Archive for May, 2009

Whether to eat high or low GI foods has always been a controversial area as many experts recommend a low GI meal based on the idea that such a meal would supply sustained energy during exercise.
Remember that you can make a low GI meal either by eating carbohydrate foods with a low glycaemic index – apples, oranges, milk or yoghurt – or by eating carbohydrate with protein and/or health fat – cereal with milk, chicken sandwich, and baked potato with cheese.

Most low GI meals produce higher blood sugar and fatty acid levels during the latter stages of exercise, which is clearly an advantage for any endurance sports. In other words, the low GI meals produce a sustained source of carbohydrate throughout exercise and recovery.

Sample Pre Workout Meals (2-4 Hrs Before Exercise)
1. Brown/wholemeal sandwich/roll/bagel/wrap filled with chicken, fish, cheese, egg, or peanut butter and salad
2. Jacket potato with beans, cheese, tuna, coleslaw or chicken
3. Pasta with tomato-based pasta sauce with cheese and vegetables
4. Chicken with rice and salad
5. Vegetable and prawn stir fry with noodles or rice
6. Chicken and vegetable casserole with potatoes
7. Porridge made with milk
8. Wholegrain cereal (bran or wheat flakes, muesli or wheetabix) with milk or yoghurt

Pre Workout Snacks (1-2 Hrs Before Exercise
1. Fresh fruit
2. Dried apricots, dates or raisins
3. Smoothie(Home or ready made)
4. Yoghurt
5. Energy or nutrition bar
6. Cereal bar or breakfast bar
7. Fruit loaf
8. Diluted fruit juice

What you should also consider is the timing of your pre-exercise meal. High GI foods are more ‘risky’ to your performance. Get the timing wrong and you may be starting exercise with mild hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar). Remember they produce a rapid rise in blood sugar, and in some people, a short-lived dip afterwards. The safest strategy may be to stick with low GI foods pre-exercise.

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List price £1,349.00
SAVE 25% = £337.25
Your sale price:
£1,011.75

Focus Culebro Tria 2009
The Culebro Tria takes over where the Izalco Tria left off, with TT/Tri specific geometry and carefully selected components, like the FSA aero bars, aero wheels, aero seat post and frame tube profile, making this bike a fantastic ready to ride machine.

Focus’s Culebro Tria comes equipped with race level components from SRAM and FSA, with Cole Shuriken providing the wheels which are en-cased with Continental’s Grand Prix tyres. The Culebro Tria is built for speed against the clock with aerodynamic features evident in abundance, the gearing further enforces this with a front ratio of 53/42 and rear ratio of 11-28T. As well as offering a solid platform for upgrading, and a fantastically good valued bike, the Tria is an ideal starter bike for anyone entering the world of triathlon or time-trialling.

Top Features of the Focus Culebro Tria 2009
Focus Time Trial and Tria Frame
Carbon Forks with Aluminium Stem
Cole Shuriken Wheelset
FSA Aero Time Trial Aero-Bars
SRAM Force Drivetrain
Weight: 9.45 kgs

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The open water swim Triathlons in the UK will soon be with us and if you haven’t yet ventured into the water, don’t worry, as the following information may give you some ‘pre-dip’ advice to think about before you take the plunge.

What would you say was the most important element of open water swimming? If you said navigation, then you’d be spot on.

In a pool you have the lane lines and painted lines on the bottom of the pool to keep you swimming straight. This could lull you into thinking that you swim straight in a pool. In fact no-one swims perfectly straight in a pool. When you are in a pool you do not even notice that you are constantly correcting. In open water, the wind, currents and lack of visibility make swimming without sighting impossible.

Next time you are a spectator at an open-water event take a look at some of the participants and make note of how many of them are sighting often enough. The end result of not sighting enough could mean swimming 1800M instead of a 1500M Olympic distance course and lowering your overall finish position and time.

The solution is to learn how to swim sight and simply to sight more often. The reason most swimmers do not sight is often because that they think it slows them down or disrupts their stroke. Fair comment, but what about incorporating efficient sighting into your breathing pattern?

Look at the top swimmers in any open water race and you’ll notice that most are sighting every two or four strokes, but why? They do this because they know that the more often they sight, the straighter they will swim and they’ve found a way to sight so it doesn’t slow them down.

What most swimmers do to sight is simply lift their head and shoulders and swim a few strokes of ‘water polo stroke’ (head-up swimming). While this style is quite effective for sighting, it makes your legs and lower body sink, shortens your stroke and increases you effort, effectively it slows you down.

Efficient Sighting Technique
Practice efficient sighting at each swim session in the pool and soon you’ll feel more comfortable sighting often, which will translate to straighter swimming and faster times.

While swimming normally, start to lift your head from the neck, just enough to get the goggles above water. As soon as you get sight of what’s in front of you, immediately continue to rotate and take a breath as you lay your head down on it’s side. This way you keep your body position level and keep your strokes long by rotating.

The challenge here is to time the lifting of your head at the point when you body passes through the point of your stroke when your belly is facing parallel to the pool or lake floor. Realize you’ll probably mess up this sighting technique the first couple of times, but most will get it after a few practices.

Practicing this sighting technique is best accomplished in a pool first. Until sighting is second nature add at least one 100 meter sequence of sighting practice to the drills section of your workout and before you know it you’ll be sighting like the pro’s!

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Most of us understand the importance of ice when it comes to treating injuries and we also know how difficult it can be to get hold of, especially if you’re out training or away from home.

The ‘Ice Bandage’ is the way forward for such dilemmas as it is ideal for treating sprains and strains and will usually reduce swelling and pain within 10 minutes.

‘Ice Bandage’ can be applied on all injuries that need cooling. The bandage applies a constant and equal pressure which prevents blood flow from gathering and reduces the swelling at the site of the injury. It contains no harmful ingredients and is ideal for treating sprains and strains to the ankle, wrist, elbow, hand, knee and back. The cooling effect can be expected to last up to two hours.

Using the bandage to ensure RICE (Rest, ice, compression & elevation) can speed up the healing process. Cooling an injury reduces the sensation of pain through the counter-irritant effect and can slow down the metabolism within the damaged tissue, which reduces muscle spasm and inflammation. This reduction in pain, swelling, heat and redness effectively aids recovery.

Ice bandage is small and light and can provide on the spot relief to injuries which occur when either training or racing. Without the need for refrigeration, the bandage is a convenient alternative to conventional ice in an emergency situation and can even be reused as a regular crepe bandage once the cooling properties have ended and the bandage is dry.

The ice bandage is available from independent pharmacies nationwide from around £3.90.

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