by Joan Kent | Sep 8, 2014 | Engage Your Students, Health and Wellness, Master Instructor Blog
It’s squash season! Winter squash — almost all of them — are among my favorite foods. They’re an excellent source of starchy carbs, which are necessary for training, and don’t add the undesirable elements of sugar or gluten.
People ask how I cook squash, and my answer is shocking but true. I microwave. (As mentioned in previous posts, I’m a lazy cook but determined to eat healthful foods.) One safety note: larger squash, such as butternut, can be difficult to cut when raw. Most roasting/baking instructions require cutting the squash in half before placing it in the oven, so be careful. If you decide to be lazy like me, you can microwave without cutting first.
Acorn squash seems to be everywhere these days. It can be eaten as part of a quick pre-training meal. The meal could include any protein source you choose, from dinner leftovers to vegetable protein powder. Reheat the acorn squash, if desired, and top it with some raw, organic coconut oil. It’s a fast, healthy meal and can get you through a tough workout.
Stuffed acorn squash makes a nice dinner side dish. You can, of course, use virtually anything you like to stuff it. One combination I’ve played with is brown rice, wild rice, chopped vegetables, and pine nuts. If you go easy on seasonings, this could also serve as part of the pre-training meal above.
Another terrific squash is delicata. It can be substituted for acorn squash in either dish above and offers a little variety.
And how about spaghetti squash? It can be eaten just like any other squash, seasoned whichever way you prefer. But it also has that added fun-factor because it can be used exactly like spaghetti and topped with your favorite sauce to make a gluten-free “pasta.”
My favorite squash dish combines two winter standards. Butternut has a fantastic flavor but is often watery. Kabocha (aka Japanese pumpkin) has a drier, firmer texture but tastes bitter. Combining the two is easy. Cook both, let them cool, and discard the seeds. Scoop out the squash from each one, place it in a bowl, and use a potato masher to blend them. It’s really quick. Pour out the water from the butternut squash as necessary.
The taste of this combo is good enough to be eaten plain with no seasoning. But, obviously, you can season it if you want, with any seasonings you choose.
Whether you already like squash or try it for the first time it this season, you might miss it (as I sometimes do) the rest of the year. Here’s one way around that. A few years ago, I discovered canned, organic pumpkin. Look for a brand that contains pumpkin and absolutely nothing else. You can treat it exactly the way you would oatmeal or quinoa in my no sugar, no-bonk breakfast suggestion from a previous post. Season it according to your preference. I tend to use cinnamon at breakfast, but sea salt, freshly ground pepper, allspice, nutmeg, curry, and many other seasonings can work quite well anytime. If you stock up on several cans, you’ll have it year-round.
My plan this year is to try some of the squash varieties I’ve never tried before. If you have a favorite recipe, please feel free to pass it along to us. And please let me know how squash works as part of your pre-workout meal.
by Joan Kent | Sep 2, 2014 | Engage Your Students, Health and Wellness, Master Instructor Blog
Have you ever noticed that some of your students react more strongly to sugar than others? That they seem to want it more often, crave it frequently, and want more even after they’ve eaten some? The reasons are genetic. I love that because it takes all the “blame” off the person and de-personalizes the reaction by making it chemical. We can’t be blamed for something we can’t control, right?
As an indoor cycling instructor, you may hear all about students’ problems with sugar. You’re also in a unique position to help them. Your students know you, trust you, and follow your recommendations.
So what is this genetic, chemical thing that goes on in people who are susceptible to sugar addiction? It’s in two parts — carbohydrate sensitivity and sugar sensitivity.
Carb sensitivity simply means exaggerated insulin secretion to sugar and some other carbs. The extra insulin can cause glucose to drop, causing cravings. The cravings are typically for foods that will raise glucose quickly. Sugar is an obvious culprit in that regard. The glucose drop can also trigger hunger, so it’s likely that the carb-sensitive person will crave sugar, eat it, and eat quite a bit of it.
Who’s likely to be carb sensitive? Typically people with a family history of one or more of these: alcoholism, diabetes (including mature-onset), hypoglycemia, hypertension, or obesity. Another factor is central adiposity (apple-shaped body). That apple shape is the typical characteristic of men, but women with that body type are more likely to be carb-sensitive.
The other aspect — sugar sensitivity — is about neurochemistry. People who are sugar-sensitive seem to have low baseline levels of several brain chemicals — beta-endorphin (or endorphins), dopamine, and serotonin. To simplify (oversimplify!), the fact that those 3 chemicals are lower than normal makes these people feel crummier than normal.
Who is likely to be sugar-sensitive? People with a family history of alcoholism, other addictions, depression or other mood disorders, or a personal history of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder).
Let’s return to sugar. When we eat sugar, we get a brain release of beta-endorphin. That triggers a dopamine response because the two tend to go together. But when a sugar-sensitive person eats sugar, the beta-endorphin response is greater than normal — and so is the dopamine release.
Their serotonin will be exaggerated, too — because of carb sensitivity and the high insulin release. The more insulin we secrete, the more tryptophan (the amino acid used to make serotonin) travels to the brain, and the more serotonin we produce. It’s pretty linear. So carb-sensitives — who release extra insulin when they eat sugar — end up making a lot more serotonin.
And what does all of this have to do with addiction?
Dopamine and beta-endorphin are involved in the good-feeling, reward part of addiction (including sugar addiction). That means people who are sugar-sensitive may feel rotten without sugar, but hugely better than normal when they eat it. Obviously, that’s pretty reinforcing. It encourages repeat behavior, both in animals and in humans.
Then there’s serotonin. Serotonin is involved in seeking behavior — how much trouble we’re willing to go through to get the addictive substance we want. Once again, the exaggerated response comes in here. Extra insulin leads to extra serotonin, and that leads to stronger seeking.
To recap, it kinda works like this for a carb-sensitive, sugar-sensitive person: She/he may feel crummy without sugar. The giant-sized reward caused by extra-high dopamine and beta-endorphin makes Ben & Jerry’s seem pretty appealing in the middle of the night. Reinforcement from eating it may provoke that desire on many nights, while the extra serotonin is what makes someone drive to the store in a bathrobe at 2:00 am to get it.
What I love about this hormonal and neurochemical viewpoint is that it takes all judgment off the person, who can’t fight those genetics any more than we can fight our eye color. There’s nothing wrong with feeling compassion, rather than judgment, for someone’s compulsions. Judgment never helps anyone, although compassion certainly can.
What besides compassion can help your students? Changes in nutrition are most important, but if you’re not comfortable tackling addiction, you can still help. Don’t underestimate the organized, structured workouts you offer in your classes.
You may already know that workouts increase brain levels of beta-endorphin, dopamine and serotonin. (More on serotonin and training in a future post.) Encourage consistent participation from your sugar-addicted students, especially any who are in recovery from alcohol or other substances.
Even if they don’t want to work out some days, your class will help them that day AND in the long run — and make you feel great that what you do so well can be so beneficial for them.
by Joan Kent | Aug 11, 2014 | Best Practices, Health and Wellness, Master Instructor Blog
It’s dinnertime, and I’m flying home to San Francisco from a Houston business trip. The flight attendant is bringing around the service cart and I’m about to order … milk. I never drink milk, so why now?
Let’s go back to how the day started. Fortunately, I had ordered eggs and oatmeal from room service. (This was a number of years ago, before we all became gluten-phobic.) Breakfast showed up at 7:00; so far so good.
I was in Houston in January for a meeting called by Sherry. The meeting started at 10:00 a.m. and was scheduled to last till 1:00. My return flight was at 2:30 p.m.
Sherry had promised us food. I should have been suspicious, because Sherry and I once had dinner at an airport, and hers was a plate of white-flour pasta and a plate of white rice. The only foods at the meeting were donuts, Danish pastries, M&Ms, Halloween-size candy bars, soft drinks and coffee. No refreshments for me, thank you.
At 1:00, a few of us got into Sherry’s car so she could drive us to the airport. Six hours without food had left me hungry, and I planned to get food at the airport. Unfortunately, unexpected traffic due to an event in town slowed us to a crawl. It was not going to be possible to get food before my flight. Maybe a pack of raw almonds? Almost every airport newsstand sells those.
Well, time was so short I had to run to the gate. When I finally stepped on the plane, they closed the door literally the instant I was on board. And then.
The flight couldn’t take off for an hour due to some problem or other. (Believe me, I had stopped caring.) Even when we were cleared to go, we couldn’t take off because the plane now had to be de-iced. We sat on the tarmac for 2 more hours.
So our 2:30 flight departed at 5:30. There was no meal service — it was an afternoon flight. A 2½-hour flight. After a 7:00 a.m. breakfast and nothing else, all I could think about was food.
Finally, the beverage cart appeared. I had already decided what to order. You might think I’d grab whatever I could get, but as I watched people consume Pepsi, ginger ale and apple juice, I knew that spelled nothing but trouble for a carb-sensitive like me.
The answer lay in finding food.
Food on a beverage cart. Are you thinking peanuts? So was I. But they had pretzels. White flour would have been worse than nothing. So my plan — at this point, was it Plan B or Plan C? Maybe D; it was a long day — was milk. Milk isn’t a beverage; it’s food. Usually, I don’t drink it, but this wasn’t usual.
Got milk? They had it — 2%, the only kind they serve on airlines. I had done the calculations (plenty of time to do arithmetic on the tarmac), and 2% was actually the perfect answer. It came as close to a 40-30-30 meal as I could get on the fly, although it was light on protein and a bit heavy on fat. Even though I don’t go around pushing 40-30-30 meals (remember The Zone?) on my clients, I do know that the effect of those percentages is stabilizing.
The key word is Stabilizing, and that’s the take-away here. In this case, stability refers to both blood sugar (glucose) and brain chem. In a semi-emergency like this, it’s tempting to use the situation as an excuse to grab anything edible, even things we should avoid.
But milk was a wiser choice, and in 20 minutes I felt a lot better.
Lately, I’ve been finding it necessary to go with Plan B often — so the best idea is always to have one. When it comes to food, a solid Plan B is absolutely vital. Carry envelopes of protein powder or packs of raw nuts with you, rather than fruit. Think stability. After all, we’re talking about your brain first, as well as the rest of you.
by John | Aug 9, 2014 | Best Practices, Instructor Training, Master Instructor Blog, Mental Toughness
In Jennifer Lintz's last post; Use YOUR Workout as Inspiration for your Next Class , Jennifer talked about using your personal workouts and build a class around them. Makes sense to me… because I've experienced something, I can more accurately describe the feelings, intensity, frustration, etc…
I follow communication expert Alexa Fischer (she was featured on Podcast #296) and she's frequently sending out short videos that seem to always get me thinking. This week's email was on using thought bubbles vs. a script, when presenting:
When you are giving a speech or filming a video, I can appreciate the desire to communicate exactly what you want to say through a carefully crafted script. But let me ask you… Do you prefer watching a person reading a script or sharing their thoughts from their heart?
I used this technique in my class yesterday. Here are the thought bubbles I used to bring last Saturday's century ride inside:
Tour de Tonka – that's what the ride is named. I asked if anyone else participated (there were 6,000+ riders) or, if they were driving, were they forced to sit and wait while the mass of riders rode past. I told this personal story during the warm up:
Two years ago I offered to sub a Saturday 8:00 AM class on the day of this event. I wasn't running late, but let's just say I hadn't left myself much extra time. The last stoplight I hit is the corner where the club is located. It's also an intersection where the Tour de Tonka riders cross. So at about 7:50 I'm first in line at the stoplight, waiting while the cop is waiving hundreds of riders through. Light turns green, cop's still waving. I can see the club from where I'm sitting – cop's still waving. At around 7:55 I'm panicking – there appears to be no end of riders and the cop seems content to keep us waiting at the light, as he waves the cyclists through. So out of desperation I go through a very awkward series of multi-point turns to get pointed the opposite direction. I found a place to park two blocks away and with just minutes until the class was supposed to start, I'm running down the street barefoot (I'm one to eschew shoes in the summer) with my gym bag, the cop yelling at me as I dart through the line of bikes, on my way to the club's parking lot.
Distance's – you can ride as short as 15 miles… all the way up to 100 miles, a full (not metric) century.
As a (somewhat proud) cyclist, there's only one response you want to give when asked; “did you ride the Tour de Tonka?” “Yep (standing a little taller) – the century. Reporting any other distance tends to feel like a disappointment, and your body language will normally reflect this. I added this as a bit of foreshadowing, which you'll understand in a few minutes.
Matt and the rollers – That's Matt as in Matt Finnesgard, one of the riders in our group. He's in his mid 30's and a very strong. Oh, and he rides with no technology… not even a speedometer.
Our normal position in the pace-line is front and center. Tandems are best up front. Besides making a nice hole in the air, for the riders behind, all of our mass makes it difficult to react to changes in speed easily. 100 miles can make for a long pull. After the 30 mile rest stop, Matt offered to pull us. A nice gesture on the face of it, as long as the roads are relatively flat. They're not. The next section we rode was pretty much continuous rollers. I know he wasn't doing it on purpose, but Matt didn't slow from his steady 23 mph when the grade became positive. He just keeps a steady cadence and it was killing us to keep up. Here's where I had everyone doing 30 second intervals; just below PTP and then above. Some were load based with steady cadence… and some where accelerations from 80 rpm to 100 rpm and back again.
Old Market – a long, two section climb at the 98.5 mile point in the century.
The Tour de Tonka begins at the Minnetonka High School, which is only one mile from our home. The route goes right past our neighborhood – Old Market is only a few blocks from our house. It turned out to be a pretty hot day, 93° and Amy and I were pretty much toast as we approached the turn, that if we took it, would have us home and quickly in the shower and a nap. It would also have us about a mile and a half short of the full distance. It's hard to describe how tempted we were and we quickly discussed ending our ride then and there. “Who would know if we bailed early?” I asked. We were alone at this point. “We would.” was Amy's response. “You're right.” “We can't honestly tell someone; we did the century – if we really didn't 🙁
So up Old Market we went. Amy and I can did the whole thing + they had some fantastic pizza at the finish. My class got to replicate the two sections as 45 secs climbing above threshold, and the final 45 secs of the class with an all out effort, out of the saddle struggling to make it to the top.
There was of course more to the story that filled the hour.
Do you have a similar story you could present to your class?
Here's my playlist
by Joan Kent | Aug 4, 2014 | Health and Wellness, Master Instructor Blog
Photo © Team CSC & Tim De Waele
Stage races span the duration spectrum. Shorter stage races that are done over a weekend might feature a time trial and road race on Day 1, for example, then a criterium on Day 2. These points on fueling for stage races are culled from several sources — cycling books, cycling magazines, websites, and my coach.
Ideal fueling starts with Body Recalibration — not my term, just a fancy name for conditioning your body for recovery. Recovery should begin at least 6 weeks before race season. (An even better practice is to eat well year-round, but we have to start somewhere — and I’m well aware that this post is late in the season).
Start by eliminating junk — assuming any of you ever indulge in such stuff! Junk includes alcohol, sugar, caffeine, high-fat chips, and such. If you’re in the habit of fueling with sugar before and during trainings, it’s a good idea to eliminate that as part of this process.
My coach always said that endurance athletes never mind expending energy, but don’t want to waste it. Wasted energy refers to anything without a performance payoff. Having to detox from chemicals and junk like sugar wastes energy.
Next, add the good stuff. Eat foods in a natural state whenever possible (whole foods, rather than processed). Stress vegetables (3-6 cups a day), rather than fruit. Fructose is associated with lots of health issues and isn’t good fuel for training.
If it’s possible to eat organic, do. That’s less important if we don’t eat the skin. So organic nuts matter less, but organic apples are a big deal. At least stay away from The Dirty Dozen — the foods with the highest pesticide levels: apples, strawberries, grapes, celery, peaches, spinach, bell peppers, imported nectarines, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, imported snap peas, potatoes. Three foods recently added to the list are kale, collards and hot peppers, so it’s a Dirty 15.
Eat the same types of foods that you eat during your training. Race day is not the time for nutritional surprises. Believe it or not, if you’ve been junking out all the way up to race day, you might as well eat that way for the races.
Don’t deplete carbs or skip meals, especially race-day breakfast. Eat some extra starches 1-2 days before the event.
The primary nutrition concerns in training and racing are:
– Replacing water. Dehydration reduces blood volume; increases heart rate and perceived exertion; impairs thermoregulation, mental performance, and endurance.
– Replacing sodium. Low sodium can result in disorientation, nausea, fatigue, seizures, or collapse. Salt your food instead of using salt supplements.
– Saving glycogen during the race so it’s there at the end when you need it. (This may be a good place for Dr. Joan’s Potato Goo…)
– Replacing glycogen after the race so you can perform well in the next stage. High GI starch and protein in a 3:1 or 4:1 ratio replace glycogen better than sugar, including fruit. Don’t eat fats right after the race. They slow carb absorption.
Eat 3 hours or more before the start of the race. If you’re not adapted to that, consider it part of Body Recalibration. Avoid eating 30-60 minutes before the start, which may be too close to the effort. Find a food combination that works for you, but avoid all-carb (especially all-sugar) meals. They can lead to reactive hypoglycemia in some athletes and cause bonking. Instead, include protein and fat.
Refuel within 30 minutes after your race. Always. Be fanatical about it. Glycogen replacement is maximized during that 30 minutes because glycogen synthetase is in its active form and facilitates peak storage. Eating within 30 minutes counteracts cortisol’s breakdown of muscle protein for energy and will reduce soreness — very important for the next stage. If you miss the 30-minute window, your muscles may be temporarily insulin resistant for several hours. That prevents best glycogen replacement and may interfere with your performance in the next stage.
Eat again 2 hours later and 4 hours later — or 3 hours prior to the next stage. If you race twice that day, stay aware of how many calories you’re expending and consuming. Many convenient devices are available that are worn on your wrist and provide this information.
Racing at over 20 mph while drafting may burn roughly 12 kcal/kg/hr. Without drafting, that could increase to 15 kcal/kg/hr. Gender, size, and muscle mass all affect those values. Cycling efficiency (good technique) can lower them. The more you ride overall, the less you may burn.
The goal during racing is to postpone fatigue, not replace all of the calories you’ve burned. Full calorie replacement should occur during recovery.
Refuel within 30 minutes after the last race of the day, especially if you have to race again the next day!
And keep in mind that these points may also help on days that you teach several classes.
by John | Jul 22, 2014 | Best Practices, Instructor Tips and Tricks, Instructor Training, Master Instructor Blog
Paul Swift from BikeFit sent out another infographic showing proper wrist alignment, this time for road bikes. We published his previous email that highlighted proper wrist alignment on a mountain bike. Notice in the image above how the curve of the handlebar drops matches the natural, straight wrist position?
I see this problem a lot on our group rides… Set up incorrectly (bars rotated down too far) causes the hinged wrist shown above, left. Where this becomes obvious is the additional arm movement needed to grasp the brake levers – there shouldn't be any 🙁
With your hands on the brake hoods, your wrists should be straight for best comfort and control. In this position you should be able to rest your fingers on the brake levers. Rotating the handlebars and/or brake hoods upwards helps improve alignment for more comfort and better control.
Cuing wrist position in class, or on the road, will be appreciated by your participants.
Remember bike fit is not about the bike, but where you touch the bike.
Click image for more information about BikeFit
