Posts

Posted on

Getting the Best Tri-Suit

Tri-SuitFor every activity, there is apparel that goes with it, and for triathlon athletes, a Tri Suit is their go to apparel for it can be worn for all the levels of triathlon. While some people choose to wear their Tri Suit under their wet suit, most will only wear their Tri Suit and start their competition wearing the same apparel they will be wearing at the finish line.

A Tri Suit should be chosen carefully, for not only is it not the cheapest peace of apparel one will own, because of its function, it has to have certain features to make it worth your money and consideration when you are looking to buy. So here is what to look for in a Tri Suit: comfort, durability, and functionality.

If you are a beginner triathlon athlete, you should get a suit that is cheaper, as you should feel the different suits for yourself, and see what are the features you like and what are the features you do not like, for the more expensive suits are each designed with comfort and speed in mind, but each could have different features that might not be to your liking.

A triathlon’s first leg is swimming. What will make your suit comfortable for this level is how water repellant it is, and how closely it contours your body. You want the least amount of friction and drag when swimming. This is especially important if the race you are competing in does not require you to wear a wet suit.

The next step of a triathlon is biking. For this purpose, your suit should have features that will both make it comfortable on the bike, and let it dry quickly. Many Tri Suits feature a pad or chamois that allow for comfort on the bike saddle. You should make sure that the pad does not chafe and does not slow you down during the running leg.

Womens-Tri-SuitThe chamois should be thin and your suit should be breathable for the suit to dry quickly. Most suits come with modern technology that allows them to dry quickly. The level, to which your suit repels the water while swimming, will come in handy here as the more water repellant it is, the faster it will dry. A mesh paneling on the suit will also help both its breathable quality and the speed at which it dries.

The last leg of the triathlon is running. For this leg, you will want a suit that is very light, and has flat stitching that lies flat against your skin and will not cause chafing while you run. Additionally, check to see if the suit has leg grabbers, or extra friction pads on the inside of the legs of the suite. This keeps the suit from riding up while you are running or biking.

For women suits, it is good to get a suit that has a padded bra built in, as wearing less layers and allowing your skin to breathe is quite important.

Posted on

Electrolytes – How to Save a Stack of Money Including Your Health

Without going into a long story here, suffice it to say that cancer has forced me to take a long and hard look at a lot of what I’ve done in the past, and institute many changes in my approach to nutrition and sport supplementation.

In a nutshell, most important amongst these are the dietry exclusion of all processed and added sugars (sucrose, dextrose, fructose, glucose etc), dairy and processed foods (everything in a packet, bottle, box, tablet, capsule or powder), and the almost exclusive inclusion of fresh raw fruit and vegetables, and only cooking fish, meat (no beef unless grass fed, and pork), poultry and eggs – all organic, free range and grass fed!

Back to nature!

This has posed some special sport challenges with regard to event nutrition, and my current solution is to ditch all the energy drinks, bars and gels, and replace them with Liquifruit (It is pure fruit juice with no sugar, preservatives, flavourants or colourants) diluted 1 to 2 with  rainwater or Tsitsikama Crystal bottled water, and organic dates from Woolworths for longer rides.

What remains is to ensure sufficient electrolytes replacement. I am not happy with the commercially available products, as they all contain processed dextrose, and most have flavourants, colourants or preservatives added. Plus they cost a pretty penny!

So here is the solution:-

The following powders can be bought from Natures Own Pharmacy in PE, or ask your local pharmacist/ health shop.

400g Sodium Chloride – Himalayan Salt (best) comes in 1kgs (R45.00)

500g Sodium Bicarbonate – comes in 500g (R29.00)

300g Potassium Chloride – comes in 500g (R50.00)

DO NOT BUY SODIUM BICARBONATE FROM A REGULAR GROCERY STORE AS THESE CONTAIN EXTREMELY HARMFUL ALUMINIUM BASED AGENTS. ONLY USE CERTIFIED PURE PRODUCTS FROM A HEALTH SHOP.

Thorughly mix these powders in the proportions given above, ensuring any lumps are completely broken up.

Put 2.5 to 5.5g (half to one level medicine measure) in your 750ml bottle with diluted Liquifruit (if not fat adapted) or just plain bottled/rain water.

This should give you plenty electrolytes for at least 400 water bottles at a total cost of R125.00, compared to R3600.00 for the equivalent in “Rehidrat” which retails at around R9.00 per sachet (all prices at time of writing)!

Of course you may only need to worry about taking in extra electrolytes during sessions that exceed 1.5hrs, however I think it is always good to  include these in the recovery drink/meal afterwards.

I also intend buying some empty capsules to fill with this elecrolyte mixture for use on long runs…

One important note is to also supplement magnesium. Our food is today grown in such organically depleted soils, that most of us are severly deficient in it. Recommend you take 400mg of elemental magnesium spread out over the day in a slow release form such as magnesium chelate (best).

Merry Xmas everyone, and a have fun filled, healthy year ahead!

Mike

Posted on

Triathlon Training – Swim Fast to Get Fast Part 2

By Gale Bernhardt
For Active.com

Triathlon Training - Swim FastIn an earlier column, I encouraged you to try some fast 25s to boost your swimming speed. People have been trying the workouts and, lo and behold, they are swimming faster. Excellent!

Now that you’ve mastered some of the shorter workouts, let’s bump the distance up some. Below are new workouts for you to try:

Workout No. 1

Complete a mixed warm-up totaling 500 to 1,000 yards/meters.

After the warm-up, go through the following set two or three times:

  • 2 x 25 — Build speed throughout each 25
  • 2 x 25 — Swim half the distance as fast as you can, it doesn’t matter if it is first half or last half. Swim the “other half” easy.
  • 1 x 50 — All-out fast
  • 1 x 50 — Easy

Make your swim interval something that gives you 5 to 10 seconds rest on the 25s, about 20 seconds of rest on the 50-all-out-fast and about 90 seconds on the 50 easy.

After the speedy set, head into your main set. The main set can include swims in the 100 to 300 range.

Workout No. 2

Complete a mixed warm-up totaling 500 to 1,000.

After the warm-up, go through the following set two to four times:

  • 4 x 25 — Build speed throughout each 25 (Make the swim interval something that gives you about 10 seconds of rest.)
  • 1 x 50 — All-out fast (Make the swim interval something that gives you about 20 seconds of rest.)
  • 1 x 25 — Easy (Make the swim interval something that gives you 15 to 20 seconds of rest.)
  • 1 x 25 — All-out fast (Make the swim interval something that gives you about 10 seconds of rest.)

After the speedy set, head into your main set. The main set can include swims in the 100 to 300 range.

Optional Main Set

An optional main set to include after Workout No. 1 or 2 follows:

  • 3 x 100 on a swim interval that gives you 10 to 15 seconds of rest. Swim all of these at a steady pace.
  • 3 x 100 on a swim interval that gives you 15 to 20 seconds rest. Negative-split each 100.
  • 3 x 100 on a swim interval that gives you 20 to 30 seconds rest. Swim these so that each 100 is faster than the previous one. The last one is a fast one.

If you have the time and fitness, go through the set of 100s twice.

Workout No. 3

Complete a mixed warm-up totaling 500 to 1,000.

After the warm-up, do 4 x 25 building speed throughout each 25 (Make the swim interval something that gives you about 10 seconds of rest.)

Take one minute of rest, then do:

  • 6 x 50 — All-out fast. No holding back. Expect the fastest one to be the second or third one. It’s okay if speed fades some, just swim fast. Make the swim interval something that gives you 80 to 100 seconds of rest between each 50 swim.

After the speedy set, head into your main set. Keep it primarily aerobic. If you swim really, really fast (like the instructions tell you to do) you won’t have much high-end speed for the rest of the workout.

The biggest mistake you can make in the workouts above is to try to be a Sammie Save-up. Of course there are times when you should be holding some speed in reserve so you can negative-split a swim; but not in these workouts. Cut loose and see how fast you can go.

How much did you improve? If you’ve tried these workouts, head to USAT’s Facebook page and tell us about it!

Gale Bernhardt was the 2003 USA Triathlon Pan American Games and 2004 USA Triathlon Olympic coach for both the men’s and women’s teams. Her first Olympic experience was as a personal cycling coach at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. Thousands of athletes have had successful training and racing experiences using Gale’s pre-built, easy-to-follow training plans. For more information, click here. Let Gale and Active Trainer help you succeed.

This article originally appeared on Active.com—your source for event information, training plans, expert advice, and everything you need to connect with the sport you love.