They have a few other teaser videos on their website, all very cool.

Email info@ptperformancetraing or call 250-686-8827.

Note – all nutrition services are available both in person and online, so location is not a barrier!

Gift certificates for various amounts also available, click on the button below, pick ‘gift certificates’ from the tab on the left hand side and pick the desired amount.

The fine print: 15% off services for you is only available when purchasing a nutrition assessment until December 31st 2011.

Effective training sessions specifically customized to fit with your schedule based on your training needs and goals, and make you a faster and better cyclists and/or triathlete. Each session is simple, highly effective & fun. There is no BS, just hard work. Advice and tips are always provided as needed before, during and after each session.

You need to bring your bike and trainer. Sessions are Monday & Wednesday, starting at 5:30pm. Each session is ~75 minutes. Doors open at 5:00pm for set up or if you want to spin for a bit longer. Want a different day and time? We can make it happen – just get in touch!

Starting on Monday, December 5th. We take registrations in 8 week intervals to make things easy, but if you would like another arrangement, just say so.

Cost

Once weekly spins: $65 (+HST) for 8 week
Twice weekly spins: $120 (+HST) for 8 weeks
Drop in spin: $12 (+HST) (please email first)

Want in? You can register HERE. Questions? Email/call.

Note: there will be no spin sessions for 2 weeks at the end of December, which will get carried over to 2012.

All my coaching practicums were done with the same junior cross country running & track & field club (Sumner running club), and I coached those kids year round for close to 3 years. That made for A LOT of notes! Reading through my own coaching journals, session plans, my supervisors comments and observations, all those years later, was great. It was interesting to observe my own coaching development over the years.

Back to my post…

The benefits of keeping a training and racing journal/log for athletes of all ability levels are well known and I do not intend to get into more detail here. But what about the benefits of keeping a journal/log for coaches? I know a lot of coaches who simply keep track of the workouts. But is that enough?

When you go back and read those journals, what is more important – the communication you had with your athletes, your notes about their progress, feedback provided and so on, or the workout itself? While it was fun reading my session plans from 6+ years ago, it wasn’t really all that valuable. I found the most value in reading how my young athletes responded to things and some of the observations I have made throughout the season.

I have been keeping coaching journals for years, recording everything. I also started keeping different records for different groups I coach, something that I have not done in the past. I find that an extremely interesting experienceand I think it is not only beneficial for me as the coach, but also to the athletes I coach.

Athletes get better with consistency, experience, a lot of hard work & a bit of patience. The way I see it, coaching is not all that different. You get better as a coach by doing a lot of it, every day, year round. Just like athletes need to put their head down, put in the time and make sacrifices when/as/if needed – coaches need to do the exact same thing. And in my opinion, they should keep a record of their journey.

The new space is certainly an upgrade from the current one and we get to stay in the Swan Lake area – the new office is less than a kilometer away from the current location and Andrew and I found a place to live ~300m up the road from the new office.

In the midst of packing and the chaos that typically comes with it, I was thinking of closing the current office until moving. Instead, I am offering 20% off bike fits done in the current location, until November 30th.

You can book your bike fit online (ignore the price that is shown, the discount will be applied after the fit is done).

Note: Bike fits booked for December 1st or later are not eligible to the discount.

The take home messages, for me at least, are the commitment to the process, patience, repetition and trust. Do something for long enough and you’ll get it right, no? Make good, solid decisions and be patient, which is extremely hard to do. Especially when there isn’t a clear cut answer to the question: ‘How long is long enough?’

As mentioned in my previous post, sometimes changing things even though they have been working well isn’t a bad thing. It all boils down to your decision making process. I had a lengthy discussion about similar things with another coach yesterday afternoon: coaching is about making good decisions for/with a specific athlete, based on many factors which are mostly individual to the athlete. For one athlete, ‘long enough’ might be 1 year. For another, it could be 3 years.

Isn’t it all part of the fact that the (too) commonly used saying ‘an overnight success’ is hugely misleading? When you look at most people who have succeeded ‘overnight’ and dig a bit deeper, you’ll find that it has taken years to happen. In some cases, a small change may have lead to that. In most cases, its hard work over an extended period of time, with a side of patience.

Kara Goucher has achieved success, but she recently made a big training change that will undoubtedly shift her career. In what direction? I don’t know. I hope for the better, of course. It was hard, it took guts, but she argued with success. There are many examples of this, I am simply using this one as it is one of the most recent ones I’ve seen.

I don’t think you should always argue with success. That might be as dumb as arguing with failure. You should learn from both success and failure and argue with success when the time comes and it is the right thing to do. I am not sure why, but I have been feeling a bit ‘on edge’ this month and I think something sort of ‘clicked’ after reading Godin’s blog this morning. Still more questions than answers, but that can be a good thing (I think).

In completely unrelated news, I’ve posted an update about the progress of my upcoming performance nutrition cookbook, including a short survey that I would love for you to fill in! Read it HERE.

Even if you are an age group athlete, or anyone else who will never get tested for banned substances, I think it is important for you to keep reading. I am sure some of the information will be valuable and applicable to you also! If you work with athletes who may find this useful information, please refer them to this post or contact me with questions and/or comments.

This is not a blog post about doping per say. Rather, it is about providing athletes with information that will help them make more informed decisions. It is stuff I discuss with athletes when I help them with supplements and their performance nutrition. I want this information to be available in a more public format so it is available to athletes who I do not work with to read and for athletes who I do work with, as a constant reference & reminder.

Contamination

Contamination of supplements is a known issue and it is typically directly related to manufacturing practices. Tests have shown that the highest contamination rate is found in tablet products, followed by capsules and powders. The most common contaminants are steroids (more specifically DHEA, Androstenedione & Nandrolone). The reality is, ALL forms of supplements can become contaminated with banned substances. This includes vitamins, powders, etc.

Contamination can be due to cross contamination within the manufacturing process (ie. manufacturing a product containing a banned substance in the same facility and/or using the same equipment) and/ or failure to list certain substances on the label.

Food grade vs Pharmaceutical grade

Not all supplements are created equal, far from it. The highest standard for supplements is known as ‘Pharmaceutical Good Manufacturing Grade’ (GMP). Unfortunately, only a handful of companies manufacture supplements to this standard. It essentially means that each capsule has been tested to make sure it contains only what the label says it does, at the specified amounts.

With food grade, you may or may not be getting what the bottle says you are, the manufacturing practices are questionable and often there are issues with absorption and overall effectiveness of the supplement. While each batch is tested, a typical batch weighs hundreds of Kg’s and only a few grams are tested, causing significant variations in results.

Even though with GMP standard the manufacturing process is well documented and you know exactly what is in each bottle/container/etc, it does NOT automatically mean that the product is free from contamination as the issues of safety is usually focused at concentrations of contaminants higher than the levels that could trigger a positive test.

Resources

The WADA List: If you are not aware of what substance are on the WADA banned substance list, refer to their website. There is also an iPhone app for that. As a side note… This begs the following question: if they can develop an app, why is the whereabouts system so hard to use?! I hear a lot of complaints about it…

It is NOT possible to provide a 100% guarantee, always remember that. In saying that, there are a few labs that test supplements for banned substances.

HFL Sport Science: A UK based sports doping control & research laboratory. Informed Choice & Informed Sport are supplement testing and certification programs that make sure products carrying their certification have been regularly tested for prohibited substances and manufactured to GMP standards. The websites have useful information for athletes, coaches, etc along side lists of products that have been tested and considered to be safer.

NSF Sport: Similar mission to Informed Sport/Choice, but North America based. The NSF Sport website provides great resources and a list of safer supplements.

In my brief communications with CCES (Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport), I have been told that while they do not support athletes taking supplements for obvious reasons and that there are no 100% guarantees, both laboratories specified above are credible and considered the ‘gold standard’. On the other hand, I have been told by the CCES that there are other labs that claim to test products for banned substances, but only test for ‘some’ banned substances, such as BSGC.

Know what goes into your body

Whether it’s vitamin & mineral supplements, powders, gels, drinks, bars, tablets, IV, some cold & allergy medications, food in certain countries, etc.

When in doubt – ask. I am always available when needed. An athlete I work with sent me multiple texts from the health food store once, listing brands of protein powders available at the store, to make sure she bought one that is considered safe. Better safe than sorry.

I hope this information is helpful. Of course, there is much more to write. The websites listed above offer more information for those interested and you can always get in touch with me if/as needed.

I have been observing this trend for a while now, and have been working with many athletes who follow gluten free diets, for a variety of reasons. I have noticed that while there is a lot of information aimed for those with celiac disease and/or gluten intolerance, there is a gap in information related specifically to athletes and gluten free diets.

Since I get a lot of questions about this, I have decided to hold a talk about gluten free nutrition for athletes. This talk is designed for athletes of all ability levels who are interested in gluten free eating for health and/or performance reasons. Some of the issues that will be covered are:

•   Pros, cons & challenges of a gluten free diets
•   Celiac disease vs gluten intolerance
•   Will following a gluten free diet help athletic performance?
•   Nutrition considerations & principles when going gluten free

There will be time allocated for questions & discussion, as I want this talk to be as interactive as possible. You will get a comprehensive handout with the talk material, resources and a few other surprises.

When & where

Two dates are available (due to popular demand, another talk has been added to Tuesday evening)

Monday, October 24th: 5:45pm-7:15pm – Saanich Commonwealth Place, Victoria BC

Tuesday, October 25th: 6pm-7:30pm – Pacific Sport Boardroom, Commonwealth Place, Victoria BC

Cost

$10 +hst before October 17th
$12 +hst after October 18th

Space is limited, so please register early. More talks will be held depending on demand, including webinars.

There are few registration & payment options: Interac email transfer (get in touch for the appropriate email address), PayPal or credit card.

If you have any questions, get in touch!

Register

Monday talk: HERE – Sorry, this talk is now full

Tuesday talk: HERE – Spots still available (Updated on October 17th)

I am not in a huge rush to find space, but I thought I would put it out there now. You never know, right? So – If you know of an affordable space, a clinic looking for someone or have any creative idea for me to consider – please let me know.

Thanks, I appreciate any leads/ideas!

PS. here are some pictures of my latest recipes posted on my sports nutrition website. Click on each picture to view the recipe! If you are interested in getting recipes sent to you, click HERE