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Thursday
Aug232012

What You Didn't Know About Fiber And How It Can Help You

I noticed the graphic above on the back of a bag of almonds the other day, and it led me to dig into some science.  We love science here at ZenTri, so here's the details:

Fiber is a carbohydrate too, but an indigestible one.  Fiber is made up of carbohydrates, but your body can't use them for fuel.  When you look at the grams of carbs of a food, if there's fiber in there, those fiber grams don't count.

"Insoluble fiber" is fiber that can't absorb water, while "soluable fiber" can.  Insoluable straight up scrubs your guts clean and soluable swells up in your belly and makes you feel full.

So, I'm munching on some almonds, putting two and two together, and thinking about the impact this has on modern man and our waistlines.  The whole point of processed foods is to reduce the time it takes to chew it (fiber) and pump up the calories to make you feel good faster, increasing profit for the seller.  It is very similar to beer makers creating "wide-mouth" cans so you can get more of their product in your body faster.  Imagine the reduction in intoxicated driving accidents if every container of alcohol only had a pinhole for an opening.  

If you up your fiber intake, you reduce your calories while feeling fuller.   Sounds like the Holy Grail to me.  It also sounds like the way humans had to eat before processed foods came along, and we were less round for it.  I've been trying it the past few days and I have to say, I eat until I'm full and I stay full longer, and I'm actually eating less and not miserable about it.

How do you do it?  There's two parts to the game:  1. Obviously, eat foods that are high in fiber and avoid those that aren't.  Fiber-rich foods are usually whole foods like apples, bananas, most veggies, almonds... the list goes on and on.  What's not high in fiber?  Pretty much anything that's processed or a popular bread.  Thankfully, you can look on the back of most labels to see, or look it up on the Internet.  2. You can buy fiber for cheap and sprinkle it on foods that don't have much or any to bulk them up.  You'll get fuller faster and not eat as much.

How does this work in training?  It pretty much doesn't.  When exercising, you want a steady flow of easy-to-digest carbs to fuel your body.  Fiber wrecks that process like a champ, but that's OK.  If you are burning the fuel, then you needed it anyway.  As a Zen Master might say - "When moving like an athlete, eat like an athlete.  When sitting around, eat like you are sitting around."

 

Wednesday
Aug222012

That's Gold, Jordan! Gold!

IMNYC Winner Jordan Rapp has a tradition of answering all kinds of questions about how he raced in a forum thread.  The details for his latest win can be found here.

This kind of information is pure gold.  You can find out what equipment the fast people have proven to be important and how they execute race day nutrition and pacing.  My favorite part of this round is his confirmation that clincher tires work just fine instead of tubulars.  

Enjoy!

Tuesday
Aug212012

Remember - Ironman Started Out as a Bar Bet

Some people take triathlon a little too seriously.  I like to treat it as a means to an end.  Specifically, it's one of many paths to take to stay fit, learn about the world, and improve yourself overall.  

Ironman itself started out as an extremely ridiculous bar bet between some pretty looney guys to see who was most crazy fit.  As it became more mainstream, we see people acting like it's a little too legitamite of a way to define who's the best at being a human.  We've now got age groupers doping with EPO, people killing themselves trying to hillbomb faster on Strava, and zealots accusing somebody of running across the finish line with their kid at an Ironman as, "everything that's wrong with the world today."  Really?  Does Ironman kid crossings cause wildfires in Idaho?  Because that would be news to me.

When you start wondering if the sport is helping or hurting you, it is always nice to step back and take in some perspective.  Swimming, THEN biking, THEN running all in succession for 140 miles is just an invention by some guys that were probably drunk when they thought of it, taking something to the extreme.  It turns out it is a great way to show off, but a little nutso to base your entire life around.  If you're miserable getting the job done, then it's OK to back off a little and re-evaluate exactly what you are doing this all for.

 

Monday
Aug202012

The Problem with BlueTooth for Sports Devices

You are going to see a lot of sports devices, such as GPS and heart rate straps touting Bluetooth 4.0 or Bluetooth LE (low energy) hitting the market soon.  Unfortunately, there is one big problem - Devices can only pair with one other single device.  

Many athletes and coaches are used to ANT+ and it's ability to allow multiple sensors to cross-talk with each other.  For example, a coach can use a device to monitor an athlete's cadence while another device is mounted on the athlete's handlebars for him to watch himself.  With Bluetooth, that can't happen.  The cadence sensor is "locked in" to the coach's device, so the athlete is out of luck.

This is the nature of Bluetooth itself as a security and anti-crosstalk feature.  Once you pair your wireless headset to your phone and start talking, you don't want somebody else trying to pair as well and listen in.  In comparison, ANT+ "broadcasts" it's data for anybody to pick up.

Admittedly, this is only needed by a percentage of athletes.  But, this percentage is on the elite end of the spectrum and has a lot of "pull" with development.  It will be interesting to see what comes along to solve this problem.  In the meantime, be aware of the issue and choose wisely!

 

Friday
Aug102012

Podcast - Tahoe Swim 2012

Click HERE to listen to the show!

 

Join in as Morgan attempts to swim 22 miles across Lake Tahoe!  This is a truly epic episode, with interviews with some of the world's best open water swimmers, training tips, and much more.

Want more?  Hop over to the Zen Masters Area for the Training Log and much more!

Enjoy!