Autumn’s upon us: ducks are winging South by the gaggle, the leaves are at their most vivid, and the temperature seems to dip down a little further each week, just as the sun seems to dip down a little sooner each day. The bare legs and arms that we boldly displayed all summer long are now mostly concealed by cozy flannels, polar fleeces and denims – or merinos and assorted synthetics when we’re out training. And really, apart from the waning daylight, this is a terrific time of year for running. Not too hot, but not bone-chillingly cold either. Yes indeed, there are plenty of reasons to get out there and run, including upcoming events in November and January (see below), not to mention gravy, stuffing and pumpkin pie with whipped cream… So enjoy this crisp, colourful season while it lasts!

Ottawa Race Weekend

Not like it’s exactly right around the corner, but it’s never a bad idea to register early for Ottawa Race Weekend. For one thing, making the commitment is a good way to jumpstart your training efforts – it’s like a psychological boost. For another, it saves you money, since registration fees will increase on Feb 15, 2010. And hey, when the chill of November sets in, it’s nice to have a reason to imagine May in the capital! To register for Ottawa Race Weekend 2010 now, click here.

Thanks for Another Unforgettable Army Run!

Cannons fired. Canadian soldiers and proud citizens walked, wheeled and ran together through our nation’s capital. Dog tags were awarded. Everybody – from curious spectators to event staff to members of the Canadian Armed Forces – left energized and inspired. Not just from a runner’s high or the thrill of competition, but from genuine camaraderie and the deep satisfaction that comes from being part of something bigger and more important than any single race or individual achievement. Yep, the second annual Canadian Army Run was another smashing success, and we want to thank everybody who participated for making it such a special event!

Love to Run? Join the Club!

Check out Ottawa’s newest club for distance athletes, the Run Ottawa Club (ROC). The ROC is equally committed to developing the sport of running in Ottawa and having a great time building strong friendships with other distance athletes in the community. We believe the work (and play) of the ROC can benefit the wider community as well – by encouraging health and fitness and raising funds for local organizations and charities.

We welcome people of all ages and abilities – anybody with a desire to meet new people and learn about running. So whether you’re a seasoned distance runner new to the Ottawa area, or someone new to the sport of running, the ROC has something to offer. For more information about ROC activities and membership, click here.

Upcoming races in the Ottawa area:

Saturday November 7, 2009 – Cookie Run for the Girl Guides of Canada

Sunday January 17, 2010 – Richmond Road Races (10K and 5K)

For more info on future events, click here.

Calling All Aspiring Canadian Distance Athletes

If you’re a young distance runner at a Canadian post-secondary school, why not consider applying for the Ottawa Race Weekend Athletic scholarship? With hefty rents, rising tuition fees and textbooks that cost as much as a car payment, we hope our athletic scholarship will help relieve some of this financial pressure, freeing up a talented young distance runner to develop the knowledge and skill necessary to pursue their dreams. 

The $4000 Ottawa Race Weekend Athletic scholarship is intended to encourage rising stars in the Canadian running scene. To qualify, you must be a Canadian citizen and a full-time student at a Canadian post-secondary institution. A jury decides who receives the award based on athletic ability, financial need, volunteerism, and academic performance.  

Help turn the 2010 Ottawa Hospital Race Weekend Challenge into a million dollar success!

Last year, participants in the MDS Nordion Ottawa Hospital Race Weekend Challenge raised more than $900,700 for The Ottawa Hospital, an all-time record. This year, we need your support to reach the million-dollar mark!

Do your part and fundraise for The Ottawa Hospital as part of Ottawa Race Weekend. You can support any area of The Ottawa Hospital that is important to you.

Sign up to fundraise today and make a difference in your community.

Don’t forget: Raise $250 and run for free!

MOTIVATION

Wisdom in Motion: The Runner’s Side Stitch

Runners often experience a side stitch while running – a sharp, persistent pain that usually occurs just under the ribs. This unfriendly phenomenon may be related to food allergies (particularly milk), gas, or eating just prior to running. Other possible causes are running longer distances or at a higher intensity than normal. In any case, the diaphragm is usually the source of the pain.

The diaphragm is a muscle that separates the chest cavity from the abdomen. It moves up and down as the runner inhales and exhales and is subject to a cramp/stitch when it moves more and/or faster during exercise. Often we experience a side stitch to the right of the abdomen, which may be because the liver’s larger right lobe impacts the diaphragm more on this side.

Unfortunately, there’s no sure way to eliminate the runner’s side stitch. But pay attention to what and when you eat before a run, so that you can identify specific foods or eating habits that may contribute to the stitch. It also helps to work on your core strength and to keep your breathing relaxed and rhythmic while you run.

Click here to read John’s other tips.  

HEALTH AND NUTRITION

Eating for Peak Performance

Beware Body Fat Phobia – Quit Running on Empty!

Do you:

For many of us it's easy to start thinking that “if I just lost a couple of pounds I would feel better, look better, and/or be able to run faster and keep up with the pack". On top of that, every extra few lbs we carry is worth 100’s of lbs of shock and concussion on the knee joint when a foot is slapped down on the pavement while running. Small wonder that there is an avid interest amongst many of us to decrease body weight. Unfortunately, many of us try to change our body weight to unrealistic levels via poor nutritional strategies including:

The end result is chronic fatigue, reduced motivation, staleness or a loss of interest in physical activities/sport, irritability, and crankiness with friends, family and training partners, poor endurance performance and a lack of high-end speed, increased risk of injury and compromised immune function. Metabolically you will compromise your metabolic rate, accompanied long term by an inadvertent loss of muscle mass and a gain of body fat. Overall, your body weight on the scale may be lower but at the expense of more body fat and less muscle and bone mass. The end result: consistently inconsistent performance both on the job and in your exercise/training sessions.

Take a good hard look at your eating habits

Just how big are your portion sizes for different foods? You may need to downsize your dishes and take your cutlery under control! Ask yourself the following questions:

1. Do you avoid any of the following food groups?                                               
   1. Whole grains, breads and cereals         — Yes  — No   
   2. Vegetables                                         — Yes  — No
   3. Fruits                                                 — Yes  — No
   4. Milk, fortified soy milk, yogurt               — Yes  — No
   5. Cheeses                                             — Yes  — No
   6. Meat, poultry, fish, eggs                       — Yes  — No
   7. Legumes                                             — Yes  — No
   8. Nuts and seeds                                   — Yes  — No
2. Do you skip meals/snacks (e.g., breakfast) regularly?              —Yes   — No   
3. Do you crave or binge on certain foods?                                  —Yes   — No      
4. Do you follow a vegetarian diet with little advice?                      —Yes   — No   
5. Do you go “on” and “off” different diets?                                    —Yes   — No  
6. Are you currently following a fad diet? (Atkins, Zone, etc.)         —Yes   — No   
7. Do you avoid eating fat?                                                         —Yes   — No  
8.  Do you restrict your carbohydrate intake?                               — Yes   — No  
9. Do you often feel fatigued or low on energy?                             — Yes   — No  
10. Do you often feel irritable and find it hard to concentrate?           — Yes   — No  
11. Do you feel dizzy and light headed during training?                    — Yes   — No  
12. Do you find it difficult to get through your workouts?                   — Yes   — No  
13. Do you get overuse injuries frequently?                                     — Yes   — No  
14. Do you get colds easily?                                                         — Yes   — No  
15. Do you make yourself sick because you feel uncomfortably full? — Yes   — No  
16. Do you worry you have lost control over what you eat?               — Yes   — No  
17. Have you recently lost >5 kg or 11 lbs in a three-month period?  — Yes   — No  
18. Do you believe yourself to be fat when others say you are not?   — Yes   — No  
19. Would you say that food dominates your life?                           — Yes   — No   

If you answered YES to any of these questions then there are changes you can make to your eating patterns, food choices and timing of food intake to improve your health, lose excess body fat, improve your ability to train well and achieve peak performance at home, at work and at play! 

Make a healthy body composition goal

Many of us are worried about excess body fat – no wonder, many Canadians have much more body fat than they need for good health. The daily comments we all hear from people about their body shape and size shows that we have a preoccupation with our body fat:

• “My thighs are too big”
• “I have a spare tire around my waist”
• “I can’t wear that sleeveless dress – my arms are too flabby”

But when are we too fat? How much should we weigh? And at what point does that weight negatively affect our health? To effectively manage your weight and body composition it is important to know your daily caloric requirements for your level of daily physical activity. A body composition test in conjunction with a resting metabolic rate (RMR) analysis measures your personal caloric requirements. This will help you and your Dietitian to determine the amount and types of foods that you need to eat to meet your health, physical activity and body composition goals.

Redefine your energy balance

Some of us think that exercise counteracts our diet – if that was true then why do some people who exercise regularly (and some athletes too!) have extra body fat? Nutrition and physical activity scientists and athletic coaches now agree that we simply eat too much of everything... And some of us also move too little to balance out the excess calories. Even a weight loss of 5-10 lbs can make a huge difference to your health, reducing cholesterol, triglyceride and blood sugar levels, controlling your blood pressure and even reducing arthritis pain… Wow!  That’s lots of great reasons to Shape Up! Unfortunately, the most common strategy people use for weight loss is to go on a crash DIET (Did I Eat Today?) instead of aiming to eat a healthier diet that is slightly lower calories.  Even fewer people combine active living with a healthy eating strategy to help meet their objective of weight loss. To effectively manage your weight and body composition it is important to know your daily caloric requirements for your level of daily physical activity. Meet with a Registered Dietitian and get an accurate assessment of your body composition. A body composition test in conjunction with a resting metabolic rate (RMR) analysis measures your personal caloric requirements. This will help you and your Dietitian to determine the amount and types of foods that you need to eat to meet your health, physical activity and body composition goals.

Stay tuned next month for Beth’s next tip: Are You Getting Enough Vitamin D?

About Beth Mansfield and Peak Performance

Beth Mansfield is a Registered Dietitian, Sport Nutrition & Exercise Specialist with Peak Performance, a sport nutrition and corporate wellness consulting company in Ottawa. Beth educates Canadian athletes of all levels, including Olympians, national and provincial team athletes, as well as University, masters and recreational athletes on sport nutrition for health and performance. Beth is a popular corporate wellness speaker throughout Canada and also maintains a therapeutic lifestyle change (TLC) clinic for people with elevated cholesterol at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. She is currently working on her PhD at McGill University focusing on energy balance and body composition in health and disease. You can check out her show on CJOH/CTV the 1st Wednesday of every month with Leanne Cusack on the News at Noon.

Email Beth – beth@peakperformance.ca

Eat and Run

You need food to fuel your body – to help you push further, to run faster, to perform at the highest possible level. But food should be more than just fuel. It should also be a pleasure to prepare and eat. Each month, we share a simple, nutritious recipe to help stoke your energy for the race, or help replenish energy spent during long training miles.

Pizza. Glorious, cheese-laden pizza – with sensible gourmet flourishes that add a certain distinguished character to the pie without overwhelming its simpler pleasures. This is like the George Clooney of pizzas: suave but easy-going. The recipe is sourced from www.runnersworld.com.

Ingredients (makes a 6-slice pie)

10 ounces pizza dough
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon fresh garlic, minced
1 cup fresh spinach
5 ounces mozzarella cheese, grated
1 ounce provolone cheese, grated
2 ounces feta cheese
1/2 cup red onions, thinly sliced
3 ounces fresh spicy sausage, browned and sliced into nickel-size pieces

Directions

Preheat oven to 425°F.

1. Stretch dough to a 12-inch diameter and use a fork to perforate the dough over the entire surface to prevent bubbles while cooking. Spread olive oil over the entire dough round with a pastry brush. Spread garlic over the dough. Place spinach on top of the crust.
2. Mix together mozzarella and provolone cheeses and sprinkle the delicious cheesy mixture over the spinach. Crumble feta onto pizza. Sprinkle onions onto pizza. Place the spicy sausage on top.

3. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and the sausage is heated through. Remove the lid and add the spices. If you would like to get a thicker consistency, kick the heat back up and reduce until it hits the desired thickness. You may want to adjust the amounts of salt and pepper, depending on your own tastes.

Nutritional Info per Slice:

Energy 250cals

Protein 14g

Fat 13g

Carbs 23g

RUNNING WITH YOUR FEEDBACK!

Over the past few months, we’ve been tweaking our Ottawa Race Weekend Newsletter format and content to offer more inspiring stories, training tips and nutritional info. Now we’d like to hear from you about what’s working, and what you’d like to see covered in future editions of the newsletter. And we’re also interested in hearing your inspiring stories of athleticism and endurance. So don’t be shy! Send your impressions, ideas and stories to media@runottawa.ca.