Thursday, March 4, 2010

Team Baby Alex Foundation Florida Training Camp with Blue Shift Multisport

I will be racing this season with our foundation's racing team, Team Baby Alex Foundation, and it was as part of this team that I attended the Florida training camp.

The training in Florida was pretty intense, and I consider it a bonus to my training since we were able to pull it off so early in the season. I sometimes envy my friends who live in warm climates for being able to get out on the road in the winter. We New Englanders have to be patient and learn to train hard indoors during poor weather seasons. We cross country ski and snow shoe in the winter and pretend we enjoy the cross training, but what I really want is an open trail in the dessert on a hot dry day where I wear the bear minimum and lots of sunblock and come home after hours on the trail with a dark tan. It has been a particularly cold winter out here in the east.

Coach Matt founded and operates Blue Shift Multisport. To see his website, visit www.blueshiftmultisport.com. He offers all kinds of services, including one-on-one coaching and has a blog and a radio show. This week in Florida was my first time training with him in person. He is not only a nice guy, he is truly a great coach. My tendency, especially when I am training with athletes better than I, is to push, push, push to the point of exhaustion. Matt's approach is to training smarter. We combined drills, with photos and videos to analyze and then examined the reports from my PowerTap wheel, HR monitor and cadence sensor, and we approached everything with a very precise, focused effort. We did three long rides, to include two 80+, and one followed up with a 4 mile IM pace run. We had many hours to talk about our triathlon experiences and as always when training with someone better than me, I learned from just listening.

Back home now, the weather still stinks. We all have spring fever. We take the kids outside every day, no matter what. I bundle them up and let them get wet or snowy, and then bring them in for a hot bath and warm feety pj's. Izzy, now 14 months old, has mastered walking, running and climbing stairs. She zips up the stairs leaving Alex behind, and already I am worried how he will handle his sister surpassing him as he ages. He will start playing 3 year old soccer in April and we plan to start him in karate this fall. We recently read a tremendous book about exercise and the brain, called Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain, by Dr. John J. Ratey, MD. It should be a on everyone's must read book. It is all about how exercise (meaning, getting your heart rate up!) regulates neurotransmitters (meaning, regulates your mood, ability to handle stress, increases your attention span) and increases a protein called brain derived neurotropic factor (BDNF), which improves and strengthens synapses. In other words, exercise makes you smarter, happier, less moody, less depressed, and physically more capable. It helps children with all kinds of disabilities. Some activities, like karate, are especially helpful to children with disabilities because of the focused movements.

1 comment:

  1. What a fun blog. Thanks for the updates. We're looking forward to summer weather too! - Karen in Philly

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