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Showing posts from October 12, 2014

Family-style meals - pizza and tacos

                                             Growing up, my brother and I were on different schedules all the time. Whereas my brother had gymnastics practice for a few hours every day in the evening, I started my day super early with my dad driving me to swim practice at 4:30am most days during the week. After school, my day would finish with another swim practice, piano lessons and perhaps some after school activity squeezed somewhere in there. Oh, and then there was time for homework in the evening before it all started over again and again and again until I graduated High School. Then I re-created my similar lifestyle in college with swimming, school, studying, swimming and studying....with eating throughout the day with my swimming teammates.   Although eating was not scheduled with my family growing up, I always enjoyed the times when we could eat together. And still today, I not only enjoy eating with Karel but also with friends and family.  Why should we eat

Post-race indulgences - RD approved!

Indulging on cheese curds the day after IMWI after placing 6th female amateur/3rd AG (this was an appetizer to my juicy "veggie" burger and salty sweet potato fries). I was joined by Karel who also enjoyed indulging on a juicy burger with salty regular fries after qualifying for his first IM World Championship after his 3rd IM.  Racing in endurance racing, at any level, requires extreme attention to every detail. Triathletes and long distance runners are known to be a bit driven, obsessive and competitive and more often than not, a bit food-obsessed.   Because achieving perfect race-week and race day nutrition may make the difference between having a dominating race day performance and struggling to make it to the finish line (or get out of the port-o-potty), triathletes who have a healthy relationship with food and the body intuitively understand the best foods for their body that will ultimately support health and race day goals. But oh how c

Athlete (not-in-training) - Off Season tips

Athletes are tough people.  They can push when the body says push no more.  They can accomplish a lot before 9am and know how to squeeze a lot into an already busy day. They have this amazing ability to seek out information to make improvements, always reflecting and analyzing as if there are no personal limits but instead, consistent constant improvements. Athletes are smart, hard working, passionate, dedicated individuals but sadly, many athletes do not know how to do the off-season properly.  For the first time in 8 years, I have intentionally taken 5 weeks off from any type of structured activity with minimal running (2 runs on the track, gadget free), a handful of short bike rides (gadget free) and a few times a week swimming (after waking up without an alarm, no more than 30-45 minutes of swimming). I say intentionally because I was not injured, sick or burnt out after IMWI so the rest was planned by me and not forced by a doctor. And I still have one more week to g