Getting an Education

This post is a week late in getting up but it has some pretty cool info in it.

Last Saturday, Lauren and I headed up to Columbia for the Multisport World Expo to get some tips on training.  The expo was pretty cool.  On a random side note, I learned something else....Triathlete men have the nicest bodies.  I could not believe how fit every guy in the building was from young to old.  Not lanky, not bulky, just perfect.  I told Lauren that we needed to become triathlon groupies, how did I not know of this before! 

Back to the expo, we sat in for the second set of seminars for the day:

• What can I cook to keep myself healthy?
• What's the deal with sodium and muscle cramping?
• Is there such a thing as a "natural" running style?
• The five swim drills I dream about at night
• The five run drills I dream about at night

Adam Kelinson, author of The Athlete’s Plate: Real Food for High Performance was the first speaker.  When he started out with the key to healthy eating is diverse eating and that his biggest piece of advice was to not eat the same thing every day, Lauren (she eats like me) and I knew we were in trouble.  We looked at each other like 'ha, this is going to be good for us'.   His focus was on local and organic foods that will supply you with all the nutrients that you need for your body.  Local sourcing/eating is something that I have tried to increase in my own life for the last two years, so it was great to hear his ideas.  He spoke on both the macro/micro nutrients that we need to include in our diet.  On the micro nutrient side, I did not realize how beneficial sprouts were.  I picked up some broccoli sprouts from one of the vendors at the Green Market two weeks ago, they were great tasting but I did not realize the super power health benefits.   I am going to have to go back and get a few more packs.  

On the organic side, the following is most important idea that Adam stated.   Did you know that we have lost 50% of the nutrients in the vegatables that we grow in the last 50 years due to the way that we mass produce our vegatables?   The nutritional value of 1 cup of spinach grown in 1961 equals 25 cups of spinach today.   That is so crazy.  I am going to think twice before I pick up a non organic/local vegatable again. 

The second session, Earl Walton of Tri Life came to talk on the 5 Swimming Drills He Dreams of in His Sleep.  He was a pretty interesting speaker and his whole belief is to 'Commit to a plan and that plan has to sync with your swimming career'.   We went through a bunch of different drills for beginners through experts in the water.  Here is a link to some videos of the drills that we went through.  Click on 'Training' section to view the list. 

Next session was 5 Running Drills presented by Josh Gold.  Holy cow, he had so much energy when he was presenting, he was jumping all around.  They were broadcasting this live on the web but I think that people watching the video saw him only for a portion of the time.  I wonder if it is a requirement for all running coaches to have this much energy.  God knows that Terence does.     

I liked this session the most, he had us up and moving and doing a whole bunch of exercises.  He spoke on the POSE method of running.  His exercises consisted of 1.  Pulling your foot off the ground in the pose. 2.  Partner Running - Running Backwards   3.  Partner Running - Closing your Eyes  4.  One Leg Pulls - with your foot under your General Center of Mass (right under but)   5.  Fast Feet - clicking feet together, landing only on toes.  Once is easy but try 25 in a row.

The last session of the day was on Natural Running Form.  I am not going to try to recap any of this presentation.  There was so much info on it.   I did learn that I think that I am going to stick to sneakers for a while and that barefoot running is probably not for me.

After the seminars we walked around the expo a little, got more good info, and spoke some of the vendors. We also found the Amica Half Ironman booth (the race we are doing) and stopped in to say hi.    I wanted to see if they had the course route up yet.  Just our luck, the gentleman at the booth said that they had recently changed the routes and were in process of putting them on the site. I asked how the run course was. His response, hilly, very hilly.  The exact opposite of what I wanted to hear since I love hills. Oh well at least I now know.