Blog Posts

Those heading to Ironman Arizona and Ironman Florida from cooler environments should consider strategies for acclimating to heat and humidity for the race. IMAZ folks living in cool climates should be over-dressing now. See strategies in the two-part column, Acclimating to Heat and Humidity.

Q.   I ran my first marathon last weekend. I’m thrilled that I finished and I had a decent time as well. I felt pretty good the day after the race, but two days later I’m exhausted. How long will it take before I’m back to normal? Should I be running now?

A.   First, congratulations on your finish! For your questions, my preference is that athletes not run the first week after a marathon or an Ironman distance race. You can walk, swim or ride a bike. Give your body a chance to heal. You can pick up the running again after a week, but keep the runs short and easy. Running on soft surfaces such as dirt, grass or a treadmill might be easier on your body. Not knowing much about you, it’s tough for me to prescribe how much running you can do the second week. Your primary goal is to recover.

How long until you’re back to “normal?” I find it usually takes four weeks to recover and feel 100 percent after a marathon or an Ironman. You can find more information on recovery time in a column I wrote awhile back.

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Ironman and half-Ironman plans available on ActiveTrainer.

Off-season plans for triathlon and cycling, along with event-specific running, cycling and more triathlon plans found here.

If you are among the many people who take calcium supplements, think again. While any calcium is better than no calcium, a calcium-rich diet is the best bet for bone health. Here's some info to help you keep your skeleton strong.

• You have a life-long need for calcium because your bones are constantly in flux, remodeling by releasing and then redepositing calcium.

• After menopause, the balance between bone breakdown and formation shifts, resulting in bone loss and therisk of osteoporosis—particularly if you are not eating adequate calcium-rich foods.

• The body’s ability to absorb calcium declines with age. That’s explains why the recommended intake of calcium goes from 1,000 to 1,200 milligrams per day for women over 50 and men over 70. 

• Calcium depends on stomach acids to be absorbed, so consuming calcium as a food (as opposed to a supplement) enhances calcium absorption. Plus small doses of calcium are absorbed better than 500 mg doses. Hence, eating a calcium-rich food at each meal is preferable to the unnatural consumption of one big bolus of calcium via supplement.

• Yogurt (not Greek) offers more calcium ounce for ounce, than milk, plus the active cultures in yogurt increase the body’s absorption of calcium.

• If you are counting on spinach, collards, and Swiss chard for calcium, heads up. Those foods have a high level of oxalic acid, which binds calcium so you absorb less than the nutritional numbers promise. If you eat a wide variety of foods, this is of little significance, because the DRIs take into account dietary factors that effect absorption. But if veggies are your main calcium source, think again.

• Be sure to get adequate vitamin D (800 IUs daily) to make use of the calcium you consume.

For help balancing your diet with real foods: Nancy Clark's Sports Nutrition Guidebook

Source: Tufts Health and Nutrition Letter, October 2012.

Not that long ago experts claimed a direct link between high-fructose corn syrup and obesity. Now it seems there is a good deal of controversy as to whether high-fructose corn syrup is a “cause” of obesity.

One columnist at the Mayo Clinic noted that research has shown that high-fructose corn syrup is chemically similar to table sugar. She notes that there remains controversy as to whether the body treats both sweeteners similarly or not.

At this time, there appears to be insufficient evidence that high-fructose corn syrup is any worse (or better) for you than sugar. Both can contribute to unwanted calories with very little nutrition.

It probably won’t surprise you that the manufacturers of both products (the Corn Refiners Association and the Sugar Association) are putting money into research and advertising because getting revenue from our sugar cravings is big money. If the Sugar Association can increase its share of the oh-so-sweet pie, it can mean big payoff. One source reported that in 2010 the Corn Refiners reported $27.3 million in revenue, while the Sugar Association had $2.4 million in revenue. The Sugar Association reported near doubling its revenue in 2011 to $4.2 million.

For all of us, the best advice is to keep consumption of all sugars minimized, particularly outside of the appropriate exercise and recovery windows.

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Comments can be added on Facebook.

Ironman and half-Ironman plans available on ActiveTrainer.

Off-season plans for triathlon and cycling, along with event-specific cycling and more triathlon plans found here.

Looking for a fast lunch recipe? I’ve got one for you using pre-cooked rice, steamed veggies and chicken. The seasoning is likely something you haven’t used before…

First, if you keep cooked rice on hand it is easy to throw together a fast dish. Second, sometimes you have leftover baked chicken and you’re tired of salads. The third major ingredient is any veggie(s) you choose. If you have fresh ones, great – but – if you don’t and you’re in a big hurry, use the frozen steamer bag kind.

Use any volume of each ingredient you please. This allows you to adjust carbohydrates, fats and proteins to fuel a balanced lunch or one with higher carbs for a recovery meal.

Combine the rice, veggies and chopped chicken pieces in a bowl. Season to taste with olive oil (or butter or any other oil you normally use) and tamari soy sauce. The final ingredient…Mongolian Fire Oil.This yummy oil packs a punch of spice in small amounts so begin sparingly.

Of course you can use any protein or tofu rather than chicken. This easy, flexible recipe helps you eat healthy to fuel your training.

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Comments can be added on Facebook.

Ironman and half-Ironman plans available on ActiveTrainer.

Off-season plans for triathlon and cycling, along with event-specific cycling and more triathlon plans found here.

Margaret Weniger and husband Luke competed in the Tiki Swim in Oceanside on Sunday.  We both competed in the 2.4 mile swim and had a great time while battling 8-10 feet waves.  It was great to get back to our swimming roots and managed to come home with some cool tiki statue hardware.

Michele Crepeau ran the Hamptons Half Marathon in East Hampton, NY with friends Stephanie, Ann Marie, Kristina and Hillary from California, Milwaukee and Chicago. 

From the Singapore office.  STUART OLDHAM (Sprint distance), GRACE TAI (Sprint distance), BRIAN BERGEY (Olympic distance), and DANZEL TAY (Olympic distance) participated in the Singapore Triathlon on Saturday.  It was the first triathlon for Grace and Brian and everyone finished with a strong time despite the sweltering heat and humidity.

Ferrari Bunker, Customer Support Representative would like to turn in the attached photos for my Active X Day on Friday September 28, 2012.  The one with the shadow is me pushing my 2 year old daughter along the Blue Heron Trail (not an easy task BTW!)  It was just the 2 of us so it was hard to take pictures of myself LOL.

Courtney Munson- Memphis, TN- I finished up my triathlon season on Sunday, competing at Ironman Augusta 70.3.  It was my first half ironman and I went into it confident in the work I had done this summer.  I was very pleased to stick to my plan, take advantage of the downstream and wetsuit legal swim, beautiful bike in South Carolina, and pancake flat run to have a great race.  I finished way under my expected time (mostly because I finally put together a better bike segment) and really enjoyed the whole day.  I am very thankful for my friends and family who put up with my swim/bike/run all the time; it was great to have support in Augusta and know that people back at home were cheering for me too.

Shekhar Wankhede and Hemant Choudhary from Clarksburg MD office ran 5K-Great Pumpkin Fun Run this Sunday. Cross-country course was throughout Summers Farm, including a run through the corn and pumpkin fields. Run was fundraiser for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Donation can be done @ http://www.active.com/donate/greatpumpkinrace2012

Ed Mullen- Senior Account Executive Golf won his Ryder Cup Match in Florida over the weekend representing the US team for his club in a match play format.

Melissa Wray, Software QA Engineer and her husband, friends and went tree climbing and zip lining this weekend. It was in cottage country here in Ontario, Canada and it is gorgeous fall season here.  We climbed trees about 65 feet high. The zip line was about 1000ft long and can reach speeds of up to 40km/h.  A very fun way to spend a Sunday and my first time zip lining!

Thom Haupt from DMT is enjoying the last lift for the season at Beaver Creek Ski Resort.  After doing a couple of runs on downhill single track he finished it off with a run through Village to Village enjoying the fall colors.  Snow is coming soon to all my friends in Colorado.

Michael Hardeman spent Saturday and Sunday hiking and photographing the Mt. Sneffels range, Uncompahgre National Forest.

La Vada Taylor, Sr. billing Specialist on September 22nd, I completed my first 5k – The Dirty Girl Run – with my daughter, Sami.  It was a lot of fun and I’m glad I did it!  The picture doesn’t show how muddy we were.   It was fun to get out and do something Active, with my daughter, for a good cause. On September 30th, my husband and I, with his sister and her husband,  took a short hike at Lily Lake near Estes Park, CO.  The weather was perfect and the foliage was in full color. 

Heather West, Project Coordinator.  Sunday I did a 9 mile run at Folsom lake in Rocklin, CA.  It was so much fun.  Rolling hills for the first half, and the second half was flat…except for the last mile which was a hill that slowly kept going and going until you realized “Hey, I’m running up a hill.”  Beautiful scenery as well.

Stephen Branstetter, GM Youth & Education: On Sunday I joined a buddy that's training for Ironman Florida for 50 Miles of his 100 mile training day. Even though he pulled me the whole way the ride still smoked me. It was a great day for a ride though, we made our way through beautiful Woodinville, Carnation, and Redmond Washington.

Cindy Bones Account Manager for Faith-my ACTIVE was hiking and Jay walking 11 miles from the "Tunnels Trail" by the Hoover Dam an continuing on to the "Dam Trail" and "Bridge overlook". Because the trails do not actually connect, we had to get creative that's where the Jay walking comes in... :O . ok ok i'm a "Law Breaker"

Justin Moser, Marketing- Outdoors, raced the Bear Chase 50K in Lakewood, CO.  Temperatures in the lower 70’s and beautiful scenery made for an excellent race overall.  Fifty kilometers is a long way- but great friends and volunteers helped me get to the finish with a 4:09 time and 8th place finish overall (1.5 HR PR too!!).  The finishing announcer lost his voice after only 4 hours though- he probably needs to take notes from Mike Reilly on how to push through a long day of finish line announcing.

Rob Mitchell (Web Designer – San Diego) headed up to do the Bakersfield Tri with his wife Blair and friend Jeff.  It was a 100 degree day but the course along the Kern river and refreshing lake water made for a good race.  The best part was our son Luke (7 ) doing his first triathlon with his buddy Aiden.  The kids course was a ½ run followed by a 3 mile ride and a 100m swim but a volunteer error sent the kids on the bike route during the run so it ended up being a 3 mile run.  Despite the extra run Luke had a blast and can’t wait to do it again!

Kyle Rose, Justin McHenry, Cliff Jurgens , Katie Schultz and Kirsten Barnocky of the new Broomfield Office participated in the Color Me Rad 5k as our Active Charity Challenge.  Although we had seen the pictures and heard it was fun – we were all pleasantly surprised at how “colorful” it was!  It was a beautiful Colorado day and loads of fun!

Jason Liebrecht and girlfriend Alison Whitney at Tour De Fat, San Diego. Alison organized this great event and raised over $27,000 for San Diego Mountain Bike Association. Volunteers Vaughn Valencia and girlfriend Sami at the start along with Lisa Woll were also there.

Exactly a year after her first half-marathon, Melissa Douglas completed her sixth, at the inaugural Surrey World Music Marathon.  It must be running in the family: her 4-year-old son Rowan also did his first Kid’s Fun Run at the event.

Michael Rufli participated in a kickball tournament this weekend sponsored by Joe’s Crab Shack.  The goal was to raise money to feed kids in the Nashville area.  This was the first time they’ve done this tournament but plan to again next year with hopefully more teams.  They had 8 teams this year and we brought home the trophy after playing 4 games over 4 hours.  It was a long day but well worth it for the trophy and the kids.

Shayne McCoy, Online Account Manager was in Europe, and it was an incredible experience.  In the first picture I from hiked through Cinque Terra from Vernazza to Monterosso, on the rugged coast of the Italian Riviera. The town pictured is called Vernazza, and is the most unique of all the towns. It’s also where the massive mud slide took place a few years back. The community really came together to clean up the mess, and it’s as beautiful as ever.  I also traveled to Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland and had the chance to paraglide off the small city of Murren. I had breathtaking  views of the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau mountain ranges. It was such a rush!

Mark Roebke, Director of Product Innovation, was part of a 4-person team that won the 24-Hr Mountain Bike National Championships over the weekend in Colorado Springs, CO. The team completed 21 laps of the 14-mile technical course that was fun and challenging both day and night! Here's a podium shot rockin' the Star and Stripes (Mark is second from the left).

Katie Morse completed the Superfrog ½ Ironman this weekend in Coronado, CA. She placed 5th in her age group and was 21st overall female. Katie is the Program Manager for Wellness in the San Diego, CA office.

ACTIVE, was well represented at yesterday’sSuperFrog, sorry SUPERFROG, 70.3 Triathlon. All the buzz will be about early Active investor Lance Armstrong winning the race in a course record time. And how he looked in his Speedo. But a whole host of employees and friends ofActive were out there, doing great work on a hot day, across a difficult course(6 miles running in sand!):

Ashley Tejada, Nolan Hansen, and Jon Christopher did the super frog Triathlon this weekend. They finished 6th overall and 2nd in the mixed relay division. What a fun day.

Dave Turner reports.  This is Staff Team Run Course for Saturday’s TRIDENT 4 miler and Sunday’s SUPERFROG triathlon.  Pictured from left to right are Tom Bevilacqua,  Dave Turner,  Jess Bevilacqua,  Ben Vaughan,  and Sean Boucek.  Our team was responsible for the run portion of the race in its entirety on Sunday which included race day execution,  logistics, water stops, volunteer coordination,  racer support and complete breakdown of the run course post-race (and a whole lot of other stuff) : ). We arrived on-site Saturday morning at 4:45AM to begin prep for the 4 miler that was set to take place.  We worked until about 4pm Saturday and we were back at it Sunday all day from 5am til 5pm with a large percentage of the work over the weekend just plain gorilla labor.  Good for the soul but it definitely feels different at 44 years old than it did at 18. : ) Loading, off-loading, wash, rinse, repeat.  Our team feel things went fairly smooth out on the run course with a couple hiccups that we overcame quickly.  Our unit takes a lot of pride in delivering a consistently well-organized, supportive, and efficient run course and we hope we delivered that the racers. As an athlete of these races myself, it is very gratifying to work the events that we love to race so much and to give back to both the organizations that put them on and to give to our fellow athletes during their hours of suffering.  I saw lots of my Active brothers and sisters and everybody was having fun.  Congrats and thanks to all for their support and participation in this race which only makes it better year after year!

Dani Oliver enjoyed Sunday morning with Active friends finishing the Mission Bay Sprint Triathlon. Big congratulations to Izzak Brassea, Bill Enloe, Cece Salomon-Lee, Katya Mansurova and Rachel Warren!!!

It’s time for the 11th annual eteamz Spooky Site Contest!

Decorate your site with sounds, music, images and anything else you can find to show off your Halloween Spirit.

Make it scary, spooky or just plain fun!  First place winner will receive a free year of PLUS, storage upgrade and Ad Option, second place will receive a free year of PLUS and the storage upgrade and third place will receive a free year of PLUS.

Submit your site to eteamz support no later than October 26th. Winners will be posted on the eteamz blog on October 30th.

Feel free to visit the links below to find images, sounds and fonts to use on your site for the contest.

http://www.satisfaction.com/halloween-countdown-generator - Halloween countdown clock for your site

http://www.countessbloodshalloweenhorror.com  - images, sounds

http://pookatoo.com – text generators copy the HTML code and add it to your site

http://www.cavernsofblood.com/scarystuff.html - images, sounds

http://www.eteamz.com/halloween - images in albums

Good luck and Happy Halloween! 

Here’s your chance to update your sports nutrition knowledge while enjoying an information-packed workshop with two internationally known professionals:

• Sports nutritionist Nancy Clark MS, RD, CSSD is respected for her skills with helping athletes and exercisers enhance their performance and achieve their desired physiques.

• Exercise physiologist WilliamEvans PhD is renown for his research on protein, exercise, and aging—plus his ability to translate that information into “how to” tips.

This 1.5-day program is designed to help both health professionals as well as serious athletes. You’ll find answers to your questions about how to--

--improve athletic performance with a winning sports diet.

--manage weight issues and resolve disordered eating practices.

—invest in lifelong health for longevity

--further your athletic and/or professional career.

Ten hours of education for ACE, AFAA, AND, ACSM, CHES, NATA, NSCA.

“I was surprised to learn new information on a topic I thought I knew so well.”

            --Registered dietitian/personal trainer, Seattle

St. LOUIS:  Nov 16-17 at St. Louis University

CHICAGO:  Nov 30-Dec 1 at Rush University

COLUMBUS:  Jan 25-26, 2013 at Ohio Health Riverside Campus

INDIANAPOLIS:  Feb. 8-9 at National Institute for Fitness and Sport

ONLINE:  Every day!

You’ll listen to the speakers’ voices and see their PowerPoint presentations. Almost as good as being there in person!

Please visit http://www.sportsnutritionworkshop.com for more details.

NOTE: If you live near any of the workshop locations, please share this announcement with coaches, athletic trainers, personal trainers,dietitians, nutrition educators, and yes, serious athletes themselves.