If you’re looking for a healthy and tasty meal while dining out, then look no further than Zen Japanese Food Fast.  Zen asked us to partner with them for their Zen Fitness Menu Program that offers great choices for triathletes.  So check out a few of the delicious options that nutritionist Meredith Terranova selected for us:

Meal of Sides: 7 Pepper Ahi (no wasabi) + Edamame (no salt or soy sauce) + Miso Soup

BYOB (Build Your Own Bowl):
Shrimp, Chicken Breast, Tofu, or Salmon + double veggies of choice + salad mix OR udon noodles or brown rice on the side
Sauce on the side, and good options: teriyaki, spicy, oyako, or dynamite

Miso Soup + Dinner Salad with Miso Dressing
7 Pepper Ahi Tuna (no wasabi) + Dinner Salad with Miso Dressing

Taco:
Love Taco: no aioli

Are you hungry yet?  Stop by one of Zen’s locations to see the rest of the Jack & Adam’s Menu!

We love it when local businesses support each other.  Thanks to Zen for this fun opportunity!

Over the past year, Chad has been an inspiration to the Texas 4000 riders and his Austin community.  Not only does he serve through fundraising, volunteer work and dedication, Chad is also a shining example of a survivor in the fight against cancer.

“There’s Always Hope”

At the age of 13-years-old Chad was diagnosed with brain cancer. He endured two brain surgeries, intensive chemotherapy sessions and radiation treatment. He recently shared his testimony at length with fellow Texas 4000 riders, leaving them with renewed admiration for his strength and passion. He reminds us all that even when life seems to be at its darkest, there’s always hope to be found.

“Why I Ride”

“I ride for Hope, Knowledge and Charity. I ride because I believe that Unity is Strength, Knowledge is Power, and Attitude is Everything. I ride for pediatric cancer patients who were diagnosed today, and for the kids who will be diagnosed tomorrow. I ride for Emily, who lost a leg to cancer, and for Devin, who suffered a relapse just before her senior year. I ride for Analisa, and all of the friends I made throughout treatment. As a pediatric cancer patient, I experienced firsthand what cancer can do to young people. I was lifted by other patients’ never-give-up attitudes and their personal triumphs kept me going. Unfortunately, I also saw how universally crushing it can be when a relapse is announced or a friend is lost. I ride because kids should never have to experience what I did. I ride for those who can’t. And I ride for a cure.”

- Chad Ramos, 2013 LIVESTRONG Texas 4000 team

SAVE THE DATE…

To learn more about Chad and Texas 4000, please visit www.texas4000.org.  And be sure to mark your calendars for our upcoming events!

• Day Zero: Friday, May 31st, 8am – outside the LBJ Foundation on UT Campus
• ATLAS Ride: Saturday, June 1st, 8am – Brushy Middle School in Cedar Park
• Summer Ride: 6/2 – 8/9, follow riders’ blogs during their 70-day ride to Alaska
• Tribute Gala: Saturday, August 24th, 6:30pm – Austin Music Hall
You can always DONATE NOW to show your support today!

What:  800 meter swim, 11.2 mile bike, 3.2 mile run triathlon

Where:  Walter E. Long Park, Austin, Texas

When:  July 14th

Register today and prepare yourself and your side-kick for an awesome day of fun!  In addition to tech-tees, finisher medals, custom water bottles, personalized race numbers and more, we’ll also have a fun-filled after party with free beer, lunch, live band and lots of giveaways.  Don’t miss out!

Bonk Breaker hit the nutrition scene running a few years ago. In a market that seemed saturated with bars of all shapes and sizes, Bonk Breaker has found its niche and is now the main bar of all the Ironman races. What Bonk Breaker has to offer this spring is not a new flavor but a new size!

The familiar favorites of Peanut Butter and Jelly and Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip now come in Bonk Bites. Cutting the bar almost in half these little joy nuggets come boasting a compact 127 calories instead of 250 of the full size bar. These are great for both shorter and long distance rides and racing. For shorter distances it allows you to have the great taste without over-consuming calories. For longer distances, you can switch up the flavors and keep things interesting on those long bike when normal nutrition routine gets mundane.

So stop in the shop and check out these tasty little treats that will now for sure be staple of triathlon training.

by: Tina Thomas of Jack & Adam’s Bicycles

by TriZones Training, partner of the Texas Tri Series and the Skeese Greets Women’s Tri

For many triathletes, even experienced ones, the swim portion of the race is the most daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. With some quality training and good strategy, the swim section will be the start of a great Skeese Greets Women’s Tri!

The best swimmers have long, relaxed strokes. They glide through the water instead of thrash. While you are at the pool, watch other swimmers. The fastest ones will appear to move their arms slowly and roll their body from side to side. They have a strong pull under the water and by rolling to their sides, have a streamlined position. Watch veteran triathletes. You will notice that they don’t kick very much while they are swimming; they are saving their leg strength for the bike and run sections of the race.

Photo credit: © Ed Sparks

The best advice we can offer: Find a swimming group and train with them. There are several Austin-area masters swim teams (teams for grownups) that provide structured workouts and a coach to help you with your stroke and training. As with running and riding, it helps to train in a group.

It is important to note that you need to be able to swim the entire sprint distance, approximately half a mile, on your own. You are not allowed to use flotation devices to finish the distance.

Photo credit: © Ed Sparks

The swim at Skeese Greets Tri is an open-water swim in a lake. There aren’t any lines on the bottom to guide you, and there aren’t any walls or lanelines to rest on. Plus you will be swimming at the same time as up to 50 or 100 other people in your wave. Here are some tips to help you with the swim:

• Get into the water before the start and spend some time getting used to it. Take deep breaths and bob up and down a few times.
• If this is your first triathlon, or if you are not a strong swimmer, count to 30 after the gun goes off. The crowd will thin out a bit and you will be able to swim in clearer water.
• Start slowly, relax and focus on your breathing.
• Keep your eyes open and look ahead every several breaths to make sure you are on course. The course will be lined with buoys and people in kayaks to keep you from getting lost; but it’s better to swim a straight line if possible.
• If you are a slower swimmer, be considerate of others. Stay to the right and let people pass you on the left. It is fine to swim breaststroke, but stay to the side.

Finally, control the things you can: Do an open water swim or two before the race, even if it is just in Barton Springs; make sure your goggles fit and don’t leak; practice putting on a swim cap (yes you have to wear one on race day) so that you are used to the feeling.

The Skeese Greets Women’s Tri is June 30th, register today.  And be sure to check back here next Monday for more tips for the tri!

The course features a multitude of trails, from meandering single-track to undulating granite. Afterward, stay for pancakes, bacon & beer while you cool off in the crystal clear quarry lake. Come out for the day, or bring your camping gear and stay awhile – The RANCH 10K/30K trail race happens on Sunday morning and can be coupled with The Trail Mix for an epic off-road weekend! The Trail Mix @ Reveille Peak Ranch Start time: 7:30am Registration is HERE.

The summer temperatures have not quite come in full force.  For some they are soaking in every last ounce of cooler mornings and not so hot afternoons.  For others, like me, we just wait patiently for the temps to rise and hit 100.  No matter which side of the table you sit on when it comes to the weather, when the heat hits it is important to prepare your body and adjust until you are used to the change.  Read below on how you can help your body get ready for the heat.

Fluid and Electrolyte Intake:

You can know exactly what your body needs, but on a hot, and more importantly humid, day all the rules might change.

On a humid day, things to pay attention to:

• Are you sweating an excessive amount?
• Are you drinking a significant amount of fluid?
• Are you matching your increase of fluid intake with more electrolytes?

Additionally, as you check the weather by the minute pre-race, there are some things to consider as you hydrate in the days leading up to your event:

• Fluid Consumption
• Electrolyte Consumption
• Urine Color

Excessive plain fluid consumption will create a diuretic effect, so get and stay hydrated but DO NOT over-hydrate. 80-100oz per day max, and listen to your body.  If you are truly not thirsty, don’t drink as much.

Make sure that you are including electrolytes into your pre-race hydration, especially if it is going to be a hot and humid day. This is where products like NUUN are useful.

On the morning of the event, make sure you take electrolytes pre-race. The technique is similar to carb loading but it’s done with electrolytes. The goal is to condition the cells and the blood stream to maintain a higher level of electrolytes, which can be called on later to maintain a higher activity level for a longer period of time.

All performance is dependent on the 4 alkaline minerals, Na, K, Mg, and Ca, along with the anions, Chlorides, Phosphates, Sulphates, and Bicarbs. We know that a long athletic event or even a hard workout will deplete the electrolytes.

Fuel Absorption:

When training and racing in the heat all of the below information is EXTREMELY important to consider!

High glycemic foods (aka pure sugar) result in a sugar high and sugar crash.  This is true in all situations EXCEPT when you are exercising and immediately following.    Many athletes have taken what they learn from the media and have concerned themselves with consuming sugar and hence opted for a more sustained energy flow coming from maltodextrin (a complex carbohydrate).    This is wrong on three counts.

1)    When you are exercising your insulin is blunted.  Meaning, that when you are exercising and you consume a high glycemic food, you do not get a strong insulin response and hence you do not get a sugar crash.   Your body is very smart and it clearly understands that when you are exercising you want to use the food or drink you consume to fuel your muscles.  If insulin kicked in, the food or fuel you consumed would not get to the working muscle.

2)    Athletes tend to choose maltodextrin, which is a good choice, but do so for the wrong reasons.  Maltodextrin is actually high glycemic not low glycemic.   Hence maltodextrin is a good choice because it is fast absorbing, not because it’s slow absorbing.

3)    Looking for that low glycemic, slow sustained energy will actually cause you to bonk prematurely.   Some even consider using some fat because they are going long. Understand that we all have about two hours of stored glycogen.  Once this runs out, we bonk.  If you consume a slow absorbing/low glycemic food while exercising you are forcing your body to rely on its stored glycogen.   The entire goal of fueling for long endurance racing is to spare your muscle glycogen.  In other words do what you can to hold on to that stored glycogen.  The best way to do this, outside of appropriate pace and training, is to consume primarily fast absorbing carbohydrates to fuel your exercise.  This will allow you to immediately use what you consume for the working muscle, so you can spare your stored muscle glycogen….

The act of consuming slow nutrients can also cause gastric distress.  Consider that slow absorbing nutrients spend a lot of time in the digestive system.  Doing this while exercising simply backs up the digestive system and does not allow for those fast nutrients to get absorbed.  Often athletes cannot understand why they bonked when they consumed a large amount of calories.  The simple answer is that they likely consumed slow calories that did not absorb before their glycogen ran out.  And often you feel this through considerable stomach discomfort. (The above is based on research from Robert Kunz, MS)

This information is especially important in the heat and humidity because under these conditions your body is under additional stress. You want to keep your fueling sources simple, and easy for your body to absorb and utilize.

Keeping Your Core Temperature Cool:

Keeping your body temperature (your core) cool on a hot and/or humid day is essential in being able to absorb your fuel and fluid.

When your core temperature rises, so does your heart rate and potentially shuts down your gut and ability to process your intake.

How to keep your core cool:

• Monitor or adjust your pace
• Keep a bandana around your wrist or neck with cold water or ice
• Put ice in your hat
• Don’t be afraid to carry a water bottle!
• [J&A addition: The Trigger Point Technologies Cool Point Hand Held]

Be safe out there!

WHEN:  Friday, May 17th

TIME:  7AM – 9:30AM

WHERE:  Jack & Adam’s Bicycles, 1210 Barton Springs RD, Austin, TX 78704

Presented by the Austin Cycling Association, Bike to Work Day is a chance for you to ditch the gas-powered vehicle and pedal your way to work or to class.

We will have tacos, fruit and coffee, and ACA will have awesome canvas messenger bags with great swag inside as well. We will also have a mechanic’s stand set up if your ride needs some love.

Hope to see you there!  Find more info and see who else is going on the Facebook Event Page.

Travis Heights is located in South Austin and is one of Austin’s original neighborhoods going back as early as 1913.  The neighborhood boundaries are Lady Bird Lake on the north, Interstate 35 on the east, Congress Avenue on the west and Oltorf Street on the south.  Travis Heights is among the most desirable residential neighborhoods in Austin because of its proximity to South Congress and Downtown Austin.

Another big draw is the Blunn Creek Nature Preserve which is almost 40 acres of protected park land that runs directly through the neighborhood.  The tree-shaded trail within is a great place for shorter runs.  Also within the preserve is Little Stacy Park and Big Stacy Pool, which make this neighborhood perfect for the fit minded.  Big Stacy pool is a natural spring fed pool, open to the public seven days a week.  You’ll find many triathletes swimming here on a regular basis.  You also have easy access to the Ladybird Lake Hike and Bike trail,  Barton Springs Pool, Zilker Park and of course Jack and Adam’s Bicycles.

The schools for the subdivision are Travis Heights Elementary, Fulmore Middle School and Travis High School which are all part of the Austin Independent School District.

Real estate prices in the area have continued to increase and demand for homes is at an all time high.

Price Range: $300,000 to $1,500,000

Average Sales Price: $480,000.00

Days on Market: 34

Are you itchin’ to live in all the action of South Austin?  Contact Texas Tri Series Partner, Ben Phillips for more info about Travis Heights: Ben Phillips at Turnquist Partners. You can search homes in this and other areas by clicking on the Advanced Search.

Check out other great neighborhood that will support your lifestyle:  Barton Hills and Bouldin Creek.

Do you already live in the ‘hood?  What’s your favorite part about it?  Let us know in the comments below.