An Excellent Basic Sports Nutrition Book

I just finished reading "Nancy Clark's Sports Nutrition Guidebook." It is excellent. It's written to a broad audience of atheletes and fitness enthusiasts in a very straightforward, easy-to-read manner. It has sections on basic nutrition about protein, carbs, and fats and always includes practical examples from athelete-clients and includes menus and foods. It does not cover nutrition used during racing: gels, drinks, etc. It's more general and about developing good habits and long-term diets which will lead to better performance and health.

There's some very good sections on weight and body image. There are sections on gaining and losing weight, healthfully. She identifies, and again provides examples from her practice as a sports nutritionist, the destructive attitudes that many of us carry about bodies and self-images including eating disorders and food obsessions. She discusses the extent of the role that genetics play in our body type and that we need to keep that in mind as we work on our goals for fitness and nutrition. I took away a sense of the importance of being gentler with myself regarding my body type.

The book finishes with some recipes. They are basic and certainly not earth-shaking, but they do illustrate all the points she makes in earlier sections of the book. Her orientation is toward eating whole foods so I agreed with the direction of almost all of the recipes. I haven't spent much time with recipes in a long time so it was nice to get some new ideas.

There really a ton of information in this book: over 350 pages worth. I'm just scratching the surface here. So if you'd like an good read for a refresher on the basics of nutrition and its application to sports and fitness, then check this book out. Most of us can't be reminded enough!

Ahh . . . Back to the Pool!

Last week I covered someone's afternoon vacation shift in addition my normal morning driving so I did not have time to make it to the pool or the gym (I did weight train a couple of the days at home). Then a couple of days ago, I went to the pool. Got into the locker room, had a shower (like the good community-pool-member that I am!), stepped through the doors into the pool area and . . . there was absolutely noone in the pool. Wow, I thought. Then I noticed the water was completely still. Not a bubble. No gentle movement from the pumps. The lifeguard, who was still sitting there (why, I don't know--maybe to catch folks like me) said, "Didn't you see the signs? At the front desk? On the front door? The pool's closed. The pump is broken. It'll be fixed by tomorrow morning." The signs? Well, I was either in a zone or blind. Possibly a bit of both!

Anyway, I got there today and ah . . . how wonderful. I'm not sure if it was my imagination or not, but the water seemed especially clear and crisp. Maybe the new or repaired pump. More likely, the incredible-for-Seattle 90 degree temperatures we're experiencing right now! So, it was great to back at it building my water skills and confidence forward toward swimming.

This week's had spinning, swimming, and multiple weight training sessions. It's good to be back.

A Black Eye from Swimming

Ok, I've never been in a triathlon. Maybe some day when I get my swimming in shape. In the meantime, I've accrued a triathlon-open-water-swim-like injury. A painless one. A colorful one!

I was at the pool yesterday working on my swimming exercises. I had just entered the water and was very gently and verrrrryyy slowly floating and swimming on my stomach when suddenly, BONK! Someone punched me in the eye. As this very strong, fast, sleek-to-the-water (at least to my inexperienced and pre-blackened eye) swimmer swam past me I tried to readjust my goggles. The swimmer then stopped and apologized. She said she was sorry and then informed me that she was swimming laps there. The pool was half free swim (where we were) and half lanes. The fives lanes each had one swimmer in them. She was cutting up the water, along with another lap swimmer in half of the free swim area next to the lanes.

Now, in my current mode of learning to swim it's all about being relaxed in the water and going slowly and enjoying it. I imagine I may have stray a bit into the area this swimmer was stroking in. So I take full responsibility for it. I had noticed that she was swimming there. I just may have moved in her direction a bit more than I intended.

It's a lesson learned. I'll look even more carefully and give a wider berth to other swimmers in the future (at least until that first competitive open water swim).

In the meantime, I'm enjoying getting to tell folks that I got my black eye swimming. :-)

Also, man! I can't wait 'till I can swim like her!

Sleep more, perform better!

You gotta love this. At SportsGeezer I saw a link to this article in the LA Times that showed that b-ball athletes who got 10 hours of sleep a night saw increased performance in sprints, free throws, and in their general mood/energy. 10 hours of sleep a night! Can you believe it? I can't remember the last time I slept 10 hours! I always think I'm doing really well with 7 or 7 1/2 hours.

Reminds me of a great article I saw at Podium Sports Journal about overtraining. In one part, Kristin Dieffenbach, the sports doc being interviewed, talked about irritability, increased anger, or mental exaustion being possible signs of overtraining. Granted, the considerations may be different for the pro or elite athlete than for recreational folks like me. But still, aren't we all doing this 'cause we love it and have a blast doing it? It sounded familiar to me, like times when I've come home just wiped out with nothing left physically or mentally for those I care most about.

So, 10 hours a night. Well, I can't figure out how to do that. I'm sure I'd spend a fair chunk of it lying in bed with my mind switched on.

But I think I will go to bed 1/2 hour early tonight!

Sleep well all.

I feel it.

I feel it today. A great spinning class this morning. I was really cooking. Burning in fact! Then home to move some furniture about. Oh yeah, I'm feeling it now. And it feels good. Tomorrow I'll weight train again and then off to swim on Monday. My mood is so much better now that I'm back on track!

Back into it

My shoulder pull is totally heal and I"m back into it. Had a great swim yesterday--loving all I'm discovering. Today will be weight training and tomorrow, spinning. It's good to be back!

Extra days off . . . .

I'm nursing a small pulled muscle in my upper back so yesterday I stuck with walking. Today it's much better and I think that by tomorrow I should be able to be back in the pool which I've missed mucho!