Get Your 8 Seconds Back

Saturday afternoon I watched the last hour of the U.S. Olympic Marathon Qualifier. It’s pretty simple, be one of the top 3 male or female finishers and you qualify for the 2012 U.S. Olympic team and compete at the London Games.

I’ll admit, watching a marathon is a bit boring but the storylines were compelling and tactics were interesting. Plus, I have incredible respect for the amount of hard training that these competitors put in. To compete at that level you have to devote your life to your sport. The 26.2 mile race was done at about a 5:00 minute mile pace for the men and just over 5:00 minutes per mile for the women. Personally, I can’t run one mile at that pace so I’m in awe.

Many of the 6 qualifiers set personal best times for the marathon. The women’s winner, Shalane Flanagan, was running only her second marathon ever after a sucessful career running the 10,000 meters (just over 6 miles). The men’s winner, Meb Keflezighi, is a storied American distance runner who also set a personal best and could have set the event record but he chose (correctly, in my opinion) to grab an American flag and celebrate over the last half mile when he knew the race was won.

But this blog is not about the winners from Saturday. This blog is about 8 seconds. It’s about Dathan Ritzenhein. Dathan is known as “Ritz” and wears that name on his race bib.

Ritzenhein was a high school track legend. He carried that success through college and his professional career. In 2008, he finished 9^th at the Beijing Olympics in the marathon. He was the top American finisher.

Yesterday, at the U.S. Olympic Qualifier he finished 4^th. Nothing is worse than finishing fourth. No medal, no headlines, no Olympic team. Ritz was part of a group of 4 men that separated themselves from the field midway through the race. Around mile 20 he began to lose touch with the leaders. He quickly fell 45 seconds behind Meb, Ryan Hall and Abdi Abdirahman. But Ritz is a true pro. He kept running his race and began to make a move over the last 3 miles. Abdi had fallen back a little and the race for third was on.

Ritz kept closing the gap. 25 seconds behind. 15 seconds behind. 10 seconds behind. He kept coming strong. Abdi was hurting but still had that coveted third spot.

When Abdi crossed the finish line you could see Ritz about 100 meters back. Meb and Hall were already draped in American flags. Tears of joy were streaming down their face. Abdi joined them. The Olympic team was set. And 8 seconds later, Ritzenhein crossed the line. 8 seconds in a 26.2 mile race. That’s it.

I’ve been in that position before albeit on a much lower profile scale. You know a certain time will qualify you for an event, catching someone on the course will get you into the top 3, a goal you've set your sights on appears to be just out of reach, or you are 8 lbs toward that 10 lbs weight loss and you just can't seem to make it. I know what was running through Ritz’s mind. He was replaying every workout, every prep run, every training meal, every chance he had to go faster in training that may have given him the 8 seconds he needed.

We all have fitness goals. If you don’t, you should. Read this blog for tips. And sometimes we fall short of reaching them. That’s your 8 seconds.

Ritzenhein probably thought about workouts where he didn’t give it his all. Keep that in mind as you approach your next workout. Do you want to give away those 8 seconds and miss reaching your goal? Or do you want to grab more weight or stay on the treadmill another 10 minutes or add another workout to your week so that you don’t have to wonder what if?

Like I tell my Spinning class every Sunday morning. Your goals are reached through the work you do when no one is watching.

8 seconds.

Every second counts.

Paleo Part 3 - The Good, the Bad and the Great Bonk

Paleo – The Good, the Bad and the Great Bonk

It’s been about two months since I began eating Paleo. Eating what?? If you missed the first two blog posts about this, check them out here.

I’m Going Paleo: What, How, Why?

Paleo Eating: The First 10 Days

So how is it going? I’ve been getting this question a lot from clients, boot campers and friends.

Let’s look at this in terms of the good, the bad and the ugly (or the Great Bonk).

The Good. Always start with the good stuff. I switched to Paleo and immediately saw significant positive changes in my body composition, physical appearance and energy.

• I dropped 9 lbs in the first few weeks. It was all fat loss. My body fat % dropped from about 13 to around 8.5%. Most of it was in the lay around my gut.
• That change in body comp led to a leaner, stronger look that was noticed by my colleagues and friends. It was without a doubt the leanest and strongest I’ve ever looked.
• My energy level improved as did my sleeping habits. No more late night carb binges and no more bloated feeling throughout the day. I woke up ready to go.
• And without getting into too much detail, my digestive system profoundly changed for the better.

The Bad. Any significant change to your eating habits is accompanyied by challenges. For me, the nutritional changes were not too bad. I thought giving up sweetened drinks would be hard but it wasn’t. Unsweetened iced tea became my drink of choice. Eliminating dairy was easier than I thought as well. I replaced milk with almond or coconut milk. No problem. My grain and processed carb consumption was also low.

But there are challenges that have made it tough to stick to Paleo.

• Weight loss is not a goal of mine. Losing the 9 lbs put my under 200 for the first time in 20 years. There is something about being under that number that concerns me. Even though I felt fine I thought I needed to eat more or add more carbs to up my weight.
• My friends are not necessarily eating Paleo. I have determined that keeping granola and ice cream in the house for my girlfriend when she visits is not something I can do. If those two items are around I eat them, plain and simple.
• It can be expensive to buy whole foods all the time. I found about a 25% increase in my food budget. I believe it is worth the investment but it is something to be aware of.
• Meal prep takes time. My schedule permits me time to prep meals on some days and no time on other days. I have friends who do all their meal prep on Sundays for the week. I have not gotten to that level of nutritional organization yet. Still working on it.

The Ugly (or The Great Bonk). I tend to do a lot of endurance events. 5+ mile runs and 50+ mile bike rides can be weekly things. On one of my first Paleo-fueled training sessions I learned an important lesson.

I was prepping for a Run/Canoe/Bike/Run event with my training partner Michelle. One of our early training sessions was a 40 mile bike ride followed by a 3 mile run. The ride started well. We did the first 25 miles at a strong pace. I had fueled up on bananas and other fruit in the morning but I was not taking any energy bars (lots o’ carbs) or energy gels (even more simple carbs) because they weren’t Paleo.

Michelle challenged me to do the last 8 miles at race pace. That’s where the trouble began. We rode hard and with one mile left I felt some weakness in my legs. I stopped at a grocery store and grabbed two pears and quickly downed them to get me through the run.

The start of the run was ugly. I was slow and had no rhythm. A mile in Michelle recognized there was a problem and suggested we turn back. “Nope, let’s keep going.” Bad idea. I bonked (athletes term for running out of energy) bad. In one fell swoop I got light headed and the world began to shimmer like an impressionist painting. I slowed to  a walk. Michelle stuck with me. And for the two miles back to the car I was walking slowly. Any effort to jog lasted only 10 seconds. My body was desperately looking for my energy to burn and I had not been giving it enough. I had never experienced a bonk like that before. I knew that going forward if I expect to do long efforts I need to change up my Paleo plan.

The Bottom Line. I have made some tweaks to my Paleo eating. I keep a supply of natural energy bars on hand and take energy gels with me on longer events. I also have become less rigid with my Paleo eating to help stop the weight loss. I am not opposed to an occasional pasta meal or some desserts. However, that has led me to be a little too laxed lately. I am still trying to strike a balance.

Look for more updates in the future. 

Popeye, Olive Oil and Roger Federer

The last major tournament of the professional tennis season is concluding this weekend at the U.S. Open in New York.

Roger Federer has made his way into the semi-finals. That is no surprise. Federer is arguably the greatest tennis player of all time. His 16 major titles including 6 Wimbledon championships and 5 consecutive U.S. Opens have made him a familiar name even to tennis newbies.

Take a few minutes to watch part of a Federer match this weekend. Not just for his grace, quickness, agility and total command of the sport. No, I actually want you to look at Federer himself. In case you can’t see a match this weekend, I’ve included a picture below.

What I want you to notice is the massive difference in the size of his left arm (bicep and forearm) and his right arm. His right arm is muscled and thick like Popeye’s. His left arm is thin and wiry like Olive Oil’s. You would never think the two arms belong to the same person.

Federer is right-handed, meaning he hits all of his shots with the racket in his right hand. For a professional player that means he is hitting literally thousands of shots every day with his right arm and doing little, if anything, with his left arm.

Federer has a huge muscular imbalance. In general, muscular imbalances are a bad thing. They cause a person to rely on the stronger muscle set and that can lead to problems in other parts of the body. For example, a person with a muscle imbalance that favors their right arm will tend to carry heavy things (a briefcase or a piece of luggage) with the stronger arm. This forces core muscles to be overused to support lifting with the right side of the body, it causes muscles in the upper back and neck on the right side to be overused and it can lead to shifting of the hips while walking. All of these can create muscle imbalances throughout the body.

For many professional athletes, imbalance is common. Baseball pitchers, golfers and others repeat the same motion over and over throughout the year to the point where they couldn’t possibly spend enough time using the opposite arm to correct the imbalance.

As a non-professional athlete, however, you need to work to keep your muscles in balance. Here are some simple tips to keep your body evenly strong and looking symmetrical.

1) Use dumbbells for strength exercises. Using machines or barbells permits one side of the body to push harder than the other. Using dumbbells isolates the same amount of weight in each hand and forces symmetrical movement during the exercise.

2) Practice performing exercises standing on one leg (once you’ve mastered the exercise on two legs). This forces each leg to strengthen and improve balance independently of the other leg.

3) When doing an exercise like a lunge, make sure you are completing a full range of motion with each stride. Many people will limit their range of motion on the weaker side.

4) Always choose an equal amount of weight for each arm when using dumbbells. Do not increase the weight until you are able to do a full range of motion with great form on each side. The strong arm may be ready to progress to a heavier weight but in the long run it is best to keep both arms progressing together.

5) Take some time off from your sport during the off-season. If you do participate in a sport that requires emphasis on a one-sided motion, make sure that during the off-season you work to bring your body back into balance. Baseball pitcher Barry Zito begins working on exercises to get his body back in balance immediately after the season ends.

If you have questions please contact Active Personal Fitness at 267.626.7478. We offer in-home personal fitness training and group exercise classes throughout Central Bucks.

If you are an area tennis player, make sure you visit 40 Love Pro Shop in Doylestown. You can earn a $75 gift certificate for our classes or personal training if you become a regular at their shop!!

Be well,

Paul

www.ActivePersonalFitness.com