Hi everybody,

Hope your week­end was good to you!

I was up bright and early yes­ter­day morn­ing to enjoy my long run in the warm (well, maybe not that warm!) sun­shine. I’ve been much smarter with both my long rides and runs, nutri­tion­ally speak­ing. Boy oh boy, has it ever made a huge dif­fer­ence in my per­for­mance. Yes­ter­day, I began tak­ing in a half a gel 30 min­utes into the run and con­tin­ued every 15 min­utes therefter, until the end of the run, at the 2 hour mark. With all that fuel (and water every 15 min­utes), I could have con­tin­ued fur­ther, no prob­lem. Even my left hip which can get achy after about an hour, was happy and quiet through­out the entire run. I’m think­ing the con­tin­u­ous carb, sodium and potas­sium intake had alot to do with it. Oh, and did I men­tion that I also ate an eng­lish muf­fin with almond but­ter 1 hour prior to head­ing out? Yep, fuelling and hydrat­ing is the key to suc­cess­ful endurance training.

Funny enough, the Life sec­tion of the Globe and Mail today, has an arti­cle about this very topic. Check it out here.

http://​www​.the​globe​and​mail​.com/​l​i​f​e​/​h​e​a​l​t​h​-​a​n​d​-​f​i​t​n​e​s​s​/​f​i​t​n​e​s​s​/​t​r​a​s​h​e​d​-​n​o​-​m​o​r​e​-​f​i​g​h​t​i​n​g​-​r​u​n​n​e​r​s​-​f​a​t​i​g​u​e​-​w​i​t​h​-​f​o​o​d​/​a​r​t​i​c​l​e​1​8​2​3​1​1​3​4​/

On another note, I have a few new favourites in my fridge these days that I’d like to share with you.

#1 — Silk Almond Coconut Blend

In one word, DELI­CIOUS!!! I love it in my shakes and oat bran.

#2 — Earth Bal­ance Coconut & Peanut Spread

This stuff is scary.…do not attempt to eat just one spoonful.…

#3 — cele­riac or cel­ery root

I can’t remem­ber the last time I bought this funny look­ing root veg­gie but is it ever yummy. I made a fab­u­lous soup with it last night. All I did was sweat some onion and gar­lic in olive oil until soft and fra­grant, added chopped cau­li­flower and cele­riac, chicken broth to cover and a few sprigs of fresh thyme and pars­ley, salt and pep­per. Sim­mered the soup for about 30 min­utes or until the veg­gies were nice and ten­der, and then pureed it up in the blender until silky smooth and vel­vety. So so good.

Nutri­tion­ally speak­ing, cele­riac is less starchy than pota­toes and lower in calo­ries so go ahead and eat up!

http://​low​carb​di​ets​.about​.com/​o​d​/​c​a​r​b​c​o​u​n​t​s​/​a​/​c​e​l​e​r​i​a​c​.​h​t​m

Have a great day!

Hi everyone,

Sorry it’s been awhile since my last blog.…

Today I’d like to chat about shift­ing your train­ing into gear, now that the warmer weather has finally arrived.

As you know, win­ter train­ing typ­i­cally is referred to as off or post-​race sea­son. Dur­ing the fall, after months of either rac­ing or high inten­sity train­ing, the body is in need of repair and recov­ery. Not only phys­i­cally do we need the break, but men­tally, it’s impor­tant to relax a bit and dial the work­outs down. This helps to pre­vent burnout and impor­tantly, injuries.

As a spin instruc­tor and cycling enthu­si­ast, I focus my win­ter work­outs around aer­o­bic base build­ing or long endurance rides which keep the heart rate mod­er­ate and steady. How­ever, once the miles have been logged, come Spring, we’re ready to dial up the inten­sity and work in some tough inter­val train­ing. There are lots of dif­fer­ent ways to intro­duce inter­vals into your work­outs, whether it be run­ning, cycling, and even resis­tance train­ing. Check out the link below for some cre­ative ways to amp up your indoor cycling work­outs. Hope­fully, though, we’ll be out on the road soon.…

The key how­ever with inter­val train­ing is to ensure that your high inten­sity zone is HIGH! Be sure to time the inter­vals and push as hard as you can. Train­ing with a heart rate mon­i­tor will help you to work within the rec­om­mended zones.

http://​www​.bicy​cling​.com/​t​r​a​i​n​i​n​g​-​n​u​t​r​i​t​i​o​n​/​t​r​a​i​n​i​n​g​-​f​i​t​n​e​s​s​/​q​u​i​c​k​-​c​y​c​l​i​n​g​-​w​o​r​k​o​u​t​s​-​p​o​w​e​r​-​a​n​d​-​e​n​d​u​r​a​n​c​e

On another note, I tried a new paleo friendly bread that it dead sim­ple and full of healthy fats while free of flour, eggs and dairy. I baked mine free-​form on parch­ment paper instead of in a loaf pan. It kind of looks more like a flat­bread but is totally deli­cious either way.

I like it toasted with almond but­ter, before I head out for a run. Hope you like it!

http://​www​.mynew​roots​.org/​s​i​t​e​/​2​0​1​3​/​0​2​/​t​h​e​-​l​i​f​e​-​c​h​a​n​g​i​n​g​-​l​o​a​f​-​o​f​-​b​r​e​a​d​/

Before:

After:

Hi everyone,

Now that we’re into April, I’ve ramped up my train­ing slightly with my sights on the upcom­ing sea­son. I’m think­ing of doing some tri races but haven’t yet decided what dis­tances I want to com­mit to. I’m wrestling with the idea of a half iron­man but I’m a bit ner­vous about the impact of the run on my body. I’ve been run­ning around 40-​45km/​week with no prob­lems other than a pesky glute that likes to tighten up, result­ing in weak­ened power of the legs. It doesn’t feel like pir­i­formis because luck­ily, I have expe­ri­enced zero sci­atic pain but I have been doing some dynamic move­ments that are help­ing to release the glutes. This arti­cle pro­vides some really good infor­ma­tion about pir­i­formis syn­drome and also illus­trates some of the exer­cises that I’ve been prac­tic­ing. Now get out there and RUN!! No excuses!!!

http://​run​ning​.com​peti​tor​.com/​2​0​1​4​/​0​3​/​p​h​o​t​o​s​/​b​e​a​t​-​p​i​r​i​f​o​r​m​i​s​-​s​y​n​d​r​o​m​e​_​9​8​2​0​1

On another note, I made a yummy Mid­dle East­ern inspired meal the other night to rave reviews. I took a lamb shawarma recipe, used chicken breasts instead, and served it with bas­mati rice infused with all­spice and cumin. I also added a hand­ful of toasted sliv­ered almonds and dried cran­ber­ries to the rice just before serv­ing. So yummy!

\http://​all​recipes​.com/​R​e​c​i​p​e​/​L​a​m​b​-​S​h​a​w​a​r​m​a​/​D​e​t​a​i​l​.​a​s​p​x​?​e​v​t​1​9​=​1

I also stum­bled upon this web­site which deliv­ers authen­tic Lebanese flavours. I love Mid­dle East­ern food and this site has some great restau­rant dishes to eas­ily repli­cate at home.

http://​www​.mamasle​bane​sek​itchen​.com/

Enjoy!

Hello there,

Today, after teach­ing a sports con­di­tion­ing class, one of the mem­bers came up to me and paid me the ulti­mate com­pli­ment. She said,” I used to be really intim­i­dated tak­ing your class because it was always very dif­fi­cult and I didn’t feel like I was fit enough to par­tic­i­pate. But then I decided to just go ahead and do my best and not worry about any­one else. I also lis­tened to what you repeated over and over again in the class and that was, to do as much as you can, rest when you need to, and come back for a few more reps.”

That, ladies and gen­tle­men, is how you get fit. If you’ve been tak­ing classes where you barely break a sweat or are able to do every­thing with ease then I hate to tell you, you are wast­ing your time and efforts. The only way to get stronger is to con­stantly chal­lenge your body. It might mean adding weights with each set, cut­ting your recov­ery time between sets, chang­ing the tempo of your reps, includ­ing a vari­ety of inter­vals, speed­work and hill climb­ing into your rides and runs.…the list goes on and on. What­ever you do, don’t con­tinue to do the same thing over and over again and expect dif­fer­ent results. That truly is the def­i­n­i­tion of insanity!

Now get out there and kick some butt!!

Hello there,

Today I wanted to share with you some infor­ma­tion about sport nutri­tion from an indi­vid­ual who def­i­nitely knows a thing or two about the ben­e­fits of fuel­ing your body prop­erly. His name is Bren­dan Bra­zier and he is a for­mer pro­fes­sional Iron­man triath­lete and two-​time Cana­dian 50km Ultra Marathon Cham­pion. He is now a suc­cess­ful per­for­mance nutri­tion con­sul­tant and for­mu­la­tor of the award-​winning line of plant-​based Vega nutri­tional products.

Although I don’t pre­scribe to a vegan diet, I do rec­og­nize and sup­port the impor­tance of includ­ing a large por­tion of plant based foods into my daily diet. His web­site is a fan­tas­tic resource for train­ing and nutri­tion, not only for endurance ath­letes but for any­one inter­ested in fit­ness and health. This link below pro­vides an excel­lent overview of the com­plex world of proper sports nutri­tion, which I still find, is the most dif­fi­cult piece of the train­ing puzzle.

http://​thrive​for​ward​.com/​l​e​s​s​o​n​/​i​n​t​r​o​-​t​o​-​t​h​e​-​g​u​i​d​i​n​g​-​p​r​i​n​c​i​p​l​e​s​-​o​f​-​s​p​o​r​t​-​n​u​t​r​i​t​i​o​n​/​#​.​U​y​t​B​R​S​i​5​J​U​Q

His recipes are also really good, even if you’re not a strict vegan. I espe­cially like his energy bar recipes which are easy to pre­pare and made with whole­some, good qual­ity car­bo­hy­drates. These two in par­tic­u­lar, are really good and they freeze well too!

Happy training!

http://​thrive​for​ward​.com/​r​e​c​i​p​e​-​c​e​n​t​e​r​/​m​a​n​g​o​-​c​o​c​o​n​u​t​-​e​n​e​r​g​y​-​b​a​r​s​/​#​.​U​y​s​0​m​i​i​5​J​U​Q

http://​thrive​for​ward​.com/​r​e​c​i​p​e​-​c​e​n​t​e​r​/​o​n​-​t​h​e​-​g​o​-​c​o​c​o​n​u​t​-​b​a​r​s​/​#​.​U​y​s​1​b​C​i​5​J​U​Q