Jumpers Knee

Jumpers Knee (Patellar tendinitis / patellar tendinopathy)

What is jumpers knee / patella tendonitis?
The patellar tendon / ligament joins the kneecap (patella) to the shin bone or tibia. This tendon is extremely strong and allows the quadriceps muscle group to straighten the leg. The quadriceps actively straighten the knee in jumping to propel the individual off the ground as well as functioning in stabilizing their landing.
As such this tendon comes under a large amount of stress especially in individuals who actively put extra strain on the knee joint such as those who regularly perform sports that involve direction changing and jumping movements. With repeated strain, micro-tears as well as collagen degeneration may occur as a result in the tendon.

This is known as patellar tendinopathy or Jumpers Knee. It should be distinguished from patella tendonitis as this latter condition indicates an inflammation of the tendon whereas tendinopathy is more about degeneration of the tendon. For the purpose of this article we have used the term patella tendonitis as well as tendinopathy but strictly speaking tendinopathy is usually the correct term.
What are the symptoms of jumpers knee / patella tendonitis?
Pain at the bottom and front of the kneecap especially when pressing in or palpating.
Aching and stiffness after exertion.
Pain when you contract the quadriceps muscles.
The affected tendon may appear larger than the unaffected side.
May be associated with poor Vastus medialis obliquus (VMO) function
Calf weakness may be present
Click here for the VISA interactive questionnaire to assess how bad your jumper's knee is.
Warning!! - This injury may seem like a niggling injury that is not that bad. Many athletes continue to train and compete on it as it may not be a debilitating injury and recovers after a short period of rest. However, neglect jumpers knee at your peril! If left to become chronic it can be very difficult to treat and may require surgery.
What can the athlete can do about patella tendinopathy?
This depends on the extent or grade of the injury:

Grade 1: Pain only after training
Continue training but apply ice or cold therapy to the injury after each training session. Cold therapy can be applied by by ice massage or the use of ice packs. It is important the cold is applied at the point of pain on the tendon.
Wear a heat retainer or support.
See a sports injury specialist / therapist who can apply sports massage techniques and advise on rehabilitation. An eccentric strengthening programme is generally recommended.

Grade 2: Pain before and after exercise but pain reduces once warmed up.
Modify training activities to reduce the load on the tendon. Stop jumping or sprinting activities and replace them with steady running or swimming / running in water if necessary.
See a sports injury specialist / therapist who can apply sports massage techniques and advise on rehabilitation.

Grade 3: Pain during activity which prevents you from training / performing at your best.
Rest completely from the aggravating activity. Replace it with swimming / running in water (if pain allows).
See a sports injury specialist / therapist who can apply sports massage techniques and advise on rehabilitation.

Grade 4: Pain during every day activities which may or may not be getting worse.
Rest for a long period of time (at least 3 months!).
See a sports injury specialist / therapist who can apply sports massage techniques for patella tendonitis / tendinopathy and advise on rehabilitation.
If the knee does not respond to rehabilitation then consult an Orthopaedic Surgeon as surgery may be required.

If you would like to look at Stretches and Strengthening exercises take a look at this site..
http://www.sportsinjuryclinic.net/cybertherapist/front/knee/indexjumpersknee.html

Training for today- Drills in the pool with Landen
1.50 Bike
45 min. spinning class

No Running.... My foot is killing me however, a fast walk will do..

"When you feel that -I don't want to workout day, dig deep and put those shoes on and go you will feel so much better when your done"!

Training for today-
Running -50 min. of warm up of 1 mile then 5 x 3 min. with 3 min. off " now this depends on my foot" then 1 to 2 mile cool down.

Swimming 3200 yards

Abs 300

Taking Landen to his Baseball Game

Working with 5 of my clients

Going to a friends house to eat - I'm bringing Monster Cookies and Gummy Bears "yum, yum"


Something to think about!
"I's what's in you that makes you an Athlete"

I get asked this all the time!

How Much Fuel Do You Need During Long Rides?

By Jimmy Archer Triathlete magazine

Cycling nutrition is a crucial aspect of any triathlete's training and racing plan. During a race, it's not practical to eat or drink during the swim, and, for many athletes, high calorie intake during the run can lead to stomach problems, including nausea and malabsorption. Thus, the bike leg is the prime time to take on calories—and an effective nutrition strategy on the bike can set you up for a good run.Marcus Garand, registered dietician and director of sports nutrition for NYC Triathlon Consulting Services, says, "During a race, the cycling leg offers the best opportunity to ingest solid food and fluids, bars, gels and sports drinks. Nutrition and hydration during the cycling leg sets the stage for a strong run. On the other hand, inadequate nutrition and poor hydration on the bike can lead to dehydration, cramping and GI issues."Yet, how do you know what, when and how much to take in? While every individual will have different needs, there are a few basic guidelines triathletes can follow to help ensure they give themselves the best possible opportunity for success on race day.In general all athletes will need:
16 to 32 ounces of fluid per hour
Plus, 30 to 60 grams of carbohydrate per hour
Here is where it can get a bit tricky. According to Neal Henderson, director of sports science at the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine in Colorado, "At intensity, it is impossible to match your [fluid and calorie] intake to your body's expenditure. The body only has a finite capacity to absorb carbohydrates; thus, you can only take in so much before the body can't absorb any more. The result of over-intake of carbs is what leads to GI distress."Therefore, at higher intensities you will eventually reach a breaking point at which you will either have to slow down or risk bonking. One way to determine how long you can maintain a given intensity is to use a power meter in your cycling training. Henderson states, "By using a power meter and observing the kilojoules you expend, you can get a fairly accurate measure of calories you are burning." This is due to the fact that, while cycling, there is very close to a 1:1 ratio of calories needed to kilojoules expended. If you don't have a power meter, you will have to do a bit of trial-and-error testing during your training. But you already know you will need somewhere between 16 and 32 ounces of fluid and 30 to 60 grams of carbs, so you have a ballpark to start with. After taking this into account, consider that the higher your intensity the higher your caloric expenditure will be. However, this is where the trial and error comes in; you can take in too much. Thus, be conservative in your intake adjustments and don't try and empty the cupboard before every ride. Here are a few nutrition tips for racing and long training rides:
Pack more gels and/or energy bars than you think you'll need. You may drop some or may have a craving for one over the other.
Try/test different fuel/hydration systems during training. If a system is hard to use or unreliable, you won't use it as frequently as you should.
Determine how much to carry and how much to get from aid stations. Depending upon what's being served on course, you will want to carry more or less food with you; however, note that most races feature well-stocked aid stations, so don't load yourself down unnecessarily.
Know what is at the aid stations and where they are located.
Base nutrition intake on time not on mile markers; set your watch to remind you to drink on schedule. Try to take in eight ounces every 15 minutes and close to one gel or half a bar per hour.
Mark your bottles accordingly so you know how much you're drinking. For example, measure out eight ounces and then mark eight-ounce increments on your bottles to help keep your nutrition plan on track.
Drink intermittently when your pace is steady.
Practice all nutrition and hydration strategies and techniques during training.

Training for today - Swimming 3800 yards.. I went to the lake and swam 2.4 miles, I was feeling so very good...
My legs were a little sore, so I didn't ride bike.

What is up with this!!!!

Ford Ironman USA Lake Placid Sold Out July 21, 2008
In keeping with the tradition set at Subaru Ironman Canada, the 11th edition of Ford Ironman USA Lake Placid, to be held July 26, 2009, has sold out on-site to general entry. There will be no online general entry for this event.Information regarding NAS Community Fund Spots will be available in the near future, please check www.nasports.com or www.ironmanusa.com for details as they become available.

Our Next Ironman was going to be Ironman Lake Placid http://www.ironmanusa.com/

My friends and I just tried registering for Ironman USA (Lake Placid) and it's sold out as you can read. "Man oh Man" what a disappointment... So next year we'll have to fly there and volunteer, stay over night and maybe we can get in line for 2010.

Training for to day was a 2 hour and 30 min. run, however mine was a run and walk my foot was on fire. Man it stinks...

I was in Door County last weekend and I was running in the woods and steped wrong and hurt the bottom of my foot.... If you know me I run on my toes all the time and I just twisted my center of my foot OUCH! I've given it a couple days off. Didn't do the race in Racine because of it.

But my legs feel great today they don't hurt at all from our ride yesterday!

Biked 1:39 up hills and flats feeling great!

"There is a strength of a quiet endurance as significant of courage as the most daring feats of prowess".
Henry Tuckerman

I hate smelly clothes- so I was looking on the Internet and found this:

Friday July 11, 2008

Embarrassing Running Problems- Many runners were relieved that they were not the only ones who had experienced some of those issues. And one runner had a question about another common problem that I didn't cover in the article: How can I get the smell out of my running clothes? Here's my response:
Technical fabrics are great for running because they wick away your sweat but, unfortunately, bacteria (which causes the smell) gets trapped in the fibers and can be hard to get out. Here are a couple of tricks that work:
Using baking soda helps. Pre-soak your clothes in a solution of water and Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda (or just use water and a cup of baking soda). You can use the pre-soak setting on the washing machine or do it in a separate container. Then wash and use Arm and Hammer laundry detergent. Try using a special detergent formulated for technical wear, such as Penguin Wash

By Christine Luff, About.com Guide to Running / Jogging

http://running.about.com/b/2008/07/11/how-can-i-remove-the-smell-from-my-running-clothes.htm

Training for today was 4:40 ride Tracie, Leanne and I left my house at 6:00 am and a short run. We ate Peanut Butter sandwich's, Power Bars, Gu, and Salted Nut rolls.

We were drinking accerlerade http://www.accelerade.com/and EFS http://www.firstendurance.com/e3.html. We all felt great, NO cramps whooohoo... Running for tomorrow is 2:30. We'll see how we recovered from our ride today!



"Endurance is not just the ability to bear a hard thing, but to turn it into glory".
William Barclay

Training today was fun! Swam over 1 mile with Tracie and Jason.

Biked 2 hours with Ron and Tracie.

300 abs

and a bag of Gummy bears with some licorice very, very good.

"Don't let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use."

I received this quote awhile ago from a friend that I miss! It's so very true!

"In practicing the art of parenthood an ounce of example is worth a ton of preachment".

This is so very Sad!

I don't even know what to say to this.

But I feel so very bad for his wife and two children who are 3 and 6.
Like he would always say "Live life like it's your last"

http://lacrossetribune.com/articles/2008/07/15/news/z00lead.txt

OK how is watching the Tour de France 2008? I love watching this I know it's 100 percent different that Lance isn't in it anymore. However it is fun to watch..

OK Training for today was teach spinning and an hour and a half bike it was awesome, hot, Hummed, and rain I love working out in this weather.

Ran 45 min. nice and easy!

I hurt my foot so bad and it's holding me back from running, not fun. However I can still ride and Swim...

Things to think about!

Your big opportunity may be right where you are now.

Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire and begin at once, whether you ready or not,
to put this plan into action.

Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything.

A goal is a dream with a deadline.

No one is ready for a thing until he believes he can acquire it.

Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich Any ideas, plan, or purpose may be placed in the mind through repetition of thought.

There are no Failures in Competitive Swimming, Just Different Levels of Achievement.

More gold has been mined from the thoughts of men than has been taken from the earth.

Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed on an equal or greater benefit.

"Do not be too timid or squeamish about your actions.
All life is an experiment."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

BRICE PRAIRIE TIME TRIALS

This was fun. 26 miles of all out sprint with yourseft or with a team. I teamed up with Todd we did this race together last year. Our goal was to beat our time from last year and we did by two min. it was fast, windy, rained and man it was fun.

I have to say great job to
My sister Bethanne
To Lisa R.
and to the Great Uncle Todd!
THIS WAS THERE FIRST TIME TRIAL!

You all did awesome!

Got Energy Race is tomorrow!
http://www.laxymca.org/triathlon.html

I'm doing the sprint with two other girls. My Team is Kellen she is my swimmer, I will be doing the bike and Andrea will be doing the run. It's going to be awesome.

My work out for today- a swim with my Great Uncle Todd http://spandexking.blogspot.com/ and a Fast bike ride with Garry. Just a warm up for tomorrow.

There is over 350 people in this event, it's going to be so fun doing something new - which is doing a sprint with a team.

This is a great articale

Real Thought for Food for Long Workouts

By GINA KOLATA

DR. MARK TARNOPOLSKY, a muscle physiology researcher at McMaster University in Canada and a physician, knows all about the exhortations by supplement makers and many nutritionists on what to eat and when to eat it for optimal performance.

The idea is that you are supposed to consume carbohydrates and proteins in a magical four-to-one ratio during endurance events like a long run or bike ride, and right after. The belief is that such nutritional diligence will improve your performance and speed your recovery.

Dr. Tarnopolsky, a 45-year-old trail runner and adventure racer, might be expected to seize upon the nutritional advice. (He won the Ontario trail running series in 2004, 2005 and 2006.)

So might his colleague, Stuart Phillips, a 41-year-old associate professor of kinesiology at McMaster who played rugby for Canada’s national team and now plays it for fun. He also runs, lifts weights and studies nutrition and performance.

In fact, neither researcher regularly uses energy drinks or energy bars. They just drink water, and eat real food. Dr. Tarnopolsky drinks fruit juice; Dr. Phillips eats fruit. And neither one feels a need to ingest a special combination of protein and carbohydrates within a short window of time, a few hours after exercising.

There are grains of truth to the nutrition advice, they and other experts say. But, as so often happens in sports, those grains of truth have been expanded into dictums and have formed the basis for an entire industry in “recovery” products.

They line the shelves of specialty sports stores and supermarkets with names like Accelerade drink, Endurox R4 powder, PowerBar Recovery bar.

“It does seem to me that as a group, athletes are particularly gullible,” said Michael Rennie, a physiologist at the University of Nottingham in England who studies muscle metabolism.

The idea that what you eat and when you eat it will make a big difference in your performance and recovery “is wishful thinking,” said Dr. Rennie, a 61-year-old who was a competitive swimmer and also used to play water polo and rugby.

Here is what is known about proteins, carbohydrates and performance.

During exercise, muscles stop the biochemical reactions used to maintain themselves such as replacing and resynthesizing the proteins needed for day to day activities. It’s not that exercise is damaging your muscles; it’s that they halt the maintenance process until exercise is over.

To do this maintenance, muscles must make protein, and to do so they need to absorb amino acids, the constituent parts of proteins, from the blood. Just after exercise, perhaps for a period no longer than a couple of hours, the protein-building processes of muscle cells are especially receptive to amino acids. That means that if you consume protein, your muscles will use it to quickly replenish proteins that were not made during exercise.

But muscles don’t need much protein, researchers say. Twenty grams is as much as a 176-pound man’s muscles can take. Women, who are smaller and have smaller muscles even compared to their body sizes, need less.

Dr. Rennie said that 10 to 15 grams of protein is probably adequate for any adult. And you don’t need a special drink or energy bar to get it. One egg has 6 grams of protein. Two ounces of chicken has more than 12 grams.

Muscles also need to replenish glycogen, their fuel supply, after a long exercise session — two hours of running, for example. For that they need carbohydrates. Muscle cells are especially efficient in absorbing carbohydrates from the blood just after exercise.

Once again, muscles don’t need much; about one gram of carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight is plenty, Dr. Tarnopolsky said. He weighs 70 kilograms, or 154 pounds, which means he would need 70 grams of carbohydrates, or say, 27 ounces of fruit juice, he said.

Asker Jeukendrup, a 38-year-old 14-time Ironman-distance finisher who is an exercise physiologist and nutritionist at the University of Birmingham in England said the fastest glycogen replacement takes place in the four hours after exercise. Even so, most athletes need not worry.

“Most athletes will have at least 24 hours to recover,” Dr. Jeukendrup said. “We really are talking about a group of extremely elite sports people who train twice a day.” For them, he said, it can be necessary to rapidly replenish muscle glycogen.

The American College of Sports Medicine, in a position paper written by leading experts, reported that athletes who take a day or two to rest or do less-intense workouts between vigorous sessions can pretty much ignore the carbohydrate-timing advice.

The group wrote that for these athletes, “when sufficient carbohydrate is provided over a 24-hour period, the timing of intake does not appear to affect the amount of glycogen stored.”

For protein, it is not clear what the window is. Some studies concluded it was less than two hours, others said three hours, and some failed to find a window at all.

Dr. Rennie and his colleagues, writing in Annual Reviews of Physiology, concluded that “a possible ‘golden period’ ” for getting amino acids into muscles “remains a speculative, no matter how attractive, the concept.”

Although studies by Dr. Jeukendrup and several others have shown that consuming protein after exercise speeds up muscle protein synthesis, no one has shown that that translates into improved performance. The reason, Dr. Jeukendrup said, is that effects on performance, if they occur, won’t happen immediately. They can take 6 to 10 weeks of training. That makes it very hard to design and carry out studies to see if athletes really do improve if they consume protein after they exercise.

“You’d have to control everything, what they do, how they train, and also their carbohydrate and protein intake,” Dr. Jeukendrup said. “Those studies become almost impossible to do.”

As for the special four-to-one ratio of carbohydrates to protein, that, too, is not well established, researchers said. The idea was that you need both carbohydrates and protein consumed together because carbohydrates not only help muscles restore their glycogen but they also elicit the release of insulin. Insulin, the theory goes, helps muscles absorb amino acids.

Insulin may stimulate muscle protein synthesis in young rodents and in human cells grown in petri dishes, Dr. Rennie said. But studies in people have shown convincingly that insulin is not required for protein synthesis in adult human beings; it is amino acids that drive protein synthesis. As yet no convincing evidence exists that a special carbohydrate-to-protein ratio makes a noticeable difference in muscle protein maintenance after exercise. “There is no magic ratio,” Dr. Jeukendrup said.

The American College of Sports Medicine is equally skeptical. “Adding protein does not appreciably enhance glycogen repletion,” its paper states.

“Some studies suggested that adding proteins to carbohydrates during exercise can enhance performance,” Dr. Tarnopolsky said. “Many other studies suggested it didn’t do any good.”

Even if there are effects of protein and carbohydrates, they are not important to most exercisers, these researchers say. Serious triathletes and elite runners, who work out in the morning and at night, need to eat between training sessions. But people who are running a few miles a few days a week don’t need to worry about replenishing their muscles, Dr. Phillips said.

Dr. Rennie agreed. “If you are a superathlete, hundredths of a second matter,” he said. “But most Joes and Janes are just kidding themselves,” he said.

Some, like Dr. Jeukendrup, say they use a commercial protein-energy drink after training hard, for convenience.

Other researchers take their own nutritional advice. Dr. Tarnopolsky has a huge glass of juice, a bagel and a small piece of meat after a two- or three-hour run. Or he might have two large pieces of toast with butter and jam and a couple of scrambled eggs. But no energy bars, no energy drinks.

Dr. Phillips might have an energy bar during a long workout. But ordinarily he does not worry about getting a special carbohydrate-to-protein mix or timing his nutrition when he exercises. Instead, Dr. Phillips said, he simply eats real food at regular meals.

How to Tell When You're Over-reaching or Over-training

At some point during your athletic career you will experience fatigue—either for a few days or, possibly, for several months. Fatigue in otherwise healthy triathletes is typically the result of emotional, psychological or physical overload—or a combination of all three—and, ultimately, it takes a toll on your ability to perform.

Endurance athletes are particularly vulnerable to physical overload. Too much progressive training combined with incomplete recovery can create an over-reached athlete and an over-trained body.

The term over-reaching was adopted by exercise scientists to describe the short-term overload that can be managed within a few days. However, over-reaching can develop into over-training (from which it can be more difficult to recover) if the athlete does not mitigate the factors that caused the over-reaching or fails to allocate proper recovery time.

First, it's important to recognize that an athlete who repeatedly overloads his or her body without allowing adequate recovery time will eventually reach a state that requires rest. The length of the required rest period is one difference between over-reaching and over-training.

Secondly, over-reaching symptoms can sometimes be masked by an overzealous, type-A athlete. An athlete and/or a coach must objectively recognize the patterns and fluctuations in a training year to prevent the compromised results that accompany chronic over-training.

To begin, let's take a look at the characteristics that produce over-reaching. It is important to remember that individuals may demonstrate a broad range of causes. However, over-reaching is most commonly caused by:

1. Too much too soon, such as a 10 to 20 percent increase in training volume over a three- to four-week period

2. Frequently combining two harder variables in one training session (i.e. combining a long run with challenging hills or a tempo session with speed work)

3. Two or three high-intensity (i.e. near or above lactic threshold) workouts in one week on either the bike or run

4. Not allowing two days of easier sessions between the challenging workouts described in 2 and 3 above

5. Overload in psychological or emotional stress in other facets of your life

6. Lack of sleep

7. Poor nutritional habits before, during or immediately after workouts

8. Loading up your racing season with too many events

If only one of these statements matched your training style, then you might be able to get through the year. However, if you nodded your head to two or more then you are likely destined to experience over-reaching and possibly slide into over-training.

Walking a Fine Line

The three training parameters that dictate success for an endurance athlete are progression, overload and recovery. Without repeated days, weeks and months of workloads that break down and rebuild you, physiological progress would come to a standstill.

And, indeed, there are times throughout the year during which you need to train in a fatigued state. Your muscles may, at times, feel sore and heavy, but there is a fine line between preserving your body's ability to repair and rebound and pushing yourself into a spiral. In fact, rebound is the key word that differentiates a tired athlete from one who has gone too far and has crossed the line separating over-reaching from over-training.

As with the above causes of over-reaching, the symptoms of the condition demonstrated by each athlete may vary. Still, many commonalities exist:

1. Physiologists, coaches and athletes have looked at morning pulse rate as an indicator of over-reaching, and studies have confirmed that a pulse rate of four to six beats above your baseline normal can be an initial indication that you are fatigued but not necessarily over-reached. An easy day or a day off will usually bring your resting pulse back to normal. A more accurate indication of over-reaching is an inability to elevate your pulse rate and sustain it at a sub-threshold level. The body seemingly has a set governor that acts as a protective mechanism. When you are over-reached your muscles cannot and will not allow you to drive up the workload.

2. This inability to increase the pulse goes hand-in-hand with a muscular heaviness or overloaded feeling. Quite often there is a simultaneous tightness and stiffness in the joints. Regardless of the length of your warm-up, the muscles remain lethargic and heavy.

3. After a hard session the muscles can experience millions of micro-tears that can cause tenderness and soreness. The delayed onset of muscle soreness is a common symptom post-exercise (24 to 60 hours). However, if the muscles are sore for an extended period, even with light exercise, this can be a sign of over-reaching. In an effort to repair and rebuild the muscle damage, the muscle fills with water to flush out the by-products of exercise. This swelling can add to the heaviness described above.

4. A lack of sharpness during workouts as heart rate falls off for more than two days.

5. Eating habits are disrupted or compromised.

6. There is a decrease in your body weight.

If you have identified several of the above symptoms, and they last for three to five days or more, and if you ignore these symptoms, then you can push your body into a more severe state of fatigue called over-training.

Scheduling R & R to Avoid Over-training

Recognize that if over-reaching crops up several times during the year this is OK. However, if you experience a bout of over-reaching and the symptoms reoccur fewer than two weeks later (or linger, as described above), you need to modify your training workload.

Recovering from over-reaching requires four steps:

1. Identify the symptoms.
2. Take two full days of rest with no exercise.
3. Take the following three days easy. No more than 50 minutes of exercise in one session. Do not attempt more than two of these easy sessions in one day.
4. After this five-day period you can resume your normal training program.

However, note that the symptoms of over-reaching should dramatically reduce during the three easy days. If they do not, then you may be on the verge of over-training. If your sleep pattern, exercise load, or frequency of racing all dramatically increase and the ability to rebound diminishes, look out for over-training.

The symptoms of over-training can closely parallel over-reaching; however, without adequate recovery an over-trained athlete will quite often advance to a much deeper valley of fatigue. Over-trained athletes quite often have signs of improper hormone function, such as persistent colds, lack of sleep and muscular aches for several weeks.

In addition, repeated hard sessions with little or no rest can lead to chronic low levels of amino acids in the blood. As intensity increases amino acids are released to control muscle breakdown. Additionally, if the intake of carbohydrates and protein is low, particularly after exercise, then the rate of repair and protein synthesis can be delayed. This delay can, in turn, prevent the body from rebounding. Quite simply, the body never catches up to the ongoing demands placed upon it.

Over-training requires an extended recovery period of six to 12 weeks, and, in some cases, it may take several months to regain your prior fitness level. Here are the four key steps to help you recover from a bout of over-training:

1. See a sports-medicine specialist. The protocol for evaluation will be determined by the specialist and should include a complete blood panel, muscle enzyme and hormone review.
2. Rest. This may be total rest for several weeks or light activity as determined by your specialist, coach and yourself.
3. Sleep. Increase the amount of sleep you get each night to ensure you rest for between seven and nine hours.
4. Plot out a logical step-by-step increase in your training routine after a second evaluation. This gradual increase in your desired fitness level may take anywhere from six weeks to six months.

Over-reaching and over-training can be controlled by recognizing the early symptoms and required patterns of recovery. During a recovery day or week, you need to ensure your body is given enough time to rebuild. Never compromise proper recovery for another hard training session.

The key to improving is progression, overload and recovery. Use all three forms of training to maximize your training and racing potential. Recovery is not an excuse; it is a necessity.

Thanks,
By Dave Scott

Triathlete magazine

Training for today was picking up my sick son from school, poor little buddy!



"Suffering is the sole origin of consciousness."

Training Goodies!

Swimming was great on Friday and Saturday! I felt great in the lake if I can just stop thinking of all those fish. YUCK!

Sunday road bike for 95 miles, I was feeling awesome a little slow but I finished what I wanted to do.

My running I have to say really none, ok maybe 3 miles however, I do work with some of my friends in Hixton Forest most of the day we're not running but we are sure doing some fast walking.

This weekend is the Got Energy Triathlon, I have trained 13 people for it I can't wait to see them finish their goals...

"The human body can do so much. Then the heart and spirit must take over."