Wednesday 26 March 2014

Vegetarianism and athletic performance

Vegetarianism and athletic performance

19:48:00 performance , survey 0 Comments
To my dear vegetarian folks,
if you do sports and you are also following a vegetarian diet, please help my research by answering these few questions.

Thanks for your time.

Caroline





 
Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.
By at No comments:
Labels: , ,

Tuesday 25 March 2014

Summary of week 12

Summary of week 12

09:47:00 eco trail paris , schedule 0 Comments
A boring week with total mileage of 75 km.


19/03/2014
After a fast recovery from the trip back from Spain, I finally met my hills in Liege Sart Tilman. They gave me a painful welcome though: half marathon on steep irregular terrain. A tumble on the ground started something that I still feel: pain between the left rhomboid and the spine.

20/03/2014
Easy pace 12 km run, even though in Sart Tilman nothing is really easy.


22/03/2014
Really not in the mood to go out. The pain of the rhomboid is killing me. Finished 10 miles on the treadmill. Quite boring.

23/03/2014
Rhomboid slightly less painful. I cannot appreciate any running session with this.
18 km with intervals on 400 mt.

Pain pain pain, and there is only one week before the Eco Trail Paris 80 km...
By at No comments:
Labels: , , ,
Summary of week 11

Summary of week 11

09:28:00 schedule , summary 0 Comments
Nothing special happened in week 11. Just feeling closer to race day and slightly more stressed.
Weekly total mileage: 85 km.

11/03/2014
A very easy run in the morning. 10 km on the usual dusty road near El Goloso, Madrid.
At 6pm I realised that the fridge was quite empty and needed to go shopping. Thing is that the house where I was living is 4 km out of town. I turned the hydration pack into something that could carry some vegetables and rice. Evening run of  8 km.

13/03/2014
Things usually get serious on thursday. Interval training on the distance of 2 km, 5 times with minimal rest. Exhausting.

14/03/2014
Easy pace 10 km run. Preparing for sunday.

15/03/2014
Interval training on the distance of 400mt with a total mileage of 17 km at average pace of 4':30" per km.

16/03/2014
Last run to El Pardo. It needed to be fast. But the previous training sessions kicked in since the beginning. Not bad though: 25km on the hills of El Pardo, below 2h

By at No comments:
Labels: , , ,

Wednesday 19 March 2014

The power of chia seeds

11:46:00 chia seeds , diet 0 Comments

I bought myself a bag of Chia seeds today. 
Have you ever heard of it? 
Well, this seed is usually referred to as superfood. This made me as curious as excited to try it out.

Chia is a seed that comes from the desert plant Salvia hispanica, that grows in Mexico. The first discovery dates back to the time of Mayan and Aztec cultures. 
"Chia" literally means strength. Those seeds were used by these ancient cultures as source of energy packed in for for their running messengers. Those people were used to carry a small pouch of seeds together  with them. 
Chia has also been described as Indian Running Food because of the incredible energy that it can deliver whenever necessary. 

 From a nutritional perspective this all makes sense. Infact,  chia seeds are a concentrated of healthy omega-3 fatty acids, carbohydrates, proteins, fibers, antioxidants, and calcium. 
Their size is also a quality: due to the fact that they can absorb an amount of liquid that is many times their size and weight, they are excellent to prevent dehydration during exercise or exposure to heat.

The capability of making you feel full is yet another property. This means that a meal with chia seed should make you eat less while still giving you the nutrients that a superfood can give.
A dream, for those who are on diet.

But let me insist on the benefits that this special seed can give. Chia seeds will

  • boosts strength
  • bolsters endurance
  • levels blood sugar
  • induces weight loss
  • aids intestinal regularity

Now, let's assume you got your bag of seeds. How would you integrate into your diet? 
The mild, nutty flavour of chia seeds makes them quite easy to add to foods and beverages. They are usually sprinkled on cereals, sauces, vegetables, rice dishes, yogurt or mixed with drinks and baked goods. They can also be mixed with water and made into a gel.
Here is a delicious recipe for breakfast, something I personally suggest:

Ingredients
2 tablespoons chia seeds
3/4 cup water
1/3 cup cashews
2-3 fresh pitted dates, or dried pitted dates soaked in water overnight to rehydrate
pinch of cinnamon
pinch of sea salt
fresh or frozen blueberries

Preparation
Since chia seeds rapidly absorb fluids and take on gelatinous properties when soaked, they can be considered an ideal nutrient-dense pudding base. 
Soak chia in water for 15 minutes. In a blender, combine with the rest of the ingredients, except the blueberries, and blend until smooth. Transfer to serving bowl and top with blueberries.

Enjoy!

Love,
Caroline
By at No comments:
Labels: , , , , ,

Tuesday 18 March 2014

Why do I run?

09:50:00 philosophy , reason 0 Comments


Whenever I am waiting at the airport I feel quite inspired to write something about me or whatever is currently around me. Or I just have nothing better to do to kill some time. The period I was travelling consistently, I was used to write a piece each time, in each different airport. I wrote about everything, my feelings, the person in front of me or the the new pair of sunglasses I got. I still have those pieces and if I ever organise them well, I could probably write a book out of them.
What comes to my mind today regards running. Hence this post. A question I have been asking to myself for a long time now is “why do I run?”. Every time I posed such a question I found something better to do, postponing it to a better time. Maybe there is no better time than this, now that my flight has been delayed - and hopefully will not be cancelled because than I should be thinking of something more than just that question. 

I am a runner since I was a child. When my friends played football, I ran. When we went out with the family on a sunday evening, I ran. When my mum asked me to buy the ham she forgot, I ran to the shop. I was just a factory of salty sweat that could burn shoes in weeks and t-shirts in days. 
I have never been attracted by football despite the numerous attempts of my father who brought me every sunday to watch the football match of some team I forgot the name of or, to be more specific, I never fixed in my mind. I remember my friends collecting their heroes aggregated in groups they called teams. 
For some reason that didn’t seduce me, at all.
In contrast I was attracted by the “red carpet” as I was used to refer to the track&field in my hometown. One day I entered the stadium just to run in the first lane, with the  shoes that my mum bought for special occasions like dinners with the family or going to church. 
As a child I couldn’t experience the philosophical beauty of running. 
I just ran. And I am sure it was not for fun. It was to compete. The idea was - and I must admit sometimes still is - to defeat a competitor I didn’t know of and I would have never met again. No purpose at all, one should say. But for me it was very simple: they asked me to run as fast as I could on a distance they specified the day of the race. And I did, with no discussion. Defeating opponents was the main purpose. Running faster and winning was more a a statement of possession, a way of confirming the physical strength and endurance.  
As I was becoming more mature, I could understand what I was doing. I even started giving my personal interpretation to running and the feelings that running transmitted to me started to change too. 
I saw it was different from the other games and sports that my friends were used to practice. I’ve never been attracted by football for the simple reason that it’s a team game. Scoring or loosing is a product of a number of people who, somehow, contribute to their achievement. Tennis and other sports with a direct opponent have always been out of my league, due to the desire of doing sport regardless the presence of other people. 
My mother usually reminds me of how much I liked to spend time on my own. I not only remember that period, but I am not surprised of the fact that today I can spend hours running in a forest, with trees and wind and rain and nothing else. 
The feeling of competition slightly disappeared as I grew up. 
I could grasp the joy of running alone relatively recently. 
Running makes me think. It switches off some parts of the brain that otherwise would stay on and heat too much. I don’t know if that’s a matter of neurotransmitters or hormones or what. I am not even searching for an explanation. 
Or maybe there is one. Running, as I see it, is the lack of dependence, the emblem of individuality and the proof that a man needs no hero. 

When I go out for a run, there are no complications. 
When I run, it’s simple. 
By at No comments:
Labels: , , ,

Monday 17 March 2014

Summary of week 10

15:46:00 running , schedule 0 Comments
Another week of trail running around Madrid; another week of 120 km and 9400 kcal burned to convince myself that I am ready for the 80k of Paris. I started this week doing something I would have liked to do a while ago: resting.


03/03/2014 

04/03/2014 intervals on a longer distance of 3km for a total run of 23 km. Really cool interval session. Tough but lovely. If you know what I mean.

05/03/2014 23 km from Cantoblanco to Alcobendas at a quite fast pace that I was keeping since the very beginning. Today I tried the new outfit I will wear during the 80km in Paris. New stuff needs to be tested first because I'm really not in the mood of having getting surprises the Day. Caroline following me by bike did the rest. 
  

06/03/2014 10 km easy run with some drills on the trail towards El Pardo, once residence of Franco. Kind of mine, today.

07/03/2014 17 km a long and tedious interval training on 400 mt on the road, to be added to the usual mileage to go back home.

08/03/2014  quite dumb legs, as expected. I decided to stay at home and save some energy for the ultra distance of tomorrow.

09/03/2014  easy run to El Pardo and back to Cantoblanco. Caroline joined me by bike in the second part to cover the distance of 44 km. I remember this run to be a bit boring. At some point I really felt the need to talk to someone. Luckily I met another runner who decided to overtake me at a slightly higher pace. Of course I didn't let him go. Not to challenge him. I just needed some company. We started running at a faster pace of 4:20" per km. I didn't tell him that I had been running for 30 km already, not to get his mercy :)






By at No comments:
Labels: , , ,

Thursday 13 March 2014

Dieting is not a piece of cake

13:16:00 diet , fat 0 Comments
Hello girls and boys!

I am sure that what I am writing here has happened to you at least once in your life. I mean, have you ever had the feeling of being fat and just not comfortable with yourself? 

Exactly! Awkward silence is what I was expecting. So, keep reading.

 Let me go even more in depth. Imagine this scenario: your main ambition of the day is staying at home, maybe sipping a cup of tea right before eating. And that's not even dinner time. Then eating again. You feel like being doomed to eat and prisoner of your blanket, in a virtuous circle that keeps you stuck there until, my friend, it's too late for you to react.
Alright, I might sound quite fatalistic here, but you know what I mean. Moreover, winter is almost gone and there might be the need for your body to realise that. 

 We all know that staying at home will not solve the problem. Diets always look like mountains that are impossible to climb. But keep in mind that your body is usually not capable of doing anything. It’s the brain that can do things, and if that box is working well enough it can do great things. If not, alas, your brain will be the worst enemy you could get. And we don't want enemies. Do we? 
So, keep yourself mentally sharp and follow these not-so-easy (I know) pieces of advice to put yourself one step forward.

The question that I have been asked a number of times goes a bit like this: "what should I do to lose weight?"
My answer, can be as articulated as an exam of nutrition at university or like the guidelines below, depending of who I am answering.

First of all, you have to set some realistic goals. Don’t try to lose 10 kg per week, nor believe those charlatans who claim that is possible. Losing a lot of weight in a short amount of time will have a side effect that we usually call the jo jo effect. What's that? The perfect machine of our body will react to the new condition and will go into a conservation state. Sooner or later, when you or your brain will relax on this drastic diet, it'll gain weight again. Therefore, take it easy and, more importantly, slow. A range from 2 to 4 kg per month is already a good achievement. Diet is like a ultra marathon with an elevation gain that you only experienced on Google maps. Slow and steady wins the race.

Start counting the calories you eat. Losing weight means eating less calories than you really burn and create that awesome deficit that will also burn your fat. Write down whatever you eat and always look at it during your day. Your brain can fool you by forgetting or underestimating the amount of calories that you are taking. 
Split the day in 4 periods: breakfast, lunch, dinner and eventually time for snacks. Because you need it.
I personally use this website to get nutritional facts of whatever I eat. 

How much should you eat? 
Well, math is nice because it's clear. The amount of calories you consume in a day depends on factors like age, physical activity intensity and height, just to name a few.
This website can help you to have an idea about your daily intake.


Another secret you should share with everyone is about what to eat. Eat a variety of foods! It is important to have balanced diet with foods that belong to the five major groups in the picture. Choosing a variety of foods within and across food groups improves dietary patterns because foods within the same group have different combinations of nutrients and other beneficial substances.
Distrust the lemon diet, the potato diet or the rice diet. Distrust all mono food diets and, again, the charlatans that sponsor their effectiveness. 

Drink plenty of water, and avoid all the chemical fuzzy drinks. Water will help you to increase energy and relieve fatigue. Water flushes out toxins, improves skin complexion, boosts your immune system and it does all of this for free. Even if you buy water, that will still be cheaper than those sweetened beverages that will just make you fat. A total of 1,5-2 litres per day should do the trick.

My last recommendation: don’t be passive and move!  Try to move as much as you can. Cycling, swimming, running, fitness, dancing are all good for your body. Physical activity, as the word says, will activate your metabolism, forcing your body to burn more calories that, in turn, will make you smaller (providing you are not eating more too). 

 If one day you end up at the gym and you realise that your weight is higher than the time you were flaked out on the sofa, don't panic. Muscle is heavier than fat. But more muscles usually mean more calories to burn. 

 What now? Get started and sweat all the fat out of that body!
Diet is the only game where you win when you lose.

Love,
Caroline

By at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , ,

Wednesday 12 March 2014

Isotonic drinks. The do-it-yourself solution

14:14:00 beverage , diy 0 Comments
Preparing the hydration pack with an awful isotonic drink.
That smile will disappear soon
Whenever I prepare the hydration pack for a long run I realise that I would never use all the stuff I put in the bag. Even though I am aware of this terrible mistake and regardless the fact that I really force myself to drinking and eating during workout, I still end up out of fuel in the middle of the race. 
My body really can't take more after the 45th km. I think that very few people could take more after 45 km of running without really replenishing carbs or sugar.
I remember when I criticised  those watches with a reminder functionality some years ago. Those devices had a function that alerted the runner and reminded him to eat or drink. My conclusion about that feature was "how can he forget to eat and drink? These watches are total bulls***!".
I should reconsider my idea on it. 

In one of the most recent long trail runs around Madrid, I decided to put on a test a new isotonic drink (which I will not advertise here). Turns out that the drink was effective even though the taste was so horrible I was about to throw up at every sip. 
Whenever I read words preceded by iso or ipo, I have the tendency to investigate more and put some science into the dibate. 
Isotonic drinks have a peculiar characteristic summarised in their osmotic pressure that is similar to the one of plasma in our blood. Fact.
The components of an isotonic drink would therefore be rapidly absorbed by osmosis. Fact.

This detail is quite irrelevant for those cases in which the time window between two training sessions is quite large. The runner would have a consistent amount of time to reintegrate the salts and minerals lost during the first workout. This is not the case for an ultra runner. 
There is no time there since two or more workouts are very well packed into a very long one. The only available option for a ultra runner is to keep running to the finish line, which, for the sake of clarity, could be as far as 40 km or more. What then?

Isotonic drinks might make a difference here, being the osmotic pressure of the solution very similar to the one in the blood. In such a scenario the cells of the lucky runner (I wish I was that one) will not shrink nor shred and the absorption would be just smooth, with all pleasure to muscles, tissues and blood. 
   
Despite the amount of blabbing about isotonic drinks, the benefits introduced by such beverages are real. I have always been quite skeptic about it. The main reason of my distrust is due to the fact that most of the times commercial isotonic drinks are enhanced with other elements like sirups, sugars, carbs etc. that usually give a party into my stomach, with the side effects that everybody might think of. 
Indeed, something that I am going to try soon is a do-it-yourself isotonic drink. 

Here are the ingredients
1 lt. water
1 tea spoon of baking soda (powder)
2 tea spoons of sugar
1 tea spoon of marine salt
1 lemon or orange or juicy fruit you like

and preparation 
the base is water, of course. For 1 lt of plain water add baking soda, sugar, salt and lemon and shake it a bit or just start. Running wearing the hydration pack will do the rest.

One thing to bear in mind is that the drink I just described will be subjected to deterioration, due to the lack of the awful set of chemicals that is usually added to commercial drinks. Thus, it should be consumed in about 3 or 4 hours, which is not really a problem for any ultra runner.

By at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , ,

Monday 10 March 2014

The GAINS of breakfast

16:48:00 breakfast , diet 0 Comments
I’m not the type of athlete who ever skips breakfast. I truly believe those who still claim that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Several studies actually prove this fact even though very few people are aware of how important breakfast really is. 

 As an actively sportive person, very keen towards nutrition and quite pragmatic, when it comes to nutrition and sports, let me summarise here the fundamental facts of breakfast.
ives you an energy boost 
A well balanced breakfast that contains the essential macro and micro nutrients will give you enough energy to get through your day. Fibers, calcium, vitamin C, vitamin A are just a few of the many nutrients that will help boost your energy level. Oatmeal with a tea spoon of honey, some nuts and one kiwi is an example of a nutritious breakfast (besides what I personally eat every morning)
llows you to focus betterWhenever I skip breakfast, which happens very rarely, my concentration level is really low. One cause of this troublesome situation can be explained with the fact that, for instance, going to work without eating breakfast first is basically equivalent to preventing yourself from fuelling and still burning calories. A body lacking glucose, the sugar that supplies energy to the brain, cannot just work at his full potential. How do you get glucose? Breakfast, of course. 

 ncreases your metabolism rate

Despite the complex evolutionary adaptations that our body has gone through, the reality is quite different: our body still operates as some thousands years ago. Whenever cavemen didn’t have breakfast (which, by that time, it was clearly not called like that), they usually didn't have any food for the rest of day.  As a result, their metabolism went into a state of energy conservation, namely a slow metabolism rate. Can someone explain to our body that we are not living in stone age anymore? Because that's how our genetic compounds really work

 o more LDL cholesterolLDL stands for Low-Density Lipoprotein cholesterol. In simpler terms, the bad cholesterol. When too much bad cholesterol is circulating in the blood, a series of bad things can happen, such as the formation of clots in the inner walls of the arteries that feed the heart and the brain. This, in turn, can lead to dramatic consequences, as everybody knows.
Studies have shown that eating breakfast regularly can help to decrease the level of LDL cholesterol.

 taves off heart attacks
A study from Harvard School of Public Health found that men who regularly skipped breakfast had 27% higher risk of heart attack or death from coronary heart disease than those who did eat a morning meal. Skipping breakfast increases the risk of high cholesterol, obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes, which are all heart disease risk factors. Waking up, switching on the news, preparing some breakfast and take some time to consume it is a good plan that might reduce the risk of having a heart attack. Isn't it great?

This list is not exhaustive, of course. I just wrote some good reasons to start your day with breakfast.  Bear in mind that not all breakfast is good. Breakfast is just like fuel for a car. The better the fuel, the cleaner it will burn, the less it will pollute and the more efficient the engine will be. 

 Can you read it now? Breakfast can only give you GAINS. Have breakfast!
Love,

Caroline
By at No comments:
Labels: , , ,

Sunday 9 March 2014

Dried fruit, yet another misunderstanding

16:19:00 dried fruit , misunderstanding 0 Comments

Have you ever been walking around after a workout, chilling in the city and suddenly got the feeling of eating a cow? (allow me the expression, I shouldn't say this as a vegetarian)
So far, the best advice I could give to myself was "eat fruit!". This would usually give me two solid hours before dinner.
Years and years of eating fruit in such situations made this habit quite boring, forcing me to switch to something a bit different than fruit: dried fruit.

Here in Spain, as in other mediterranean countries, dried fruit is usually sold together with fresh fruit. What I personally consider an advantage of dried fruit is that it's cheap, compact and easy to carry, especially whenever I am visiting the city and I am really not in the mood of carrying a bag of two kilos of fruit for me and Caroline.

Turns out that dried fruit is yet another misunderstanding in my apparently-limited-knowledge about nutrition. One benefit of living with someone who studies nutrition for sport consists in realising that eating dried fruit is wrong!!

I honestly got fooled by fruit in "dried fruit", a label that can easily fool many, I am sure.
Dried fruit contains a lot of bad things that make it worse than regular fruit, such as much more sugar and chemicals that keep it coloured and beautiful (I am personally attracted by this feature). As a consequence, it gives many more calories still being less nutritious.

Therefore no more dried fruit! Not for me.


By at No comments:
Labels: , ,

Saturday 8 March 2014

Summary of week #9

Summary of week #9

10:33:00 running , schedule 0 Comments
I dedicated week 9 to exploring the country side around Cantoblanco, the district of Madrid where I am staying. As I mentioned earlier the terrain is quite diverse, giving me a series of options that I choose according to my schedule. Regardless the terrain that can be simply road or rocky or sandy or muddy, what really characterises this place is the elevation. It's not possible to run for longer than 1 km without hitting a hill which usually kills my legs or slows me down at the point that I have to reconsider my will to keep that pace longer.
The average milage of the last three weeks was 110 km. Week 9's was just a bit above it.

24/02/2014
Coming from a 19km run at progressively higher pace, the run of a monday is usually easy and slow. This reflects a bit the mondays at the office, during which people get familiar with their new (working) condition

25/02/2014
Rest was just what I needed

26/02/2014
Probably one of the most adventurous running experiences I had in the last few years. I wrote about it here. As a recap, I ran for 30 km on the hills near Tres Cantos, with a bull chasing me and dogs so close to my legs they were probably confident of seeing two big sausages instead

27/02/2014
Easy run and stability exercises, following the schedule of the physiotherapist to prevent injuries of ankles and feet

28/02/2014
Second expedition to El Pardo, following a dry rocky road, climbing short and steep hills. I'm still aware that terrain would be more indicated for cyclists on a mountain bike rather than runners. A total of 30 km and dumb legs. Of course...

01/03/2014
Easy run again. No exercises this time. I felt so stiff that the only thing I would have liked to do was sitting in front of a beer and a boccadillo de tortilla. Which I did.

02/03/2014
Purpose of the day was to keep the milage high. Another expedition to El Pardo, with a total of 30 km did it.


By at No comments:
Labels: , , , , ,

Friday 7 March 2014

The ugliest feet

09:59:00 eco trail paris , feet 0 Comments


I've no memories of cute feet. I've never had unhealthy feet either and that's something I am proud of. Increasing the milage, switching from road to trail shoes and back, keeping my feet more wet than dry are all contributing to make my feet look ugly ugly ugly.
I think I've never seen my feet this ugly. And that's something I am proud too.
Why?
Because these feet are carrying me in the country, on the road, on hills and valleys, crossing rivers and jumping stones, in the mud or on the rocks.
The higher milage of the last three weeks gave me quite a lot of blisters which literally destroyed the skin under both the feet and between the toes.
Even though walking on dry surfaces without shoes nor socks solved the problem, the higher milage and the new trail shoes became the perfect combination to turn some toe nails black. I even had to pierce a nail to decrease the pressure of the blood underneath and alleviate some pain. The pain didn't really bother me for daily activities like going to work or just walking around. Running downhill with a black nail full of blood pushing agains the toe box of the shoes at each step... well, that was painful indeed.
But let me spare such details...

Now that the first ultra of the year is closer and closer I feel like thinking about the good stuff instead, such as my physical and mental conditions. What can I say? So far so good! and let's keep fingers crossed.
Approaching the last week of intense training is a relief that I was waiting for a long time. I feel like a sling ready to shoot, because there's nothing else to do.

Wish me luck!


By at No comments:
Labels: , , ,