Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Fuel UP!!

I guess the lesson that I've taken 10 years to learn and occasionally re-learn is fueling up before any workout.

The only reason I do sports, from swimming, biking, running, biathlons, Tri, ironman, is only because I love to test and push my physical limit. Its not abt the medals, placings, certificates, coz at the end of it all, no one really remembers. Sorry for the side tracking....


Anyways...if i dun fuel up before any workout, especially cardio, my immune system goes down the pits... and I'll fall sick with flu....that's one of the reasons pro cyclists use a lot of antibiotics during training and racing.


SO SO SO... if you are wondering why you always fall ill even though you are working out sooooo very often....well check if you are properly fueled up, at least, before training or racing. It's all about timing your nutrition intake.

Let's think about this in a logical way: We now know that the body takes its fuel first from the blood stream and not the fat storage or muscles. For performance, therefore we want our blood to be charged up with fuel just before the event and during also. So if you go into the event without food, the little bit of blood glucose will be rapidly depleted and thus forcing the body to look for other source of energy. This takes a little longer time than via the blood. This is where a properly fueled athlete has the advantage over the lazy one. Once he/she sees you having difficulty, he/she can launch a devastating attack, leaving you struggling to keep up. Your body slowly starts taking energy from fats and if the event is a very long one, the body may take from the muscles (which is NOT good).

I mentioned timing our intake also. We always wonder why I take Vitamin C every night just before sleeping but I still fall sick! May I suggest trying to take before your body goes low in immunity like just before your "healthy" excercise? When we exert and very often atheletes over exert, the danger begins. Therefore, if you take vitamin C only after the exercise, you'll be vunerable from the time of excercise till the time you reach home. AND THEN you take the Vitamin C?! Not Logical right?

Of Coz..the best is pre and post race nutrition. Eat lots of complex carbs and multi-vit before training and lots of protein after... the carbs and Vitamins will provide sufficient energy, boost and even immunity protection for the workout at hand and the protein will help with muscle tissue repair there after.

Yeah dun we all get lazy at times to take in something before a training session.....bad habits will make us die hard.... I just did an entire cardio week only to ignore fueling up on the last day...BAM! I had high fever for 2 days...spent $200+ at East Shore Hospital (yes thats how I spent Labour Day 2010) and only started back up 2 weeks later. Loook at the down time...not worth it lah! Heng my wife can claim for me....who is the pro now? Lol...

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