Winning Defined
June 17th, 2016 by Marie DershemLandgraff Takes on Back to Back Races at Sylvania Crit
June 16th, 2016 by Kaitlyn PattersonA Course of Action
June 10th, 2016 by Marie DershemDirty Kanza 200- An Incredible Adventure and Accomplishment
June 9th, 2016 by Kaitlyn Patterson5000 Days
May 12th, 2016 by Kaitlyn PattersonBy: Brian Reynolds
On August 10th, 2002, I was a 14 year old Otsego High School freshman toeing the start line at the Ready or Not 5k. The race took place at my old stamping grounds in Otsego, Michigan. The Ready or Not was my second 5k during my early running career. I remember being very nervous and excited at the same time. The race was long, hard, and mentally challenging. The race felt more like a half marathon than a 5k.
Looking back at the Ready or Not race it was the start of my running career and, most of all, the start of my running streak. Everyday since August 10th, 2002 I have not missed a day of running. You may be asking yourself “Why would you run everyday? Are you crazy?” but don’t worry I have not been diagnosed with any mental issues and there is a reason why I choose to run everyday.
When I ran cross country at Otsego I was coached by Steve Long. Coach Long’s training was based on the Paavo method which was a popular training program used at the high school level. One of the most important lessons I learned from the Paavo method was that to be successful you have to work at it EVERYDAY. Coach Long would encouraged his runners to run everyday because it would make us faster and would be a good motivational tool. Coach Long told us that a run would only count if it was at least one mile long and was completed without any breaks. Only a few of us took on this running challenge. I took on the challenge because I wanted to be a great runner. During that cross country season I did not miss a single day of running.
Running everyday without a doubt had made me a better runner so I decided to continue the streak after my cross country season. During high school it was pretty easy to get a run in during the cross country and track seasons. However, during the winter months when I swam competitively it was a little more challenging to get in a run. During the swim season, I would practice for 2 hour after school then go for a 3 mile run at night. There were some days when I ran in -20 ᷾͒deg F wind chill through 2 feet of snow. On a super cold days my face would be so covered up I could barely get enough air to breath through all the layers of clothing covering my month. However, I did not let poor weather conditions become an excuse not to run. If it was not for the running streak, I probably would have missed several days of running due to bad weather, not feeling good, or lack of motivation that day.
Over the years during high school, college, and post-college it has been amazing to see my progress throughout my running career. The one big life lesson I took out of this experience is that to achieve a lifetime goal or dream you have to take it one day at a time. Big dreams are not going to happen overnight. In fact, dreams can take years, decades, or may never happen. To accomplish big goals you have to set attainable short term goals. Within those short term goals you need to set daily goals. For me a daily goal maybe completing a run workout at my goal race pace. When I accomplished those daily goals I was able to accomplish my short term goals. If you continue to accomplish goal after goal after goal then you may eventually reach your big dream. For example, my big dream was to win a marathon. On day 1 of my running streak I was far from being in shape to win or even be able to finish a marathon. However, on day 3,149 I was able to win the 2011 Kalamazoo Marathon.
To this day I am still running everyday. My running streak is over 5000 days which spans over 13 years. I have been very fortunate so far to keep this streak alive. There has only been one incident where I almost couldn’t run due to a very bad ankle sprain. Let’s just say I ran some of my slowest runs on that sprained ankle. Running has become so ingrained in me that I do not think twice when I go out for a run. Running is part of my life and identity. I do not see myself quitting anytime soon. So with that said I gotta go for a run, thanks for reading!
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After A Year of Resilience Sheikh Claims Second at Strider’s Classic
May 10th, 2016 by Kaitlyn Patterson– By Elaine Sheikh
Strider’s 10 Mile Classic is a race that I’ve wanted to do for a few years now, but have never been able to work into the schedule. This year, it was perfect timing – I’m currently training for the Grand Rapids Half Iron Triathlon and this would give me the opportunity to test my race legs over a longer distance. Before the race started, I chatted with some OAM Now teammates who were doing the 5K. The only other OAM Now athlete doing the 10 miler besides myself was club member Lindsey Lilly. I had never run with her before, so I didn’t know how fast she was!
I was nervous starting this race. Not only was it my first running race of the season, this would be my first running race since I fractured my pelvis 15 months ago. It still feel “tweaky” on a pretty regular basis and I had nightmares of refracturing it when I really put it to the test. Plus, I had completely forgotten how to pace myself for anything that wasn’t a triathlon or bike race! I deployed my usual tact of telling everyone I was out there for a training run. When people don’t think I’m going to race hard, I feel like it takes away a lot of pressure. So, whether or not I plan on racing hard, I will often tell people I just want to enjoy my day. Secretly, I wanted to run under 1:09.
As we started, the fastest woman in the pack became obvious. I kept her in my sights the whole first half of the race. It was much hillier than I thought, and a loose gravel mile caused my second mile to be a bit slower than I had anticipated. But, I just kept watching her and didn’t let her pull away. Right before the halfway mark, a man yelled that I was only 20 yards back. This caused my competitor to pick up the pace. I responded, but mile 6 was all uphill and I had been running significantly faster than I had planned on. I was hurting and I started to lose focus as the hills hit me one after another. Just as my breathing was getting completely out of control. At the perfect time, teammate Dave Stebbins, who had been riding back and forth on the course cheering, rolled up. It was pretty obvious that I was flagging pretty hard at that point, but he encouraged me and talked me down so I could get control of my breathing again. Teammates are awesome!
In the end, I never caught the first place female finisher. She crossed the finish line a solid 30 seconds ahead of me. However, I crushed my goal and ran a 1:07:12. Lindsey was the third woman to cross the line at 1:08:27. Way to go Lindsey!
It was a fun day and a great race that I would recommend for anyone looking for a nice spring 5K or 10 miler. I couldn’t be more excited to start another multi-sport season with Team OAM Now!
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Bikecation in Southern Michigan
May 4th, 2016 by Kaitlyn Patterson–By Roxane Kippen, Multisport Athlete
Who needs Spring Break sitting around on a beach in Florida, when you can go on a bikecation? It doesn’t appear that “bikecation” is a term that has landed on wikipedia yet, since it gave me results instead for “bisection” when I typed it in the search. So, I will have to tell you a little about my week out of the office and on the trails to explain. Many cyclists head south to Alabama, North Carolina or Southern Indiana early in the spring for a training camp, where they ride all day and enjoy the warmer temps that may not always arrive in Michigan in a timely fashion. Instead of spending 15 hours in the car, packing countless bags and hoping for good weather when I get there, I decided to take a week off for a “staycation” and ride my bike closer to home with a 10 day forecast of nothing but sun and warm temps.
While North Carolina boasts of International Mountain Bike Association Epic Trail Tsali, Southern Indiana has its beloved Brown County and Alabama has Oak Mountain, the lower peninsula of Michigan has some pretty fine trails as well. I have ridden Tsali, Brown County and Oak Mountain, and I would have to say I enjoyed my week here on Michigan trails just as much. Every trail has something different to love and if they were all the same, that would be no fun at all. Let me take you on a brief tour of the trails I visited during my bikecation.
I started off the first weekend of my journey by racing the Barry Roubaix Killer Gravel Road Race. I logged 36 miles of gravel roads with 3,000 of my closest friends and teammates. After a relatively hard effort during the race, I spent Sunday on a shorter “recovery” ride with friend and former teammate John. We rode the most convenient location, which happened to be the Cannonsburg State Game Area (CSGA) and the Cannonsburg Ski Area (CSA), together a.k.a. “The Combo” or “The Connector”. We avoided the “Up the Gut” climb at the ski area and enjoyed a leisurely pace through the game area and logged 14 miles of mountain biking. I didn’t want to wear myself out on the first day of my bikecation! I had a lot of time in the saddle (and chamois cream) coming up.
It was hard to decide where to go on what day, but I started off on Monday at Yankee Springs Recreation Area in Middleville, MI. The body takes a beating on this trail as there are a lot of rocks and roots and a bit more climbing than the Cannonsburg trails from Sunday. I rode 23 miles solo (two loops) at a Sunday driver pace and took most of the climbs in granny gear; riding by myself I didn’t dare take any chances of sliding off a cliff or wrapping myself around a tree. The temp was close to 80 degrees and the course was extremely dry, loose and sandy, almost as if it were the middle of July already.
Three hours in the heat and I felt like day two of bikecation was solid. Fort Custer Recreation Area (The Fort) was the trail of choice on day three. Tuesday conditions were cool but comfortable and made for another great day of riding. XTERRA training buddy Alan and I took on a couple laps at The Fort and logged 17 miles of super cool singletrack and even threw in a twenty- minute brick run after our ride. The Fort was where I feel I really learned to mountain bike. Nearly 10 years ago, I spent countless weekends prepping for my first XTERRA (offroad triathlon) at The Fort. It is still my favorite race venue for XTERRA. It is always hard to tell someone if a trail is technical, because technical could mean many different things. To me, this trail was technical and for me that means rooty, steep switchback climbs that require great focus and balance and some tighter twisty/turny sections. With trail sections call Amusement Park and Grannies Garden and trail features like the Demon Drop and the Trenches, it is definitely a trail with a large variety of riding and it never gets boring.
Wednesday, I met up with long-time mountain biker and teammate Terry Ritter to get a bit of an evaluation on my riding skills at the Potawatomi Trail (Poto) in Pinckney, MI. I also had the opportunity to connect with local rider and fellow XTERRA racer, Heather, for the ride. The trip is just under two hours from Grand Rapids, and I would highly recommend it. I had never ridden the trail before so it was a good test of my trail reading and bike handling “tool box”. My biggest opportunity is to better utilize my momentum. I think Terry suggested/threatened that I need some single speed work to force me to use my momentum more effectively. Thanks, Terry, for your time and knowledge and helping me log another 17.5 miles of trail riding on day four of my bikecation.
Of course, the meteorologist had to get one day wrong out of that 10 days of forecasted sun, and it happened to be on Thursday. The morning was cool and rainy, so I took the opportunity to catch up on some housework and volunteer activities. By the afternoon, things were clearing up to the north so I summoned a couple of my regular XTERRA training partners for a trip to Owasippe Trail. This trail is on a Boy Scout reservation near Whitehall, MI and has some of the most fun singletrack riding in Michigan. It is tough to describe this trail and why I love it so much, but it has some nice smooth areas, some brutal technical climbs with bumpy descents, a couple of long narrow bridge crossings and spectacular views of water and woods all around. The rains left the trail in perfect condition as the sand soaked up the moisture and packed down for a fast trail. We logged 23 fabulous miles and went to a local brewery for a well-earned recovery beverage.
I started to feel my legs squawking at me after the ride at Poto on Wednesday. The climbs were tougher and there were times when I powered a little harder through sections than I had earlier in the week. This was evident each time I ascended a set of stairs in my house. Definitely after the Owasippe ride, my legs had done what they set out to do for the week and I needed a recovery day. Friday I did just that. I recovered, I napped with my cat Asher (the master napper) and I watched Netflix. I did, however, log 4 miles riding to and from Belle Tire when I dropped off and picked up my car for a tire rotation.
After a full week of riding totaling 36 miles of gravel, 95 miles of singletrack and a 4 mile commute, I headed into the weekend for two more days of training before going back to the cubicle world. I pushed myself through a 5K run at the Striders Classic on Saturday and rounded out Sunday with another 23 miles at The Fort for a total of 118 miles of mountain biking in 8 days. That may be more than I’ve done in a stretch of several months during the season! It is very difficult to pick a favorite trail, but I will have to stick with Owasippe as my #1 and Fort Custer as a close #2.
To check out more information on these trails, click the hyperlinks above that will take you to the International Mountain Bike Association (IMBA) listing or look them up on the Michigan Mountain Bike Association (MMBA) Trail Guide at http://mmba.org/trail-guide/. If you are worried about getting lost in the woods, you can download the MTB Project app, by IMBA, to your phone and it will show your location as you ride on the trail. Local bike shops can also give you tips on how to find and what to expect of the trails nearby. The mountain bike community welcomes new riders with open arms, so if you’ve been hesitating to give it a try, I highly encourage you to take the leap and check out a local trail.
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How Much Protein Do Endurance Athletes Need?
April 29th, 2016 by Athletic MentorsProtein supplementation is big business today, with mass food producers jumping on the bandwagon, but how much protein do endurance athletes really need? This is one area about which Athletic Mentors’ clients routinely ask when in training. One thing that folks often forget is that whatever the source, protein = calories, so there’s a trade-off when training.
According to one Vanderbilt University study, endurance athletes do use protein as a source of 5%-10% of total energy expended due to the duration of their training sessions. This protein needs to be replaced as well as protein that is used for tissue repair, thus an elevated level of intake can be beneficial. However, a point exists at which any more protein taken in is no longer beneficial, and exceeding that point means unnecessary calories.
In her book, “Sports Nutrition Guidebook,” author Nancy Clark points out that many athletes eat more protein than they require just through standard meals. That is, a 150-pound recreational athlete who burns 3,000 calories can easily consume 300 – 450 protein calories. This equates to 0.5 to 0.7 grams of protein per pound, which is more than the RDA of 0.4 grams per pound.
Meanwhile, research shows that protein intake exceeding 0.9 gram per pound would offer no further benefit. Clark suggests that adult enduarance athletes aim for an intake of 0.6 – 0.7 gram per pound of body weight.
So, if you’re a 140-pound bike racer, you’d need to consume between 85 – 98 g protein each day.
Low Cal, High Protein Food Choices
In terms of food that have high-protein-to-calorie ratios, leaders include egg whites at 20 grams per 6 egg whites (100 calories); chicken breast at 18 grams per 2 ounces, tuna at 20 grams per 3 oz, haddock at 21 grams per 3 0z and cottage cheese at 15 grams per 1/2 cup. For vegetarians, extra firm tofu nets 12 grams per 4 oz, and Boca burgers net 13 grams per 2.5 oz.
For more information: Check out Nancy Clark’s Book or contact us to schedule a nutritional counseling session with us today!
There’s no Y in Tri: Free Clinics to Help You Meet Your 2015 Tri Goals
April 28th, 2016 by Athletic MentorsFor many, the idea of a triathlon is intriguing, but daunting. There seems to be so much to consider and even more to learn. Stop asking why and start asking when. No one ever got to the finish line without ever lining up at the start, right?
In conjunction with the Grand Rapids Triathlon, Athletic Mentors will present you with all the information you need to get you to the starting line of your first…or next…triathlon and see you all the way to the finish. You won’t want to miss any of these amazing (and FREE) opportunities!
Starting this Saturday, January 17th, you have the opportunity to get the inside scoop on training, nutrition, equipment, racing tips, transitions, and rules from athletes who have been there, and back again (9-10:30am). Following that session, athletes looking to improve their efficiency in the water can learn about swim techniques and training (10:30am-noon). It’s an amazing chance to get an inside look and idea of what you can expect as you begin to train.
Later, on February 28, the clinic returns to offer you the opportunity to really hone in on specific skills and strategies on both the bike and run portions (February 28, 9am-11am). Then, on May 30, just two weeks from the race, you can participate in a Race Day Clinic which will answer all the questions you have about actual race day, from wave information to parking and spectator access.
Finally, one week from race day, June 7, mentors and coaches will take you on a pre-race swim and ride to get you acclimated to the course. This is the perfect opportunity for athletes new to the tri to quell any last minute nerves and take advantage of one last training session and on-course tips from the pros!
These clinics offer an amazing opportunity for the new and returning tri-athlete to learn techniques from the pros. Clinic attendees also get special deals on Athletic Mentors Custom Training Plan and 20% off the video stroke analysis!
All clinics (except pre-race swim and ride) are held at the downtown Grand Rapids YMCA and are completely free! You must register to participate.
To get more details, check out the Grand Rapids Tri site here.
To register for the clinics, click here.