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March 2008

YOU KNOW YOU’RE A TRIATHLETE WHEN...Submitted by Kathi Best

• you have a lifetime supply of water bottles, safety pins, and t-shirts.

• you have trouble keeping lunch under 2000 calories.• you usually wake up at 4:00 in the morning but don't get to

work until way after 9:00.• you have a $4000 bike strapped on top of your $2000 car.• you're always wet .... sweat, pool, lake, sea water, shower, bath,

or rain.• your car has at least one energy bar wrapper and water bottle

on the floor• your kids idea of playing is a race and awards ceremony.• you depart in morning with swim bag, bike, and running shoes in

case you can get away at lunch for a workout.• you take triathlon junkets instead of vacations• you have far more shoes than most women• your kitchen cupboards are organized into "protein", "carbs"

and "etc"• you bring bottled water to a party so that you're properly

hydrated for the next morning's long run.• everyone else at the party also brought their own bottled

water because you don't have a social life outside of triathlon. Oh yeah, and they all showed up by 7pm and left by 10pm.

• your 8 year old comes home with the school record for the mile and says, he took it out in a nice pace he could hold.....everyone else died.

• you ask your wife, girlfriend, or sister for leg shaving advice.• you mention a race and somebody responds "running or biking"

and you are again forced to explain....• you wear your bathing suit under your work clothes to make a

fast transition from work to swim on your lunch hour.• you name your two new puppies Kona and Hawaii• you are convinced that if you rest more than one day, your

muscles will atrophy, your fit body will turn into a pile of goo and everyone in your age group will beat you.

• you show up at the neighbourhood pool on your bike in a Speedo and embarrass your teenage daughters.

• you've spent more on bikes in the last 10 years than you have on clothes for the past 50.

• When asked, “How old are you?” you answer 35-39.• you use race t-shirts to clean your bike.• you feel like you took the day off because all you did was swim

3000 yards.• cars pass you on the road when you're driving and you either

drop back to get out of draft zone or speed up to attack!• your bed-time reading on your night stand consists of a pile of:

DeSoto catalogs; InsideTri; Triathlete, VeloNews, Keifer.

We want you! Please volunteer to help

at the Kids Club meetings in April, July, October or

January. See Katie Sprute for details.

A Plan for Results,

page 5

Run Faster,

page 2

Stay Out of the Chair,

page 3

Kids’ Hydration

Needs,

page 4

Two Terrific

Recipes,

page 6 BoD, Calendar, Sponsors,

page 7

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Run Faster: Six Keysby Ben GreenfieldCISSN, MS, CPT, CSCS

Lose weight: The biomechanical consequences of lifting 1, 5, or 10 extra pounds with each step can you get you huffing and puffing just a little more from climbing a flight of stairs, imagine what it does to your body over the course of a 26.2 mile marathon, or even a 3 mile fun run! Your body must lift that extra weight with each step. If you take 10,000 steps and weight 3 extra pounds, that's 30,000 extra foot pounds that you must hoist - a huge metabolic requirement. If you're going out and hammering your run sessions,but not focusing on proper timing and content of nutrition to achieve weight loss, you're basically getting about half the benefit of your training, if that. You would not believe the stories I hear from runners who feel as light as a feather by just losing a handful of pounds. Trust me...I have runcompetitively at 209 pounds and now run at 173 pounds. There is a huge difference, in both speed and joint impact.

Increase cadence: Until a cadence of 86-90bpm becomes second nature, you cannot let yourself "zone out" on your runs. Period. You must focus the entire time. You must count your steps. You must play "hot potato" with your feet and the ground. You must minimize ground contact time. You must take 20 second time spans and ensure that you're getting close to 30 footstrikes with either the right or the left leg within those 20 seconds. The *hard* part of running is to increase stride cadence - the easy part is to increase stride length. Once you dialed in a cadence close to 90, it will become much easier for you to increase pace by striding out just a little longer when you need that extra burst of speed. It pays dividends, big time! Initially, you'll feel like you're "bouncing up and down" as you try to achieve the high cadence. Eventually, it will feel smooth, steady and relaxed. Practice!

Use a treadmill: This recommendation ties into the cadence-increasing suggestion from above. Sometimes a treadmill can be a

great teacher, because that belt keeps moving underneath you no matter what, so your feet must keep up their rapid 1-2 cadence. Like an indoor trainer, there are fewer interruptions like stoplights and street crossings on a treadmill, so it can really help you focus on cadence. Every once in a while, I suggest performing your tempo run on a treadmill, setting the treadmill at a slightly faster speed than you are comfortable with, and allowing your legs to experience and memorize the rapid leg turnover. Essentially, you're engaging your body in forced neuromuscular training, and it actually works.

Hills: The beauty of hills is that they can allow you to achieve highphysiological intensities without the pounding of running, for instance, sprints on a track or strides on a flat trail. This is because your feet are that much closer to the ground when you're running up a hill, so there is less momentum of the body upon impact. By using hills regularly in your training, you reduce your risk of injury and increase your achievable intensity. For your long runs, attempt to regularly include courses that contain hills, and at least once every two weeks, attempt to include a hill repeat or rolling hill course workout, performed at a pace close to your ventilatory threshold.

Plyometrics:In my book, “Top 12 Resistance Training Routines for Triathletes,” (available for $5 from my website only), I include severalplyometric, explosive type exercises. The benefit of these exercises is that they teach the elastic muscles of the lower leg to quickly absorb your body weight and re-contract after your foot touches the ground while running. As a result, you minimize your ground contact time and maximize your recoil with each step. Over thousands of steps, such as during a race, this can be a huge speed boost. Plyometrics do not need to be a daily routine - just once a week can provide enormous benefits. Good plyometric exercises include hopping with one foot or both feet onto a raised surface like a step bench, performing explosive jumps from a lunge or squat position, or standing under a basketball hoop and

repetitively tossing a ball against the backboard while jumping to retrieve it. Your body can actually learn how to "rebound" far more efficiently. Typical plyometric workouts include 2-3 sets of 10-20 jumps for 2-3 different exercises.

Consistency: The best way to become a solid runner is to ensure that your running routine is not constantly interrupted with sickness, vacation time, injuries and business. Running every 48-72 hours keeps the muscle memory prepared for the unique biomechanical movements of running gait. On mornings where you'd be tempted to sleep in, slumber in your running tights with your shoes beside the bed. Always toss your running shoes in your bag or backpack before leaving for work. Include running gear in your suitcase when packing for vacation, no matter how short it may seem (48 hour layovers happen!). And remind yourself on those super busy days that when it comes to consistency, a short 15-20 minute jaunt is better than nothing at all.

Do you have a 10K or marathon around the corner? A cycling century? Atriathlon? High-quality training from one of the nation's top triathloncoaches, Ben Greenfield, is always available for triathletes, runners,cyclists and swimmers through www.pacificfit.net/triathletes.html. Until next time, train hard and train smart!

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Stay Out on the Course, Not In the Dental Chair! by Amanda Bergquist, BSDH, RDH

As endurance athletes we all expect to be sore from time to time, but you may not expect this body part to be the source of such affliction… your mouth. Dental decay (a.k.a. dental caries) is the leading cause for absences from work and school in the U.S. as well as the most common disease in the U.S. Current research associates the lifestyle of the endurance athlete to an increased risk for this disease. To learn why you’re at risk and how you can stay cavity-free, read on!

Decay Process

To understand how to prevent cavities, you first need to understand how they occur. You have your own genetic make-up for the content of your saliva. The amount of proteins, enzymes, and minerals in your spit are unique to you. All of us have bacteria in our mouths, the kind that cause gingivitis and the kind that cause tooth decay. When you eat food, particles that are left are consumed by the cariogenic (cavity causing) bacteria. They then produce an acid waste product that acts to demineralize tooth structure. The enzymes and minerals that are in your saliva work to re-mineralize areas that have been attacked. However, if bacteria and a food source are left in the mouth, the demineralized areas become cavities that can then spread deeper into the tooth.

Three Key Factors

There are three main reasons endurance athletes are at a greater risk: Diet, saliva flow, and frequency/duration of sugar consumption. As we are all pretty much aware, we eat a lot of carbohydrates. Not only is it the fuel that we thrive on, but it is the preferred cuisine for the little critters in our mouths. The high content of carbohydrates consumed allows the oral bacteria to generate a greater amount of acid, creating an environment of generalized demineralization. Let’s now think about races and training, in particular Ironman or any kind of Ultra. Take a moment to reflect on everything you eat and drink during this time period… mostly carbohydrates, huh? For about half a day (or however much time you take to complete the darn thing plus an hour after the last thing you eat) the pH of your mouth is less than 5. This is also true for all those long training sessions.

This is where saliva plays an important role. Take another moment to reflect on how thirsty you can feel at times or how dry your mouth can get when you’re pedaling up a mountain pass or firing down the finishing stretch. This effect, called dry mouth or xerostomia, is caused in part by excessive respiration during exercise as well as the generalized decrease in saliva flow. Without saliva to dilute carbs left over, wash down the big stuff, and provide minerals and enzymes to decrease the effect of acids, more areas of the teeth are weakened.

The frequency of carbohydrate consumption and duration are also instrumental to increasing risk for decay. Simply put, the longer cariogenic bacteria are exposed to a food source (of any quantity) the more acid is produced. This boils down to the longer events causing the greatest of risks.

The Solution

Before you forgo any more Ironmans and turn into a Sprint specialist like Michael, consider your options. 1.) Use fluoride toothpaste and at home rinses. Fluoride has the ability to incorporate into the tooth structure to strengthen it against acid attacks. It also has bacteriostatic characteristics. 2.) Ask your dentist if you are a candidate for pit and fissure sealants. This treatment can occlude

areas on the biting and chewing surfaces of the teeth where bacteria are harbored and cannot be reached by regular brushing and flossing. 3.) Use products containing the sugar alcohol, xylitol. This product stimulates saliva flow as has bacteriostatic properties. Unlike other sugar alcohols, xylitol has a 5 carbon chemical structure that is not broken down by

cariogenic bacteria. Currently, xylitol is being used to sweeten some sports drinks and gels, check out Hammer Gel and Heed. The use of chewing gums and mints sweetened with xylitol can also be a benefit during events. 4.) During training and racing, you should keep a source of water at hand to rinse the mouth after carbohydrate consumption. While it may seem simple, this will significantly help rinse so the small amount of saliva you do have can do some mineralizing.

As always, I cannot stress enough the importance of seeing your dentist regularly. It is much easier on you financially, emotionally, and for your schedule to fix little problems before you ever feel their presence. Keep your teeth looking great for those finish photos!

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Studies Show Sports DrinksBest For Young AthletesBy: Lindsay Barton

Sports Drinks Help Kids Stay Hydrated Better Than Water

A number of studies in recent years have shown that sports drinks re-hydrate kids who are active in the heat better than water. Given a choice, kids will drink a lot more of a sports drink than of a glass of water.

An oft-cited 1999 study in the Journal of Applied Physiology reported that drinking a properly formulated sports drink with carbohydrates and electrolytes (sodium and potassium) like Sunny D Intense Sport increased fluid intake by nearly one-third (32%) compared to water. Because they taste better than water, sports drinks encouraged kids to keep drinking until their fluid needs were met. Another study, from 2003, reported that when drinking water, kids will drink only about 50 percent of what they need. A sports drink that contains flavor and electrolytes encourages them to drink 90 percent more than water to stay better hydrated.

Sports Drinks Replace Electrolytes

Electrolytes are chemicals in the body fluids that result from the breakdown of salts, including sodium, potassium, magnesium, and chloride, which the body needs to maintain proper amounts of water inside cells, nerve conductivity, and allow for proper response by the cells to outside stimuli.

Electrolyte deficits, particularly sodium, can cause lethargy, muscle cramping, and mental confusion, and even seizures. A properly formulated sports drink containing salts, particularly sodium, replaces electrolytes that active children lose through sweat and, because of their taste, promote re-hydration by maintaining thirst and encourage fluid intake.

Kids Are More Prone To Dehydration

Kids are more susceptible to heat illnesses than adults when active in hot weather because they:

• Sweat at a lower rate (both in absolute terms and per sweat gland)

• Tolerate temperature extremes less efficiently

•Get hotter during exercise •Have more skin surface for their body weight (that results in excessive heat gain in extreme heat and heat loss in extreme cold) •Have hearts that

pump less blood; and • Adjust more slowly to exercising in the heat (a child may

require five or six sessions to achieve the same degree of acclimatization acquired by an adult in two or three sessions in the same environment).

• Because kids will voluntarily drink more of a sports drink compared to drinking plain water, giving your child a sports drink to consume before, during and after sports significantly reduces the risk of dehydration, which can lead to heat illnesses.

Kids Are Often Dehydrated

Three University of Connecticut studies recently presented to the American College of Sports Medicine found that between 50 and 75 percent of boys and girls at sports camps were significantly dehydrated. Twenty-five to 30 percent of the campers studied showed signs of serious dehydration, putting them at increased risk of heat-related illnesses.

The campers were dehydrated despite the availability of water and sports drinks, frequent breaks and coaches' encouragement to stay hydrated.

Education And Hydration Strategies Are Key

A survey commissioned by the National Safe Kids Campaign revealed that more than three out of four parents of active kids aged 8-14 do not know the steps they should take to help prevent dehydration in their children.

The survey and studies show the importance for parents of not only educating their children about the importance of hydration but of having and implementing a hydration strategy utilizing the consumption of sports drinks before, during and after sports to eliminate the risks of dehydration and heat illnesses.

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A Three Step Plan that Guarantees Resultssubmitted by Kathi Best

This excerpt was taken from an article that was written to help business-minded professionals, but can easily switch to a focus on improving your fitness/multisport goals for the year. Included are a few ideas that you can use to immediately and dramatically improve your performance!

The following three strategies are simple, and they are also extremely powerful, however, they require consistent and skillful application in order for your dreams to become reality.

Step One - Raise Your Standards

Any time you sincerely want to make a change, the first thing you must do is to raise your standards.

Simply put you MUST expect and demand more from yourself and from those around you. That means having zero tolerance for any behavior that robs you of potential and increased performance.

Begin the process of raising your standards by creating three lists:

• All the things you will no longer accept from yourself;

• All the things you will no longer tolerate from other people, and;

• All the things that you aspire to become!

Step Two - Change Your Limiting Beliefs

If you raise your standards but don't really believe you can meet them, than you've already sabotaged yourself. This is one of the biggest challenges people face when trying to make change in their lives.

Why? Because you won't even try; you'll be lacking that sense of certainty that allows you to tap the deepest capacity that's within you even as you read these words.

You must develop a sense of certainty that you can and will meet the new standards before you actually do.

Without taking control of your belief systems, you can raise your standards as much as you like, but you'll never have the conviction to back them up.

Step Three - Change Your Strategy

In order to keep your commitment, you need the best strategies for achieving results. One of my core beliefs is that if you set a higher standard, and you can get yourself to believe, then you certainly can figure out the strategies. You simply will find a way.

I can tell you with confidence that the absolute best strategy in almost any case is to find a role-model, someone who's already getting the results you want, and then tap into their knowledge. If you don't have one, you must find a coach or mentor.

Once located, be sure to ask lots of detailed questions, take notes, and learn what they're doing, what their core beliefs are, and how they think.

Are You Ready?

You see, in life, lots of people know what to do, but few people actually do what they know. Knowing is not enough-as you must take action, honor your commitments and enforce strict discipline.

If you will, please allow me the opportunity, through this message to be your personal coach. What do coaches do? Well, first, they care about you. They've spent years focusing on a particular area of expertise, and they've continued to make key distinctions about how to produce results more quickly.

By utilizing the strategies your coach shares with you, you can immediately and dramatically change your performance. I assure you that you can and will achieve more and faster with a highly skilled coach.

"It's simply not enough to just show up and do your work. Superior performance is not, never has been, nor will it ever be, the by-product of ordinary efforts."-Gary Ryan Blairent

#1 Raise Your

Standards #2

Change Your

Limiting Beliefs

#3Change Your

Strategy

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Pear Bran Muffinsby Kathi Best

What you will need:1 1/2 cups whole-grain pastry flour1 cup wheat bran2 tablespoons granular sugar substitute 1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt1 1/4 cups 1 percent or fat-free buttermilk2 large eggs, lightly beaten3 tablespoons canola oil1 Bosc pear, cored and diced into 1/4-inch cubes1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract PREPARATION: Heat oven to 350°F. Line a muffin tin with paper liners or lightly coat with cooking spray. Combine flour, bran, sugar substitute, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Combine buttermilk, eggs, oil, pear, and vanilla in another mixing bowl. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix just to combine; do not over mix. Divide batter evenly into muffin cups. Bake for 20 minutes. Cool and serve.

Why not start the day with a delicious and satisfying muffin? It's the perfect breakfast whether you have time to dine or need to grab something on the run!

Quick Lasagnaby Natalie & Greg Gallagher

What you will need:1 package wide whole wheat lasagna noodles (fully cooked)1 - 15 oz. container ricotta cheese1 - 16 oz. container small curd cottage cheese2 cups skim mozzarella cheese (shredded or sliced thin)6 Morning Star vegetarian breakfast patties (heated in microwave and chopped as ground turkey)1 pound extra lean ground turkey (browned)32 ounces marinara sauce (I use The Trezzi Barn’s mariner sauce) (heated)black pepper to taste

PREPARATION: Heat oven to 350 F degrees. Spray non-stick cooking spray on bottom of glass rectangular pan. Layer lasagna ingredients from the bottom up: thin layer of sauce, layer of noodles all sides touching each other and edges of pan, sauce, vegetarian sausage, ground turkey, ricotta cheese, cottage cheese and mozzarella cheese. Build lasagna with at least four (4) layers of all ingredients, ending with cheese on top. Season with black pepper. Bake for one hour with foil on top of pan. Let cool for 5-10 minutes. Enjoy!

Go “meatless” by using more Morning Star vegetarian breakfast sausage instead of using ground turkey.

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Board of Directors

• Kathi Best - Social Director• Kevin Best - Vice President• Kim Ellis - Treasurer• Greg Gallagher - Team Mascot• Natalie Gallagher - Newsletter Director• Ben Greenfield - Website Director• Mark Hodgson - Team Event Director• Sam Picicci - Uniform Director• Jim Powers - Membership Director• Jessi Thompson - Secretary• Roger Thompson - President• Scott Ward - Marketing Director• Kirk Wood-Gaines - Mentor

Director

We would like to extend a

generous thank you to our amazing

sponsors!

The Board of Directors, Sponsorsand The Calendar of Upcoming Events...

March/April CalendarTraining Opportunities:

North Spokane --

Mondays & Wednesdays @ 5-7 am: Open Swim @ OZ North.

Thursday evenings @ 6:30 pm: Headlamp run from the Gallagher’s home in north Spokane. Watch the Tri Forum for details!

Saturdays @ time TBA: Probable outside bike ride meeting location & time posted weekly on the Tri-Forum.

Sundays @ 8 am: Mornings with Martin, Planned group swim workout @ Oz North. Starbucks afterwards!

Races/Runs:

• March 28& 29: Snake River Sprint Triathlon at Lewiston, ID

• March 29: Oceanside 1/2 Ironman at Oceanside, CA

• Wenatchee Valley Duathlon at Wenatchee, WA

• April 13: Spring Thaw Duathlon at 9 Mile Falls, WA

• IM Arizona at Tempe, AZ

Upcoming Events:

Clinics -

• Swim overwater/underwater videotape stroke analysis at Liberty Lake Athletic Club: March 23, 6-8pm. See forum for more details.

• Dry land strength training for triathletes at Champions Sports Medicine: March 22nd, 5-6:30pm. See forum for more details.

• Martini 101 night at Twigs Southhill on Saturday, April 5th @ 7:00 p.m.

Next Membership Meeting:

April 16th, 2008 @ 6:30 p.m.: General membership meeting at location TBA.

Inaugural Tri Fusion Kids Club Meeting:

Wednesday, April 9th @ Brentwood Elementary from 6:15-7:45 p.m.