Run to Win

The 2^nd annual Maine Coach and Athlete Cross Country Clinic was on August 18th, 2008 at the University of Southern Maine. This is the second part of my reporting on the clinic; the first part was about injury prevention and treatment. This part covers the presentation on nutrition and fueling.

Nutrition Basics & Fueling for Performance

The second presentation of the night was presented by Karen Hodge Knapton from Whole Health Consulting, who covered what a basic and healthy diet should consist of for an athlete.

“You cannot expect to start the season without a healthy diet.”

It takes months to prepare the body through healthy eating, and you can not concentrate solely on race day. To that effect, you need to be aware of the 6 basic nutrients that make up your diet.

1. Water
2. Vitamins
3. Minerals
4. Carbohydrates
5. Protein
6. Fats

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Refracted Moments™

• This week last year, I claimed that caffeine is worse for you than alcohol or tobacco. I fully admit that I’m prejudiced, but at least here in the United States I think that caffeine poses more of a public health issue than either of the other two drugs.
• I also listed my 6 favorite inspirational running books, each belonging to a different category. I represent how to manuals, retrospectives, essays and fiction in the list.
• I made a pretty big mistake with my training in the pool, and realizing what that mistake was instantly doubled how far I could swim on my lunch breaks. Not too bad…
• This week two years ago, I demonstrated how to do a 1 arm dumbbell bench press, reviewed Mead Memo Books and their applicability as a training log for the weight room, and discussed how exercise can prevent depression.

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Refracted Moments™I am not shy about sharing my belief that caffeine is worse for you than alcohol and tobacco. Rather than repeat myself, I would rather give you a laugh by pointing you over to a Basic Instructions comic strip about “How to Quit Drinking Caffeine“. It’s a four panel strip by Scott Meyer from the Seattle Weekly.

I especially found the second panel funny, where the addiction level is pointed out. Take a look at the the strip, and let me know what you think. Am I the only person that finds this humorous?

You can find it at:
http://www.basicinstructions.net/2007/08/how-to-quit-drinking-caffeine.html

Photo by Refracted Moments™I have believed for a long time that caffeine is worse for you than alcohol or tobacco. It is just as addictive, and it is not a controlled substance. We seem to force feed it to our kids. Many people only get through college by using it to stay awake studying. If you stop consuming it, you will go through withdrawal symptoms. Because it is not as strictly regulated as alcohol and tobacco, and it can take a similar toll on your body when used in excess, I classify it as worse than either. I eliminated caffeine from my diet in the late 90s and have been much happier for it.

When I was growing up, I used to get cluster migraine headaches. Many of the drugs to combat a migraine headache contain some form of caffeine, and the only time I ever have caffeine these days is if I feel a migraine coming on and take one of those drugs. While caffeine was a principal ingredient in the fight against the migraines, I also discovered that it was a principal cause for them as well. Stress and caffeine can both be migraine inducing; put them together and I had one guaranteed. As a senior in high school, I went blind for two weeks when I had a long series of strung together migraines that caused varying degrees of hallucinations.
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