The New Year is upon us, which means the gyms and fitness centers are packed with people ready to tackle another year of getting in shape.  In general, this is a good thing.  In reality, quite a few people won’t practice the training principle of progression, gradually increasing workouts in terms of frequency, intensity and time.  In today’s high-tech society, people want everything fast, including fitness results.

However, fitness cannot be rushed.  The body needs time to adapt, build and recover from its workouts.  If a person ignores the progression principle and attempts to get fit quickly, the risks of excessive soreness and/or injury increase significantly.  Therefore, I’m going to give you a few safety recommendations to help you minimize getting injured as you travel down your fitness road.

A Few Exercise Safety Recommendations:

• Depending upon your current fitness level, age and family health history, you may want to schedule a physical with your doctor and discuss your fitness goals before diving head first into an exercise program.
• If you have not exercised in a while and have clearance from your doctor to begin exercising, start off  with two days the first week for 20 to 30 minutes working on building a base foundation for both cardio respiratory endurance and muscle endurance.  Allow two days of recovery between your workouts during this first week.  Each week you can progress one component (frequency, intensity and time) at a time until you are working out three to five days a week for 25 to 30 minutes depending upon the intensity.  The American Heart Association suggests “at least 150 minutes per week of moderate exercise or 75 minutes per week of vigorous exercise (or a combination of moderate and vigorous activity).  Thirty minutes a day, five times a week is an easy goal to remember, however you will also experience benefits even if you divide your time into two or three segments of 10 -15 minutes per day.”
• Wear appropriate clothing for your chosen exercise.  If you will be sweating a lot, wear material that is made to “wick” away the sweat and allows the sweat to evaporate, such as “dry fit” material.  You may also layer your clothing and peel them off after you warm up. Do not wear nylon-based synthetics because the material does not “breath.”  NEVER wear rubber suits or so much clothing that body heat cannot be lost by sweat evaporation.  When your sweat cannot evaporate, your heart will be overworked, and your body core temperature may increase to unsafe levels.
• Do not exercise immediately after eating a big meal.  Digestion of food requires a large amount of blood and so does exercise.  When blood is used for digestion, there isn’t enough blood available for the muscles during exercise; therefore, you should wait 1 to 1 ½ hours to exercise after a big meal.  A small balanced meal around 250 calories is okay, but still wait around 20 to 30 minutes before strenuous exercise.  Stay hydrated while working out, especially during prolonged cardiovascular workouts, during which time you may need to drink an electrolyte replacement beverage, like Cytomax.
•  Contact your doctor if you experience symptoms such as chest pain, skipped heartbeats, and pronounced shortness of breath or dizziness while exercising.
• Always perform a short warm-up routine before exercising, including some dynamic stretching.  The warm-up is crucial for preparing the body for the workout.
• When performing post workout static stretches or even some yoga stretches, do not stretch to the point of pain.  Any soreness after a stretching or flexibility workout should be mild and recovered within 24 hours.  If you are sore for a longer period, you stretched too intensely.
• Static stretches should be held for 10 to 60 seconds depending upon one’s flexibility.  Less flexible, longer hold.  Flexibility is considered the slowest improving fitness component.  Flexibility takes many months to develop.
• No ballistic movement while stretching.  Otherwise, you may pull or strain a muscle.
• The old saying, “If a little is good, a lot is better,” does not apply to exercise.  Adhere to your exercise program unless you experience discomfort or stiffness in your joints and muscles for several days.  Then you may need to adjust your exercise program’s frequency, intensity or time.
• Maintain proper body alignment (posture) at all times.  Think tall body, soft joints, when working out.  Do not lock out your knees or elbows when lifting weights, bike riding, running, rowing or most other exercises.
• Technique is crucial to success in your program.  Do not sacrifice technique to complete a designated number of repetitions or lifting a certain number of pounds.  It is better to perform 1 set with excellent technique verses 2 or more sets with poor form.
• Think quality verses quantity.
• When stepping, place the entire foot on the platform.  Do not lean or bend forward from the hips or waist.  Maintain proper body alignment.  Also, to protect your knees, do not step on a platform that flexes your knees beyond 90 degrees.
• Avoid hyper extending the back, especially when lifting weights.  Wearing a weightlifting lumbar belt may help keep you honest.
• To protect your knees when performing a squat, do not drop your quadriceps lower than parallel the ground or let you knees go beyond your toes.

By following these recommendations, you should be able to keep injury at bay.  So remember, safety first, patience and proper progression.  Good luck!

Just a reminder, please do not copy and use this blog for any commercial use on your personal blogs or businesses.   You can always contact me through the comment section.  I would be happy to help you when it comes to “All Things Fitness” related!  Thank you!  Patty Peoples – 30 years experience – Fitness Lifestyle Specialist/Educator/Columnist/2011 Sprint Duathlon AG World Champion and Fastest Overall Female Cyclist /Writer/Motivator/Coach/2-time Sports Emmy Recipient for 2002 & 2004 NBC Olympic Production Team/3-time USAT #1 Nationally Ranked AG Duathlete/3-time USAT All-American Duathlete/Women’s Tour de France Winning USA Team Member/Top 25 Ironman Finisher/East Coast Triathlon Champion/Mother/Wife

Below are some simple Holiday Stress Reliever Tips from my “All Things Fitness” column that appears twice monthly in the Redlands Daily Facts Newspaper.   HaPPy Stressless Holidays to you and your family!

 Holiday Stress Relievers

By:  Patty Peoples

            The holidays can often be a double-edge sword for people.  On one hand, you have the joy of Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza and any other celebratory holiday, and on the other hand, you may have the pressure of shopping, mailing gifts and cards, baking, entertaining, children home from school, work deadlines, and a number of other everyday stresses.  Sometimes just thinking about all you have to do is stress enough.  I know this is the case for me at this time of the year.  As I sit here writing this column, in the back of my head I’m even thinking about all that I need to accomplish and feeling a little stressed.

Without going into complicated scientific details, two simple reasons you want to relieve stress are to keep your body’s physiological and psychological negative reaction to stress at a minimum to prevent a variety of health problems.  Continuous stress left unattended can affect your body in different ways including increased blood pressure and stroke, heart disease and weight issues.  Stress can also have emotional and mental effects, including anxiety, feeling overwhelmed, cognitive impairment and even contributing to emotional eating.  Lastly, stress may affect your quality of life in the following ways:  poor nutritional choices, inadequate sleeping, and an unbalance of time between responsibilities and personal time.

So what can one do to relieve stress?  One of the best recommendations is to exercise.  However, you may be thinking, “I would love to exercise, but I don’t have the time with everything else I need to do.”  The key to assuring you exercise, is schedule it into your day, just like an appointment.  Then keep the appointment.  If you feel the need to cancel your exercise appointment, turn your thoughts to how good you always feel after exercising and let that thought be the driving force for you to keep your appointment.  Or you can recall how bad you have felt in the past when you have canceled your exercise appointment.  Then ask yourself, “Of the two feelings, which one do I want to experience?”  Ninety-nine percent of the time, you will choose the good feeling.  Depending on how long you normally exercise, you may need to cut back the time commitment, but that’s okay.  As little as 10 to 20 minutes will help you relieve stress.

One exercise that is rooted in relieving stress is yoga, “a Hindu system of philosophy aiming at the mystical union of the self with the Supreme Being in a state of complete awareness and tranquility through certain physical and mental exercises to promote physical and spiritual well being.”

More active exercises that involve the cardiorespiratory and muscular systems relieve stress by providing a sense of well-being due to the release of endorphins.  According to the medical dictionary, endorphins are “any of a group of peptide hormones that bind to opiate receptors and are found mainly in the brain. Endorphins reduce the sensation of pain and affect emotions.  The term endorphin was coined by combining the words endogenous and morphine. Like morphine, endorphins raise the pain threshold and produce sedation and euphoria.”  Endorphins are released during long continuous workouts of moderate to high intensity, where breathing is difficult.

In addition to exercise, below are a few simple ideas to help lower your stress level:

1)      Listening to music – Choose music that relaxes you and either take a moment to just listen to the song or have soothing music playing in the background while doing one of your holiday tasks.   This time of year, I like to have Christmas music playing in the background when I’m home working or cooking dinner.

2)      Visualization – Just close your eyes (not while driving, of course) and visualize yourself in a calm setting for a few minutes.  Perhaps you have a favorite vacation spot where you felt totally relaxed.  Let your memory come alive again during this visualization process.

3)      Breathing – Breathe at your normal rate, but take controlled, deep breathes – inhaling through your nose and exhaling through your mouth.  As you breathe, don’t move your shoulders up and down, but rather, let your abdomen expand and contract, similar to how a baby breathes.   This will allow more oxygenation of the blood and increase your lung capacity.  The best part of this stress releaser is that it can be done anywhere and anytime.

4)      Laughter – Laughing is a free and simple activity that studies have shown reduces the level of stress hormones like cortisol, epinephrine, and dopamine.  Laughing can also help relieve pain and has be shown to increase immunity.  A good belly laugh even works your abdominal muscles and relieves muscle tension across your upper back and shoulders.  Whenever I want to unwind and relax with laughter, I just pop in a Seinfeld DVD.

5)      Aromatherapy – Smells affect people in various ways.  But for relieving stress, you can use any of a number of botanical smells to help bring about a sense of calm. Light a candle, add oil to a warm bath (a soothing activity by itself) or perhaps apply a scented body lotion to your skin. However, make certain you are not allergic to any of the lotion’s ingredients before applying to your skin.  Some popular smells include lemon, lavender, rose and peppermint.  During the holiday season, I particularly enjoy having a pine or Christmas wreath candle burning in the evening.

Happy fit and stress-free holiday!  Patty

Patty Peoples is an accomplished fitness professional with 30 years of experience, including 20 years as a Fitness Educator at Chaffey College, Duathlon World Champion in her division and winner of over 60 races since 2000.

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 Behavioral Eating Tips

By:  Patty Peoples

 It’s countdown time to one of the biggest family gathering and eating days of the year, Thanksgiving.  So before you pack up the car and head over to the relatives, or perhaps a friends’ house, I’m going to give you a few behavioral eating tips to help keep you from adding unwanted pounds.   Don’t wait until the New Year to make changes, start now and you will have almost a two month jump on everyone else.  Also, by choosing the holidays to enact behavioral changes, you will be that much stronger during any other time of the year.

We humans are creatures of habit and if some of those habits are contributing to overconsumption of excess calories, then you must make a conscious effort to change those particular habits.  One of the easiest methods for doing that is making some minor adjustments to your eating behavior.

1)       Smaller bowls or plates – By choosing a smaller bowl or plate for your food, you will eat closer to one true serving size.  For example, most cereals’ serving sizes are roughly ¾ to 1 cup.  However, most people probably eat between two to four serving sizes because of the size bowl they choose to use.  People generally don’t measure out their cereal; but rather, fill their bowl to just below the rim.  Test this theory for yourself.  The next time you eat cereal, before you pour in the milk, measure your amount of cereal and compare it with the serving size on the cereal package.  In the future, use a bowl that is closer to a true serving size.  You will barely notice the difference, because you will still fill the bowl to just below the rim, except this time, you won’t be consuming too many calories.  The same holds true for lunch and dinner meals.  Keep the plates proportionate to true serving sizes. Otherwise, you will fill the plate with food for the sake of filling up the plate without considering serving sizes.

2)       Smaller utensils – This is especially true for spoons.  Use the smallest spoon possible for all your needs.  Forget the large soup spoon.  If you use a smaller spoon for eating hot soup, not only will you take smaller bites, but you will take longer to eat the soup.  The longer you take eating, the sooner your brain will register full and you won’t overeat as much.

In 2003, an analysis was done at a Cornell University ice cream social about the effect of portion sizes when using different sized bowls and utensils.  The study involved a group of 85 nutrition experts, gathering to honor a colleague.  Randomly, they were given either a smaller (17 oz) or a larger (34 oz) bowl and either a smaller (2 oz) or larger (3 oz) ice cream scoop.  After serving themselves, their ice cream was weighed as they completed a brief survey.

It was found that those given larger bowls served themselves 31.0% more ice cream without being aware of it.  Their servings even increased by 14.5% when they used a larger serving spoon.

3)      Take your time – Savor each bite!  By taking your time to enjoy your meal, you will give your body time to realize it is full.  It takes roughly 20 minutes for your gastric hormones to reach your brain and turn off your appetite.  If you eat too fast, you are more likely to overeat.

4)      Out of sight – Keep any of your “junk snacks” out of direct line of your vision in your pantry, refrigerator or freezer.  I’m talking about cookies, candy, ice cream, chips, ding-dongs, cup cakes or anything similar.  Put them out of sight so you don’t see them every time you open the door.  What you don’t see on a regular basis, you won’t be tempted to eat.

Also, when attending a party or family function with a buffet of food, don’t seat close to any food areas, but rather in an area of the room out of sight of any tempting food.  By not making it easy to just reach over and grab a plate of food, you will be less likely to overeat.  That also means don’t stand next to a buffet of food while visiting with friends or relatives. Otherwise, you may end up snacking the entire time you are chatting, which could spell excess for your calorie intake.

By incorporating some of these behavioral tips during your meals and at social gatherings, you should be able to keep unwanted pounds at bay.  Good luck!

Patty Peoples is an accomplished fitness professional with 30 years of experience, including 20 years as a Fitness Educator at Chaffey College and was recently crowned World Duathlon Champion in her division.   Patty can be reached at p2peakperformance@hotmail.com

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Below is the EARLY version of my “All things fitness” column.   This is the COMPLETE article – unedited.  Hope these tips help you, your family and your friends make it through the holidays without gaining a pound!  Good Luck and let the Holiday Season begin!

Forever FIT= Forever YOUNG!

Patty Peoples

“All Things Fitness” Column
for November 3, 2011

Holiday Fitness Tips

By:  Patty Peoples

     With Halloween behind us, can you say the same about the Halloween treats? Did you know that the majority of people gain the most body fat between Halloween and New Year’s Day?  Well, I’m going to give you three tips to help you not become part of that national statistic.  Are you ready?  Okay, let’s get down to business.

Tip # 1 – Throw out the leftover treats.

Halloween is over, so take any leftover treats (candy, cupcakes, caramel apple, etc.) and throw them away!  Out of sight, out of mind!  You have already enjoyed your Halloween treat, so now it’s time to say good-bye to Halloween and its many sweet
temptations.  If you keep leftover treats around, you will be tempted to eat them, when you really don’t need the extra calories and especially the saturated fats. Also, most candies do not have any micronutrient (vitamins/minerals) benefits.  For instance one small Almond Joy candy bar (.6 ounces) has 90 calories, 4.5 grams of fat (3g saturated), 10 grams of carbohydrates (< 1g dietary fiber, 8g sugars), < 1 gram of protein and 0% of Vitamin A, C, Iron or Calcium.  In other words, this piece of candy has zero  healthful benefits in the way of vitamins and minerals and primarily unhealthy refined sugar and saturated fats.  So what is the benefit of eating this?  None, unless you call flavor a benefit.  But when it comes to trying to keep unwanted body fat from making a home on your frame, you must learn not to make food choices based primarily upon flavor.  There are plenty of more healthy food choices that also taste good, like apple slices sprinkled with cinnamon.

Throughout the holiday season, if you have any non-nutritional leftovers after a party, throw them out as you are cleaning up.  It is best to keep these foods out of the house.  If they are not around, you won’t think about eating them. Once again – out of sight, out of mind!

Tip # 2 – Food as fuel.

If you are not doing this already, now is a good time to start – think of food as fuel for the body.  Your food selection should be based upon both its nutritional benefits and the amount of calories your body needs to maintain a caloric balance (calorie intake =  calories expended).  If you are trying to lose body fat, you will need a negative caloric balance (calorie intake < calories expended).  If you are trying to gain some body fat, you will need a positive caloric balance (calorie intake > calories expended).

When making food choices divide them into two primary categories:  calories (macronutrients) and vitamins/minerals (micronutrients).  Calories play a significant role in fat gain, loss or maintenance, while vitamins/minerals, along with water, primarily affect health and performance.  Before you put a piece of food in your mouth, ask yourself the following question, “What purpose will this serve my body?”  Are you eating the food for its micronutrients or its macronutrients (calories in the form of protein, carbohydrates or fat) or both?  If you don’t need this particular fuel, then don’t ingest it.  Excess fuel in the body only leads to excess fat on the body.  Notice I’m not referring to weight, but rather fat.  There is a huge difference.  All day long, the body goes up and down in terms of weight, due to fluid intake and food volume.  Thus, weight fluctuates on a regular basis.  However, once you consume an excess of 3,500 calories, you will gain one pound of fat.  It doesn’t happen overnight, but it will eventually happen, one pound at a time.

Tip # 3 – Don’t neglect your exercise and physical activity.

Did you know there is a difference between exercise and physical activity?  The difference is exercise is a planned, structured and repetitive physical activity for the purpose of achieving a higher level of physical fitness.  Some examples are continuous cycling, running, power walking, yoga, a fitness class and swimming laps.  Whereas, physical activity doesn’t necessarily have to be exercise, but must include bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles and providing progressive health benefits.  Some examples, besides exercise, are washing your car by hand, performing household chores and using the stairs verses the elevator.  Both exercise and physical activity utilize calories and will help keep your body fat under control.

I have a philosophy that has worked for over 25 years and I know it can also work for you – Workout before you go out!   With the temptation of more social events and parties in November and December, you must not succumb to both peer pressure and the temptation to forgo exercising or physical activity for a social gathering.   Instead, stay committed to your program and plan to join your friends later at the event.  You will feel much better and enjoy the event more after your workout.  Otherwise, if you skip your workout, you may feel guilty at the event and try to lessen the guilt by comforting yourself with food and usually the wrong kind of food.  Remember, tip number two?  This is extremely important when attending social functions.

Another method to help beat food temptation at holiday functions is to first eat a healthy meal before you attend the event.  You won’t be hungry at the event and therefore, you will spend more time socializing verses overeating.  By following these three simple tips during the next two months, you will keep your body fat from increasing while also building confidence and self-esteem by proving to yourself you have the willpower to control your eating behavior.   Good luck!

NOTE:  This column can not be reproduced or copied without the permission of its author, Patty Peoples.  Column is copyrighted.

Patty Peoples is an accomplished fitness professional with 30 years of experience.  She is the current ITU Sprint Duathlon AG
WORLD CHAMPION and posted the FASTEST overall female bike split.  She is the current USAT AG Duathlon NATIONAL
CHAMPION,  3-time USAT All-American Duathlete and 3-time USAT #1 Nationally Ranked AG Duathlete.  Patty is also a motivational speaker, fitness educator, multi-sport specialist, community activist/volunteer, wife and mother.  Patty can be reached at p2peakperformance@hotmail.com

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I have been writing a Fitness Column in the Redlands Daily Facts as a Community Service since February, 2011.   I will now be posting the columns here as well.  You can also stay connected by “liking” my “All Things Fitness” Facebook page.

“All Things Fitness” Column

Balancing Act

By:  Patty Peoples

            We’ve all been told it’s important to have balance in life.  This is particularly true when it comes to developing one’s ability to have good postural balance.  Having good balance is important for several reasons, including fall prevention, maintaining a strong torso, preventing undue stress on joints and back and improved performance in most sports.  Postural balance is a common problem for a lot of people but even a bigger problem for older individuals who may have age-related complications; such as, medical problems, complications from medication reactions and general decline in muscle tone and decreased physical activity.  Poor balance is a major contributing factor to most falls among the elderly.  Falling is also the leading cause of injury death for people over the age of 65.

My 84 year-old father recently lost his balance while experiencing some dizziness in the bathroom.  He fell, hit his head on the floor and was rushed to the local hospital, nearly 30 miles away.  Upon arrival in the emergency room, he was admitted to the intensive care unit and given 24 hours to live.  He had bleeding on the brain and stroke-like symptoms.  Fortunately, he survived and after numerous tests during his five days in the hospital, he was released to a nearby care facility.  His overall condition is still not good, but at least he’s alive and slowly making progress with his occupational therapy.

While visiting him in the hospital, I wondered to myself, “If Dad had stayed committed to his exercise program, including balance exercises, could his fall have been prevented?”   We’ll never know for certain, but I do know that if he had developed his core and stabilizing muscles more, he would have been physically better conditioned to help maintain his balance.  He still may have fallen, but maybe not as hard.

So to help others become better equipped to maintain a good postural balance and hopefully, even prevent them from a life changing fall like my father’s, I am dedicating this column to my dad by prescribing a simple, but very effective balance exercise – it’s called the “one-footed diagonal pull/extend.”

Muscle groups engaged during this exercise will primarily be your core stabilizing muscles (abdominals/obliques/back), gluteus maximus, hip flexors, quadriceps, hamstrings, tibialis anterior and deltoids.  In other words, almost your entire body will benefit from this exercise, especially your overall balance ability.

Start Position:

*  Stand tall with your shoulders back, spine aligned and knees slightly bent.

Simultaneously:

* Lift your right foot and extend it slightly off the ground behind you with the foot pointed.

* Lift your right arm up in a diagonal position beside your right ear with the palm facing inward.

* Extend your left arm slightly back in a diagonal position

* Hold pose until you get your balance.

Finish Position:

Simultaneously – Without moving your torso or standing leg:

* Fist you right hand while pulling your right arm back, bending your elbow 90 degrees and stop when  your  right fist is beside your torso.

* Pull your right leg up while bending your knee, past your torso and stopping when your right quadriceps is close to being parallel to the ground.

* Fist your left hand while pulling your left arm forward, bending your elbow 90 degrees, past your torso and stopping when your forearm is slightly above parallel to the ground.

Hold this pose for 1 sec, then extend everything back to the start position WITHOUT TOUCHING THE GROUND , hold for 1 second and repeat the pull/extend movement for 10 repetitions and then switch legs and repeat for 10 repetitions.  If you have very poor balance to begin with, you may modify by touching your back leg toe on the ground to help maintain your balance as you work toward improving your balance.   If you have excellent balance and master this exercise easily the first time, you can add hand and/or ankle weights while performing this exercise.

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Patty Peoples is an accomplished fitness professional with 30 years of experience, including:
2011 AG Sprint Duathlon World Champion and Fastest Overall Female Cyclist, 2011 USAT AG Duathlon National Champion, 3-time USAT All-American Duathlete, 3-time USAT #1 Nationally Ranked AG Duathlete, College Fitness Educator since 1992, 2-time Sports Emmy Recipient for Olympic Production work with NBC 2002/04, Former US National Women’s Cycling Team, Former East Coast Triathlon Champion, Hawaii Ironman top 25 women finisher and Motivational Speaker.  Patty can be reached at p2peakperformance@hotmail.com

Sorry for my delay in posting.  I had a family emergency back East and had to jump on a plane.  To help catch you up, the Inland Valley Newspaper – The Daily Bulletin just printed the following article about my World Title.  Check it out http://www.dailybulletin.com/ci_19103936?IADID=Search-www.dailybulletin.com-www.dailybulletin.com

Sorry I haven’t posted much but I currently have limited access to the internet  But as you can see by the title of this post, I achieved my goal!!!

I’ll post more when I get home, but I wanted to let you know that DREAMS do come true when you never give up on them!!  Below are a few photos from the 2011 ITU Duathlon World Championships.  I’ll post more when I get home, rested and recovered!

SEE/BELIEVE/ACHIEVE!  It works!

Patty

Start of the Women's Race - All Ages in the Sprint Duathlon World Championships in Gijon, Asturias, Spain on Sept. 25, 2011. I'm in the middle front and center.

Coming down the home stretch and knowing I was going to be a World Champion was quite emotional for me. Hearing the crowd yell USA and my name was emotional and made me tear up with both joy and pride.

Me getting my bike out of transition several hours after the race. I also was told that I posted the FASTEST FEMALE BIKE SPLIT out of ALL the women in the Sprint Race. SEE/BELIEVE/ACHIEVE!

On the podium at the Awards Ceremony with my Gold Medal - THANK-YOU Arrowhead Orthopaedics for helping to keep my body in World-Class Shape!

However, I feel confident in my training, especially having use of the Arrowhead Orthopaedics (AO) SCOR facilities Pneu Weightless Treadmill and the help of PT Director, Alan Zane.  This particular treadmill let me train at a higher than normal intensity and speed than possible on my own.  I know now what it is like to run a 5:13 mile pace!  It’s FAST!  Not quite ready to race at that pace, but someday…..

During my last training session at AO last week, I was able to do 1/2 mile repeats at between 6:30 and 5:13 mile paces and it felt great!   Since I was seeing good results from the Pneu training, we put my daughter on the Pneu, since she was recovering from a sore soleus strain.  She was amazed at how she could run fast without the pounding of her whole bodyweight.  She had several training sessions on the Pneu and now, she feels confident as she travels to compete for Team USA as the only Jr. Elite Female representing the United States!

Here’s a picture of her training for Duathlon World Championships:

Here’s a photo of the family preparing for Worlds.  We will do our best to represent!

Thank you AO for your continued support!  We hope to share any hardware we bring home from the Duathlon World Championships with everyone at AO!!

Stay tuned for more updates!

Patty – “SEE/BELIEVE/ACHIEVE!”

Time seems to keep getting away from me.  So this blog will have my last Pneu training and my final tune-up race report before the ITU Duathlon World Championship.

Pneu Treadmill Training:

In my last training at Arrowhead Orthopaedics SCOR facility I decided to see if my hamstring and legs were ready to up the speed.  I’m VERY happy to report – they were!

After warming up with a 8.0 mph pace (7:30 mile pace), I started my 1/2 mile repeats.  Below is the schedule along with mile pace and average heart-rate during the intervals:

*  .5 mile at 8.5 mph (7:03 mile pace), 138 HR

*  .5 mile at 9.5 mph (6:19 mile pace), 154 HR

*  .5 mile at 9 mph (6:40 mile pace), 152 HR

*  .5 mile at 10 mph (6:00 mile pace),  164 HR

*  .5 mile at 9 mph (6:40 mile pace), 151 HR

*  .5 mile at 10.4 mph (5:46 mile pace), 168 HR

*  .5 mile at 9 mph (6:40 mile pace), 159 HR

*  .25 mile at 10.8 mph (5:33 mile pace), 178 HR

Total distance was 4 miles, ave HR was 151, Peak HR was 178, ave mile pace was 6:32.

When I was done – I felt GREAT!  The only better endorphin rush than doing speed intervals is doing battle back and forth in a race with another competitor.

In my next Pneu training session this Friday, September 9, I plan on hitting 5 or sub 5 mile pace for at least .25 mile.  With only 2 weeks before Worlds, I only have a small window of speed training left, before I’ll have to taper and rest up for the battle of my duathlon career at the 2011 ITU Duathlon World Championships.  My goal:  Podium!  My dream goal:  GOLD and title of WORLD CHAMPION.   Only time will tell, but I’m feeling very good about my final weeks of training and believe I will be peaking at just the right time.

Regardless, I will do my best and hope for no mechanicals.  In a sprint distance race, there isn’t any room for error, especially a flat!  A mechanical would automatically take me out of podium contention, which would be VERY disappointing.  That’s why I always pray for a mechanical free race for all.  I want everyone to have a fair shot at reaching their goals and I want to be challenged by the best in the field.

Final Tune-up Race:

On Sunday, September 4, my family and our small group of training partners travelled to Camarillo to compete in the Camarillo Duathlon Series Championship race.  Since Tom (my husband) and I are signed up for the Sprint race at Worlds, we decided to enter the Sprint race here.  This race consisted of a 1.5 mile run, 11.5 mile bike and 1.5 mile run.   I hadn’t done an individual race since June when I was the first women overall at San Bernardino Tinman Triathlon, so I was ready to test my speed at the Sprint Du distance.

The gun went off and so did we.  Two females darted out in front of me, but I didn’t panic.  Instead, I analyzed their running form, shoes and race kit before I made my move and quickly surged past them to take the lead.  I like to lead and then if someone challenges me, I’m ready to battle.  I like it best when the lead changes back and forth several times throughout the race, with me, hopefully, taking the final pass and the victory.  It doesn’t always turn out that way though.  But I still enjoy a good battle.  Actually, I prefer to battle a bit verses racing without being challenged.

Anyway, once I took the lead about quarter of a mile into the first run, I continued to increase my lead on the bike and the final run, winning with a time of 52:04.  I was very pleased with my time and it felt great to raise my arms in victory as the first place female overall!  That feeling never gets old!

People often ask me what’s my secret to still being able to win the overall at my age (54).  There’s no secret.  I just haven’t told my body its age.  LOL   Actually, the keys are quite simple but one has to be willing to follow them, for life!  They are:  being consistent, honest quality training, good training partners, living a FITstyle way of life, having a healthy positive attitude and setting SMART Goals!  My consistency started over 30 years ago.   It’s never too late to start or make changes in your life, but once you make the changes or start a fitness or athletic program, you have to STICK with it!!!  Most people start and stop and then start and stop again.  As one ages, this starting and stopping gets harder and harder.  However, if one starts and keeps going, it’s not so hard to maintain or even improve.  A good analogy is a car that does a lot of highway driving and one that does city driving.  The highway car will maintain its fitness better than a city car that has a lot of stopping and going.  So, get on your “fitness highway” and keep going.

Back to the race.  As a whole, our group took three first places overall and one second place overall!!   Best part:  three of us are over 50 and one of us is over 40!   I was specially happy for my husband who took 1st overall in the Sprint Du and Gill who claimed her first duathlon victory by winning the Olympic Duathlon.  She hopes to qualify for Team UK in 2012 and compete in the 2012 ITU Duathlon World Championships.  I think she has a good shot!

Stay tuned for more,

Patty

Patty Peoples is the first women to cross the finish line

at the Camarillo Sprint Duathlon Championship race on Sept 4, 2011

Championship bikes in the both the Men's and Women's Camarillo Sprint Duathlon Championship Race over Labor Day Weekend, 2011

Redlands based training partners clean up at both the Camarillo Sprint and Olympic Duathlon Championship Race. Gill (1st Female Overall in Olympic), Margot (2nd Female Overall in Sprint), Myself and hubby, Tom (1st Female and Male Overall in Sprint)

Time is flying by and with less than one month to Worlds, time seems to be flying faster with each passing day.  It’s time to report on my training since last weeks post.  One word – AMAZING!

Last Friday, August 19, I was able to up my warm-up and training speed on the Pneu Weightless Treadmill at Arrowhead Orthopaedics’ SCOR/PT facility.  I still have some awareness in my hamstring, but it appears to be stabilizing while I’m able to work on getting my speed back.  This last session, I also used my heart rate (HR) monitor.  This enabled me to view how my heart was responding.  I know myself well enough to predict my heart rate without even looking.  However, when an athlete is unable to physically push their body to match their heart’s ability, the heart loses some fitness also and needs the opportunity to get “back up to speed.”

There are several general formulas people can use to figure their “Exercise Heart Rate Training Zone.” One of the most accurate formulas is the Karvonen’s Heart Rate Reserve.  This takes into account not only a person’s age, but also more importantly, their resting heart rate (RHR).   To find your RHR, you will need to take your HR for one full minute, BEFORE you get out of bed.  Ideally, you would like to do this for 5 days and take the average.  However, most people have a hard enough time remembering to do this for one day.   This formula is just a guideline, so one day will be fine.

Here’s the formula to establish an Exercise Heart Rate Training Zone for  60-85% of your HR Reserve:  NOTE:  Terminology used in bold print in the formula is located below the formula.  Don’t forget to get your Resting Heart Rate (RHR) before you start this formula.

KARVONEN’S FORMULA WORKSHEET

(Heart Rate Reserve Method)

1)     208 –  (.7 x _____age)

208 – _________ = _________ (HRmax)

2)     _________(HRmax) – ________(RHR) = ________ (HRR)

3)     _______(HRR) x .60  =_________ (a)

_______(a) + _________(RHR)  =   ______(LLHRbpm)

_______(LLHRbpm) divided by 6 =_____(LLHRbpm)  for 10 sec. count

4)     _______(HRR) x .85  =_________ (b)

_______(b) + _________(RHR)  =   ______(ULHRbpm)

_______(ULHRbpm)  divided by 6 =______(ULHRbpm) for 10 sec.count

Result of # 3_______Result of #4_______

(Exercise Target Heart Rate Zone for a 10-second count)

Terminology:

HRmax:   Heart Rate Maximum

HRR:         Heart Rate Reserve

RHR:         Resting Heart Rate

LLHRbpm:      Lower Limit Heart Rate beats per minute

ULHRbpm:      Upper Limit Heart Rate beats per minute

Having been consistent with my training for over 30 years, I have “put in the time,” and have developed my energy systems to withstand threshold training.  Threshold training is where you can train on the edge of your aerobic and anaerobic systems.  This takes consistent training over time to establish.  However, this is where most endurance based athletes need to be able to train if their goal is to be among the best in their sport.  It’s not an easy road to get here and that’s probably why most people never do – It’s NOT EASY!  BUT, if you are willing to “put in the time on a REGULAR BASIS for quite a long time,” it is well worth it!

According to the Karvonen’s Formula, my 60-85% HR should be between 120-152 bpm and my HR Max is 172.  However, during my running training I feel most comfortable training @ 85-95% and going between 95- 103% of my HR Max.  Yes, you heard me correctly.  I train above my HR Max.  That’s why I say the formula is a GUIDELINE.  Most people would probably have a coronary if they pushed their hearts into the 100+ HR Max zone.  But, it works for me and you have to find out what works for you.  People have said I should be involved in HR studies on athletes, especially older athletes (I’m 54) and maybe I’ll look into that after Worlds.

Anyway…back to my updated Pneu training:  It was AMAZING!.  Here’s my interval workout from last Friday, August 19:

* Warm-up:  8 mph for 1/2 mile   (HR 126)

*  8.5 mph for 1/2 mile (HR 147)

*  9 mph for .25 (HR 161)  Stitch in side developing so backed off and started over.  Note:  These things happen – deal with it and move on.

*  8.5 mph for .25 (HR 148)

*  9 mph for .25 (HR 166)

*  8.5 mph for .25 (HR 150)

*  9.5 mph for .50 (HR 166)

*  8.5 mph for.25 (HR 155)

*  9.5 mph for .25 (HR 172)

*  8.5 mph for .25 (HR 155)

*  9.5 mph for .25 (HR 172)

*  8.5 mph for .24 (HR 157)

*  9.7 mph for .25 (HR 177)

Post 1 minute HR 115.  Cooled down, did some dynamic stretching and core work and of course REHYDRATED with Cytomax and had a Muscle Milk smoothie when I got home.

I was VERY PLEASED with this workout and am looking forward to my next Pneu training this afternoon.

Stay Tuned – “Chasing the Podium,”

Patty  -  “SEE it/BELIEVE it/ACHIEVE it!”

Patty doing Interval Training on the Pneu Weightless Treadmill at Arrowhead Orthopaedics' SCOR/PT Facility