A triathlon ninja is calm and cool under pressure, and can do impressive things like count how many gels they’ve had in the past 2 hours.

A triathlon ninja sneaks up barely noticed, usually late in the race when everyone else is fading, and whoosh! turns up the heat and burns streaks of speed in the pavement.

*performance enhancing benefits not proven by research.

Are you a triathlon ninja? Do you want to be one?

In this article, you’ll learn five race day mental tactics that allow you to become a triathlon ninja, and use your ninja superpowers to push your body outside your comfort zone, physically beyond what you believe to be possible, and into a new level of personal achievement. Sweet. Are you ready grasshopper?

Triathlon Ninja Race Day Mental Tactic #1: Break Up.

While your subconscious mind can grasp the concept continuously swimming, cycling and running from point A to point B, or even of traversing 140.6 miles in a single day, your conscious mind (the part that actually dictates your race day decisions) is easily distracted.

For a triathlon ninja, this distraction can be a good thing, because you can feed your conscious mind tiny intermediate goals to break things up. Rather than having to making it to the finish line, you convince your body to make it to the next buoy, the next telephone pole, or the next aid station.

I personally divide most triathlons into much more than 3 separate events (swim, bike, run) and instead typically categorize 6-12 separate “sections” of the race on paper, then study that paper going into the race.

Got it? OK, you’ve got Step 1 of 5 (see you’re already learning how to break things up).

Triathlon Ninja Race Day Mental Tactic #2: Dig Deep.

There’s very little you’ll experience in a race that you haven’t already experienced in training. You just have to remember to dig deep enough during the race to call on those times in training when you headed out the door to run in torrential rain, rode your bike 30 miles on half-inflated tires, or finished off 1500 meters of a swim while resisting the compelling urge to rush to the bathroom and take a dump.

During a race, the slight discomfort that we put up with in training can sometimes mentally or physically derail us. So when the going gets tough, think back to the hardest part of your training, including somehow getting your heart rate near maximum at 5am in the morning, and draw on those episodes during the race.

Want practice? Compare getting through this article to reading Moby Dick in high school and you¹re well on your way to become a triathlon ninja.

Triathlon Ninja Race Day Mental Tactic #3: Ask Why

A triathlon ninja knows their motivation for doing triathlons.

Some people do triathlons to live a long time so they can see their grandkids.

Some people do triathlons because they were never any good at sports and this lets them be an athlete.

Some people do triathlons because it makes them look good naked.

Regardless of what your motivation is, you need to identify it and know why you do triathlon.

Then, when you’re riding up the steepest hill of the race, ready to fall off your bike and puke, you can remember that the whole reason you’re doing this is so that you look sexy for your tropical vacation in 2 weeks. Or whatever motivates your ninja heart.

Triathlon Ninja Race Day Mental Tactic #4: Harness Energy

You’ve probably seen the video game or movie where the superhuman being clutches two hands to their chest, creates a giant ball of fiery energy then releases the burning orb into a crowd of fierce opponents, dispersing the enemy like rag dolls.

A triathlon ninja has those same superpowers.

When you go running up the beach from the swim, harness the energy of the screaming crowds. Feel it. Use it.

When you ride through the aid station, feel the positive energy emanating from the generous volunteers, and use that too.

And as you run, try to smile. This smiling strategy helps significantly­, because people smile right back at you and cheer you on (whereas nobody really claps much for the triathlete who looks like they’re on Planet Hell).

So yes, I’m the guy at the race who’s doing the rock star pump-up-the-crowd hand waving as I ride out of transition ­ and yes, that’s kinda hard to do when your heart is pumping out your throat, but it’s worth the effort when you ride back into transition and those same people give you that energy right back.

Triathlon Ninja Race Day Mental Tactic #5: See Success

Close your eyes.

Can you imagine the feel of the water in your hand during the swim, the air blowing by your cheeks on the bike, and the slap of your foot against the pavement on the run?

If not, you may need triathlon ninja practice.

The best athletes on the planet regularly engage in visualization, in which they close their eyes and imagine everything happening perfectly. This takes practice and imagination, but your mind can be trained to visualize powerfully.

Start with small things, like closing your eyes and feeling the sand on the beach under your feet before the race starts.

Then progress to more complex visualization, such as seeing and feeling yourself successfully snag a water bottle as you fly by an aid station on your bike. If you’re really good, you can imagine yourself brining that aid station water bottle to your mouth and feeling the cool water refresh you. And you know you need a little more practice, or an Alzheimer’s screening, if you’re having a hard time mentally recalling what an aid station actually looks like.

So what do you think? Can you be a triathlon ninja? You bet you can. Remember!

Break up.

Dig deep.

Ask why.

Harness energy.

See success.

I’ll see you at the races. I’ll be the guy with the compression bandana

Being an overtrained-ironman is so common that most first-time ironmen often leave their best effort out on their bike or run course back home. In some case they even leave much of their energy on parts of the Ironman course just days before the race is to take place.

An overtrained-ironman is usually in for a long day out on the course when Ironman day arrives. Usually about half or three-quarters of the way into the bike the first signs of an energy crash or “bonk” begin to surface. Once the energy drain begins, it’s pretty well impossible to get it back. Normally that means the marathon will be a death march.

However, lets take a step back and see what line of thinking causes so many triathletes, or any athletes for that matter, to end up over-trained.

It reminds me of when I decided I wanted to be a marathoner over 35 years ago. The running craze that swept North America was still about 6 years away from really taking off. The very first Ironman race had just evolved from being a topic of conversation between John Collins and his buddies to a race around Oahu that involved less than 10 people.I started running and never wanted to stop. I thought that every time I took a day off from running, I would lose all that I had gained. One year I ran 364 days, but was married at the time and my wife said I had to take Christmas day off. Against my better judgment I did, but felt sure I would be back to square one in my training. How screwed up is that line of thinking? I simply didn’t know any better. I was one of the first athletes in the country to have an arthroscope procedure on my knee. A few years later I had the other one done. Talk about over-training.

It carried over to my first run at the Ironman in Kona in 1984. The Wednesday before the race I was out running ten miles on the “hotter than Hell” king K. highway. Talk about being an over-trained ironman. There I was burning up energy and getting dehydrated at the worst possible time.

I certainly wasn’t the only one who didn’t know any better. There were actually many people who were entered in the Ironman that year who took part in a 100 mile bike race in Kona one week before the Ironman. They thought it would be a good tune-up for the real thing.Right.

We were not the only ones who went in way over-trained. There were around 100 Japanese entered in that same race and every day right up until Ironman weekend huge packs of them would head out on the King K. Highway for a 60 or 70 mile ride in the heat of the afternoon.

Much has been learned about the importance of resting and tapering in the quarter of a century since that Ironman in Kona. Now there are coaches, books, and many experienced Ironmen to fall back on for advice and direction. Back then the Ironman was so new there was nowhere to turn for help.

Still, I can guarantee you that you can go to any Ironman race in the world and drive out on the bike and run courses in the last few days leading up to the Ironman and see people putting in a last 100 km bike ride or 10 mile run. There will even be people out there plowing through the entire swim course just days before the race. It never fails.

There are many reasons why this always happens. First of all, many people train all on their own and really have nobody to guide them as far as how to train and how and when to rest. Others do it because they have not been training as much in the past month or so and actually start feeling really good, so they figure it won’t hurt to pound out one last bike ride. In reality what they end up doing is ruining the taper effect and becoming an over-trained ironman.

Some do it because they simply can’t sit still and relax and have to find a way to get rid of all the excess energy. Actually, there is no excess energy. You will need all that you have for race-day and the more that can be saved, the better you will perform.

The ideal lead-in to the Ironman seems to be at least a four-week taper. The last of your big training weeks should be all done in the final month leading up to the four-week taper. From that point on, it seems to work best if training is cut down by 15%-20% every week until Ironman week arrives. It doesn’t mean your usual training intensity has to be lowered, but the time actually spent training should be less each week.

By the time the final week before Ironman day roles around rest should be your best friend. Try out the water where the race will be taking place, but there is no need to swim every single day of Ironman week or to swim the entire course. Maybe on Wednesday take your bike out on an easy 20 or 25 km spin and make sure everything is mechanically sound. That same day, or Thursday at the latest, you could perhaps go out on an easy 6-7 km run early in the morning before the heat of the day begins. Basically, that should be it until race day except for Saturday morning if the race is on Sunday.

Pretty well all the rest of Thursday and all of Friday should be for rest. Dave Scott was a great believer in doing a little bit on the day before the race just to keep lose for the race and get rid of any excess fluid from all that hydrating you should have been doing for the days leading up to the race.

All you need is a 10-15 minute swim and an easy 10-15 minute run. Most likely your bike will be checked in or else you could do a short 15 minute bike as well. Do 6-8 15-20 second sprints at faster than your normal training pace. Take 2 minutes in between each short sprint and swim, bike, or run easily in between each one and that will be it. Mark Allen calls them “Pick-ups,” and strongly believes in doing this the day before any race. I started to do pick-ups before 10km races, marathons, and Ironman races for the last 10 years that I raced and it worked great.

Before I learned better, I would always take the day before any race off completely. The main benefit of doing those very short sprints the day before the race is to remind your body what will be expected of it the next day. If you are “completely” inactive for days leading up to the race your body may tend to stiffen up. So there is a happy medium between over-training and being properly prepared.

It’s important to keep in mind that in the last month leading up to an Ironman there is very little you can do to make your endurance better. That is something you will not get in the last month if you do not already have it. It is simply too late. Endurance is built up over months and years, not weeks. If you can keep this in mind it will go a long way toward preventing you from becoming an over-trained ironman.

Perhaps you’ve recently finished your triathlon and you’re unhappy with your Ironman results. Perhaps you just signed up for an Ironman and you want better results. No matter what your level of triathlon experience is, these three crucial keys for the swim, the bike and the run will surely get you better results.

Get Ironman Results for the Swim: Swim With Attitude

Let’s face it – the emotions and experiences you have during the Ironman swim can significantly dictate your mental performance for the remainder of the entire race. If you put yourself into a swim position that allows you to become frustrated, you could set-up a damaging cascade of decisions that stays with you during the bike and the run. It may seem illogical, but you can find yourself riding above your goal bike pace by 1-2 miles per hour and destroying your ability to run off the bike simply because you swam 100m off course on the swim and you’re attempting to “make up time”.

So not only do you have to have an attitude during the swim that allows you to shrug off any frustrating experiences that come your way – such as getting kicked in the face, elbowed in the goggles or drafting off course – but you also need to make sure that you position yourself in the swim to decrease the chances of these events occurring. For example, you can swim to the inside of the marker buoys (most people swim to the outside), sight off stationary landmarks on shore (most people try to sight off buoys, which is much more difficult), and draft on the hips of the swimmer in front of you rather than their feet.

Make the proper swim decisions, and you’ll drastically affect your Ironman results for the rest of the race.

Get Ironman Results for the Bike: Gearing & Cadence

There’s nothing like mashing gears for 112 miles to leave your legs feeling like J-E-L-L-O for the run. But at an average Ironman event, 90% of the competitors are spinning at 60-70RPM or lower as they climb the hills. This is either the result of not knowing how to use the bike gears, not having the mental awareness to use the bike gears, or not having the correct bike gears. Don’t fool yourself – you may be able to do a sprint triathlon with a chain ring the size of Kansas and the cassette of a Tour contender, but that might come back to bite you 80 or 90 miles into the Ironman bike ride.

So in your practice rides leading up to the Ironman, attempt to ride a course that simulates your race course, and bring a cyclocomputer. Watch your cadence. It doesn’t matter whether you’re training based on heart rate, power, or “feel” – your cadence should be at least above 80RPM, and preferably 85-95RPM, even on the hills.

Get Ironman Results for the Run: Nutrition

If you’ve done Ironman before, then you know the feeling. About 6 miles into the run, each aid station becomes a blur of cookies, Coke, soup and gels – and you can’t remember what you already grabbed, why you grabbed it, how much you stuffed into your mouth, what time it is, or where your pace is at.

The truth is this: during the Ironman run you have to *own your calories*. This means that every bite of fuel that goes into your mouth is coolly calculated and stored in your mental computer that tells you exactly how much fuel you’ve consumed. There’s nothing like being doubled over with gut pain halfway through a marathon and not knowing whether it was because you ate too much, ate too little, mixed the wrong foods, or somehow grabbed a cheeseburger while you weren’t paying attention.

During your long runs, practice adding total calories consumed and maintaining a running tally of your fuel – the mind can be trained to do math during exercise, and if you do this step, your Ironman results will
rock.

With a proper swim attitude, smart bike gearing and cadence, and attentive run nutrition, you’re guaranteed to get better Ironman results.

The author, Ben Greenfield, is also the author of the highly successful Ironman training program, Ironman Triathlon Dominator.  You can click here for more information about Ben and his Ironman Triathlon Dominator Package.

Most, if not all women who have run a triathlon know the feeling of butterflies just before the big event. Sometimes it does not matter how much you test your nutrition during training for a race, when it comes down to it on the day a lot of triathletes cannot seem to hold down solid food.

So is a liquid meal the answer before a race if you are having trouble keeping anything solid down because of nerves?

First of all, it is absolutely essential to have a meal before a triathlon, no matter what distance you are competing at. Your stomach may feel like someone is doing the tango inside of it, but you still need to find the right nutrition for the race that you can take on-board without throwing the lot back up, to provide the fuel and prevent problems like cramps during the race.

The right way to go is purely personal, you know your body and how it feels, but whether you consume liquids or solids, as long as it is quality nutrition, it will feed your muscles properly and they will not know what you ate or drank.

There is a difference however, when it comes to tricking your stomach and your brain into thinking that you have had a good meal when you have only drank liquids. Liquids will not fill your stomach like solid food does, and you will still feel hunger pangs which may break your concentration, especially in the later parts of a race.

If you really cannot stomach solids, then there really is no choice but to drink liquids, but the good news is that this is not all bad. There are many athletes who like doing it this way, liquid meals help with hydration and are easy to take with you from home, they digest much quicker than solid food, and this allows you to drink them much closer to the race start.

You do have to be aware of the content of the liquids that you are drinking, they should be made up of a small amount of protein, also be low-fat and have a high carb content. This fuels your muscles and keeps up your energy levels and helps to keep the hunger at bay longer by filling your stomach, which also stops it emptying too quickly. You need to keep well away from anything high in fiber, and keep it simple, if you can stomach solids then make sure you take on the right amount of liquids to make up for the much smaller amount that you will be drinking compared to when you are using liquid nutrition.

Here is a ball-park figure to give you some numbers to work from, the right amount of calories or carbs that you need obviously depend on how much you are going to consume during a race. For every Kilogram of body weight you should be taking in around 1.5 to 4 grams of carbs, you also need to work out the best time for you to take them on-board.

If you start with a window of 1.5 to 4 hours before the race, you should be fine, if you really get bad nerves then go for a time closer to the 4 hour mark, before the nerves have had a chance to take over. If you do opt for an earlier time then you can go for a bigger meal, but if you do not go for an earlier time then your meal should be smaller, and you will probably need to take on extra fuel throughout the race.

If you are up to Ironman distance then you will need a lot of extra fuel, both before and during the race, and you may have to face the fact that only solids will do. You can do a combination of solids and liquids however, and many women do this for Ironman and Olympic distance races. Try something like a muffin and a bottle of sports drink that has a 4:1 ratio of carbs to protein, then about 60 minutes before the race take in some sports formulated gels, this should help with your endurance and also help with your recovery on the other end of things.

These methods require testing during training, because you do not want to eat or drink too much before a race, but race nerves on the other hand are hard to re-create if there is no race, so try some of these tips and hopefully you can refine them over time until you get it right for you.

Bad nerves are such a race destroyer for many ladies, so if none of the nutrition tips help then you need to look at the source of those nerves and deal with them directly so you can display your full race-day potential instead of just displaying the contents of your stomach just before you start racing.

First of all make sure you have a good warm-up before the race, go off and do a 10 minute jog, concentrate on your form and breathing, this sometimes helps to take your mind off of the nerves. You can also try stationary deep breathing exercises and relaxing, get the oxygen pumping to your brain and muscles, breathe in through your nose and out of your mouth and stay focused.

Be a loner, you do not have to be rude but avoid other triathletes and do not talk to them, always get to the race early and make sure your transition area is ready to go, check out the swimming course and avoid stressing yourself by mingling and listening to the other competitors. You should also scope out the best bathrooms early, and make sure you empty your bowels, but this should be no problem.

Get a small mp3 player and fill it with uplifting music that you like, this will block out all the trash talk going on and leave you to relax, run your race without being upset by the rumors and lies usually discussed by other competitors before a race.

Triathlete Women has training tips, articles and also triathlon products for women triathletes. Covering all things lady triathlon related including diet and beginners guides at: http://www.triathletewomen.com

Once you have signed up for your first triathlon, you are probably aware you need to think about doing some triathlon training, but how long should you train before participating in your first triathlon?

Ideally you should give yourself at least twelve weeks to train prior to the event, but before you embark on a punishing training regime, make an honest assessment of your current levels of fitness so you know how much work you need to do to get to the start line.

I am not very fit – can I still manage a triathlon?

As long as you have a reasonable base level of fitness prior to training, you should be fine. For a sprint triathlon, you will need to swim 750 metres, bike 20k, and run 5k. As long as you can swim at least 200 metres, bike for around 30 minutes, and run 15 minutes continuously, you are in good enough shape to work towards your first triathlon.

I am very fit in one of the three sports, but I haven’t done the other two for years!

If you regularly compete in running or cycling, you should have a good level of cardiovascular fitness already, so you all you need to do is polish your fitness in the other two sports. Swimming fitness does not translate into bike or run fitness as well, so you will have more work to do, but you are still starting off at a better level of fitness than someone who has done nothing but change channels on the remote for the last ten years.

So how do I begin training for my first triathlon?Those who are new to triathlon are well advised to follow a triathlon training program for beginners. This will provide some structure to triathlon training and help you avoid doing too much training, or worse, not enough. Most training plans work on the principle of two or three sessions per week in each discipline, with at least one rest day included in every seven-day period. Do not skip a rest day-your body needs recovery time!

Whilst a twelve week triathlon training schedule is normally adequate for most reasonably fit people, if you have more time, sixteen weeks is even better as this will give you longer to build your body up gently and avoid injury woes. The danger of trying to do too much training, too soon, is that you will overdo it and injure yourself, so listen to your body and always cut back on training if something starts niggling.

I entered a triathlon and I only have six weeks or less to train!

If time is of the essence, try not to panic. As long as you can swim and are reasonably fit, you will probably get around the event in one piece – just don’t expect to break any course records!

Try and make every training session count and make sure you do a few “brick” sessions to accustom yourself to the transition between sports. A brick session is a back to back training session, for example a bike/run or a swim/bike. Not only does this save time by combining two in one training sessions, it also helps your body get used to the idea of running straight off the bike, or biking straight from the pool.

There is no need to get too hung up on complicated training regimes–just spend a reasonable amount of time preparing for your first triathlon and concentrate on having fun on the day!

Triathlons are compromised of three legs: swim, bike, and run. Swim always goes first, so you are wet for the start of the cycling leg, but you are not so tired that you drown or need rescuing. There are four generally accepted triathlon distances: Sprint, Olympic or International, Half Ironman, and Ironman. The cycling distances are 15 miles, 24.8 miles, 56 miles, and 112 miles, respectively.

As you can see, cycling is the central component of a triathlon, literally. Cycling training is not something to put off, think about, or procrastinate over. You need to start your cycling workout when you decide to complete a triathlon. It is essential that you are comfortable riding long distances, are accustomed to your bike and seat, and have enough energy left over for the run.

As your cycling workout progresses, you will be able to grow into the distance of your race. As you increase your endurance, you will start working on speed. When you focus on increasing your speed, incorporate sprints into your workout. For short intervals of 45 – 90 seconds develop and use your explosive power. Then cycle for 3 – 5 minutes at a regular workout pace. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. This will help increase your sprint pace and, hopefully, increase your base cycling pace.

Once you have some degree of proficiency at the three legs of a triathlon, it is the time to put the triathlon legs together. When training two components consecutively, you are incorporating bricks into your triathlon training program. Traditional bricks are swim/bike and bike/run. These begin to approximate your triathlon and get you prepared for race day. As you can see, each brick still consists of a cycling program.

When you start using bricks to train, you may feel as if your performance is lagging. Remember that you are working out longer and doing multiple activities. Give your body a while to get used to the new regime.

Examples of swim/bike brick workout:

The compromise with the swim/bike brick is that you complete the swimming first. Otherwise, you would just be getting wet and drying off throughout your workout.

Sprint Distance: 3 x 500 yard swim + 5 mile bike.

Olympic Distance: 3 x 1000 yard swim + 15 mile bike.

Examples of bike/run brick workout:

Sprint Distance: 5-6 miles bike + 1 mile run. Repeat at least three times.

Olympic Distance: 7-8 miles bike + 1.5-2 mile run. Repeat at least three times.

With each brick, you continue to use your cycling program; you just include another piece of the race. This is another step in preparation for a successful race day.

Remember to think through, plan, and practice the transitions.

Like biking, triathlons produce a tremendous sense of accomplishment.

Interested in more cycling information? Cycling Training Academy is your source for cycling workouts, tips and advice, as well news and information pertaining to the cycling world! Follow the links or copy and paste this URL into your browser to gain access to more on Cycling Training!

Each spring, the dining hall at St. Vincent College whips up culinary delights for the players of the Pittsburgh Steelers to eat during training camp. But it does so under the careful scrutiny and supervision of the teams’ nutritionist, Leslie Bonci. Ms. Bonci, a 15-year veteran sport’s nutritionist with the Steelers, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that such scrutiny is necessary to ensure that “[w]hat is being served is something that is going to serve these players well when they’re out there for practice.”

And Bonci is not alone in this belief. In fact, much research has shown that athlete nutritional needs are different than are those of the general public.

Why Athlete Nutritional Needs are Different
The rigors of sports’ activities make different nutritive demands on athletes depending upon the type, and intensity, of the activity. The President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports says that, while in training, an athlete’s caloric needs may increase by 1,000 to 1,500 calories and that an athlete’s diet should consist of:

• 55-60 percent carbohydrates
• 30 percent (or less) fat
• 10-15 percent protein

However, this is a relative amount, according to the University of California, San Francisco (USCF).Different Levels of Sport, Different Nutritional Needs
The USCF divides the nutritional needs of athletes into roughly three different categories-endurance, high-intensity, and moderate.

Endurance athletics, those that involve brisk physical activity that continues for more than an hour (such as the type that occurs in distance running and cycling), often need to consume between 3,000 to 5,000 calories per day to meet the increased energy needs of their sport. Endurance athletes also have a higher protein need because the longer their sports’ workout, the faster their carbohydrate stores are depleted, which forces the body to turn to protein for its fuel.

High-Intensity athletics, those that involve short burst of intensity (such as the type that occurs in sprinting or weight lifting) have varied nutritional needs depending on the sport and the body size of the athletes. But in general, high-intensity athletes require an increased caloric consumption that is at the mid-range of the recommended caloric range for athletes and an increased protein consumption that is at the high end of that range of recommended protein consumption.

Moderate athletics, those that vary their intensity and frequency, have an increased caloric need based on the intensity and the frequency of their sport and should consume at least the minimum amount of the caloric recommendations for athletes.

Moreover, studies have shown that the athlete nutritional needs of all those who engage in strenuous exercise involve a higher intake of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants than do sedentary individuals; indeed, a clinical trial conducted by Northumbria University in January of 2009 concluded that the right supplements can lead to a greater power recovery and an athletic performance increase of up to 40%.

Specialized Supplements for Athletes
Besides supplementing the common antioxidants of Vitamins A, C, and E (which are important in eliminating the free radical formation that can occur during strenuous exercise), athletes should take a combination of these specialized supplements:

• Selenium
• L-cysteine
• B-Vitamins-which aid with energy and metabolism
• Biotin-important in metabolizing carbohydrates
• Calcium and magnesium for muscle and bone health
• Potassium to improve muscle function
• Zinc to repair tissue damage
• L-Carnitine, an amino acide that helps the body burn fat
• Coenzyme Q10-improves heart function
• Gamma-linolenic acid-minimizes inflammation of the muscles and the joints

For more information about athlete nutritional needs visit Cara’s website

The use of sports nutrition is not limited to sports people, gym enthusiasts or even those that are on diet, however these products that are normally classified into the sports nutrition categories offer a great source of extremely important foodstuffs that are quite often lacking in our day to day diets.

With specific reference to the sports and training fraternity, the intake of protein is quite often underestimated and normally takes a back seat to the much touted and publicized carbohydrates for endurance. The result of this culminates in a reduced performance level, and many athletes thinking that they have mastered their sports nutrition needs wonder why their performance is not exactly what they are expecting it to be.

One only needs to think about the role that protein plays within the body, and once again this is relevant to the non athlete too. The major component of the human body is that of water, and the second component? Protein, therefore perhaps a little more attention to the protein needs of the human body must certainly be forthcoming, yet it continues to be underestimated.

As an active sports person it is also worth noting that the quality of sports nutrition also becomes extremely important and this becomes an issue of quality over quantity. This is also determined by the abbreviation commonly referred to as RDA, which stands for Recommended Daily Allowance. This figure provides for the medically research optimal amount of the specific food item or constituent that should be consumed on a daily basis.

The higher the quality of the sports nutrition supplement, the less and more concentrated the serving which in turn provides the required nutrients in accordance with the RDA levels, as well as the amounts of protein and in effect energy required for optimal performance. Sports nutrition products not only ensure optimal performance when consumed and used correctly by those that demand superior performance from their bodies, but also by people that are on diet, as well as those that are actually treated by medical professionals that utilize products such as whey protein to deal with muscle degenerative conditions and related diseases.

Sports nutrition and the related products categorized within this area, extend further into a number of additional items too. These items are in fact naturally occurring, but are lacking within our diet and therefore supplementation has become necessary. Examples of these include the creatine and glutamine supplements that have been popular for many years amongst athletes, sports people and the muscle building communities.

One of the key issues surrounding this topic is that the correct intake of these items can boost the users level of performance on a natural, and legal basis.

I want to discuss my own experience by suggesting what NOT to do!

1. It’s fitness not your gear
Three sports, each with its own array of the latest and greatest expensive equipment. Glossy publications full of ads attempting to sell you the hottest carbon aero widget or product. For reasons unknown, triathlon features a culture of shopping for speed as opposed to learning how to prepare and race more properly. The big point is, it’s about the engine (YOU), not the $$$ parts hanging off of your bike. Invest in yourself, your multi sport training as well as your fitness early on; Save the $$$ products for later.

2. Thinking the Swim is an Exercise in Fitness
Why does that 13 year old girl in the fast lane swim laps around you?

Simply because she’s been swimming 1 to 2 hours per day, 5-6 times each week since she was six. She’s got the technique; you don’t.For you, swimming is not really a fitness exercise, it’s an important skill, like learning how to play a clarinet. Rather than just banging on the instrument for an hour or so a day, without any idea what you’re learning, pay for top quality swim technique coaching to take full advantage of your time in the water.

3: Not Getting Fast on the Bike
In my experience the bike is a very low risk activity: making the assumption that your bike fits you, and you also don’t wreck, you’re simply not going to hurt yourself by cycling too hard. You don’t have to wait to get started on getting quicker on the bike.

If you wish to ride faster you need to train faster and the time to begin is as soon as you jump on that bike. Work as hard that you can for as long as you can, then simply recover and do it again.

4: Sticking with old running plan
It’s quite typical for new triathletes, especially those coming from running, to stick in a run-only training plan inside their weekly triathlon training routine. If not that, then many try to hold on to the running plan they’ve done for a long time, but now stacking on cycling and swimming.

This strategy is a surefire way to over train and risk injury. You’re training for a triathlon, not a 5k, 10k, or marathon. Ignore the addition of the other 2 sports into your training week at your own risk.

5: It’s supposed to be fun!
3 sports, 3 sets of gear, how do I fit X amount of workout sessions into only 5-6 days a week?! It’s really easy to get caught up in how much there is to learn and master, and to get worried and frequently obsessed with your very first race.

I have news for you: it’s all just a sport and it’s supposed to be fun.

Get your head straight, delay expensive gear, expect you’ll make a LOT of mistakes in your first few races (you won’t be disappointed) and promise to have a good laugh at yourself when you do!

You can visit Dade and his website at www.endurancenation.us