A Guide to Fluid Intake for Cycling

A fluid strategy is important not only for performance but also for safety and enjoyment. Without a good fluid plan you won't be able to make the most of your training. A common theme coming out of the round Taupo ride was people running out of fluid late in the ride. Not wanting to lose contact with their bunch, riders wouldn't stop to grab needed water.

How much fluid do you need?

A Guide to Fluid Intake for Marathon

A fluid strategy is important not only for performance but also for safety and enjoyment. Without a good fluid plan you won't be able to make the most of your training. A loss of only 2% of your body weight will decrease your performance by 10%. If you want to achieve your personal goals in the marathon then having a good fluid strategy (that you have practiced in training) is important.

How much fluid do you need?

Swimming and Shoulder Injuries

Most sports come with injuries to accompany them. Although swimming is, by most standards, not a sport associated with high risk of injury, it does have it's own problems. By far the biggest source of sidelining swimming injuries is the shoulder.

Mental Skills for Training and Racing

Being physically gifted is only one attribute of a successful athlete. There are many others that are not so easily quantified such as drive, ambition, determination, and the ability to focus mentally through adversity. These mental skills are not genetically imposed, but are learned from a variety of sources such as parents, coaches, sport psychologists and other athletes. Learning and refining your mental skills can give you an advantage over more talented but less focused athletes.

The Athletic Performance Diet

Interestingly the athletic diet has changed very little over the years. The reason being is that there are not many pathways to fueling the body most efficiently. A diet consisting of 60-65% carbohydrate, 20-25% fats, and 15-20% protein is the proper ratio of macro nutrients for most athletes and has been the mainstay for years. A highly trained endurance athlete would not last very long on a high protein diet, because their glycogen stores would quickly become depleted and they would no longer have the energy or reserves to train effectively.

Motivate Me?

Motivation is something athletes are always seeking, but can be elusive to obtain. Motivation can put a lesser skilled athlete on the podium standing over his more gifted and talented peers. It is the life blood of training. Simply put motivation is how much an individual wants to achieve a goal, but sources of motivation can be as varied as athletes.

There Is No "Off" Season

The fall and winter is a common time for athletes' to wrap up their race season. It is also a good to take some time off and let your body recuperate from the rigors of high intensity training and racing. Some athletes take as much as four weeks off, but this does result in loss of fitness and requires making up lost ground later. Endurance especially is one of the more difficult aspects of fitness to rebuild. A better approach is to enter a "transition" period in which training and intensity are reduced; perhaps greatly, but a level of fitness is maintained.

Triathlon and Multisport Injuries

Rob Dallimore is a consultant Podiatrist based in Auckland and has a special interest in multisport athletes. He is able to assess and treat chronic or acute lower limb injuries where there is a biomechanical abnormality, and can perform a bicycle position assessment and correction. His gait and bicycle analysis is with the use of a digital video camera and a great new biomechanics computer programme. Rob also deals with the less glamorous problems that all athletes come across such as removing corns and callous, treating ingrown toe nails etc.

A Beginners Guide to Cycling for Triathlon

I love cycling; it's got a special ability to make you feel fast and free. Plus, it's not as physically hard as running or as technically frustrating as swimming can be for many of us. Mix your swimming and running training with a little bit of cycling and you can go a long way - that's the beauty of triathlon training.

Interval Training

Training for a distance swimming event is very different from training for a run or cycling event. When training for a marathon, for example, you would start out with short runs, and gradually increase your mileage each week as you build up endurance. You may work on sprints to increase speed, but overall the goal is to run further or for a longer period of time to get ready for the event. When training for an open water swim or triathlon, you must do much more than just swim more laps each time you hop in the pool.

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