Hello
All,
So,
the clocks have gone forward. It’s starting to get light at 06:30 am. WOOO!
It’s
definitely spring now. The sun is shining and the weather is sweet. Let’s hope
the sea temperature warms up so we can get in and swim comfortably soon.
Training
Weekends
We
have organised four training weekends this year. All the weekends run from
Thursday evening to Sunday afternoon and are jam-packed with coached sessions.
Our
inaugural swim weekend runs
9th June - 12th June. You get between 1
and 3 sessions everyday including strength training and video analysis in the
pool. Extra focus will be on open water
swimming. You hone specific OWS skills
and could cover up to 6km in a day (in manageable chunks). A good chance to
practice endurance nutrition and feeding as you swim. The ability of the group is ~2:00/100m.
Our
IM training weekend
for long distance athletes runs 16th - 19th June. This is for more experienced athletes
competing in event distances of half ironman and longer. The weekend will take
a mixture of bike routes and include swim, bike, run and strength
sessions.
Our
TRI Weekend for
anyone looking to train hard for a long weekend 7th to 10th July. This group size is limited to eight. All abilities are welcome. You will not be left behind, although, it is
supposed to be a gruelling weekend of training so be prepared to be pushed to
your limits.
Our
Channel swim weekend
runs 14th to 17th July. This is for experienced
open water swimmers who can maintain ~1:20/100m pace for 1500m. The weekend will cover between 5 and 10km per
day. Including long distance pool
sessions, marked and lifeguarded open water swims. If you are swimming the channel or interested
in building endurance on this swim weekend please contact Pete for more
information: pete@petewilbytriathlon.co.uk.
Swim
Lessons
Imagine
having swimming lessons in a wide, private lane of an outdoor pool. All summer Pete is doing swim lessons at
Teignmouth Lido on Thursday and Friday evenings. These half an hour sessions are a snatch at
£75 for a block of five. The swim lessons are for any age or ability, be it
non-swimmers or experienced triathletes wanting video analysis and technical
coaching. It is possible to share the
sessions with up to two others at no extra cost. If this sounds like the sort of thing you
would like or you know someone who would like, you can book online HERE.
“A
lot of people have approached me recently about gut problems when running. In many cases it is long distance athletes
who are using gels to keep the carbs topped up.
It is common knowledge that gels work.
The simple sugar is quickly absorbed and keeps the body going
longer. However, the intake of gels can
also have a detrimental effect, causing stomach cramps or an emergency number
two.
What do I do? I need carbs
but can’t function after too many!
The
text books say that it is only possible to absorb 60g of carbohydrate each
hour. More than that will be unused and
sloshing about in the stomach which could be the cause of an upset
stomach. As the body is exercising more
blood is pumped to the working muscles and less to the gut. In fact, only the brain maintains a normal
blood supply, everything else is forfeited to keep the exercising muscles
going. This makes the digestive system
much slower and therefore, absorbing a gel would take longer and longer as you go
longer and longer. In the meantime it
will be sloshing about which could cause cramps or an emergency poo!
Some
of the latest research on one hour cycling time trials using carbohydrate mouthwash
identified that just the taste of something sweet can give you energy (Jeukendrup
2004). The research concluded that the
sweet taste cased an increase in central drive motivation, leading to significantly
better results on the one hour cycling time trials. Much more research has
provided evidence to support this theory.
Chambers et al (2009) found results suggesting that the improvement in
exercise performance that is observed when carbohydrate is present in the mouth
may be due to the activation of brain regions believed to be involved in reward
and motor control. The findings also suggest that there may be a class of so
far unidentified oral receptors that respond to carbohydrate independently of
those for sweetness.
With
this mouthwash as your nutrition plan there would be no need to worry about the
stomach as it would seem, you could run on empty. Nevertheless, the mouth wash might be the
future but right now we use gels and bars.
But we can use this research to fine tune our current nutrition plan for
long distance racing. Based on this my advice
is:
·
Eat
little and often – sipping an iso gel from a bottle rather than taking it in
one go
·
Start
eating earlier on in the race - when you can absorb more effectively
·
Try
holding some gel in your mouth a few seconds before swallowing it. This will not only absorb quickly without
problems but the sweet taste will also have a positive effect
Lastly,
a recipe: Savoury Sweet Potato
Snacks with Oats…
(or FLAPJACKS!!)
There
is no need for refined sugar and fat.
With this recipe your flapjacks will be sweeeeeet.
|
Ingredients
500g
of porridge oats
½ teaspoon
of salt
1
tablespoon of set honey
250g
of pitted dates
250g
of raisons
500g
of sweet potatoes
|
Method
Skin
potatoes and boil until soft. Whilst
they soften, finely chop the dates and raisons into a medium pan. Add a
splash of boiling water. Add the
honey. Then add the soft sweet potatoes and mash together. Gently heat and mix to a lumpy syrup.
Pour
the oats and salt unto a large mixing bowl.
Then add the simmering syrup from the pan. Get a wooden spoon and mix it
in really well. Lastly, press the
mixture into a greased oven dish – slice it in the dish - and bake in the
middle of a high oven for 20 minutes. Done!
|
Happy
Triathlon-ing,
Pete
and Laura
Carter, J. M.,
Jeukendrup, A. E., & Jones, D. A. (2004). The effect of carbohydrate mouth
rinse on 1-h cycle time trial performance. Medicine and Science in Sports
and Exercise, 36, 2107-2111.
Chambers, E. S.,
Bridge, M. W., & Jones, D. A. (2009). Carbohydrate sensing in the human
mouth: effects on exercise performance and brain activity. The Journal of
Physiology, 587(8), 1779-1794.
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