Just 10 Minutes A Day…

What if I told you that if you did 10 minutes of body movement every other day for the rest of your life, you could increase performance, mobility, balance, strength and ease discomfort…. would you do it?

Enter in Pilates.

Wait, Jen, what is Pilates? It’s a series of movements focus on whole body movements, breathing, concentration, control, and precision. Pilates is full body integration. And the benefit varies from person to person. “Some people experience gains in mobility, balance, strength and connection. Others may seem more in control in their body and less prone to injury. Still others might resolve years of pain and discomfort, and another group might increase their speed and/or endurance at their sport of choice.” (From Pure Body Teacher Training)

As a lifelong athlete, I’ve experienced a series of setbacks: achilles overuse, ACL and MCL tears, hamstring ruptures, SI Joint instability and the catch-all lower back pain. Endurance sports are wrought with overuse injuries. And let’s be honest: life can be one long endurance event.

We all, as humans, encounter some sort of injury/pathology at some point in our life.

A physical therapist during one of my many visits to health care professionals suggested I start Pilates. I had no idea what that meant or whether it would work but I was willing to give it a try. That was nearly five years ago. During that time, I would increase my visits when my lower back pain flared up and once I felt better, I would resume my previous patterned cycling, ditching those core movements. Once that strength wore off – boom! My lower back pain would flare up.

In hindsight, I saw a pattern. Do Pilates, feel better and think I was “cured.” Back off Pilates, back pain crept back in.

When my local teacher, Whitney Shea, mentioned she was leading a teacher training in Boulder, Colorado, I signed up immediately. Not only for my own practice but for the possibility to help others feel good in their bodies. Part of the program is learning over 500+ exercises on the mat, reformer, Cadillac, chair, spine corrector, and ladder barrel, and then we have to practice and teach it.

My personal practice of 10 minutes a day to keep the lower back pain monster at bay developed into 3-4x hour long sessions each week. It’s been over 2 years and I feel stronger, more mobile, balanced, and am seeing higher power numbers on the bike than the past two decades of racing.

Head into a gym or seek out a coach and layer on your potential limitations – and you begin to wonder, should I push more? Is it safe to do certain movements? What will help/hurt in the long term? If exercise is helpful, what happens if I just cycle/run/swim for the rest of my life?

The answer can show up in the form of imbalances. As an athlete, having a movement teacher should be one of your performance team members. Someone who can watch you do a movement, coach you to harness more strength/mobility/balance and increase or decrease the challenge, depending on what your body needs. They’re there to help you balance your strength.

It takes a trained eye. Movement teachers have a deep responsibility to know about different pathologies and how to address them. The more a teacher knows, the more they can help the body that walks in front of them and tap into their strength in a way that’s safe, effective and helpful.

Pilates Teacher Training with Pure Body has been consuming my extra time for over the past year. What started as a way to decrease visits to the chiropractor and chasing the cause of lower back pain, developed into a long term deep study and is transforming my life. I am deeply curious about this subject with the goal of passing on this knowledge and wisdom to those I work with.

The beauty of the program I’m studying also exposes students to additional pathologies: osteopenia, osteoarthritis, lumbar degeneration, fusions, post-ops, stenosis, spondylolisthesis, cervical pathologies, sciatica, hip/knee/shoulder replacement, Morton’s neuroma, glaucoma, vertigo, prolapse, torn rotator cuff, bursitis, DRA, high blood pressure, adipose tissue, pregnancy, just to name a few.

As I continue my path an apprentice teacher, I am looking for athletes who are interested in learning more about how their bodies work and are willing to do the full-body integration movements. If we’re not in the same proximity, we can certainly set something up remotely. If this is something that interests you – please let me know and we can work out the details.

Keep crushing those dreams and goals and here’s to better health through movement!

Foot Frenzy

Its autumn in the Northern Hemisphere, and mother nature is doing her best to hold off winter in Colorado for as long as possible. Everywhere you look golds, yellows, oranges, bright reds and every shade in between adorn trees as they do their best to cling tightly to their leaves.

What does that mean for cyclists?

Base miles! Which includes the type of mileage where you plant yourself onto your saddle and pedal for as long as possible. The reason? To check out the changing colors of leaves, of course! AND build your aerobic engine, tap into your ability to use fat as an energy source and provide a solid foundation to build the rest of your season from.

If you’re performance minded, base season is quite a bit different than race season. You intentionally go slower in order to go faster later. Instead of 1.5-2 hour rides, you target more around the 5-6 hour range. The good news? That long time in the saddle requires some calories to fuel… and I recommend aiming for around 50-60g of carbs per hour to start.

It’s hard to pack that much food for a seriously long ride, not to mention training your gut to stomach that amount of fuel! But with practice, you can make it happen. Next thing you’ll know, 4 hours will seem like a recovery ride compared to the 8 hour session in the saddle.

Yes, you read that right. A full day’s work on the bike. All in preparation for some longer endurance based off-season events (like the upcoming 100 mile gravel ride SpiritWorld and our yearly tandem duet at Tour de Tucson).

However, the kind of saddle time is pretty hard on the body. Not from an exertion standpoint – I could ride all day in that low endurance zone. No, no. I’m talking about a muscular aspect. And more specifically my feet. They scream at the end of the ride, yearning to be out of my shoes. Something about being locked into a stiff shoe for hours at a time, with little room for stretching my toes out can drive me crazy.

I know I’m not the only one. Lachlan Morton ditched his fancy cycling shoes for his Birkenstocks at one point this past summer when he road the Tour de France route ahead of the Tour.

The day after a long 6.5 hour ride, my feet were still cranky. My arches felt stiff and tight, my toes would barely move individually. So I asked my Pilates guru and teacher, Whitney Shea if we could just focus on my feet during our recent Pilates session.

We used a foot corrector and did a series of exercises to lengthen and stretch my feet, then used a toe gizmo to open space between my big and middle toes, getting those little piggies to start wiggling!

The Balanced Body Foot Corrector
Joe’s Toe Gizmo, also by Balanced Body. This tool is amazing!

We topped it off with some foot work on the reformer and included some long spine jack knife moves (if you know, you know) and viola! Feet are happy, body is recovered and I’m ready for another LONG ride.

If you’re curious about how to get your body to handle long miles, shoot me a message and I’d love to help you figure things out! Pilates really can help every body!

Happy pedaling and tailwinds.

Shaken, not stirred

Tragedy struck my adopted hometown of Boulder last Monday. I was in Seattle, helping my mom move, when Ben called to tell me that he was okay, not to worry, despite the national news and reports of an active shooter at the Table Mesa King Sooper.

Wait, what?

A mass shooting in Boulder? Of all places: quiet, peaceful, hippy loving Boulder? Please tell me you’re joking.

Then it became a waiting game as they didn’t release the names of the victims until the next of kin were notified. So many people’s lives were turned inside out: sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, grandparents – gone.

I started checking in on my people, making sure they were ok and not by some chance getting groceries at that grocery store. So many of my friends shop at that store and live nearby. It could have happened to anyone.

It wasn’t until I went to our King Sooper in Gunbarrel on Wednesday and an active cop was standing outside of the store entrance that it hit me sideways. I got back in my car and started bawling. That uncontrollable lump in your throat, brick in your gut sense of loss. To know what it’s like to lose someone suddenly is a blessing and a curse. In a nanosecond, you’re whisked back into the moment you first found out and that sinking feeling was confirmed by a police officer. Where saying “I’m sorry” just doesn’t cut it. All you can do is hold space.

My heart goes out to those who lost their loved ones and as they are thrown into grief. May our community heal from this and support and love one another.

https://www.gofundme.com/c/act/boulder-shooting-fundraisers

Full Body Cycling

Sorry for the crickets in the blog department. Since November, we’ve been working on some things behind the scenes and are getting to roll out some exciting new changes at Sharp Coaching!

On a personal note, my lower back flared up multiple times since last October. I visited the chiropractor several times, saw two spine specialists (both who provided different prognosis but similar fixes), a physical therapist (hello dry needling!), a massage therapist, and my beloved pilates instructor Whitney Shea. I rotated through ice and heat, SI joint belts and reset motions, yoga moves, myofascia release techniques, core stabilizers and more. All the while teaching a regular weekly yoga class and bringing my discoveries to the group classes. When you throw the book at something, it’s hard to say what the tipping point was but I think I’m finally on the path of recovery. And I know what doesn’t work too! 🙂

Encountering an injury as an athlete is inevitable. It may be acute (broken collarbone, achilles overuse, fractured bones), or maybe it’s long lasting and chronic (lower back pain, knee issues, neck pain, etc). Let’s be clear: due to the repetitive, quad dominant motion of cycling, you’re likely going to develop some imbalances. Knee pain, lower back flare ups, poor posture, just to name a few.

We cycle because love it. It’s a low impact life-long sport – something you can start shortly after you learn to walk and continue to do well into your senior years. But not if you start to feel pain when riding. If you only ride a bike for exercise, it may set you up for chronic issues. By devoting anywhere between 10-15 minutes a day to mobility and strengthening, you may be able to offset your rounded shoulders, tucked pelvis, weak core, tight hip flexors and more.

Now onto what’s coming to Sharp Coaching…

More videos and blog posts about what movements to do in those 10-15 minutes of mobility/core work!

New testing protocols and breaking down unique physiology for athletes.

Weekly yoga classes for current athletes. These classes are structured to address these cycling imbalances, plus they provide breath work you can apply to the bike when things get challenging. Interested in joining and not already a client? Contact me and we can work out the details and set up access.

In addition to yoga classes, I’ll apply what I learn in my pilates teacher training into the mix. (Yes! Pilates teacher training starts up in April… I’M SO EXCITED!!!)

Hope all is well in your neck in the woods. Drop a line and say hi – Ben and I would love to hear what you’re up to!

Coaches Need Coaches, Too

As a cycling coach, I often remind my athletes about the importance of having a mediation practice, working on their strength and conditioning, practicing yoga and keeping a journal on TrainingPeaks. I frequently check in with them and when one of those moving pieces starts to fall off of the radar, they start noticing imbalances on and off the bike.

And yet, when you focus on those self-care fundamentals, balance restores and all is right in the universe.

It’s easy to not do those things. I’ll get to it next week, you bargain. A week becomes a month, and next thing you know it’s been six months since you actively foam rolled. Or in my case, longer.

It’s easy to not do those things. They take time and energy! Once you fall out of your routine, it’s hard to get back to it. The trick, and the part that you really have to pay attention to, is when the universe provides gentle reminders something is out of whack. Left unaddressed, they intensify and may result in an injury or burnout out or some other type of time out that you can no longer ignore.

It happened to me.

I fell out of mediation practice about a month into the pandemic. Instead of using my phone to listen to a guided meditation, I started scrolling news feeds. It became an addiction and I couldn’t stop reading about one horror of the pandemic after another. At first I tried to kid myself and turn the app on while I scrolled. Eventually I wondered what’s the point and turned it off.

I used to roll my feet everyday, without fail. And even though my feet started to hurt more and more, I didn’t keep up with this practice. When my feet hurt, it ripples up my posterior chain to my lower back… next thing I knew I couldn’t get out of bed due to a low back flare up.

I spent time in the chiropractors office, hoping that he’d have some miracle reset that would make it all better. And the work he did made an impact, however it wasn’t addressing the fundamental imbalance I had in my body and mind. One that turned upside down with the world as we know it.

I stopped bringing my phone to bed and my sleep quality increased tenfold. I started tackling my library reading list instead. I even set a timer for various social media feeds to stop the time leech and my happiness increased.

But that wasn’t enough. My body was still out of whack. I couldn’t ride the bike for longer than an hour without severely impacting my back and I’d roll home, deflated and not able to stand up straight for hours after.

So I backed off the heavy training, really limiting my time on the bike and only riding if I felt good. I started a consistent restorative yoga practice to get my parasympathetic nervous system to turn on. And slowly, things started to get better.

What really made a difference though was talking to my coach about these things. And telling him what actions I need to take, daily, in order for the healing to continue: foam rolling, myofascia release, hot baths/showers and gentle stretches to lengthen my hamstrings, strengthen my glutes and do activation prior to getting on the bike, and yes, meditate. Not the in bed type of meditation I was doing before, but the deliberate practice in the middle of the day.

When you share with your coach your goals and desires, they hold you accountable and support you. And that is worth every penny.

Ben’s tips for master athletes

In a recent VeloNews article, Ben gave a couple of tips on how to compete as a master athletes and how important it is to focus on the process and not the outcome.

Want to learn more about how to get the most out of your training? Check out this article: https://www.velonews.com/training/seven-habits-of-highly-successful-masters-cyclists/

Is Pain Real or Just a Figment of Your Imagination?

We all have that friend. You know the type: the one who can push harder and longer than anyone else you know. They’re often world champions and Olympic caliber athletes. They find themselves in the most grueling of sports and are able to practically nose breath through it, showing no signs they hurt. The Chloe Dygerts, Sarah Hammers, or Pat Warners of the world. Somehow, someway, they interact with pain differently than 99.99% of the population. When the pain seeps in, they keep pushing. It’s as though they don’t even notice it. And they break record after record, after record.

So what is it about these athletes that allows them to go that much harder than the average person? Sure their VO2 max and threshold power is likely off the charts. But I reckon they also have the ability to block out pain interpretations in their brains when they want to.

When something hurts, your brain sends a signal to that part of the body as danger! Back it off or you could die. The limbic system is activated and our cave person ancestry comes into play… the fight or flight response. If we encounter pain frequently, our brains create a looped response. The experience happens, our brains assign a value to it, our body is able to react to that value and it feeds back into the experience. If you don’t like VO2 intervals because they hurt, chances are you’re going to avoid them as much as possible or they won’t go as well as they could have. But if you’re able to re-circuit your brain to embrace that “pain” and know that hurting is okay and that you’re not going to die, suddenly you’re able to stay in that zone that much longer.

Think back to the last time you did a hard interval workout. Were you able to complete it as prescribed? Or did you find that your mindset came into play and determined its success? What about the time nailed the workout.. what was your mindset then? Did it feel differently than the time before?

Still with me? So how do you trick your brain into dealing with pain and garner a different response? The first is by practicing. The more often you subject yourself to that pain, the more your brain and body adapts to that feeling. (Enter in periodization theory.) Ever had a rest week and the next week you return to training it hurts worse than the week before your rest week? Your pain receptors built a tolerance toward an effort and when you rested, your resiliency temporarily lessened. Give a week and you regain that tolerance.

Another tool to trick your brain is through disassociation. Say you’re outside doing a hard interval or climbing a hill. It’s just you, the bike and gravity. It’s hot out, you’re sweating and your feet hurt. Your brain starts to send a signal to your body that it’s in the red and in danger of over heating, and that this exertion is dangerous. If you focus on those sensations, you automatically slow down. But if you’re able to focus on something else like an upcoming tree or repeat a mantra to yourself, you’ve suddenly introduced a distraction that could keep your brain at bay as you continue to push yourself through the red zone. Additional disassociation tools include music and/or counting. Anything you use to keep yourself out of your head and delaying the messages your brain is sending your legs.

Next time you ride, try those disassociation tools and just notice. What works, what doesn’t? Do you find that you’re able to push a little longer or maybe even enter the flow state? Once you build up that muscle, try applying it to harder workouts. Even if it works for just 30 seconds, you may see some improvement. You might not see results right away, but over time, as with any consistent practice, you’ll start to notice a difference.

One thing is for sure, if I had a super hero power, it would be to not feel pain.

Planning For The Unknown

One thing 2020 is good for is making you take a step back and really evaluate what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. Especially as an athlete. Especially one who isn’t a professional and getting paid to pedal on two wheels as fast as possible.

Remember how uncertain things were back in early March? Remember how much denial and hope we had that things wouldn’t be canceled, that life as we knew it would continue to exist? And as we tried to adapt and make sense of all that uncertainty, it created more angst.

Pretty much everything was thrown out the window by April.

We all saw waves of race cancelations, postponements, deferments. If you were focused on just one peak race of the season, or had goals that only included performing at specific races, I bet you struggled with a sense of loss more than others. Grief is experienced even if someone doesn’t die. Grief happens when we lose something we hold near and dear to us and suddenly, it’s gone.

Here’s the thing: when you first start racing/training/riding, all you could probably think about was conquering things. Your first 20 mile ride, 50 miles, 100 miles, first time up some epic hill, etc. Then maybe you started focusing on how many people you could pass. Then you started looking into racing and next thing you know you’re on a fast track to advance through the racing categories as quickly as possible. You’re in your third year of racing with 60 races under your belt and are now contemplating which bigger races you want to go back to so you can improve your result.

Somewhere in your racing career, this drive and desire to be better, faster, stronger and beat everyone starts to lose its appeal. Maybe you realize that you have preferences for specific races and start focusing on those. And yet something is missing. If you’re in this sport for the long term, you start to notice you get more satisfaction by collectively winning with your teammates. Suddenly standing on top of the podium no longer matters – just as long as someone from your team is represented.

And that my friends, is when cycling really gets sweet.

If you enjoy what you do, on and off the bike, your joie de vivre is that much richer. And yes, this applies to more than just cycling. It’s perfectly normal (and expected!) that your joy and the reasons you cycle change. Being able to shift and adapt as human beings is part of having an open mindset. Your motivation becomes more fluid. With so many things out of our control, you can now sleep well at night knowing that you’re in touch with what fills you up.

The moment your focus shifts from outcome goals to process goals, you hit the cycling jackpot. No matter what type of rider you are, once you start banking joyful riding experiences you’ll be hooked for life. Take a moment to create daily positive experiences and your “why cycling” grows tenfold.

The Art of Living Simply

I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of being bombarded by messages: buy this, do that, judge that, compare this, look at these photos and videos, read this news story and do it all right now – nothing else matters.

It drives me crazy.

I wasn’t sleeping at night. Or if I did fall asleep, I’d wake up early and start right back into the cycle of news stories and groundhog day morning rituals. At some point between April and September, I wasn’t even aware it was happening.

And then, a gift in the form of a library book.

In a quest to locate another inspiring home revolution cookbook, I’d queried Alice Water’s “The Art of Simple Food” and another title came up: “The Art of Living Simply: 100 daily practices from a Japanese Zen monk for a lifetime of calm and joy.”

Um, YES!

I placed it on hold, and lugged home a heavy book bag, laden with Alice’s two volumes of cookbooks and the small, unimposing Zen book. I brought the Zen book with me to bed and started reading it last night.

And things started to slow down. My perception shifted.

I slept through the night. And when I woke, I mindfully made my coffee and while I waited for the french press, I sat quietly without distraction. I lined up my shoes. And I breathing in the fresh air of a new day.

“Does for mental clutter for what Marie Kondo has done for household clutter.” Indeed.

Fueling For On The Bike Performance

This past weekend, Ben and I attempted a kitchen sink kind of workout. One that addresses all of the energy systems: endurance, sprints, VO2, sweet spot and finally 1 minute all out efforts. If there were ever a training ride to prepare you for the demands of racing, this is it.

We fueled well that morning: an egg scramble with veggies, and a big bowl of oatmeal. We even pre-loaded with a hydration mix specifically formulated for long, hard, intense rides. I’d mentally prepared myself for the 4.5 hour grueling workout.

But one thing I failed to do well: fuel during the ride.

For the 4.5 hours we rode, I only ate a banana and two packs of chews (one Honeystinger, one Skratch). I also drink one bottle with one scoop of electrolyte mix. And of course, a bunch of water.

By the second half of the ride, my power output suffered significantly. I couldn’t sustain sweet spot, let alone the endurance pace between sets. And my one minute efforts were pathetic. At the hour to go mark, all I could think about was limping back home at the highest sustained pace: barely above zone 1.

Has this ever happened to you?

I struggle to eat enough on the bike. The thought of eating only sugary, melted chocolate, and sweet chews followed by sweet electrolyte drink is not palatable. And the few savory bars I have managed to find are similar to chewing cardboard. But if you don’t fuel and aim for that 50-90g of carbs per hour, your performance will suffer.

Who doesn’t want to go faster? Then you have to train yourself to onboard carbohydrates throughout a ride. And the more carbohydrate you can tolerate and take in, the better you’ll perform during longer efforts.

That night we discussed different fueling strategies: my goal is to aim for 50g of carbs per hour to start with (keep in mind, this is only for rides over 2 hours long). Eventually I’d like to be in the 60-80g hour range. That’s two packs of chews per hour! Great for someone who loves chews and sugar coating their teeth…. but not so good if you’d prefer savory carb sources.

I scoured my Feed Zone cookbooks. Turns out not many portables have a super high carb content… even the rice cakes only average 30g per serving. I’ll need to eat 1.5 servings every hour – and that’s a lot of food! But after my lackluster performance this past weekend, I’m willing to get to work in the kitchen and see if I can create something that tastes good and meets those higher carb needs.

Over the coming weeks, I’m going to experiment with different rice cakes and other homemade on the bike nutrition I hope to share here.

First up, the Denver Rice Cake from Feed Zone Portables.

Have any homemade carb rich bike food recipes you’d like to share? Please let me know!