Nurture The Little Things To Grow The Bigger Picture

How much time do you spend focusing on the ultimate goal? Have you ever stopped to consider how paying closer attention to the little habits, details and successes will lead to greater success in the long term?

Today's blog post is just my observation as a coach, but let me know if it resonates with you.

Most of my clients, and the people I speak to in the triathlon and endurance sport community, already have the big pieces of the endurance lifestyle dialled in. You know, the obvious stuff: weekly swims, bikes and runs. Nutrition around training sessions, and the supplements they use during those sessions too. Almost everyone I speak to know the importance of sleep, recovery, massage and rest, and do their best in these areas.

Why I Recommend BCAAs For Endurance Athletes

BCAAs - branched chain amino acids - are a cost-effective sport supplement which I recommend to almost all endurance athletes once they have their diet in check. Read on to find out how BCAAs could benefit you.

Amino acids are often called the "building blocks of muscle". They are in fact what all proteins are made of - so it probably makes more sense to call amino acids the building blocks of protein. 

Some amino acids are "essential" (our bodies can't make them unless we get them from our diets or in supplement form) and some are "non-essential" (our bodies can make them, but it's still a good idea for athletes to supplement with them).

So what are BCAAs? Branched chain amino acids - BCAAs - are three of the most important amino acids: leucine, iso-leucine and valine. Leucine in particular is enjoying kind of celebrity-status in the sports supplement world at the moment, with many nutrition experts suggesting it could be the most important amino acid of the lot.

BCAA supplements are listed by ratio - the most common is 2:1:1 but you can also get 4:1:1 and even 8:1:1 (the first number is that all-important leucine). I think 2:1:1 is absolutely fine, given that we also get leucine from any protein foods we eat.

BCAAs for endurance training: Studies suggest that supplementing with BCAAs in tablet, capsule or drink/powder form may have huge benefits for endurance athletes both in exercise performance and in recovery, helping to prevent the muscle breakdown that happens during intense training.

Lanzarote Training Camp

A few months ago a few WhittleFit coached triathletes (namely Butch, Tom, Pat and myself) decided to head out to the Canary Islands for an early start to our ‘serious’ training for 2015, so on Friday 6^th March we headed out to Tiagua81 in Lanzarote with the intention of logging some good bike miles, and throwing in a sprinkling of swimming and running.

Our training week went something like this:

Day of arrival: We arrived at Arrecife Airport just after lunchtime, and were met by Hollie Cradduck who drove us (some followed in a hire car) to our base for the week. We built our bikes and due to the disappearing daylight, we had a very quick shakedown ride (7.6km) just to ensure the bikes were ready for the week to come.

Foam rolling for endurance athletes? What the heck is that?

Hands up if you foam roll regularly? Nothing to do with DIY, foam rolling is technically known as "self-myofascial release" and is the secret weapon of endurance athletes.

What exactly is foam rolling? Self-myofascial release might sound like some kind of dodgy activity but I promise you it's got nothing to do with 50 Shades of Grey and everything to do with recovery, performance and longevity for endurance athletes.

Put simply, self-myofascial release means a form of massage you can do on yourself, gently easing the fascia of the muscles so you can avoid the build-up of knots and lumps, stretch more deeply, and ultimately avoid injury.