Colorado Runner

The temperature is rising and summer is fast approaching. Whether we plan on hitting the beach or lounging around by the pool, showing off a hot summer body is on most of our wish-lists. Fitness expert and owner of Burn, Lisa Corsello, is here to provide six simple tips to turn that wish-list into a checklist. Burn, tone and sculpt your way to the beach-ready body you long for… in just six weeks. Plan your meals and mealtimes: When life gets busy, most of us end up going too long between meals. When we do get a few moments to eat, we [...]

Internationally recognized sports nutritionist Monique Ryan has updated her best-selling book Sports Nutrition for Endurance Athletes with 5 years of new research that will help runners, cyclists, triathletes, and swimmers perform at their best. Weighing in at 432 pages, this newly updated third edition is the most  comprehensive resource on nutrition from the best qualified nutritionist in endurance sports. The book is now available in bookstores; bike, tri, and running shops; and online. Download a free preview at www.velopress.com. Sports Nutrition for Endurance Athletes makes high-performance nutrition simple for running, cycling, triathlon, and swimming. Ryan offers clear answers to the most fundamental questions in endurance sports nutrition-What should I eat, how [...]

If you are a winter runner, you want to pay careful attention to your sports diet. Otherwise, lack of food and fluids can take the fun out of your outdoor activities. These tips can to help you fuel wisely for cold weather workouts. Winter hydration • Cold blunts the thirst mechanism; you’ll feel less thirsty despite significant sweat loss and may not “think to drink.” • Winter runners (especially those at high altitude) need to consciously consume fluids to replace the water vapor that gets exhaled via breathing. When you breath in cold dry air, your body warms and humidifies [...]

Who doesn’t like a yummy gift of homemade food! Whether you give a certificate for breakfast in bed or fill a tin with trail mix, food gifts are welcome treats for hungry runners. These suggestions are sure to please anyone! Oatmeal Pancakes The pancakes are light and fluffy prizewinners. Perfect for refueling after a long run. Yum!!! 1/2 cup     uncooked oats (quick or old fashioned) 1/2 cup     yogurt (or milk + 1/2 tsp vinegar) 1/2 to 3/4 cup     milk 1         egg (or 2 egg whites), beaten 1 tablespoon     oil, preferably canola 2 tablespoons    [...]

Picking the perfect menu to enhance your performance can be a difficult task. While many athletes know the words carbs, proteins and fats, they often don’t know how  to translate those words into food choices. Hence, the goal of this article is to offer specific food suggestions to fit a variety of exercise situations. Try to experiment with new foods to learn which ones settle best in your gut, don’t “talk back” and enhance your performance. Pre-marathon carbo-loading dinner: #1. Pasta with tomato sauce, meatballs, green beans, French bread, lowfat/skim milk, frozen yogurt with strawberries. #2. Turkey with potato, stuffing, [...]

Long days of work and training may cause serious damage to your well-intentioned dinner plans. A trip to the nearest fast food restaurant becomes your most logical decision. Unfortunately, many of the options at these establishments are less than ideal for athletes. Time constraints and hunger may lead you to choose foods that inhibit recovery and provide less than optimum nutrition. With a few tricks and a little kitchen know-how, you can have a healthy meal in no time. The biggest key to success is to plan ahead. Make a binder of quick and healthy recipes you have seen in [...]

Gifts that money can’t buy are often the nicest gifts: breakfast in bed, a special dessert, a nice dinner, a sweet treat. If you are looking for a simple, yet special, gift for your running buddy, teammate, or active friend, enjoy making one of these recipes for a sports food that will be sure to please any hungry athlete! The recipes are from the Sports Nutrition Guidebook, 4th Edition (ww.nancyclarkrd.com). OATMEAL PANCAKES The pancakes are light and fluffy prizewinners, perfect for brunch after a hard workout, or breakfast in bed on a recovery day. For best results, let the batter [...]

If you want to feel like Superwoman this race season, fueling up with nutrient-powered foods and smart supplementing has positive payoffs. Quality eating provides nutrients that boost your immune system, and supercharge your performance. Supplements build upon your best food choices and provide an edge on the race course. All the food and supplement strategies outlined below work for the guys as well, so eat up! First with Foods Go Green and Orange and Red Dark green vegetables are packed with the antioxidant vitamins A and C, and beta-carotene, and also important minerals such as iron and calcium. They are [...]

It’s getting warmer! Heat, sometimes combined with humidity depending on where you live, can throw you a good curve ball during these summer months of training and competition. We have all heard stories about athletes being taken to the hospital during a race for dehydration, or collapsing before the finish line or seeing white spots with a tongue feeling like sandpaper. I will say that those are extreme cases and ones that can be easily prevented with a little know-how nutrition for the heat know-how. Sweat rate can increase up to 2-3 times in hot conditions. The risk of developing [...]

Iron is an extremely important mineral for good health and performance. The most important role iron plays is as a component of the protein hemoglobin, which carries oxygen from the lungs to the body’s cells. A higher level of iron can mean a higher aerobic capacity and better performance. Maintaining iron balance can be difficult for some athletes because iron is lost through sweat, urine and the gastrointestinal tract. Iron stores are quite difficult to maintain in some athletes, especially endurance athletes (females more than males). And because the iron from foods and supplements is not fully absorbed, athletes must [...]

VeloPress has published the first weight-loss book for endurance athletes. Racing Weight: How to Get Lean for Peak Performance by certified sports nutritionist Matt Fitzgerald offers the first comprehensive and science-based approach to weight management for runners, cyclists, triathletes, swimmers, rowers, and cross-country skiers. A 2009 study found that three out of four endurance athletes are concerned about their weight and half are dissatisfied with how much they weigh. Yet these same athletes ranked weight loss dead last when asked about their motivations for participating in endurance sports. Endurance athletes pursue weight loss as a means to better workouts and [...]

Fuel-starved endurance athletes are notorious convenience eaters, scarfing pre-packaged products and expensive prepared foods that offer a quick fix for their ravenous appetites. But these food products and supplements leave athletes under-nourished, delaying recovery and preventing their highest performance. For endurance athletes, there is no substitute for real food. The Athlete’s Plate: Real Food for High Performance debunks the myth that busy athletes lack the time to fuel with real food. Professional chef and endurance athlete Adam Kelinson guides athletes from grocery store to kitchen, offering time-saving shopping and cooking strategies that make preparing delicious, nutritious meals a pleasure. The [...]

I should be pencil-thin for all the running I do. I don’t keep cookies in the house. If they are there, I eat way too many of them. I’m afraid if I start eating, I won’t stop… Too many runners are at war with food and their bodies. In their quest to attain the “perfect body” that is leaner, lighter and presumably faster and better, they have developed atypical eating patterns that are far from peaceful. As one marathoner reported, “I’m trying so hard to lose five pounds but I’m getting nowhere. In fact, I’m even gaining weight. I’m “good” [...]

If you are concerned about a healthy diet, weight loss/maintenance and athletic performance, you are likely concerned about calories. Calories in, calories out. If you want to lose weight, you need to exercise more and eat less. If you want to maintain weight, you have to balance caloric expenditure and consumption. For me, it’s not so much about the calories but rather how I feel when I eat sweets/treats/desserts. Sure, sweets sound scrumptious at the end of a 5 hour bike ride or in the middle of a 3 hour run and oh yes, do they ever taste good when [...]

“I’m afraid to eat before I exercise … I might get a side stitch.” “I always carry toilet paper with me when I go on a long run.” “How can I change my sports diet to so I don’t need pit stops..???” Little is more frustrating to a competitive runner than to be well trained for an event and then get sidelined with a side stitch or diarrhea. Yes, the sports diet that’s intended to enhance your performance can also bring you to a screeching halt! Sound familiar? Transit troubles and gastrointestinal (GI) concerns are common among athletes, particularly those [...]