A Miracle Berry...and a few other cool things

I've came across a few really cool products the past couple weeks so I thought I'd share them with you.

Miracle Berry: Yes, that's the actual name of this berry. I saw it feature on the Doctor Oz show. Basically this berry makes anything you eat taste sweet! This is great because it allows you to be able to eat foods that are good for you but don't taste good. On the show Dr Oz ate a piece of lemon and he said it tasted very sweet- interesting stuff. Here the link to the video for you to check out http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/miracle-food-cures-pt-2.
Not sure what stores carry this but if you google miracle berry you can find places to buy it online.

Fitbit: I stumbled across this cool gadget online. I'm going to quote straight from the Fitbit website just what it does:
"The Fitbit accurately tracks your calories burned, steps taken, distance traveled and sleep quality. The Fitbit contains a 3D motion sensor like the one found in the Nintendo Wii. The Fitbit tracks your motion in three dimensions and converts this into useful information about your daily activities.

You can wear the Fitbit on your waist, in your pocket or on undergarments. At night, you can wear the Fitbit clipped to the included wristband in order to track your sleep. Anytime you walk by the included wireless base station, data from your Fitbit is silently uploaded in the background to Fitbit.com"

This is just plain cool and I felt I had to let you know about it! I think it would be interesting to track calories burned, steps taken and sleep quality for a couple weeks and see where I can improve. I put a picture just below- nice looking too!



Underwater heaphones/mp3 player: This has actually been around for quite some time but I'm finding a lot of people don't know about! Lane swimming can be very boring, being able to take music with you while you swim can really liven up your workout. If this one interests you I know you can get a pair through speedo.

Bosu Ball: Been around for a long time too, but I just tried a bosu ball for the first time a few days ago at the gym. Wow! I did some push up sets on it and it was so much more difficult. It really activiates the stabilizer muscles. Next time you're in the gym, do it up. You can do basically any workouts on a bosu ball, just be careful and don't use too much weight.

 Those are a few cool things I've come across the past couple weeks. All can be very beneficial for your training or just for all around well-being. If you end up using any of these products let us know what you think of them!

Training/Racing Nutrition

With our latest Hammer Nutrition contest going on I thought I'd blog about how important nutrition is in an athletes life. Personally, having hitting the wall or "bonking" more times than I'd like to remember I've learned how important fueling myself while training and racing is. Most of the times I've hit the wall have been in relation to fueling, more specifically not hydrating or taking in enough calories. I'll post a few important tips for proper fueling while you train and race. You should know however, what works for one person might not work for you, so test out energy gels and drinks and find out what works best for you.

1. This is by far the most important tip. DO NOT try something race day that you have not used in training. Experimenting race day is not the time to be doing that, stick with what you trained with. Trying something new might result in stomach problems or a multitude of other things. Ending your race because you decided to try a new product is not very smart
2. Dehydration is the single largest contributor to fatigue when training or racing. Making sure you have a hydration plan is extremely important. Remember that your sense of thirst doesn't kick in until well after you're dehydrated. A way I remember to drink is to set my watch to beep at me every 9 minutes while I'm training. That way I'm always being reminded to hydrate.
3. When running, a sports drink and energy gels are the most practical fuel options. Make sure to select an energy gel that provides sodium along with carbohydrates, such as Hammer gels. Energy gels are designed to be consumed roughly every 30-45 minutes during exercise, along with fluids.
4. Getting in protein, and fluids immediately after exercise is very important! You must get in protein immediately after exercise to repair and build muscle tissue. Obviously, you must also get in fluids after exercise to rehydrate. These two things are key in proper recovery nutrition.

Those are 4 pretty basic points about training/racing nutrition. There are many more points that could be covered but those will give you a good starting point. Remember to try different products and find out what works best for you.

Why Do You Run??

I was recently approached by a normal middle aged man who wanted my advice. This man started off by telling me that his friend (a very dedicated triathlete) had died a few days ago. Unsure of where this story was going I continued to listen. He told me about all the races his friend had entered and that he was even buried in his racing outfit. After the funeral this man and two of his friends were sitting in a bar and decided to do something that their late friend would be absolutely amazed if they did. They decided to sign up for Ironman Canada. None of them have ever swam, biked or ran in their lives, one of them actually asked if they would be able to use his kid's 10 speed bike for the 180km bike course. Less than a year till the race and obviously not knowing a whole lot about the sport will prove to be a huge challenge for these 3 guys. This guy was asking me everything from what to wear, eat, how to run- anything you can think of he probably asked it. I really hope these guys follow through with this and somehow find it in themselves to finish an Ironman with so little training and experience. I have a feeling it will be one of the biggest accomplishments they will ever experience. And best of all, they are doing it for their friend and I'm sure he would have been very proud.

After he said goodbye and left with maybe too much information at once on his plate, I really started to think. On August 28 in beautiful Penticton BC, there will be 3 normal guys who 6 months ago didn't know a thing about triathlon. Now they will have 17 hours to swim, bike and run 226km. Because they wanted to make their late triathlete friend proud they will be digging deeper than they ever have and hopefully overcoming all the obstacles thrown at them that day.

These 3 guys have a pretty inspirational reason why they are deciding to do this. There are hundreds of thousands of people in thousands of races who all have a different story as to why they train and race. People in races shouldn't just be viewed as numbers, they all have a reason why they are there. It could be simply to get in shape, make friends, compete or even do it to honor a friend. So why do you run? If you don't, why not? Chances are whatever your answer to that is, is simply an excuse. Get out the door and go for a run! These 3 guys have 6 months to train for an Ironman Triathlon, they will certainly have a lot of excuses why they would rather do anything else other than go for a 3 hour training ride, but they will do it to honor their friend. The hardest thing in anything is always the first step. Go ahead, put your shoes on and just do it, I promise you'll feel better about yourself.

Still haven't entered in our contest to win a free Timex Ironman Watch? You have until Feb 28 to join mytrainingbuddy.com and enter. Details are on the website.