Nell Stephenson's Blog, page 117

How Much Recovery Do I Need?

Nell,

I followed you on Saturday and hope you’re taking some time to rest and recover…which brings me to my question: how much time will you take off?  How you know when you can do your next race or even get back to regular training after a long event like Ironman?   I feel like my coach is kind of old school as she only wants me to do one ironman per year and only one marathon.  Thoughts?

Thanks,

Kenji, Vancouver, BC

This is a great question, and one not easily answered.   In my opinion, there is no fast, hard rule that applies to everyone in terms of how much rest, recovery and downtime they need after a big event.  

Certainly, you can start with the most obvious and ask yourself how your body is really feeling.  At the moment for me, for example, 36 hours post race, given the fact that every inch of my body is worked and I’m not even walking down stairs properly, I feel it’s safe to say it’s too soon for me to head out on a run.  I will, however, do an easy swim and maybe a light spin to help flush my legs out a bit, which helps to hasten the recovery process.

As with so many facets of training, I’m a fan of trial and error and seeing for yourself what works for you, personally.

Only you know how your body feels; tune in for potential signs of fatigue, both physical and mental as well as emotional desire to get back out there and do your best to maintain balance.  Not only do you want to keep your body healthy and injury free, you also want to continue to enjoy the fun of your sport and prevent it from beginning to feel old, obligatory and tiresome.

The take away message is that while making a broad statement such as ‘no one should do more than one ironman race and one marathon per year’ may err on the side of caution, it simply doesn’t apply to everyone.

We have to be our own best judge of what’s right for each of us!

Feet Up and Resting

It was a challenging day out there yesterday for me!   A good day at the office, I suppose, when it all comes down to it, though!

Not a PR day for me, but another Ironman experience under the belt is always a good learning experience.  

A good measure of success, aside from how one places, is whether or not, at the end of the race, it can be said that all was given and every effort made.  That’s all any athlete can control.  Not who else shows up that might have a faster performance on that particular day, nor the winds…only what’s in your head!

I gave it what I had yesterday, and last year, that meant 6th place with a 10:17, and yesterday it meant 12th and 10:38.

All good and now time to head to another island for a few days of R&R! 

Thanks to those of you who followed along and send good wishes- and a congrats to anyone else who participated!

Here We Go Again!

At 7AM Hawaii Time today, I’ll be in the waters of the Pacific, ready to begin my day racing the course of the legendary Ironman World Championship here on the big island of Kona.

Always makes me giggle a little when I chat with anyone who doesn’t happen to be into the sport about the race; their responses vary from ”And why are you doing this?” to”Wait- you have to pay to do that?  They don’t pay you?”

It’s a choice and it’s always an honor: a course with conditions never to be underestimated or to take for granted, a warm, welcoming culture with great pride of their heritage and thousands upon thousands of athletes, their families and friends alike, it’s one of the most significant days of the year.

Fueled with plenty of paleo friendly starch via the local blue sweet potatoes available in abundance here on the island, I’ll be out there with fire in the belly, ready as I’ll ever be to reach my own personal goals for the day.

Follow along live, using the athlete tracker:

CLICK HERE

Bib # 1542

For anyone else who’s also racing, whether your goal is to complete the race, beat your own PR or crush the course, have a wonderful day out there!  

 

 Aloha!!

Finish Line Food

Oh, what a sore subject.

OK, I get it.  The idea of having an all Paleo finish line food area for athlete’s who’ve just competed an ironman, or a marathon or any race might be a pipe dream.

But how about at least offering a few healthier options than Domino’s Pizza and ice cream?  I wish I were kidding, but alas, that really is what is offered at the end of many an ironman race.

I can speak only for myself as when I say at the end of a long, grueling day, I really don’t fancy  eating something that’s going to make my stomach hurt after the fact like a glutenous, cheesy pizza.   My muscles and mind will have been pushed to the limit, so adding a horrible stomach ache is something I’ll pass on, please.

Given that there are some exceptions to this, such as the finish line at Hawaii 70.3 , where you actually can opt for a (bun-less)  burger and some fresh fruit, it’s not an impossibility to have a healthier menu for the athletes. 

Here in Hawaii, offering some of the beautiful, local produce would be easy, quick and a great way to support local famers.  How nice would it be to have the choice of some pineapple, mango, baby bananas  and fresh coconut water as they are, or even whizzed into a smoothie?

At least to have the option!

Ah… guess I’ll keep dreaming!

Yams In Kona? Not So Fast!

For those of you who are fellow Paleo endurance athletes, you already know it’s all about the yam when it comes to adding starch to fuel our bodies for race day or a big training session.

Today, I was asked for a recommendation as to where one can procure yams in Kona.

While I have seen yams from the mainland here, being that I’m such a fan of going with whatever is local, and hopefully organic, I’d suggest giving the Japanese Blue Sweet Potatoes a go.  (Japanese as in, that is where they originated, not where they are flown in from!).

Each year, I roast a large tray of them in coconut oil and local sea salt and add a little bit to each meal on Thursday and Friday before the big day on Saturday.

Delicious and easy, sweet and local, they’re a must-eat to prep your body for the long haul on race day!

If you’re here in town, you can get them at the Wednesday Farmer’s Market on Ali’i, as well as Island Natural Market in Kona.

Delish-even if you’re not Paleo…but let’s not go there just now!

Where’s the Money Going?

My mom has MS.  She was diagnosed in 1990 and initially, given that she had what is known as episodic or relapse/remit MS, at first she didn’t have many symptoms.

Over the course of the next decade, her diagnosis was changed to secondary progressive and she went from being an active mom with two kids, her own nursery school, a second job in the evening teaching lamaze as well as early childhood education to where she is now- permanently in a wheelchair, unable to do what used to be the simplest of tasks independently.

Of course, eating well and getting some form of exercise is key to keeping things from progressing even more rapidly.   However, as she can no longer simply get up and go to the gym or head on on a bike ride, she’s been fortunate to have a nearby facility to attend, sponsored by the MS Society, where she can receive speciality physical therapy, water exercise and even water skiing with professionals who are trained in helping those with this particular, mysterious, baffling auto immune disease.

At least, she used to be able to go to this facility.

Just last week, she, and all the other people who were reaping the benefits of this facility received letters in the mail stating that the MS Society had reallocated their funds to conduct more research so this facility is going to close.

I find this heartbreaking, discouraging and, to be quite frank, rather disgusting.   I can only presume that by ‘reallocating funding’ that the money is now going to be used to ultimately come up with some new drug, which docs can then push upon their patients, which may or may not help (as is the case, so we’ve been told, with many of the MS meds), may make things worse (as some of the meds actually cause cancers- ooops) but will certainly do one thing:  increase profits for the companies selling the drugs.

Pardon me if this offends.   I do recognize that there are many drugs that do wonders for people with all sorts of maladies, so this certainly isn’t meant to be a broad missive indicating they should all be done away with.

Rather, I just mean to express my frustration with this approach in general:  ’forget the exercise and diet; let’s head straight to the meds’.

Witnessing what my mom goes through, with never an ounce of complaint or ‘woe is me’ from her, by the way, I just can help but wonder what things would be like if there were more programs geared toward treating holistically, in ways which are more based on natural remedies, or even integrating them with Western Meds, instead of having the mainstream treatment be such that it’s such guesswork with such potential dire side effects.

Heading straight to meds doesn’t always need to be step number one.

After the Trip…

I’ve written several posts about how to prep and bring your Paleo inspired foods along with you for a trip, whether it’s a flight or a road journey.   

But it can’t stop there.

What happens when you get back home after a long day at midnight and head straight to bed, tired as a dog, then wake up in the morning to find nothing to eat?

Why risk the temptation of the ease of popping into the French corner bakery you used to frequent to grab a croissant and cafe au lait ‘just to tide you over until you go grocery shopping’ when you can easily plan in advance to avoid this first step down the path to road to eating the very same foods you purposely stopped eating?  

It might seem impossible to plan in advance when you’re going to be gone for a week, or a month, but it’s not.  

Making the effort to prepare as little as one meal, then freezing it, in order to have something waiting for you when you get back from your journey can make all the difference from letting that dangerous ‘one bite’ of a sugar-laden, uber-proceesed ‘food item’ from passing your mouth and starting that process of having to detox all over again.

For example, bake, cool and freeze a piece of wild salmon or free range chicken and chop, steam, then cool and freeze some broccoli florets.  Your olive oil in the cabinet will keep and all you’ll need to do when you get home late at night is take the portioned out proteins and veg out of the freezer and place  them in the fridge to defrost.  

You can go to sleep knowing that in the morning you’ll have a Paleo ready meal for you waiting to go that will need nothing more that a few minutes in the oven to reheat and you won’t break your Paleo-mentum between waking and heading to the grocery store to get back into your normal routine.

And On That School Lunch Tip…

I heard a great interview today on NPR with a chef who goes by ‘The Renegade Lunch Lady’.  

Chef Ann, as per her website, states that her “life’s work is to transform how we feed our children in school each day, from highly processed to highly nourishing food — one school lunch at a time.”

Professionally trained and having worked all around the world, she decided to become what she called a ‘school lunch lady’.

I just loved what she had to say and some of the suggestions she made, including the following one she has on her site:

“I challenge you to do just one thing to make a difference in your own schools –eat lunch in a local school and see what you think, then inquire about the wellness policy in the local school district, volunteer in the kitchen, form a local task force, meet with school board members, plant a garden or at least the idea for a garden at a local school. One thing – Go for it and keep us posted of your progress on the Community Page at www.thelunchbox.org.  Together, we’ll transform local changes into a stronger and healthier community for all children in every school. Let the Lunch Lessons Revolution begin!”

I can recall the ‘food’ offered when I was in school and even as a teenager I knew it wasn’t good.  Everything did seem to be deep fried and of a brown or orange hue with some kind of thick, cheese sauce or other gooped on top of it.   I will admit I don’t think I could bring myself to force down the food that is offered in many a school district these days.

However, that doesn’t mean I won’t partake in Chef Ann’s suggestion to continue to try and make a difference.

Will you?

Throwing The Good Stuff Away?

I was so saddened after reading an article in yesterday’s NY Times, entitled  No Appetite for New Good-f0r-You School Lunches.

As per the corresponding photo from the piece printed on the 6th, the students are literally throwing away items such as bags of baby carrots, fresh pears and apples… anything that they find to have “no taste, no flavor and it’s healthy which makes it even worse”, according to one student who is a senior in high school.

The article referenced schools in several cities across the US, so it’s not just in one small area.   Even one employee of a cafeteria here in LA was quoted as saying she herself would prefer to to eat the junk: “Why would I eat chicken and an apple when I could get a Gatorade, a cookie and some gummie candies?” (all of which that particular school offers in vending machines and in their student store.

Rife with references to students finding vegetables to be gross, and wanting to be able to eat cheesy nachos rather than a fruit cup, one has to wonder where this all stems from.

What are these kids eating at home?

What are their parents teaching them?

If their only experience eating veggies has been so awful that they’ve deemed all of them to be ‘gross’, where does the responsibility lie?

What can we do to show the next generation that veggies are not actually gross and how fortunate they are to have them on their plates?

 

The ‘Peanut Butter’ Cure?

I thought I’d heard it incorrectly.  NPR was on in the background as I was writing yesterday, and I heard mention of this seeming oxymoron.

I was wrong.  I hadn’t heard it incorrectly; apparently, over a decade ago, a French doctor “invented a treatment for severely malnourished children that had a revolutionary, life-saving impact; the product goes by different names in different parts of the world, such as Plumpy’Nut, Nourimanba and Chiponde. It’s basically peanut butter with some added ingredients: dried milk, oil, sugar, and essential minerals and vitamins.“

While I could certainly wax poetic about how un-Paleo this is, there’s a more significant problem with this proposition; something that brings to mind something a certain company did a couple of decades ago when they introduced their baby formula to impoverished areas in Africa, suggesting that their product was superior to mother’s breast milk.  

The issue is that the peanut butter packages are being promoted by private companies that make them and the concern is “that glitzy, foil-wrapped packets could distract people from local, low-tech nourishment, or from breast-feeding.  In an ideal world, we wouldn’t rely on packages of enriched peanut butter.”

Here’s a revolutionary concept: how about developing more programs to fund organization which help parents get good local food like eggs, meat and whichever vegetables and fruit naturally grow in their regions, rather than pushing yet another  processed  product upon them?

As in, let’s help people get real food?