A few very interesting points and benefits from training for an endurance race

Hello Triathletes:
I am just back from a great swim with Julie and Franky down at Campbell. I would have to say that this may have been the best set I have seen Miss Franky do....they both did 10x75 on 1:30 and then 10x50 on 1:00. Awesome. I was getting ready for my post workout nap and I read this great article that had a few points that I wanted to pass on you very dedicated athletes. It was an article about three women who took up running as a way to lose weight and now it has become part of their lifestyle. These were sedentary women with 25 to 130 pounds to lose and so starting an exercise program was like thinking about climbing Mount Everest. They overcame this by making baby steps. They ran for just a few steps or a few minutes in the beginning. However, their small incremental success started to overcome their subconscious belief that exercise was drudgery. Once their minds shifted, they realized that running was not only beneficial, but also enjoyable. I think that many of you are starting to feel this or you are having to really fight with yourself to not feel it. One of the great things about exercising with other people like our group is that it gives you a physical outlet for your stress and allows you to build some great friendships.
Another great point that from the article was that the ladies achieved their success with the combination of dietary changes and running. As the sports dietitian in the article stated, "Running and nutrition are very tightly connected in weight loss. One feeds the other. Running releases a particularly large amount of serotonin, a happy hormone in the brain that makes you feel good and compels you to eat healthy. When you eat healthy, your energy level rises, motivating you to run. People who diet without exercise don't have this built in motivation that comes from the serotonin." The great things for all of you ladies is that if you get that serotonin from a hard bike or swim as well. I am a firm believer that I get more of a high from running and one of the best runs for that is interval runs. It is a natural high....so you could look at doing intervals as a little bit of a drug habit :-) As these ladies trained and reached their goal weight they realized that they had to find the right nutritional balance to feed their racing habit. One runner was quoted as saying, "It was a strange moment when I realized that I needed to eat MORE to have a better half marathon race result". This is something that you all will see as you continue to train but eating more of the right thing is that key.
A great tip that they had about eating healthy and happy was:
Eat by day, diet by night. Move your bigger meals to the first half of your day when you need them the most---consume 50 percent of your daily calories by noon. Eat a smaller dinner meal when your energy levels are winding down for the evening.
This tip also made me think of boot camp....build lean muscle mass. Add resistance training to your routine, even if it's just push-ups and sit-ups (or planks) after you run. Your body burns more calories supporting muscle than it does supporting fat.
The sports nutritionist stated, "The body will do its job, when given the right conditions to find its normal weight range. These three women all created sustainable conditions to enable their bodies to be their best." I think you ladies are doing this very well. However, the final point and the one that I most sincerely want to pass on to you is:
ABOVE all, don't get down on yourself. We can be our worst critics and judges. In the beginning your success is that you got dresses and got out there, because that's already change. You are all well beyond the got dressed level of success. You have been out there through the bad weather, the time crunches and work stress. You have achieved training milestones and soon you will have completed your first triathlon and be training your sights on the next one!!! Keep on triing.