Please activate JavaScript!
Please install Adobe Flash Player, click here for download
ePaper created 2015-02-25, 10:02:46 | version 1.33.01
82. FitnessX.com • Summer/Fall 2013 by Heather McCullough, CPT TRIATHLON TRAINING: If you have found a race suitable for you and are ready to start training, it only seems fair to start your training with the most basal building block…your nutrient intake. In this article, you will find the basic guidelines for nutritional intake during the weeks/months of training ahead of you. The following nutritional advice sounds simple, but can be hard to control on a daily basis (especially when you are tired and busy on a regular basis). However, if carried out through the entirety of your training, these tips will allow for your body to be working at full capacity. Pretend your body is a car. High performance vehicles require regular maintenance to perform. The more mileage you put on it, the more fuel you need to burn. You would also need your fluids and oil replaced more regularly. Since you are not an actual car, I would consider these fluids like vitamin/mineral supplementation that will be needed for optimum training. (Supplements will be discussed further in a future article.) One question you may be asking at this point is,“How many calories should I be consuming per day?” The exact amount of calories that needs to be consumed during triathalon training varies so greatly from person to person, it is impossible to answer this question, in general. I will, however, give you an easy way to figure out roughly how many you, as an individual, will need. The first couple weeks of your training will likely be the most difficult of all, due to the fact that you are putting your body through strenuous exercise. Your muscles do not yet recognize it as something you have done on a regular basis in the past. During this period of time, your body will recognize the need for more calories. To identify how much fuel your body needs, eat the RIGHT foods when you are hungry, for these first few weeks. (We will talk about what the right foods are in a minute.) By the end of two weeks, you will notice one of three things has happened from your eating habits: (1) You will Gain Weight. (Yes it IS actually possible to gain when you consider how ravenous your appetite can become when training.) (2) Lose Weight (which means you could be on the road to muscle eating when all of the fat is gone), or (3) your Bodyweight will be Relatively the Same. The most important thing to consider: Do NOT deprive your body of calories it needs to train efficiently. Your body will most likely be burning anywhere from 1,000 to 3,000 calories (maybe more) extra, a day depending on how often you are training and what distance you are training for. One may be inclined to get excited about possible weight they may lose early on in their training and make sure the loss continues. This may be ok, but certain people with limited body fat should beware of the fact that, this will eventually decrease performance. Another question may be,“What weight should I be at to train efficiently?” Bodyweight is not as important, in this case, as body fat. An ideal body fat percentage for optimum training is usually between 12% and 25% for women (4%-18% for men). Less than 12% will not provide you with the energy required for endurance sports, specifically. Over 25%, and you are likely to be putting your joints at risk by making them operate a machine with a bunch of dead weight (fat weight). tips to INCREASE YOUR ENDURANCE! TRAINING