More Good News For the Triathlete Fashion Show!

First 10 people to register for Champions Tri at tonight's Triahtlete Fashion Show get a free jersey! AND anyone who signs up for TWO events tonight gets $10 off the second registration (good from 5-7:30, doesn't include Real Ale Ride)!

Triathlete Fashion Show
Thursday, February 25
6:30-9:30 pm
Lanai Rooftop Lounge
422 Congress Ave

More info about the TFS here.

Read the original post about the TFS.

Movement U Discount

Jessi Stensland of Movement U is BACK in Austin again for a series of classes on Saturday and Sunday Febuary 27th and 28th. With two great locations and times to choose from, you don't have an excuse to miss it! Saturday class will be held at the T3 Core Fusion Center and Sunday up at Pure Austin Quarry Lake location.


WHAT IS MOVEMENT U?
This unique, interactive workshop, designed and lead by professional endurance athlete and movement specialist, Jessi Stensland, is unlike any other multisport education. It is about the most overlooked, yet most important thing you bring to your swimming, cycling and running: YOU.

Held at the top athletic performance training centers across the United States, this full-day experience is designed to enhance participants' understanding of the body and how to prepare it to perform injury-free and energy efficiently. A dynamic and functional workout will kick-off the day followed by an in-depth discussion of the roles and relationships of the following fundamental elements of athletic performance: nutrition, joint mobility, flexibility, strength, stability, elasticity, cardio capacity and regeneration/recovery, as well as simple solutions on how to integrate them into daily training.

Each of the three sports will be addressed individually with an emphasis on the following:

* Proper mechanics for movement efficiency
* Common sport-specific biomechanical limitations
* Functional and corrective exercises

You will understand better how to create and maintain injury resistance, energy efficiency and power in your performance. Go faster, with less effort, or get a lot more out of the effort you're putting in.

The workshop will conclude with a regeneration and recovery session followed by Q + A.

Post-workout nutrition, refreshments AND homemade, fresh, mostly organic lunch will be served.

Full price is $199. Get $30 off the full-day event with the code: RLE-ROCKS-2010.

More info/video/registration can be found on www.movementu.com.

Tips From The Pros :: Dynamic Warm-Up

THE DYNAMIC WARM-UP

By Jessi Stensland // Professional Triathlete // MovementU

A dynamic warm-up is one that challenges every bit of YOU that you use to perform.

Think of your body as a machine, with lots of moving parts. Your cardio system is certainly a driving factor in your performance, but your ability to get the most from your cardio endurance is highly dependent on your body’s ability to transfer your effort efficiently, from head to toe, during each and every swim stroke, running stride and pedal stroke. A dynamic warm up coordinates all of your moving parts – muscles, ligaments, and joints – by challenging your flexibility, mobility, strength, stability and cardio all at once – because that’s what you ask of yourself when you perform, right?! Doing so is pivotal in getting you to the finish line as fun, fast, and pain-free as possible.


THE GOALS OF A DYNAMIC WARM-UP

• INCREASE HEART RATE to get the blood pumping through the body and warming up the muscles.
• OPEN UP YOUR JOINTS especially those within the hips, spine, feet and ankles.
• ACTIVELY STRETCH YOUR MUSCLES to prepare them for what you’ll be asking them for in the run!
• REINFORCE GREAT POSTURE.
• HIT THE GROUND RUNNING WITH ALL SYSTEMS GO when the gun goes off!

THE KEYS TO A DYNAMIC WARM-UP

• Think of it as a part of the race. Do it!
• Set aside time dedicated to it. Whether its 30 minutes or 2 minutes you can do your body good.
• Clear your mind and focus on your body. Save chit chatting with friends for before or after the race.
• Move through the movements purposefully but continuously so that your heart rate increases throughout.

THE KEY ELEMENTS OF A DYNAMIC WARM-UP

[NOTE: Click on the name of the movement to be linked to a video demonstration.]

1. Engage strong powerful posture.
2. Activate your glute muscles by doing movements such as a glute bridge or a lateral lunge.
3. Open up your joints and stretch the muscles around them. Use a movements like the knee hug, forward lunge with a twist and/or calf stretch.
4. Put it all together with some pillar skipping.

Whether you’ve got 2 minutes or 30 minutes to warm up, you can do it properly, efficiently and powerfully.


THE 2 MINUTE VERSION WOULD LOOK LIKE THIS:

1. Glute Bridge OR Lateral Lunge
2. Forward Lunge with a Twist OR Knee Hug
3. Pillar Skipping

You’re committed. Your mind is strong and will only get stronger. Make sure you give your body the best chance you can give it so you can do all that you’d love to do with it. Because you can!


Move well!!

Special Offer From Milestone Mementos for Marathon and Half-Marathon Finishers

Congratulations Austin Marathon and Half Marathon Finishers!

Run the Austin Marathon/Half Marathon or know someone who did? In their debut, husband/wife team Christina and Greg Edwards and their company Milestone Mementos teamed up with the Austin Marathon to sell a cool stainless steel memento that is unique to the city and race. The memento can also be personalized with an engraving of your choice.


If you missed them at the marathon expo or at the finish line, it’s not too late! Place your order with our special RLE Newsletter offer: order a memento by March 31st and receive engraving for only $7. That’s more than half off the regular price. If you are local to Austin, you can also receive free local pickup.

To place your order and receive the RLE discount, simply fill out and submit this form. Be sure to check out their website throughout the year for future race mementos.

Susan Says: Read Those Labels!

A friend of mine, I’ll call her Andie, was very excited to tell me that a small Starbucks skinny vanilla latte has only 90 calories. I looked skeptical. She knew what I was going to say and before I could open my mouth, she said, “I know, I know. Did I read the label? Do I know what I’m actually drinking?”

Food is what keeps us alive and fuels us for the activities we enjoy. Yet we push this huge responsibility onto restaurants, food companies, and huge farming conglomerates to determine what we put into our own bodies. We want food fast (and too often - fast food) and we want it in convenient, prepackaged, portable, tasty, healthy servings. Unfortunately most food sources are high in processing and low in nutrition. So how can you take back control of what you eat?

Label reading is the biggest action you can take to know exactly what you are eating. Here are some tips to get you in the habit:

1. Read Everything. Read the labels of ALL the foods you buy. This will make grocery shopping a slightly longer endeavor at first but you will soon learn what is actually in the foods you buy and eat. You can even ask for nutrition information at restaurants - they are currently required by law to provide it upon request.*


2. Don’t Assume. By reading labels you will discover all the “extra” ingredients you have been eating. I used to buy a certain brand of table salt and I was shocked to discover that it contained sugar. Food manufacturers also change ingredients based on food availability and cost so re-read your favorite labels from time to time.

3. Do You Recognize That Ingredient? Do you feel comfortable eating xanthan gum? What about carrageenan? The first is corn sugar gum and it’s used to thicken water-based foods such as dairy products and salad dressings. There is no current FDA issue with xanthan gum. The second is derived from Irish moss and is used as an emulsifier in many foods such as chocolate products, cheese foods, and jellies. Carrageenan is also on the FDA list for further study based on possible links to cancer in rats. How do you know what is OK to eat and what is not? Educate yourself.

4. Educate Yourself. Can’t tell if an ingredient is friend or foe? Research it on the internet or buy a reference book** and keep it handy. In the mean time, a good general guide is not to eat anything you don’t recognize, can’t spell, or isn’t a known whole food.


5. Keep the List Short. Is the list of ingredients short or does it resemble War and Peace? A short list usually means less filler and is probably closer to a whole food source. Most of the time I don’t even have to read the label. If I see too much tiny black font on the package, I automatically put it back on the shelf.


6. Are the ingredients appropriate for the product? Bread is a great example. If you read bread labels you will quickly discover that not all breads are created equal. Basic bread ingredients should only include some type of flour, water and yeast. Anything else is extra. Sometimes the extras are beneficial (grains, nuts, fruits) and sometimes not so beneficial (DATEM - Diacetyl Tartaric (Acid) Ester of Monoglyceride -- an emulsifier primarily used in baking to strengthen the dough).

7. Fresh is Best. When possible, avoid the packaged products and go for fresh, whole foods. Whole foods taste better, tend to be higher in overall nutritional value, and it will save you time reading labels!


As for Andie and her Starbucks skinny vanilla latte, I checked Starbuck’s website for nutritional value and ingredients list. It is indeed 90 calories but the ingredients list*** is vague and I am a little scared of what might make up, “delicious sugar-free flavored syrups”, so I remain skeptical. But at least she is reading labels!



Additional References:

*A two-part national standard for nutrition disclosure law recently passed requiring restaurants to disclose nutritional information via menu labeling (2009).

** “A Consumer’s Dictionary of Food Additives” by Ruth Winter, M.S.

***Starbucks skinny vanilla latte: “Made with Starbucks signature espresso roast, freshly steamed milk, and one of our delicious sugar-free flavored syrups (vanilla, hazelnut, caramel, or cinnamon dolce) and topped with creamy foam.”





Article by Susan Farago, M.Ed., USAT L1, USAC L2, NFPT Sports Nutrition. Susan is a multisport coach, athlete, and freelance health and fitness writer in Austin, Texas. She can be reached at coach@susanfarago.com or at www.susanfarago.com.© 2010.

Check out her Red Licorice Tweets, “Susan Says”, at http://twitter.com/Red_Licorice

Nutritional Article(s) Disclaimer

We know nutrition and "diet" information is both of interest and controversy in the athletic community. There are as many opinions on what's right and what works as there are people. We're going to have guest posts from time to time about people who subscribe to a certain eating style, just because we want to let you know what's out there. We're not advocating any programs or approaches...we're just giving you information. As with everything regarding your health and body, check with a Dr. before making any big changes. If you're not keen on a certain philosophy, please don't shoot the messenger (us!), just stick with what's working for you. If you've got questions about anything, you can contact the guest post author (their contact info will always be at the bottom of the posts) or just add your questions to the comments section.

All that said, we hope you find some interesting informationenjoy learning about different plans and wish you the BEST of luck on your journey to nutritional nirvana :)

GUEST POST :: Paleo Diet 101

Author: Eric Wood
The Label Says Paleo

After the 1.1. Run, I was talking to a friend who told me that she’s going gluten-free this year. This Ironman athlete made an intriguing find during her 2009 season: she planned gluten-free meals in the weeks leading up to her races, and she performed and felt better than she ever had before. Through the season, she killed her age groups, and is looking at making a more permanent diet change. While her training is of course key to her success, her diet is more important, as we only perform as well as the fuel with which we race. Why did the move to gluten-free work? Read on…

There’s been a ton of press lately around a “new” kind of diet. The Caveman Diet, Paleo Diet, Primal Diet – they’re all used to describe similar diets, yet none of them are particularly new. Instead, these diets take an evolutionary perspective, and look back in time to see what we ate before modern agriculture came around. The theory is simple: genetically-speaking, modern-day humans are not much different from pre-agricultural humans, and since agriculture really hasn’t been around too long, we should eat like we’re genetically built to.

Researchers around the world have found the following: in modern-day hunter-gatherer societies, people are healthy. There is very little evidence of obesity, heart disease, cancer, autoimmune disorders, or any of the several other health issues plaguing industrialized societies. These societies eat meat, the entire animal (seriously, just about the whole thing); vegetables as they can find; berries are a treat; nuts and seeds are around. What’s missing from this list? Any kind of processed food: bread, protein bars, bagels, oats, refined sugars. In other words, they eat what man has always eaten, before the advent of grains and processed foods.

What about science and medicine, you say? This flies in the face of the Food Pyramid, of almost everything we’re taught, and certainly contradicts the endurance athlete’s carb-loading traditions. Look no further than your waistline to see what’s going on.

Extra fat around the waistline, the kind that you just can’t seem to get rid of, is a sign of insulin resistance. Processed carbs and sugars, particularly those found in gluten-bearing foods like breads, are known to spike your insulin levels, leading to systemic inflammation and resultant chronic disease. For those of you not only looking out for your health, but also your figure: wild fluctuation in insulin levels leads to the storage of excess energy as fat (the culprit of those extra inches around your waistline.

Want to look better, perform better, and feel better? Regulate your insulin levels by eliminating processed foods and focusing on high-quality foods that we were meant to eat: meat, vegetables, some fruit, nuts and seeds. Try it for a month. Replace the missing carbs with high-quality vegetables and fats. The first two or three weeks may be tough, but your body will adjust, leaving you with more energy, a slimmer waistline, and better biological markers like the following: reduced inflammation (recover from your workouts faster!), improved cholesterol readings (healthier hearts!), reduced body fat (look good in those cycling kits!), and improve the immune system (no swine flu for you!).


Interested in knowing more? There are a ton of books, resources around the Internet, and people here in Austin are living the Paleo lifestyle daily. For more information and pointers to resources, check out Austin-based blog The Label Says Paleo at http://thelabelsayspaleo.com.

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Note from RLE: This is the first of a series of guest blog posts we'll be doing covering some different nutritional approaches for athletes. Here's some more info and a little disclaimer from RLE.

Triathlete Fashion Show - Thursday, February 25

You've been training hard, eating right even stretching (I know all you type-A's don't like to stretch. "I'm not sweating, so it doesn't count as a workout!") so it's probably time to treat yourself for being a good little athlete, right?

Right!

That's why RLE has teamed up with one of our favorite local athletic clothing stores, Bettysport, to throw a party to celebrate your accomplishments thus far and kick off the upcoming triathlon season.

Thursday, February 25 from 6:30-9:30pm at Lanai Rooftop Lounge, we'll be throwing another great RLE bash (RLE Birthday Party flashbacks, anyone?). Come hang out with other athletes, meet the competition you're going to leave in the dust at your next race and check out Bettysport's new Spring fashions, modeled by local athletes (read: REAL women).

BUT (insert excuse here)...

"But I have a workout that night!" Yeah, so do we. Bring your spandex-clad tush on over after you're done. You'll be in like company, we promise! Show starts at 6:30, but you're welcome to get there anytime after 4:30.

"But I'm a dude. I don't shop at Bettysport." Excellent point, sir. But we're willing to bet you have some friends who do, so come hang out with them and support the Austin Tri community! Single? You'd be a fool to miss this. Taken? You'll be in the doghouse at some point. The team over at Bettysport can help you pick out the right gift to get you out.



See who's already RSVP'd, add your name to the list (although it isn't mandatory), rally your troops (friends, training buddies, random strangers, etc.) and we'll see you tomorrow!