General | Kits Energy Training

2024 Triple crown for Heart

Thank you to everyone who participated by riding, donating, or volunteering your time in the Triple Crown for Heart ride this year. Everyone has a role to play and each is essential to the success of this fabulous event. A huge congratulations to everyone who participated.

This year the charity raised $44,877, out of which the Kits Energy Riders raised $16.804!

At 8am, when the gun went off and the riders started their first climb up Mt. Seymour, the temperature was already in the mid 20’s and climbing steadily. By the time they reached Cypress mountain, it was scorching hot. This made the event, but especially the final climb, extremely challenging for everyone. And yet, despite the heat and the intensity of the ride, everyone was all smiles. Even if they were disappointed with their finishing time or frustrated with mechanical issues that happened along the course, everyone knew that they had accomplished something significant.

Personally, this event is an anniversary of sorts of my second life, which began after being diagnosed with heart disease in 2016. Since my particular disease gets progressively worse with time and specifically with intense exercise, I feel fortunate that I can still climb one mountain. Passing the location where I fainted while racing in the Cypress Challenge (back in 2015) is a yearly reminder of all that I have to be grateful for.

However, this year in the Triple Crown, I didn’t do my annual return to Cypress. Instead I climbed the first mountain, Mt Seymour, which marked my first time back (on an un-assisted bike) in 9 years! Even though I knew I wasn’t completing the full event, I still had butterflies in my stomach. I love that feeling of anticipation. For a few delicious moments, I was a rider again, standing at the starting line, anxiously waiting for the gun to go off – just like everyone else.

If you missed the ride this year, please add it to your calendar for next year!

streak challenges can be a recipe for injury

Blog, Cycling, General

I understand the allure of joining a streak challenge as simple as doing one activity every day for one month, several months, or even years. And I’m all for any gimmick or trick we can use to entice ourselves to exercise more.

However, some of these challenges are not always healthy and often lead to injury.

The most dangerous streaks involve a repetitive activity or sport done every day for a total number of repetitions, distance, or time. Such as completing X number of pushups or running a certain distance or time daily.

Pushing yourself to participate in an activity every day, no matter how tired, injured, or ill you may feel, goes against all training advice. Many athletes ignore the body’s signals telling them they need a day or two off, and even more so when they have committed to a streak challenge. The constant repetition often leads to burnout, overtraining, and repetitive strain injuries. Common injuries suffered from athletes participating in a daily running streak challenge are achilles tendonitis, plantar fasciitis, or worse yet, a stress fracture in the leg or foot.

But, not all streaks are bad.

Healthy or “good” streaks are those that allow for flexibility and encourage rest days. These challenges usually require you to complete a total distance within a specific time frame. Even better are streaks that include a variety of activities or allow you to choose for yourself, as in the case of a yoga or weight training challenge; the classes are different every day, and vary in intensity and volume.

If you are choosing a streak to help motivate you to exercise, try to pick one that allows for flexibility in how often you need to do it, and ideally some flexibility in what activities you are doing. Not only will you be healthier overall, but it will also make you faster in your preferred sport and help prevent injury.

If you want to use the challenge to get you riding more, the Strava streaks sampled in this article are good examples. However, it will still require some planning to make sure you give yourself enough recovery days throughout. As well, the challenge you chose needs to be appropriately placed within your overall yearly training program. Don’t get coerced into signing up for a challenge just because your friends are.

Take an Epson salt bath for recovery

Blog, Cycling, Fitness and Training, General, Health and Nutrition

The more you train, the more you need to recover.

Many athletes get so caught up closing activity rings, counting steps, competing in Strava challenges, or reaching a distance goal, that they forget to make recovery a priority.

One form of recovery, that often gets overlooked is an Epson Salt Bath.

Especially in the cold winter months, a hot sudsy bath does sound pretty inviting. But, besides being relaxing, how else does it help you recover?

We don’t have many concrete scientific studies that support how an Epson Salt Bath helps recovery, but we do know that it works. On the most basic level, taking a warm bath helps calm the nervous system which has a ripple affect, allowing your body to direct it’s energy into repair mode.

If you want to take it a step further, if the athlete also uses this time to focus on breathing, or follows another form of relaxation technique such as listening to music or reading a novel, your brain has time to shut off and recharge. Think of your body like your iphone; it has a long battery life, but the more you use it, the longer you need to stop to recharge.

So what is it about the Epson Salts?

Dissolving epson salts in water releases magnesium and sulfate ions, which can be absorbed through the skin. Magnesium plays many crucial roles in the body and is required in more than 300 essential metabolic reactions in the body. Some of the most important roles for an athlete are:

regulates energy production aka improves performance

regulates muscle and nerve function

regulates blood sugar levels

regulates blood pressure

reduces inflammation

strengthens bones

reduces depression

improves digestion

helps release melatonin which helps you sleep

So, instead of thinking of your bath as a guilty pleasure, you can add it to your arsenal of recovery tools to make you faster, stronger, fitter, and healthier overall.

In the summer, we will talk about ice baths and contrast baths, which also have amazing benefits in aiding recovery, but much harder to convince when it is already cold outside.