COACH CYNDEE

Add Training To This Sign! Do you have a busy training and race schedule and have a job that requires long hours with lots of stress?   If you answered yes then you are not alone because many other people are in the same boat.   If you are driven to succeed then you probably work long hours and really hate to miss any of your scheduled workouts.   Most highly driven people are very driven to succeed with their training as well. Many times they overload their schedules with races that are probably more than they should take on given their work and family lifestyle. Let’s talk about how stress and lack of sleep can negatively affect your body.   Stress can cause many problems and each problem can in turn cause another problem.   Everything can pile up and at some point the body can’t handle it anymore and it begins to breakdown.   Stress causes an increase in a hormone in the body called cortisol.   Cortisol is a hormone that you need in sm...

Without water we would die and our body is made up of water more than anything else.   Sometimes I feel like a broken record telling my clients to drink more water.   I can’t stress the importance of drinking more water.   It is such a simple concept that has huge benefits!   I am going to name just some of the benefits of drinking more water.   Some of them are well known but I will also talk about some of the benefits that you probably didn’t know about. Some benefits of drinking water that are well known to most people are: Keeps skin looking healthy   Improves energy   Improve bowl function Improve kidney function Control appetite Prevent headaches Helps with fat loss Helps with weight loss Improve metabolism Some less known benefits:   Energize and build muscles - when muscle cells don’t have enough fluids they can become fatigued. If you are well hydrated it will take longer for them to become fatigued and ...

Often times people come to be a few months before a race and want help with their swim.  Sadly at this point in many cases its too late.  Once you become a more efficient swimming in the pool you still need to learn to swim in open water.  All of this takes time and depending on what level you are starting at this could take a significant amount of time.  Many times I have people who can't swim ask me how many lessons it will take before they can swim.  I cringe when I hear that question because there is no right answer and everyone learns at different rates.  It also depends on how much practice they want to do on their own.  The more you can get in the water the faster you will learn and the more comfortable you will become in the water.  Even at an elite level this holds true.  I recently added one more day of swimming each week to my schedule and I had my best performance in an Ironman swim.  I went from swimming 3 days a week to 4 ...

Recovery from training is just as important as the training itself.  If you consistently train and do nothing to help your body recover it is likely you will end up injured or over trained.  In previous blog posts I have talked about a variety of ways to recover from hard train ing.  I talked about massage, yoga/stretching, and epsom salt baths for recovery. Another great way to recover is ice baths.  Ice baths are best done immediately after a hard workout.  I do ice baths after my long workouts such as long rides or runs.  Ice baths are also good after higher intensity workouts which may not be as long.  A shorter workout like a track workout would be a good example.  These are shorter but very intense and doing an ice bath after this type of workout is great.  The theory behind ice baths is related to the fact that intense exercise actually causes microtrauma, or tiny tears in muscle fibers. The ice bath is thought t...

Recovery should be part of the f training for a marathon or triathlon.  Many people simply focus on training and completely forget to do things to help them recover from all their hard work.  It is sad but true and ultimately it could lead to injury.  I have already talked about some ways that I recover such as massage and Epsom's salt baths.  Another thing I try and do once a week is Bikram Yoga.  There are many types of yoga but I prefer this yoga.  It seems to focus more on balance and stretching which is what I need many runners and triathletes could benefit from it too. It is 90 minutes and it is done in a hot and humid room.  Some people may not like that but that is exactly why I really enjoy about it.  The heat feels great and when I stretch I prefer to be in a hot room.  Some of the things I like about Bikram are: You know what to expect it is always the same Many of the stretches and postures are exactly what triathletes and ru...

Benefits of Massage Proper recovery from any type of exercise is just as important as the exercise it self. There are many ways to recover and in this blog post I will talk about one of my favorites.  Massage has many benefits both mentally and physically.  I have been getting massage for over 20 years.  If I am training for an event I get it twice a month and weekly leading up to the event.   On a regular basis I try and do it at least once a month.  You need to find a schedule that works for you because it can get expensive to have it too often.  If a perfect world I would like to get it once a week!  I love massage so much I became a massage therapist so that I could help others.  Here are just a few of the benefits that massage can provide you: Reduce stress - stress kills!  Many people do not realize how toxic stress is to your body.  When you are under stress your body produces more cortisol which is a ...