About Pushing Beyond Perceived Limits
On March 28, 2012,
in Blogs,
by Mauricio
from Motivation and Inspiration: Beyond the Ironman Journey
I had just about resigned myself to the fact that my run pace would be around the 10:00 to 10:15 mark. No matter how hard I tried, no matter what I did, it always came back to that. Sometimes I would venture into the 9:50ish pace but would quickly go back to that very familiar point.
And then my heel (plantar fasciitis) showed its ugly face. I was sidelined for some three months. No running whatsoever. I was advised to let it heal by letting it rest, amongst other things. So that I did. I ran The Nashville Half Marathon on November 12th and the pain was so intense, I could hardly finish the race. Did not lace up a running shoe until February 1st, this year.
Started running slow pace and short distances. A few minutes at a time, a couple of times a week. Did not worry about pace; just wanted to run and run without pain. Everything was going just as I had hoped. Well, just as I had hoped and as my coach had hoped and as my doctor had hoped. Things were looking up.
As times passed, so did the miles and the time. I would venture into longer runs but still held it to just a couple of times per week. I was told to be patient.
And then came March 14th., the day I decided to let it all hang out. Did not hold back, did not look back! … Read the rest
On January 1, 2012,
in 
A few weeks ago, I was contacted by the folks who put together and market a product called Phil Keoghan’s NOW Energy Bar about doing a product review. For those of you who don’t know, Phil Keoghan is the host of CBS TV’s show “The Amazing Race”. I agreed to take a sample from them and promised I’d do a write up as to what I thought of the product.
Fair warnings….For the past two seasons, First Endurance has been my nutrition sponsor, and I have exclusively used their products (and have talked about their products copiously on this blog). I typically don’t use solid energy bar products as part of my training or racing nutrition, so trying this bar product would be a little bit of a stretch for me. Additionally, you should know all the quasi-legal mumbo jumbo…Neither Phil Keoghan nor the makers of NOW Energy Bar compensated me for a good review. All the opinions are mine (and those of my son, who was also a taste-tester).
Background:
According to the marketing material that came with my samples, NOW stands for No Opportunity Wasted. This is supposedly Keoghan’s mantra for life. The bars are gluten free, and don’t include GMO ingredients. They are dairy and tree-nut free, and incorporate an ingredient called Manuka Honey. Manuka Honey is a product of New Zealand, and is reported to have immune boosting capabilities due to a higher antibacterial component than “regular” honey. I Google’d Manuka Honey and found tons… Read the rest
On November 28, 2011,
in After a lovely trip to my parent’s that included things like pumpkin pie, pumpkin roll, pineapple upside down cake, cookies, stuffing, and wine, I’m more than ready to get back to normal. Yesterday I did some meal planning and am going to increase my “greens eating”. I’ve needed to do this. Normally I’d get greens in two meals of the day. Now I’m going for three. On the menu for today:
- Breakfast: Greek yogurt + blueberries + flax seed meal
- Post-workout: Whey protein
- Mid-morning: 2 eggs + mixed peppers and onions + lots of spinach
- Lunch: Collard greens + 30g feta + 4 oz chicken
- Mid-afternoon: apple slices + almond butter
- Dinner: broccoli + lean ground beef + 2 Tbsp Stubbs BBQ Sauce
- Pre-bed: casein protein powder + peanut butter
I discovered that Stubbs Original BBQ has significantly less sugar than most brands and is just 30 cal per 32 g and 6g of carbs. It’s good stuff! Feta is a new addition for me. I had gotten away from cheese but this is a nice addition and a little goes a long way in terms of flavor. The mixed peppers, collard greens, and broccoli are all from the freezer section, I just find it is convenient for me.
I did get some minimal workouts in while I was away – the 5K, two swims, and an upper body strength training session, but I took Tuesday and Saturday completely off as they were travel days. Yesterday, I got back on it, as our mild… Read the rest
About The Off-Season
On October 19, 2011,
in Blogs,
by Mauricio
from Mauricio's Triathlon, Running, Fitness, Motivation & Inspiration Blog
As triathletes and runners, do we have such a thing as an “off-season”? We may look forward to less training, in volume and intensity, but can we afford to take “any” time off?
For me the answer is no. Not that I can’t afford to take the time off because I sure I could, but I don’t really want to sit around and do nothing. After I finished Ironman Louisville I took what seemed to be just a few days off. Mostly to rest my mind and refuel my spirit, to ponder and enjoy the immensity of what I had just gone through. Yes, they were tired.
When the time came to get back to training I asked my coach to train me to run a sub 2 hour half marathon. For those of you wondering what the big deal is… well, for me it’s huge in two ways. One, I have never trained or raced for time. It has always been to “finish” doing the very best I could. And second I ran a 1:57:something three years ago and have not come close since.
I have three half marathons on my schedule already, but I have given up the idea of a sub 2 hr for a couple of reasons. One… my heels are killing me. This is the first time ever I have to deal with pain, not discomfort but pure, intense pain. Self diagnosis: Plantar Fascitis. I have a doctors appointment but… Read the rest
I’ve been trying to get frozen asparagus at the grocery store for a couple of weeks. At first I figured they were sold out, I mean, this is asparagus we are talking about. Who doesn’t like asparagus? Then the last time I read all the labels in the frozen vegetable section and didn’t even see a place for asparagus. I got very worried. Today I asked. I was told they were discontinuing asparagus. Yes, DISCONTINUING ASPARAGUS.
It’s not like I can get a different brand of frozen….there’s no SteamFresh, no PictSweet, no Kroger brand, and no generic brand. There is ZERO frozen asparagus at our Kroger. (Note this may not apply to all Krogers, just mine that caters to beer drinking, chip eating students.)
This is the same store where I could spend two hours in the yogurt section alone with umpteen flavors, fat content, forms (squeeze, blended, fruit on the bottom), quantities, and sizes. I can wash it down with any of maybe 125 kinds of beer (mmm, yogurt and beer!) and then follow that up with one of 150 kinds of crunchy chips/popcorn/pretzels/doodles.
So Kroger, you really don’t have maybe a cubic foot in your freezer for some asparagus? Are the Hot Pockets and frozen pizzas needing some elbow room?
I went online and started searching things like asparagus association, save our asparagus, and Kroger Frozen Asparagus.I found my way to the Washington Asparagus Association, the Save the Asparagus tshirt (clearly I… Read the rest
About A New Contributor To This Blog
On September 28, 2011,
in Blogs,
by Mauricio
from Motivation and Inspiration: Beyond the Ironman Journey
I am extremely blessed to have access to this platform to document the musings of a journey that started some four years ago and has taken me through some fantastic and unbelievable places accompanied by some equally amazing family and friends.
This vehicle has also provided me with the opportunity to be a source of information and in a minuscule degree a source of inspiration to anyone who is in need of a “little push”.
But I know my limits. There are areas in which I am not versed well enough to be able to intelligently discuss. One such area is Nutrition for the Endurance Athlete. This area seems to be a topic that always draws plenty of discussion and interest, specially from those new(er) to the distance running or triathlon life style.
This is where my friend Corey Irwin comes in. As a professional healthy gourmet chef, author, and running and wellness coach, Corey actively promotes total body fitness, balanced nutrition, and long range, preventive health via her nutrition/recipe and running websites. I am lucky to be able to announce that Corey will join this blog as a contributing author. Please watch for her upcoming posts.
Chef Corey Irwin
Corey Irwin, Runner
To learn more about Corey and her upcoming cookbook, visit her “about me” page to link to one of her websites and/or blog.
People generally assume because I work out a lot I can eat whatever I want without consequences. This is absolutely not the case, particularly as I age. Despite being fairly careful, even small bad choices do catch up to me.
I was starting to get that feeling of my clothes not fitting the way they should. Although I’m not a big scale watcher (I had not been on a scale since the bench press meet last February) I stepped on there last week and indeed I’m a couple of pounds up from where I feel my best. Time to rein things in a bit and the upcoming Richmond Marathon (Nov 12) is good motivation to get back on track and maybe learn a few new things.
I’ve often seen it stated that weight management/loss is 70% nutrition and 30% exercise. Based on my own experience, I would agree. I work out plenty…that’s not an issue. I eat consciously and well….most of the time. But it’s all those little allowances I was granting myself with the excuse that I “train hard” that are catching up to me.
I’m back to planning meals on a spreadsheet (I love Excel). When I’m committed to it like now, I enjoy the process, enjoy the discipline. I’m finally starting to understand that it’s like a puzzle to give your body just what nutrients it needs when it needs it. There’s a good… Read the rest
The other day I posted on Facebook that I had roasted chick peas and they were amazing and a friend dared to accuse me of knowing how to cook! Paula Deen would fall in her turkey fryer if she read that. I will admit only to being an efficient (lazy) food preparer/combiner. But it works and I have figured out how to crank out some pretty yummy stuff.
I used to have a pretty typical American eating habits. It took a trainer literally years to convert me (and I still have room to grow) but in that time I’ve learned how to make it work for me, which means easy and efficient. As an industrial engineer with degrees in triplicate, I am all about efficiency.
My trainer, Kurt, recently wrote a great blog post on Basic Nutrition where he included a list of quality food sources he uses, categorized as chiefly sources of protein, fat, carb, or fiber. It’s a must-read post. I eat nearly all the foods on his list and not many additional. I think they are pretty typical foods among folks who eat for health, performance, and to just feel good! I mix and match those food sources from the four categories as needed.
I figured I’ll share my personal application of the system that might help other time-crunched folks who don’t have lots of time to spend in the kitchen.
Structure
- All of my meals involve some combination of protein,
I think I got a bummer bag of apples, and the tragic thing is they are Pink Ladies, my favorites. Even with copious amounts of peanut butter they just were not palatable in raw form. So I did the mature thing and ignored the bag in my crisper. From their cozy, undisturbed location, they have taunted me on a daily basis.
It finally dawned on me today to repurpose the apples and baked apples came to mind. Thanks to the Internet I learned that a melon-baller is just the thing to use to core them. Stuff them with a little brown sugar, cinnamon, walnuts, and add a splash of apple juice in the pan. Then cover, bake and enjoy!! And enjoy we did!!
they look better in person, not so washed out
Food has a much different role in my life now. Three years ago, in my pre-triathlon days, I ate horribly and had no interest in food preparation. I used to wish my kids could eat some kind of processed “kid chow” like the pets do. Just scoop it into a bowl and ring the dinner bell! A lot of food was wasted. The reasons things changed:
- I got a rudimentary understanding of applied nutrition thanks to my then-trainer Jake.
- I experienced how what I ate affected how I felt and performed. I felt like crap when I ate like crap. I felt super when I ate super foods. I want to feel my best when I train and race.
- I
I won’t eat out the day before a race if I can help it as I can’t see leaving that important element to chance. So as usual I packed up my food for my trip — for the rest of today and tomorrow morning. Together it looks very….BEIGE. I purposely cut out the fibrous greenies after noon. This morning started with my fav steel cut oats breakfast followed by beef with barley, asparagus, and broccoli.
Later today it’s all easy-on-the gut normal stuff (at least for me):
* Cottage cheese + fruit (yeah, fiber, I debated this one) + sprouted ezekiel cereal + flax seed meal
* Butternut squash + red potatoes + brown rice + chicken + hummus
* Pre-bed snack of casein, natural peanut butter, and bare naked granola.
I have an “emergency” Ezekiel + peanut butter sandwich too. (Yes, Sable, it’s that fear of hunger thing!)
Morning will start with my standard oats + almond butter + banana and I packed the leftover roasted potatoes too (just in case!). Add to that Gatorade and Perpetuem on the bike and I should be all set.
I wonder what a sports nutrition expert would have to say about this pre-race menu? We’ll see how it works!
