mg per serving), tofu (138 mg per serving), and dark green leafy vegetables such as spinach (120 mg per serving). You can get additional calcium from fortified foods and beverages, including many breads and breakfast cereals and some juices. Read labels to find out whether specific products are calcium fortified. Finally, for insurance, you can take a daily calcium supplement or multivitamin-multimineral with calcium.

Reasons to consider treadmill workouts as part of your winter 10-K training, half-marathon training, or marathon training

Last week I posted three great workouts that were better suited to treadmill running than to running outdoors. But there are no doubt many endurance athletes out there who consider treadmill running a lesser substitute for running outdoors and, therefore, hesitate to incorporate treadmill workouts into their winter 10-K training, half-marathon training, or marathon training. For those skeptics, consider these three distinct advantages to running on a treadmill:

1. Treadmills are convenient. One of the great things about running is that you can do it almost anywhere, anytime. But there are certainly situations when outdoor running is impractical, making treadmill running preferable. If, for example, you often run before the sun comes up, a treadmill can spare you from having to run in the dark. Or if the sidewalks get icy in the winter, a treadmill can spare you from a nasty fall.

2. Treadmills facilitate controlled and precise workouts. Even when you can run outdoors, running on a treadmill may be a better option for certain workouts. Let’s say that as part of your marathon training you want to practice running at your goal pace before the upcoming race. On a treadmill, you can take advantage of your ability to dial in a precise pace to get your body and mind accustomed to holding that pace steadily.

3. Treadmills offer flexibility. Working out on a treadmill can be a good fallback option when you have certain minor injuries. For instance, when you need a lower-impact workout, you can crank up the gradient and go slower for less pounding.

The Bottom Line for the Belt: Despite the negative connotations associated with treadmill running, it is most definitely effective. In fact, both the male and female winners of the 2000 U.S. Olympic Trials Marathons, Rod DeHaven and Christine Clark, were heavy treadmill users. DeHaven routinely did all of his easy morning runs on a treadmill in his basement. And Clark, an Alaskan, did almost all of her training on a treadmill in her basement in preparation for the Trials. If the marathon training techniques of two Olympians are not enough to convince you, remember the research, which has shown that while heart rate is slightly lower at any given pace on a treadmill than it is outdoors, the difference is very slight, and you can counteract it by running at a 1 percent gradient on the treadmill—a very easy fix that makes your miles on the treadmill just as worthwhile as those logged out on the road.

Benefit more from your marathon training or triathlon training without increasing training time

There’s no doubt that marathon training, triathlon training and the like are time-consuming pursuits. And as you begin to flesh out your endurance sports goals for this New Year, you might be wondering how you’ll ever find all the training time you need to achieve those goals. But before you start to look for ways to increase the quantity of your training, first determine how you can increase its quality. That’s because most endurance athletes can get more out of the time they’re already spending on their marathon training or triathlon training programs by simply bumping up the quality of some of their workouts.

A high-quality training program should be well-rounded and include a real mix of workouts every week. Endurance athletes often waste time by doing too many similar workouts—lots of prolonged, steady, moderate-paced aerobic workouts—and not enough threshold work, speed intervals, technique work and/or resistance training. If you’re a cyclist or a runner, make sure your training program includes three quality workouts per week—two high-intensity sessions and one long endurance session. If you’re in triathlon training, do two quality workouts—one high-intensity workout and one long endurance workout—per week in each discipline.

Endurance sports nutrition advice for vegetarians

Some endurance athletes are vegetarian for ethical reasons, others for health reasons, and still others because they just don’t like meat. Whatever your reason may be for going vegetarian, you will want to pursue it in a way that helps rather than hurts your marathon training or triathlon training. Luckily there are many successful vegetarian endurance athletes who offer proof that performing well on a meatless diet is possible. For example, Spanish triathlete Eneko Llanos went vegetarian as a teenager, and it did not stop him from winning two XTERRA World Championship titles and placing second in the 2008 Hawaii Ironman.

The key to working vegetarianism into a successful endurance sports nutrition plan is to make sure your diet includes abundant plant (and supplemental) sources of a few key nutrients: protein, calcium, iron, and vitamin B12.

Protein

Meats, fish, eggs, and dairy products contain much more protein than plant foods. The proteins in animal foods are also more complete and readily used by the body. The protein needs of endurance athletes, however, are relatively low: up to about 20 percent of total calories. That amount is sufficient to promote muscle recovery and enable the muscles to adapt to training. As a lacto-ovo vegetarian, you can easily get this much protein by eating fish, eggs, and/or dairy foods.

If you are a strict vegetarian, though, be sure that your diet includes higher-protein plant foods such as beans, nuts, and seeds. Soybeans are the best protein source among plant foods. Also consider drinking soy protein shakes after workouts, when your protein demands are the greatest because of the need for proper muscle recovery.

Calcium

The recommended daily intake of calcium is 1,000 to 1,300 mg. The average adult consumes only 500 to 700 mg daily. The major consequence of this common deficiency is weakening of the bones, which increases the risk of stress fractures in runners and other athletes. Some research even suggests that calcium deficiency contributes to weight gain.
 
As everyone knows, dairy foods are the best sources of calcium. If you do not include dairy foods in your diet, you need to be sure that you get enough calcium from other sources. Alternative natural food sources of calcium include spinach, collard greens, salmon, and tofu. Many breakfast cereals and bread products are also fortified with calcium. For insurance, consider taking a calcium supplement to meet the recommended daily intake.
 
Iron

A study by researchers at Ball State University compared iron levels in vegetarian and non-vegetarian runners and found that iron levels were much lower in the vegetarians. The reason is that animal foods and plant foods contain different types of iron (heme and non-heme, respectively), and the heme iron in animal foods is much more bioavailable. Iron deficiency is common in endurance athletes, and if you are a vegetarian you may be at even greater risk.

Apricots, baked beans, peas, and spinach are among the plant foods with relatively high concentrations of iron. But again, they are all non-heme iron sources, so they may not provide enough. It’s a good idea to get your iron levels checked by a physician. If they are normal, you can continue eating as you have been with confidence. If they are low, your doctor may advise you to take an iron supplement.

Vitamin B12

Vitamin B12 is important for red blood cell formation, and, of course, endurance athletes need as many red blood cells as they can get for oxygen transport during exercise. Animal foods contain plenty of vitamin B12, while plant foods contain almost none in its active form. Therefore, vegetarians are bound to be B12 deficient unless they eat fortified foods such as cereals and breads or take a B12 supplement. The daily requirement is 2 to 6 micrograms.

Injury may postpone your marathon training or triathlon training—but you can still stay fit

Injuries are inevitable in the life of the endurance athlete. When they happen they are painful, debilitating, and frustrating. The most frustrating part of being injured is knowing that your hard-earned fitness from your marathon training or triathlon training is deteriorating while you take time off to heal. In fact, this frustration can be so great that athletes are often unwilling to take time off or tempted into resuming training too soon. Consequently, injuries become worse or last longer than they should.

One way to prevent this sort of self-sabotage is to choose a favorite go-to activity that you can switch to whenever an injury makes normal training impossible or unwise. The best alternatives to your primary sport discipline are those that are most similar to it. For example, activities such as swimming and rowing are not great alternatives to running because, while they stimulate the cardiovascular system, they are arm-dominant versus leg-dominant movements. Following are the best two activities for “training through” cycling, running, and swimming injuries.

Whichever activity you choose to pursue while recovering from an injury, try to replicate your main sport workouts as closely as possible in terms of frequency, intensity, and duration. This will serve to minimize fitness losses during the period of convalescence.
 
Cycling Alternatives

Indoor/Recumbent Cycling

Among the most common cycling injuries are low back pain, tendonitis of the knee, and collarbone fractures suffered in falls. While low back pain and knee tendonitis make normal outdoor riding painful, it is often possible to ride pain free on a recumbent indoor bike at low resistance levels despite these injuries.

During his 2009 comeback season, Lance Armstrong suffered a collarbone fracture in a race crash. Four months later he still managed to finish third at the Tour de France. How? He trained hard on an indoor bike trainer for four weeks while his collarbone healed and thereby kept his fitness from plummeting.

Slide Boarding

Ice-skating and inline skating are quad-dominant aerobic activities like cycling, making them good alternatives for the injured cyclist. But it’s not always easy to find good places to skate, so the next time you have an injury that takes you off the bike, consider doing what many skaters do for cross-training: slide boarding.

A slide board is a flat sheet of plastic that you slide back and forth on while wearing fabric booties to simulate a skating action. Physiologically it is almost identical to ice- and inline skating, but you can do it in the comfort of your own living room. Quality slide boards such as the Goaler One start at around $250.

Running Alternatives

Steep Uphill Treadmill Walking

Research has shown that the human brain uses exactly the same motor pattern to run or walk briskly on steep uphill gradients. In other words, when you crank the treadmill incline up to 12 to 15 percent, running becomes walking and walking becomes running. Therefore, walking on a steep incline is a highly specific way to maintain running fitness when you’re injured and need to avoid the impact of running.

Many runners, however, don’t think of walking as a good running alternative because they assume they cannot match their normal intensity. Trust me: You can. Set the incline at 12 to 15 percent, increase the belt speed to 4 mph or so, check your heart rate, and you’ll see!
 
Bicycling

Bicycling may seem less running specific than other running alternatives such as pool running, but a lot of noteworthy runners have used it with great success. For example, in 2004, Meb Keflezighi relied heavily on bike training to build fitness for the New York City Marathon because of injuries. He still managed to finish second.

Swimming Alternatives

Modified Swimming

The most common swimming injury is shoulder impingement syndrome, which causes pain during the recovery phase of the arm cycle in freestyle swimming (when the arm is overhead). But despite this pain you may still be able to perform modified swim workouts that include technique drills, kicking drills, single-arm freestyle swimming, and alternative-stroke (e.g. breaststroke) swimming.

Rowing

Machine rowing is an upper body-dominant aerobic activity like swimming, and therefore a good alternative for the injured swimmer. Because rowing does not involve overhead arm movements, swimmers suffering from shoulder impingement syndrome can usually row pain free.

How to alter your marathon training or triathlon training when battling illness

When you are experiencing symptoms of a cold or the flu, should you continue your marathon training or triathlon training as normal, do you need to cut back, or must you stop entirely? It all depends on the type and severity of your symptoms:

Conquering a Cold

Most experts agree that it is okay to continue exercising as normal when you have a mild or moderate head cold with symptoms such as sinus pressure, runny nose, cough and sore throat. But a cold that has moved into your chest, with symptoms such as chest congestion and tightness, is more likely to negatively affect your training—and if a cold negatively affects your training, then your training may negatively affect your cold! So in such cases, listen to your body and use common sense. If you are reasonably comfortable when you train despite your symptoms, and if training does not worsen your symptoms, go for it. Otherwise let discretion be the better part of valor and take a day off.

Fighting the Flu

Until recently there was virtually unanimous agreement in the medical community that one should not exercise while battling flu symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, fever, diarrhea, and body aches. Newer research, however, has called that dictum into question. For example, a 2009 study by researchers at the University of Iowa found that moderate daily exercise improved flu symptoms in mice infected with a flu virus. The key word here is “moderate.” Attempt only short, low-intensity workouts when you are experiencing flu symptoms, stop exercising immediately if you feel horrible while working out at a low intensity, and simply avoid exercise completely if you feel miserable even thinking about working out. So, as with colds, listen to your body and use common sense in deciding whether to train with the flu.

Protecting Your Immune System

While exercise generally strengthens the immune system, strenuous individual workouts such as long marathon training runs or lengthy speed sessions temporarily suppress immune function. Therefore you should also consider your training workload when trying to decide how to respond to symptoms of illness. If you’re feeling under the weather yet you’re training moderately, it is unlikely that you’re suppressing your immune system and making it harder to beat the virus. But if you’re in very heavy training, it might be best to cut back your workouts to give your immune system a quick boost so it can beat the virus instead of letting it linger and possibly affect your training for many weeks.

This recommendation receives support from the results of a 2002 study by Ola Ronsen of the Norwegian Olympic Training Center. Ronsen measured various markers of immune system activity in endurance athletes after completing a pair of workouts on a single day on two different occasions. On one occasion they rested for three hours between workouts and on the second occasion they rested for six hours. And guess what? There was a significantly greater increase in stress hormones that compromise immune function in the short-rest trial than in the longer-rest trial.

These findings suggest that an endurance athlete who’s already sick will probably get well quicker if he or she takes measures to train in a more rested state, either by reducing the frequency of workouts or by making them less challenging. In this regard then, colds and flus should be dealt with much like those aches and pains that indicate incipient injuries. In other words, responding to impending illness or injury by “aggressively taking it easy” may prevent a much greater setback from developing.

Why your marathon training plan or triathlon training program should include 20-minute workouts

To most non-athletes, 20 minutes of exercise seems like an eternity. But to endurance athletes in marathon training or triathlon training, a 20-minute workout may seem like it’s hardly worth the bother. After all, if your average workout lasts an hour, what can a 20-minute session possibly do to increase your fitness? Quite a lot, actually—even for the fittest endurance athlete. Consider these four benefits:

1. 20-minute workouts burn a meaningful amount of calories and, thereby, help you reach and maintain your optimal racing weight. For example, a 150-lb. runner burns approximately 280 calories in a moderate-intensity 20-minute run. If you normally miss a scheduled longer run roughly once every 10 days due to lack of time, you could burn an extra 10,000 calories over the course of a year by squeezing in 20-minute runs instead.

2. 20-minute workouts provide extra repetitions of the running stride, swim stroke, or pedal stroke that stimulate improvements in efficiency. A big part of what makes you a better, more efficient swimmer, runner, or cyclist is simply time spent practicing the movement. So, even short workouts count as additional movement practice.

3. 20-minute workouts can increase endurance by adding to total weekly glycogen turnover. An interesting Scottish study found that weekly training volume was a better predictor of marathon performance than the distance of the longest training run. In other words, the study suggested that marathon runners are better off running 50 miles a week with a maximum long run of 16 miles than running 40 miles a week with a maximum long run of 22 miles. The reason is that endurance improves through the repeated depletion of muscle glycogen stores in training. And a heavy week of training will result in more total muscle glycogen depletion, and thus build more endurance, than a lighter week. 20-minute workouts can add a meaningful amount of glycogen-depleting volume to your training week.

4. 20-minute workouts can produce an excellent high-intensity training stimulus. A little swimming, cycling, or running at anaerobic threshold intensity and above goes a long way. Twenty minutes is plenty of time to get all the high-intensity work you need to take your fitness up a notch.

There are basically two ways to incorporate 20-minute workouts into your marathon training, triathlon training, or any other endurance sport training. One is to do a 20-minute workout instead of taking a day off whenever you are too pressed for time to complete a longer workout. The other way is to add one or more 20-minute workouts to your weekly training schedule to increase your overall training volume without creating a significant risk of overtraining. Here are some suggested 20-minute workouts:

The Filler Simply swim, ride, or run at an easy tempo for 20 minutes. This is a great workout to do when you want to avoid the guilt of doing nothing but you’re not mentally or physically ready for anything challenging.

Tabata Intervals Swim, ride, or run at an easy tempo for 16 minutes, then complete 8 x 20-second all-out sprints with 10-second passive recoveries between sprints.

Fartlek Intervals Sprinkle 5 to 10 fast 30-second efforts throughout an otherwise moderate, steady-pace workout.

Threshold Session Warm up for five minutes at a comfortable tempo, then go for 15 minutes at anaerobic threshold intensity (the fastest pace you could hold for one hour in a race).

Progression Workout Swim, ride, or run for 15 minutes at a steady, moderate pace, then blast the last five minutes.

Time Trial Swimming: Warm up, then swim 800 meters (875 yards) as fast as you can. Cool down as long as necessary to make the total workout 20 minutes. Cycling: Warm up, then ride 5 km as fast as you can. Cool down as long as necessary to make the total workout 20 minutes. Running: Warm up, then run 1 mile as fast as you can. Cool down as long as necessary to make the total workout 20 minutes.

An endurance sports nutrition recipe to help boost immunity

’Tis the season when everyone becomes preoccupied with finding ways to ward off the latest cold and flu bugs. And hard-training endurance athletes need to make a special effort to stay healthy this time of year, since marathon training, triathlon training, and the like present additional immune-system stresses. But instead of searching your medicine chest for ways to build your defenses, why not raid your refrigerator? The following dinner, created by Kimberly Day, a triathlete and Founder/Chief Decadence Officer of Decadent Health LLC (www.decadenthealth.com), is packed with nutrients that will keep you healthy: loads of vegetables to boost immune function; protein to rebuild muscle, joint, and bone tissue, prevent injuries, and speed muscle recovery; and omega-3 fatty acids for heart health. Eat up and stay healthy!

Seafood Bonanza
Makes 4 servings

4 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
4 carrots, sliced
4 stalks celery, sliced
1 red onion, chopped
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
2 cups tomato, diced
3 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
1 pound halibut, cut in ½-inch cubes
1 pound sea bass, cut in ½-inch cubes
½ pound shrimp, peeled and halved
3 zucchini, sliced
1 tablespoon herbes de province
1 teaspoon thyme

1. Heat olive oil in a large stock pot.
2. Add carrots, celery, onion, and garlic and cook until tender.
3. Add tomatoes and broth and bring to a boil.
4. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for thirty minutes.
5. Add halibut, sea bass, shrimp, zucchini, herbes de province, and thyme.
6. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes or until fish flakes easily.
7. Serve warm.

Nutritional Info (per serving): Calories 469, Total fat 11 g, Cholesterol 169 mg, Carbs 23 g, Fiber 9 g, Protein 68 g

Important endurance sports nutrition advice

You see them in every gym: those whose primary fitness goal is to build as much muscle as possible. The telltale signs are the heavy free weights they lift and the big protein shakes they guzzle.

Few endurance athletes are interested in building bigger muscles. After all, muscles are heavy, and in most endurance activities, such as half-marathon training, marathon training, or triathlon training, excess body weight is the enemy of performance. And while strength is certainly beneficial to endurance performance, it is possible to get all the strength you need to swim, bike, or run your best from lean, lithe muscles.

Nevertheless, there are some instances when building muscle is a worthy objective for endurance athletes. For example, sometimes I am entirely focused on running, other times on triathlon training. My optimal triathlon racing weight is about 10 pounds greater than my optimal running racing weight. I swim better when I have a little more upper body muscle and cycle better when I have a little more leg muscle than I need for running. Thus, when I transition from a run-focus period to a triathlon-focus period, I make a conscious effort to add muscle to my body.

The Science of Muscle Building

Based on what you see bodybuilders doing at the gym, you might assume that, at those times when I am trying to build muscle, I lift heavy weights and consume large amounts of protein. But research has shown that, while lifting heavy weights is an absolute requirement for building muscle, eating lots of protein is not.

In a new study from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, researchers fed 4-oz and 12-oz portions of meat to adult volunteers and measured subsequent rates of muscle protein synthesis. They found that the rate of muscle protein synthesis was no higher after the 12-oz portion was eaten than after the 4-oz portion was eaten. In case you don’t know, a 4-oz portion of meat is probably smaller than what most of us normally eat for dinner.

This study did not involve any weightlifting. Perhaps weightlifting increases protein requirements and makes those protein shakes necessary. Or maybe not. Research by Mike Rennie, one of the world’s foremost researchers in this area, determined that whole-body protein synthesis achieves its maximum rate at a protein intake level of 1.4 g/kg body weight daily in weightlifters. This is higher than the government’s recommended daily allowance—but not higher than the protein intake level of the average American. Other research by Rennie showed that a single dose of 10 g of essential amino acids is sufficient to maximize acute muscle protein synthesis. That’s the amount of essential amino acids in a glass of skim milk.

Forget the Protein Powders

Based on such studies, protein researcher Stuart Phillips of McMaster University in Canada concluded, “At present there is no evidence to suggest that supplements are required for optimal muscle growth or strength gain. Strength-trained athletes should consume protein consistent with general population guidelines, or 12% to 15% of energy from protein.”

The average American already gets roughly 18 percent of calories from protein. So if you should ever decide to add a little muscle to your body, start lifting heavy weights and just keep eating the way you’re eating.

Staying safe during nighttime marathon training runs and triathlon training workouts

Some endurance athletes train in the dark because they have to. Standout age-group triathlete Tim Hola of Highlands Ranch, Colorado, has a full-time job, a wife, and toddler twins, so his best opportunity to train on weekdays is early in the morning, before sunrise. Other endurance athletes train in the dark because they like to. A good friend of mine hits the trails on his mountain bike with a few buddies every chance he gets—morning, noon, or night.

Regardless of why you might train at night, you do need to be extra careful in the dark. So here are six tips for keeping safe during nighttime workouts.

Choose safe routes.

Safety should be your first priority when selecting your daytime or nighttime training routes. But the criteria for safety may be different before and after sunset. For example, while you may avoid highly trafficked roads when doing daytime marathon training runs or triathlon training rides, such roads may be safer at night because of better lighting and visibility. Also, it may be best to steer clear of isolated areas at night to avoid making yourself vulnerable to persons with criminal intent. Ultimately, the safer you feel on a night training route, the safer you probably are. Listen to your gut.

Be visible.

Wear appropriate reflective gear when cycling or running outdoors at night. You can find a wide array of products designed specifically for such use at your local specialty retailer.
 
Light your way.

It’s as important to see as it is to be seen. Unless you train on brightly lit streets, you should take along your own lighting system on nighttime training excursions. For road cycling, a handlebar-mounted light will do the job. For running, use a headlamp such as the Black Diamond Sprinter. And for mountain biking, it’s best to use both a handlebar light and a headlamp so you can see the terrain directly in front of you and the terrain to either side simultaneously.

Protect yourself.

Without becoming paranoid, it’s good to acknowledge that persons with criminal intent do exist and, therefore, it’s best to be prepared for the remote possibility of encountering them. Among the things you can do to protect yourself are training with another person, taking the family dog on your nighttime runs, and carrying a canister of pepper spray and/or a whistle.

Fill someone in.

If something goes wrong when you are training in the dark, you will want help on its way as quickly as possible. You can ensure that this happens by telling someone at home where you are going and when you should be back.

Carry some essentials.

The ability to pay for goods and services and the ability to call for assistance will get you out of most jams you are likely to get into (such as a bike mechanical problem) while training outdoors at night. So make sure to grab a bankcard or credit card and a cell phone before you head out.

Practical Sports Nutrition Advice

Fat is the victim of an unfortunate name. It is all too easy to believe that eating fat makes you fat. Indeed, for many years most diet experts thought that it did, and many do even today despite compelling evidence that eating a fairly high-fat diet is no more likely to cause you to become overweight than eating a high-carbohydrate or high-protein diet.

For example, in a 2002 review, entitled “The Influence of Dietary Composition on Energy Intake and Body Weight,” Roberts et al. noted that:

• Fat calories as a percentage of total calories in the American diet had fallen over the preceding 20 years while overweight and obesity rates had increased drastically.

• Studies investigating the effects of reduced fat intake on weight loss have shown that reduced fat intake results in very little weight loss when calories are not controlled, suggesting that it is an excess of calories in general rather than of fat in particular that causes weight gain.

All sound evidence that no one should fear fat. But additional research has shown that those in marathon training, triathlon training, or any other type of endurance sport training should be extra certain their sports nutrition plan includes fat. For example, one study from the University of Buffalo found that female runners who ate the least fat suffered the most injuries. Based on such findings, the American Dietetic Association and the American College of Sports Medicine has changed its recommended fat intake level for athletes from 20 percent of total calories to a range of 20 to 35 percent of total calories.

All fats, however, are not created equal. Here are some guidelines to help you consume the right kinds of fats:

Limit saturated fat intake to less than 10 percent of total calories. If you’re like most Americans, you’re currently getting more than 12 percent of your calories from saturated fat. You can easily get that number under 10 percent by replacing whole-milk dairy foods with low-fat dairy foods, choosing leaner cuts of meat, and replacing some whole eggs with eggs whites. Ideally, your marathon training diet or triathlete diet should contain twice as many unsaturated fats as saturated fats.

Minimize the added fats. Some foods contain fat naturally, such as eggs and nuts. Other foods, such as fried foods and many processed baked goods, have added fat. Foods high in added fat should make up a minimal part of your diet.

Avoid trans fats at all costs. Trans fats are created when scientists add hydrogen atoms to unsaturated fats, making them better for baking and prolonging their shelf life. Trans fats have been shown to increase heart disease risk even more than saturated fat. Meanwhile, both polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats lower total cholesterol and LDL (the bad cholesterol). Fortunately, the FDA now requires that trans fat content be listed on food package labels, making it easier to eat around this most unhealthy type of fat.

Consume 3,000 mg of omega-3 fats daily. The omega-3 fatty acids DHA and EPA are essential fatty acids (EFA), meaning they cannot be synthesized in the body and must be obtained in adequate amounts in the diet. Omega-3s create healthier cell membranes. In addition, they are important precursors to anti-inflammatory components of the immune system. Omega-3 supplementation has been shown to improve cardiovascular health, sympathetic nervous system function, immune function, and brain function. The best sources of omega-3 fatty acids are identical to the best sources of polyunsaturated fats in general: fatty types of fish (salmon, halibut, etc.), flax seeds, and walnuts.