Noassatall is not selective. It impacts men and women of all ages, ethnicities and backgrounds. This is common among many Americans and, most surprisingly, among many endurance runners. What is Noassatall? It is where someone turns sideways and, looking at the back side of their profile, you question whether you are staring down a wall or a human body. Let’s be honest, we are supposed to have curves back there and many individuals do not.
The predominant muscle in our butt, the gluteus maximus, is in charge of many things including sitting/standing, climbing stairs, giving you some junk in the trunk and even maintaining an upright posture. A weak gluteus maximus muscle can lead to poor posture and over compensation for many of the complimenting muscles potentially resulting in injury.
Looking to help fight against Noassatall? Try this exercise to improve your glute strength, better balance your body and even improve your run.
Single Leg Romanian Deadlift:
Hold one dumbbell or kettlebell in your hand.
On the opposite side that you hold the kettlebell/dumbbell, stand on one leg.
Keeping your standing leg knee slightly bent, perform a stiff-legged deadlift by bending at the hip, extending your free leg behind you for balance.
Continue lowering the kettlebell/dumbbell until your back is parallel to the ground, and then return to the upright position. Repeat for the desired number of repetitions. Need to increase the intensity? Increase your weight or number of repetitions.
If you are an endurance athlete who feels lost in a weight room, you’re not alone — but you are at a disadvantage. Strength training could be the key to unlocking your next improvement on the race course. Join us at the Endurance Training Club for our strength training class to build your butt and all your other key muscle groups. Have no fear — this won’t be a power lifting session. All of your ETC classes are designed for endurance athletes, by endurance athletes and are built to be accessible to you. We look forward to seeing you — book your class now.
Event day nutrition is something that can be confusing for those who are new to endurance sports. Outside of athletics, we are accustomed to eating three balanced meals and watching what we eat so that we are not constantly fight the battle of the bulge. On top of that, the quality of the food we eat is stressed. Is it non-gmo, free range, organic, gluten free? Does it provide you with the macro and micro nutrients that you need to sustain healthy body function?
With all of this detail paid to our daily nutrition, training nutrition is very easy to overthink. If you find yourself stressing, it is time to reassess your training and racing nutrition.
It is important to preface the follow statements with the fact that these recommendations are geared to athletes who are just beginning their nutritional journey and are doing events that take 4 hours or less.
Whether in an event or training for an event, three key elements need to be considered.
Pre-event: The goal of pre-event nutrition is to provide the energy necessary to top off your body’s fuel tank (glycogen stores.) Caloric intake will vary from 200-600 calories, dependent upon time since last eating, the intensity of the event and your ability to handle food prior to physical activity. The timing typically varies from 15 minutes to 2 hours prior to activity.
During: Nutrition while training or racing will vary heavily upon the duration, intensity of the event and athlete size/stature. Your #1 goal is to fuel your performance. Because of this, your primary calorie consumption should be carbohydrates. Caloric intake can vary from 100-350 calories per hour.
Post-event: Unlike pre-event and during-event nutrition, your goal shifts from performance generation to physical recovery.
These are just some things to consider when building your training and racing nutrition plan. If you’re interested in how to fuel yourself for best results, our Science of Speed coaches will be happy to provide guidance based on their personal racing and training experiences. As well, SoS can connect you with a nutritionist that understands the athlete’s body.
The brain is a miraculously powerful organ. It is capable of deep thought and incredible ingenuity that has brought civilization amazing literary works, the ability for humans to fly, the Pythagorean Theorem and the Snuggy. Unfortunately, the brain can also be a powerful device for evil, too. It has lead to the destruction of many civilizations, hurtful words and the creation of Crystal Pepsi.
Over the past years, I have seen the power of the mind be nearly debilitating for many endurance athletes. It has created sub standard results, levels of frustration and, for some, it even creates stress that is great enough to cause vomiting.
Why is this? In an age of cell phones, emails, TPS reports and board meetings, our “fight or flight” responses have taken a bit of a turn in what they respond to. It no longer takes a saber tooth tiger lurking in the bushes to trigger our sympathetic response. It is now these new stressors that create our “fight or flight,” and, for athletes, a big race is the reason for the dump of norepinepherine and epinepherine getting both our bodies and minds jacked and ready to go for broke in an all out fight to the death.
Variables such as upbringing, personality, life experiences and even ethnicity and gender can change our reaction. The important thing is how can we counteract these high levels of anxiety and stress, and turn what would be a negative into a positive, performance enhancing result. Here are several steps we recommend you try to start and then fine tune to your specific needs:
Acknowledge the Stress – Remember: this is your body’s way of preparing for battle! These chemicals that have been released are preparing you for your best performance yet and your interpretation of this stress has an impact on the final outcome.
Refocus the Stress – Your heart rate is elevated and you have a pit in your stomach, but you can still take control. The key is to turn this negative impacting force into something positive and you can do that by:
Positive self talk- It doesn’t have to be complex, something as simple as, “I am ready for this race and I will do great!” on repeat in your head, or even out loud, could be enough to recenter you and get you under control.
Developing Self Confidence – Rely on your past experiences to solidify your confidence in your ability to compete/complete the event. You can draw on previous positive race experiences or even amazing training workouts that drove home the fact you are physically prepared.
Distraction – This can be a bit more difficult to accomplish because setting, people and scenarios change but if you have a person (spouse, significant other or friend) that you often travel with to events they can provided a nice added distraction. Getting lost in music on your headphones can be a helpful options and with the right play list it can help to get you excited to race.
Focus on the details within your control – There are many factors on event day that you have no ability to control. Events starting on time, weather, traffic or other people’s actions are far from your control, but you can own so many other key variables. These include things like the time you leave for the event, the food you eat, your clothing selection and the condition of your equipment. Some of these may take preparation leading up to the event, but you will know that you have your details under control.
Have a plan – For many athletes, battling pre-race anxiety it is not a one time occurrence. It has happened over and over again. It reduces expected performance, causes a lack of confidence in ability and, in worst cases, it is event ending. If this is you, it is important to create a plan prior to race day. You know what you are likely to experience on event day, so it is time to create a plan for your day. Keep in mind things such as: Food, travel, equipment, clothing, meditation, warm-up and hydration. The plans for each person can be very different, much like training, but it is important to create and then fine tune a plan for yourself.
For several years now, beet juice (beetroot juice if you are in Europe) has been an exciting topic of discussion in human endurance performance. Our coaches have been utilizing beet juice — as well as a number of our athletes — and many of them have experienced and benefited from the increased blood nitric oxide boost that beet juice provides. This nitric oxide has great effect on our bodies from both health and performance standpoints.
Let’s break down the benefits, and you can decide if you’d like to add this ingredient to your nutrition.
Physiological Changes
When it comes to health issues in the United States, the greatest benefit of beet juice has to be decreased blood pressure. With one of the top 5 U.S. prescribed drugs of 2015 being a blood pressure regulator, this offers a great alternative. By drinking as little as 8 ounces of juiced beets a day, you can see a nearly immediate decrease in blood pressure. Healthy blood pressure is great for all, but what benefits will athletes be most drawn to? Consuming beet juice has also shown a reduction in oxygen cost of exercise in some subjects. This ultimately means that, per oxygen molecule your body is utilizing, you are now producing more work. Think of it like this: you are boosting your bodies miles per gallon! This increase in efficiency allows you to get more out of your workouts or performances for less energy.
Mental Benefits
A great amount of research has shown that beet juice supplementation has lead to an increased blood flow to the brain due to its associated vasodilation. (Vasodilation is the dilation of blood vessels, i.e. that decrease in blood pressure we talked about earlier!) We also found it interesting that it has even been shown that, when paired with exercise, consuming beet juice has resulted in an increase the neuroplasticity of the brain in older subjects. This means that functions are able to be “remapped” in the brain. This definitely sparked our curiosity about a benefit to subjects with brain trauma.
Performance Benefits
Let’s be honest. Most of you who are reading this are more concerned about whether or not this is an ergogenic aid. (Scratching your head? An ergogenic aid is something that enhances performances or gives edge to an athlete.) While beet juice supplementation has shown some small benefits in sprint performance with the most significant area being in a reduced time of athletes reaching peak force generation, there is no significant evidence of beet juice being a major performance enhancer. That is not to say that beet juice does not have performance benefits. In our opinion, the biggest benefit to our endurance athletes is the findings of increased endurance exercise capacity. What that means to you is that you will be able to sustain your effort for a longer period of time before reaching failure. There is some potential of beet juice to also be an ergogenic aid at altitude. This may be of interest to many who live at sea level and go to altitude for events.
If this post sparked your interest, here’s how to add this into your diet.
Recommended dosing:
The amounts of
6/8 mMol which is roughly 1-2 shots a day
2-3 hours prior to competition (time it takes (approx.) for the body to process)
Take 4-15 days prior to competition – (if not taking daily)
One thing to note if you are drinking beet juice: It can discolor your urine and fecal matter. This is called beeturia.
As athletes first getting into a sport, there is a lot of room for improvement. With each workout or activity, we become faster, stronger and more fit. PRs are set, breakthrough workouts occur and fitness continues to grow. Eventually, we all reach a point where we either run out of knowledge on how to improve or the methods being utilized begin to show less and less in regards to the gains that are seen.
Training is much like an exponential growth curve. Gains come easy early in our training experiences. Our bodies are amazing at adapting to stress. VO2 max increases, more mitochondria form to provide energy for the muscles, increases in red blood cell count can increase to compensate for the increased demand in oxygen to the tissue, muscles become larger and/or stronger and even our heart adapts. As we begin to increase fitness and these adaptations occur, there is a point where the same training doesn’t have the same results. When this happens, an athlete must become better educated and learn how to modify a training plan to become a better athlete.
Often times, our coaches find that athletes do not realize this. The subsequent result is a plateau. You might be doing the same ol’ two group workouts a week, one gray zone workout and that killer gym workout. They might still leave you wobbly legged. Yet, no improvement on a Strava KOM or you end up getting shelled from the group ride at the exact same spot.
A change must be made! A change to improve, to hunt for those marginal gains, no matter how unachievable they may seem and to improve your fitness with new levels of thinking. Break outside of your current box and let your fitness expand with one of these three changes!
Increase Intensity – It is easy to fall into a rut of what is comfortable and convenient. Unfortunately this often means that we are not pushing our body to a point of adaptation. Try adding intervals into your training. This doesn’t mean it has to be a structure interval workout, you can simply increases your pulls at the front of your group ride, or push yourself more on hills or into headwinds. The ultimate goal is to increase your time at intensity.
Increase Volume – If the time is available you can always add on more volume in riding. Remember that because you simply add on distance you still need to maintain a reasonable pace and not simply lollygag.
Increase Frequency – Add another day of exercising into your routine. The added mileage will place additional stress on the body and will help elicit a physiologic response resulting in better performance.
Ride hardish. Group ride. Ride easy. Ride. Group ride. Ride longest. Recover.
Track workout. Run longish. Run fastish. Run easy. Run faster. Run longest. Recover.
No matter your sport, we see this pattern often. Whether we are observing the athletes in our communities, reviewing athletes’ past schedules once they sign up for coaching or talking with our friends and training partners… It’s the same routine, week in and week out. Spring, summer, fall and winter. For years!
Many of these athletes are fit, and they would have to be to withstand this type of abuse they put their body through. Some of them are fast and competing at high levels! They have gained speed through attrition. Whether their immune system is stronger, biomechanics are more efficient, genetics are superior or they simply have good luck, they have succeeded.
At Science of Speed, we don’t believe an end justifies the means. The means are just as important, and your body deserves better. This spring we challenge you to ramp up your training with a bit more focus, purpose and detail to energy systems and periodization. Here are 3 key areas to focus on as you plan out your training.
Periodization:
Let’s start with the most mentally taxing part first. Logic! Training plan periodization is strategically planning your training in specific phases. With this it is important to take into consideration time, intensity and volume in order to lay out a plan that creates optimal overload and then allows proper recovery for the next overload.
This is where the pen meets paper. Put some serious thought into it. Does it really make sense for your to do speed work, threshold intervals and volume in the same week? Are you creating enough overload to achieve your goal and is it the fastest way to get from A – B?
Purpose:
Have a purpose for each of your workouts and know what it is for. Every workout has a place and there is a place for every workout. Why do you have a block of intervals when you do? How many minutes of VO2 work is actually enough to elicit an overload (hint: 15+ is shown in research)? How many days can/should you do a set of intervals in a week or month? And finally…do you have something fun in there? Just being honest here. You probably aren’t getting paid to train, so it is okay to sometimes have a workout in there “because friends will be there” or “to have have fun!” If performance is important to you, that is wonderful! That said, one day of fun won’t be the end of the world and could help you six weeks down the line when you may have otherwise been burnt out.
Push:
Sure, you push your body on the group workouts and you push your body during your intervals. As athletes, we push ourselves, but often we gravitate to the workouts we enjoy or more specifically the ones we are good at. Find your weaknesses and push those. Whether it be endurance, threshold or power/top end speed, push your limit and you will find a whole new level.
Now, you have it all laid out. It’s the most beautiful training plan ever, but what good is it if you don’t stick to it? Take it to heart and get the workouts in! As Thomas Edison said, “There is no substitute for hard work.”
We have seen it at SoS already. Our staff and our families have all come down with something, as well as our athletes.. The holidays and togetherness are a wonderful thing — except for when we are sharing each other’s germs.
Over the coming weeks and months, here are several practices recommended by WebMD that you may want to stick with or adopt so that you can stay healthy and continue to see increases in your fitness:
Exercise – Yep, that thing you love has been proven to help boost immune function. Here is the key though: light to moderate activity is what tends to boost immune function. High volume or intensity workouts are considered a stressor and can actually decrease immune function.
Eat Healthy – A well balanced diet complete with foods that are high in vitamins and minerals can help to reduce the risk of illness
Sleep quality and quantity – During sleep your body produces cytokines, which help the body combat foreign invaders like viruses or bacteria. Conveniently these same cytokines also help you sleep. Kind of a win-win. Not to mention the other benefits of sleep such as mental clarity, lower blood pressure, decreased risk of heart disease and diabetes and improved mood.
Wash your hands – Dirt don’t hurt, but germs do! Whether you are a germaphobe or not, let’s go with what your mom told you growing up. “Don’t touch that! You don’t know where it has been.” Shopping carts, door knobs or any of the other common use items in this world are a quick way to spread germs. It is simple: just wash your hands.
Teach your kids – Getting back to school usually means kids are sharing more than just toys and pencils. Teach your child the vampire cough/sneeze and teach them how to wash their hands properly.
Get the Flu Vaccine – Vaccination is controversial for so many, but take it for what you want. It can be a benefit.
Clean to kill germs – Use disinfectants when cleaning and don’t keep the rags or sponges around too long. They are bacteria breeding grounds.
Sick and unsure how you should alter your training? Our coaches are always ready to update your training plan based on your health. Reach out to us today and learn about all the benefits of customized coaching.
Athletes frequently gravitate towards fruits and vegetables. They can be a healthy alternative to much of the prepackaged snacks that are readily available. Packed full of nutrients, vitamins and minerals, these are an amazing option to fill our stomachs, improve our health and provide the fuel that we need for our bodies to function.
In our quest to improve health, we do make some small oversights. We may even make large oversights. We supplement foods with our favorite condiment to enhance the flavor, add a bit of protein to improve the texture and consistency of what we are eating. Be cautious with this supplementation. It is easy to add these on without realizing the astounding amount of calories that are added onto our daily caloric intake.
Let’s consider several of the more common additions. Peanut butter adds nearly 200 calories for just 2 tbsps. Dressings can quickly add 100 calories. An extra banana or scoop of protein in your smoothie can tack on an additional 100-150 calories. Without even realizing, you can easily and quickly overindulge and increase your desired caloric intake by a significant amount. An apple with some peanut butter seems like a perfectly healthy snack, but, as pointed out to me by a friend, it is even easier to increase your caloric intake once the apple runs out and you then begin eating peanut butter by the spoonful!
How do you battle this over indulgence? Separate the amount that you intend on eating from the container. Get your scoop of peanut butter in a bowl, get your dressing on the side or take the chips you plan on eating out of the bag and put the bag away. It sounds simple and is not a fail proof but it adds an additional step into the overindulgence outcome.
Ultimately it comes down to making conscious decisions to make consuming the additional calories one step further from happening.
Curious about Smart Trainers? Coach Brady is here with the information you need before investing in this kind of technology.
Smart Trainers, like the Cycleops Hammer or Cycleops Magnus trainer, are nothing new to the training world. The Computrainer has been around since 1986 and was the choice of so many athletes to utilize power for the first time or break monotony of long indoor winter training rides. Personally, I have always disliked trainers. It has never been about the trainer itself. I began riding a bike because I like to be outside, to explore new roads, feel the wind on my face and the comradery of my fellow athletes.
This perspective has all changed in the past 6 months. I have become a huge fan of trainers. It is not due to safety. It is not the excitement and entertainment of the virtual courses. I have fallen in love with smart trainers because of the results they help to produce due to the increased accuracy in training execution. In the past 6 months, several SoS athletes have begun using smart trainers for their training and have noticed remarkable increases in power at threshold.
We have not seen significant improvements because there has been a drastic shift in training protocol, the amount of hours ridden or an increase in prescribed intensity. We feel these improvements are a result of the increase in the specificity of training for the athlete. Each coach prescribes their athlete’s workouts, but the smart trainers are holding each of these athletes to their own personalized ranges. Making sure the intensity is consistent and that athletes are following exactly what is prescribed for interval workouts is making large impacts!
If you are looking to increase your training results, it might be time to consider taking it indoors with a smart trainer. Add a whole new level to that with SoS coaching or new interval workouts. Email us at [email protected].
Speed. It is the number one worry for many athletes on the bike and “aero is everything” to so many cyclists and triathletes. Aero helmets, aero bicycles, aero handlebars, aero wheels, aero shoe covers, aero bottles, aero gel packaging… Okay, so the last one is a stretch, but you heard it here first if it comes out! You get the point though. Aerodynamics has been taken into consideration for every aspect of cycling.
Why you might ask? Well, not only does it look cool, but it does have a benefit. Aerodynamics is the study of the air’s interaction with objects — in this case, you and all your gear. When looking at aerodynamics, we must consider the science of the coefficient of drag. In this equation, velocity (speed) is squared, which means as speed increases, drag is drastically impacted. By streamlining yourself on a bike, with wheels, a helmet, or some other gadget, you can instantly notice the change in speed and this becomes addictive.
You’ve seen so many aero products at varying price points, but what is the best bang for your buck?
Retul Bike Fit: Cost: $250 Benefit: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Not to poke fun, but you are the biggest thing on the bike. Optimizing your position to suit your needs will be the best way to increase your ability to maintain position, reduce fatigue and increase aerodynamics (assuming that is your goal). This is by far your biggest bang for your buck when it comes to aerodynamics.
Over the past several years, there has been great emphasis on aero road bike frames. These super bikes are not only sleek, but sexy and are often the envy of many riders. Do they make a big difference? You bet they do! You can shave nearly 1 minute off of a 40km time with one of these. That is a lot of “free watts.” They are not all equal in their benefits, so if you want to find the bike that will make you fastest go here.
Aero Wheels: Estimated Cost – $2000 Benefit: ⭐⭐⭐
These are the next best thing in time saving benefits. Aero Wheels are a great addition to your arsenal when it comes to bike related speed. There are three key factors that you should consider:
What type of riding are you doing? A century rider, criterium racer, road racer and triathlete do not necessarily need to ride the same wheel. Each of these types of riding have different demands and, because of that, a wheel might need more aerodynamics, better braking power, lighter weight or increased stiffness.
Is Aerodynamics or weight and stiffness more important? As illuded to in the last question, you will need to understand what is more important for you. Aerodynamics will relate more to straight line speed and is important for a triathlete, time trialist or a road racer. A criterium racer and even a road racer can benefit from a more laterally stiff wheel. The more aerodynamic the wheel becomes, the more it weighs and the less laterally stiff it becomes.
What is the length of your event? For the Ironman athlete, if one wheelset is in the budget, you should pick something slightly less aerodynamic but more versatile for changing conditions. The last thing you want is to be in the middle of your ride, winds kick up and your disc wheel gets swept out from under you. Not to mention, the amount of fatigue a set of deep section aero wheels can create in a strong cross wind!
What are your needs?
Aero Helmet: Cost: $175 Benefit: ⭐⭐
Ventilation meets pure speed. Aerodynamics is key, but, if you get overheated due to poor cooling and DNF, it doesn’t matter how streamlined you are.
This is a great option to decrease drag. For time trial or Ironman athletes, remember that your ears are, by design and function, probably one of the least aerodynamic things on your body so a helmet that covers them can drastically reduce drag. If you struggle to hold head position, aerodynamics becomes less important as the tail of the helmet will create even greater drag sticking straight up in the air.
Find an aero road helmet to fit your speed addiction
Aero Gel: Cost: $3 Benefit:
It is the consistency of snot, but packaged in a streamlined pouch made from nanoparticles sourced from the earth’s core.
Clearly your best bang for your buck! Right? Be sure to pre-order today! 😉
Let’s be honest. All of these aerodynamic things will improve your speed, one time, if you can already ride a bike consistently at over 17-18mph. Whether you see a benefit or not from these kinds of products, focusing on training properly with accurate data could provide you as much as a 10% improvement in threshold power year after year. You won’t see that from the equipment alone! Combine coaching with a Science of Speed expert coach and even one of these items and you could be an unstoppable force!
Positive self talk- It doesn’t have to be complex, something as simple as, “I am ready for this race and I will do great!” on repeat in your head, or even out loud, could be enough to recenter you and get you under control.
