Wednesday, February 01, 2006

hips and core

[2/1/06 Wednesday]
Swim - 2750 yd, 51:47 - mixed workout with 4 x 400
Run - 2 miles, 20 min - treadmill workout
Hip/Core Series

My runner's knee is a symptom of weak hip muscles that result in extra stress being put on the knee. In physical therapy I have been given a series of hip strengthening exercises. Regular lower body weight-lifting exercises that involve bending the knee are not good for my knee right now, so I have replaced it with a series of natural movement exercises for the lower body that target primarily the hips and core. This is my current routine:

1. Side step with elastic band around ankles (3 x 20 steps each direction)

2. Raised-knee walk with elastic band around ankles (3 x 20 steps each forward/backward)

3. Walk and raise knee as high as possible on each step (around 250 steps)

4. Side lunge (3 x 20 each direction)

5. Speed-skater step (3 x 10 each direction)

6. Speed-skater step and touch opposite side (3 x 10 each direction)

7. Speed-skater step and touch same side (3 x 10 each direction)

8. Outer adductor weight machine (4 x 15)

9. Standing calf raise (4 x 15)



[1/31/06 Tuesday]
Swim - 1750 yd, 33:41
Bike - 60 minute spin class
Upper body weights, Abs (300)

I went to the west side Princeton Club to swim this morning, which I don't usually do. I guess I should have checked the pool schedule because my swim got cut short when a water aerobics class started at 8am. I was planning to swim 3000yd but only made it to 1750. Sadly, I was totally in my groove of doing 400yd repeats with negative splits at the time.

Monday, January 30, 2006

eating for performance

[1/30/06 Monday]
REST Day

I am gradually working on optimizing my diet for performance. Generally I eat very healthy, mostly vegetarian, with occasional salmon or tuna. A rule of thumb that I attempt to go by as much as possible is 'if it does not occur in nature, don't eat it'. That means I eat a lot of fruit, vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts, seeds, plain yogurt, egg whites. My daily caloric intake during base training period (right now) is usually 2000-3000 depending on how long the day's workout was. During the summer when I do high volume training, my daily calories are more like 3500-4000.

This is a typical weekday for me:

Breakfast (7 am) - 3 egg whites, 1/2 cup oatmeal (measured dry) with flax meal and wheat germ, small glass of orange juice

Morning Snack (10 am) - piece of fruit

Lunch (noon) - Hummus, spinach, sprouts, avocado sandwich on whole wheat, piece of fruit

Afternoon Snack (3pm)- handful of almonds and dried apricots, Clif Bar (post-workout)

Dinner (6:30pm)- sliced tofu fried in Indian spices and olive oil, steamed kale, sweet potato (plain)

Evening Snack - (9 pm) air-popped popcorn (plain or with brewer's yeast), decaf green tea


I am reading a book now on how to be a vegan and an endurance athlete - Thrive by Brendan Brazier. This is a great book and I would recommend that all athletes interested in nutrition read what Brendan has to say (look at www.brendanbrazier.com to get started). I saw Brendan speak at last year's Vancouver Marathon expo where he demostrated making homemade vegan energy bars. A main point he makes is that to enhance daily recovery, it is important to choose foods that do not create further stress within the body. It is important to choose foods that create an alkaline state within the body since hard exercise makes the body acidic.

Sunday, January 29, 2006

nothing special

[1/29/06 Sunday]
Run - 2.5 miles, 25 minutes
Swim - 2000 yd, 36 minutes - with 1 mile time trial and short warm up/cool down