I usually write articles on topics that will give advice when it comes to health, fitness, and racing.  I think this month I am going to mix it up a little bit and give you something a little more light-hearted.  For those of you that have been following my writings and blogs, you already know that I have been playing sports for most of my life.  Along the way I have picked up quite a few quirks.  Now, I am not superstitious or believe in LUCK but throughout my years I have come up with things such as my Lucky USC Hat, a Lucky Chicago Bears Shirt, a Lucky 1880 Silver Dollar that was given to me to represent 100 years before I was born, a Lucky color orange, a Lucky number #17.  I have even been known to throw items away that I believed were unlucky like my running gear I was wearing the day I rolled my ankle last year, and a random one not showering during finals week in college (I am not so sure that one actually worked).  OK so maybe I am a bit superstitious and believe in LUCK but I know I am not the only one.   

So what is Superstition?  The definition of superstition is “ the belief that certain events or things will bring good or bad luck”.  By the definition, superstition and luck go hand in hand.  So this phenomenom pertains to not only athletics and sports, but can also be relevant in our everyday lives.  Luck is all around us, I would bet everyone at one point in their life has turned to an object, a routine, or article of clothing to help them through a rough patch or maybe even to continue on a streak of wonderful fortune and prosperous times.    

Can luck give us some sort of advantage when competing?  I think luck gives us a sense of superpower or hidden energy.  Our opponents don’t know it but we keep that bit of luck in our back pocket and use it when we need it the most.  Perhaps in the late stages of a race, or when you step up to the plate in baseball, or even to overcome weaknesses.  We use this as our Kryptonite, our secret weapon, our strength.  For me, I use it to build my confidence and put myself in the right state of my mind while I am racing or while I am preparing to compete.  It gives me a sense of comfort and consistency.  Regardless of which race I show up at, or the conditions on race day, or even if circumstances that are out of my control, I trust and have the confidence that my LUCKY items will be there for me to help make everything right. 

Can luck really have a positive impact on our performance during events?  I believe that if you believe it does it will.  We often are looking for something to give us an advantage physically to make us stronger, faster, and smarter.  The concept of luck might not make us physically stronger, faster, or smarter but it can give us a mental advantage which could translate into a better performance through confidence.  The direct correlation between luck and confidence is the formula that will give you the edge to compete smarter, or push more, or go faster.  Sometimes, keeping a positive outlook is all we need when entering the late stages of a race and I strongly believe that Good Luck Charms provide just that.  Luck can be a powerful hand if you play it properly and truly believe in it.

So in conclusion - YES!!  If you think GOOD LUCK is a true phenomenon that could be the last piece of the puzzle to propel you past your competitors then go out there, find some LUCK, and use it to your advantage.  GOOD LUCK in all your endeavors and I wish you the best!!  

I remember growing up idolizing prominent figures:  baseball player (and former IronPigs Manager) Ryne Sandberg , Michael Jordan, Lance Armstrong, and the likes.  I was enamored by their abilities, their passion, and their determination to be the best at what they did – they were Super Gods!  They were untouchable, invincible, and everything I dreamed of being one day. 

In retrospect, through my present adult eyes, I now realize that there are positive and negative elements of your role model selections in your youth.  You take a gamble with your selection because there is no way to truly know these individuals on a “to the core” basis.  Some will have a fall from grace and with that crashing fall comes a certain confusion in a young mind.  Children don’t know how to process what happens in a scandal of epic proportions.  Yet, some of the role models of my youth did continue to lead productive, positive journeys through their careers and some of them I still hold in high regard to this day.  Another aspect I think we lose sight of when acquiring role models is the lack of a reciprocal relationship.  You place so much pride, investment, and trust in someone who doesn’t even know you exist. 

There was one role model, however, that sticks out in my mind as soaring above the rest.  I truly admired and looked up to this individual starting at very young age.  And, honestly, I might not have realized it at the time, but my biggest role model was - my Father.  He didn’t have all the “bling”, the fancy cars, the loud flamboyant demeanor of superstar role model but he did possess one trait that was parallel to the idols mentioned above - he was passionate about what he did.  He wanted to be the best he could possibly be and continues to strive to be the best.  I admire him for that.  But there was one other thing he did that the others didn’t and really made him special in my eyes, and I believe this is what makes a true role model.  He invested his time into me and our family. 

What is my one word of advice to all the adults out there who want to be their child’s superstar role model?  Invest your time!  Investing time is the key to making our children look up to us as role models.  Granted our role as parents is very complex, twisted, multifaceted, but the one as a role model cannot be overlooked.  As my father did with me, we need to fully invest our quality time and energy back into our children because, at its essence, our actions and our love will transcend into the person they grow up to be. 

When investing this bonding time with our children, it is not just showing up at an event or listening to them with half an ear.  We need to put them first and truly get to know them which, in turn, will allow them to really get to know us on a different level.  To do this we can communicate with them on their level, allow  them to see what we do at work, have them engage in activities we are passionate about, be optimistic, and take the time to answer their questions.  This investment you make with them, showing them how you work mentally, physically, spiritually and even emotionally, will go a long way in developing their character, confidence, and personal drive.  Time investment will show them how to become successful individuals just like ourselves.  These bonding moments will also allow them to see that perhaps you are not perfect and that it is okay.  Witnessing our failures and missteps will show them how to overcome adversity and how to adjust their goals in order to succeed.  The time investment is priceless and invaluable as they continue their journey of life. 

When we invest this time back into our children’s lives they will invest with you.  As we make the investment we need to make sure we lead by example and instill in them the confidence to stay true to their moral compass.  We need to show them how to become strong and love themselves for who they are.  I strongly believe that our children do look up to us but it won’t be until later that they will really admit it.  We need to set the precedent for our young minds of the future, as we set the bar high for them, and lead them to success. 

I challenge all of the parents out there to play an even bigger role in their child’s life, regardless of age, and to make a positive impact on their child’s life.  We must remember that kids will then emulate everything that we do.  We must be cautious in our mannerisms, tendencies, tones, sternness and approach of a balanced life.  We must set great examples to make great individuals.  Let’s go out there and help our little futures become the greatest individuals by investing the time that will allow your relationship to flourish into far beyond the reaches of “parent” and into the realm of Gods. Be their role model and you never know, they may put a poster of you on their wall one day!

Remember the days of sweating in the sun as you chased a ball around the field, or tried to hit a ball over the fence, or maybe even tried to see how fast you could run around a track filled with cinders and if you were lucky enough a track that might have been blacktopped?  Ahhh, childhood memories!   These days were filled with sweat, blood, sheer exhaustion, cramps, sometimes tears, laughter, fun, victories and losses.  After the long days of competition, how were we rewarded?  With SLICED ORANGES!!  I remember looking into that big bowl trying to find the perfect juicy slice that was cut just right, that had few visible seeds (there weren’t seedless oranges yet), and that looked like it had nice juicy pulpy sections.  My teammates and I would be like pigs around the trough at feeding time trying to locate that perfect slice.  We would sink our teeth into that juicy pulp while recapping the day’s event.  As we looked around, you would notice the juice dripping down a teammate’s chin as they would smear it across their jersey.  As they wiped their chin, the natural sugars from the orange juice would take hold in between their fingers that would make them stick together.  That pure fruit juice would reinvigorate our systems.

As I am now an adult and attend my child’s sporting events, I started to think - Where are the Oranges?  Our kids are still putting out top notch performances just like we used some 20-30 years ago but after the events they are now rewarded with salty chips, cookies, and candy.  The natural sugars from the oranges that made our fingers and chins so sticky are now replaced with the stickiness of marshmallows, frosting, and chocolate.  The natural juices from the oranges have been replaced with sugary fruit drinks.  As I look out across the field, court, or pitch, I don’t see much in the form of healthy nutrition being supplied to our young aspiring athletes.  If I am lucky, I see a bottle of spring water basking in the sun as it sits by its lonesome waiting to be drank; but it is usually overlooked for a sport drink. 

We spend so much time, energy, money, and effort to watch them succeed, to give them the best resources to compete on a high level but we place nutrition on the back burner.  Not to mention, the efforts that our children are giving cannot be in vain in relation to the nutrition that we then give them after their efforts.  Why does nutrition, more times than not, take a back seat.  Let’s not short change our young athletes from a nutrition standpoint but educate them on healthy living.  These benefits we can provide our children give them the ability to perform at their full potential.  It starts with us.  So let’s start one slice at a time and make our children’s nutrition a priority.  My challenge to everyone reading this – buy a huge bag of oranges, slice ‘em up, and tell those kids – dig in!!

When you hear these two phrases they appear on the surface to be one in the same.  People usually use these topics interchangeably and in my opinion it is a skewed perspective.  Being fit and being healthy are two different issues and actually one is part of the other.  They are common elements of a greater collective theme.  I feel that being healthy is the overall result of living a certain lifestyle where you take care of your body in every aspect.  Being fit is only one of the aspects of being healthy.  Too many times people think that being fit is good enough and disregard the other aspects of living healthy.  I believe the aspects of being healthy are:

1) Being fit – Incorporate regular exercise to your daily life

2) Optimal Fuel - eating nutrient rich foods that benefit your body, rather than indulge in junk foods that detracts from your overall health

3) Rest – making sure you are getting an adequate amount of sleep that allows your body to perform at a high level

4) Stress Management – We all have stress.  We need to only manage the stress but try to remove the stress from our lives

5) Emotionally – Keeping yourself happy and content is what life is all about

It is an often occurrence, that when someone encounters a health crisis, others are quick to say, “I can’t believe it happened to them, they take such good care of their body”.  That may be the case, but how were they in the overall scale of being healthy. I see people working out like crazy people, only to get done and eat poorly or not get enough sleep to help the body repair itself.  It is important to cover as many of the above stated issues in order to stay or start being healthy in totality.  Remember being healthy is a lifestyle and constantly needs to be tended to.  Listen to your body and it will tell you what it needs.  Remember to live a life of moderation and balance and you will reap the benefits.

We get up in the wee hours of the morning to pound the pavement with our sneakers, we bike countless miles to nowhere, and swim countless laps only to return to the same wall we started at.  The key to getting faster might not be in pounding the pavement, grinding the gears, or immersing yourself in a chlorine bath the longest.  The answer might lie in how you handle and push through your workouts mentally.  Your physical strength and endurance to complete a race, or any athletic event for that matter, is obviously crucial; but what should not be overlooked is our mental strength and capacity.  Just like our physical strength, our mental strength needs to be sharpened.  Within the mental strength topic, I believe we have three areas to focus on:

1) Pain Tolerance:  How much pain are we willing to endure and for how long?  When we train, we can push ourselves to our very limits and are, hopefully, able to replicate race scenarios as close as possible.  We can push our limits until we can't handle the muscle burn or fatigue any longer.  If we can increase the time we train in this uncomfortable, and most times painful zone, then we are able to acclimate our bodies and mind to handle this for extended periods of time.  This ability to increase our pain tolerance will translate into faster times on the course.  We must teach our minds to allow our muscles to endure the pain we might be feeling.

2) Focus: While we race and train for endurance sports there are so many factors that we must consider - everything from how often should we be drinking or taking calories to pushing the pace to catch the person in front of us.  We need to constantly reassess what is happening around us, to us, and what might potentially happen with every move we make.  Racing endurance sports is like a chess match against yourself.  You need to make decisions based on the information you are taking in from all your senses.  The more focused and in tune we can be with our bodies the more efficient we will become.  We also need to come up with ways to help remind ourselves to stay focused.  The more times we can practice staying focused and reassessing, the more comfortable we will become for the late stages of the race or training session.

3) Adaptability:  This is almost a combination of the two above.  What are we going to do when a curve ball is thrown our way?  We need to be able to be flexible and adjust our game plan according to what our body is telling us and what our mind is sensing.  This is the part of the chess match where the opponent makes a move and now we need to react.  If we are thirsty - do we take a drink and if so of what (water or electrolytes)?  If we are sensing muscle fatigue - do we back off or keep pushing?  What happens if I drop my chain - am I going to mentally crack or am I going to fix the problem and keep plugging away?  These are just a sample of the questions we should be asking ourselves during our training sessions.  The more questions we can answer during our training the more prepared we will make ourselves come race day.

In conclusion, a critical piece of the puzzle might be locked up in the mental side of racing.  Once we can get a handle on that aspect of racing - get ready for the times to drop.  Don't let this part of your racing go overlooked.  There are many aspects to racing and this is one of the major ones.  I am a firm believer that endurance racing is 80% mental - if you believe you can do something then you can - you just have to practice and work hard. 

Stay Focused, Persevere, and Race Hard!!!

All our hard work is in, we've spent countless hours training, sweating, and watching our nutrition.  Our alarm clocks have gone off so many times pre-dawn, that sleeping in is waking up at 5:30am.  Ahh!!!  We don't want all this sacrifice to go to waste by a few bad decisions, or miscalculations leading up to race day.  Below are some tips/guidelines I use to make sure I am ready for race day.

1.  TRUST/CONFIDENCE:  We need to trust that we are ready to race.  Trust that we have put in the miles and we need to carry a sense of confidence with us that we are race ready.  Don't go crazy and start cramming your training in right up in till race day.  We want to have a fresh energized body going into race day.  Trust in what you have put in to your training

2.  CRAMMING:  We don't want to be training hard or long right up to race day.  This leads to fatigue and you will not have the energy to race up to your potential.   The goal is to feel like our bodies are fresh and energized body going into race day.  Those last ditch efforts will only hurt our performance not help.

3.  SLEEP:  A couple days before the big race, make sure you start (should be continuing) to get a good night's sleep.  This allows your body to repair itself from hard training so it is ready for race day.  Sleep is vital in muscle and joint recovery, can't emphasize enough how important a good night sleep is.

4. a.  FUEL:  Make sure you stick with safe foods the night before your race.  I like to stick with bland, carb-rich foods.  My traditional pre-race meal is pasta with red sauce and grilled chicken.  Stay away from spicy foods, alcohol, and soda.  I would not try anything new either - which leads me to point five.   Also the breakfast of our race day is very important, eat something light but enough to sustain yourself for most of your race (ie. greek yogurt with fruit, hard boiled eggs, bagels, fruit, etc.)          b.  HYDRATING: One last point in fueling.  Make sure you are hydrating properly the day before and the morning of your race.  Conditions (heat, length of race, your personal sweat rate, etc.) will indicate how much you need to hydrate.  Note: Please don't just hydrate with water, you need to fill your body up with all the vitamins it will need on race day so use some electrolyte drinks - GU Brew, Gatorade, NUUN. 

5.  NOTHING NEW:  Whether it be new foods, shoes, goggles, etc.  Whatever your sport is (running, triathlon, cycling, etc) try as best as you can not to throw in new equipment on race day.  This can lead to major problems, usually discomfort, which can lead to a miserable experience and sometimes to injury.  I made this mistake in a race - I had thrown in a new pair of goggles for the swim leg of a triathlon and the goggles were much too tight and caused a lot of pain in my eyes during the swim.

Be smart leading up to race day.  Racing is hard, we don't want to add obstacles we can avoid.  Race hard and have fun!!

I read a lot of health magazine articles and a topic that always seems to arise is the importance of good hydration.  The consensus seems to be that we should drink about 8 cups of water a day on a typical day.  With spring and summer knocking on our doors and our eagerness to get outside and train, hydration is a very important aspect of training not to overlook.  Not making the proper adjustments during warmer conditions can be detrimental in keeping our bodies performing at a high level while racing or training.  When we sweat, we don’t just lose water, we lose essential vitamins and minerals.  If you’re training over long periods of time, it might be necessary to switch to electrolyte drinks such as Gatorade, or GU products, just to name a couple.  Below are some tips to follow in dealing with proper hydration:

·         How much am I sweating while I am training?

-          The level of perspiration definitely varies from individual to individual.  As you go through a training session, pay close attention to your level and rate of perspiration and gauge/assess your needs based on that day’s workout and gather patterns for the next time you train in those same conditions.

·         What are the conditions I am training in?  Is it cold, hot?                                                                        

-          Conditions play a major role in how much you will sweat.  Obviously, if it is scorching hot outside you will be sweating like crazy.  But also don’t forget that in cold conditions, when you are all bundled up for that run, you are still sweating, and the level of perspiration could be deceptively high.

·         How long am I going to be training?  

-          How long you are being active will dictate the volume of fluids you should be drinking.  A rule of thumb is that you should drink a full water bottle for every hour of training.  So make sure you pack enough water or hydration drink to last for your entire workout or race.

·         Your workout environment’s effect on perspiration?

-          If you are in a controlled environment, such as a gym with poor air circulation, you will tend to feel like you are sweating more.  In contrast, when you exercise outdoors, you receive the benefit of cool breezes to help cool you down.  Don’t let this fool you, though, because this doesn’t mean you are sweating less or more, just that you might be more comfortable.  Visually you might not be able to see the perspiration on mild/windy day but you are still sweating so remain vigilant and committed to your hydration plan.

·         When to hydrate?

-          We should be hydrating constantly.  It’s just as important to hydrate properly before and after a workout or race as it is during the activity.  Don’t neglect your body, give it what it needs to perform.

·         Effects of improper hydration

-          Poor performance or lack of peak performance

-          Dehydration - Dizziness, goosebumps (on hot days), disoriented

-          Cramping of Muscles

-          Imbalance of essential vitamins

Could Potentially BONK!!!