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Greetings from Finland! As a former (or current/honorary Vaker), I've been added to the blog to throw in a little bit of international and sports science perspective. As some of you might already know, after completing my BA at br /BlogItemURLa href=" http://gustavus.edu/"Gustavus/aBlogItemURL (a little after other Vakers Nate, Nichole and Mel and before Kathleen), I headed to the BlogItemURLa href=" http://www.jyu.fi/en/"University of Jyväskylä/aBlogItemURL in Finland to work on my Master's in what is called the Biology of Physical Activity. Somehow or another the MSc snowballed into a research assistantship (in our department, and in part with BlogItemURLa href="http://www.kihu.fi/english/"KIHU/aBlogItemURL because of my thesis topic) and starting work on a PhD (1 class down and years to go!). So far my studies have focused on combined strength and endurance training (because strength training and endurance training produce divergent adaptations, more on that at a later date) and I've been dabbling a bit in endocrinology, we'll see where that goes. I still ski and run (less racing as of late) and have gotten a bit into rowing and orienteering.br /br /The first bit I will contribute here from the world of sport science deals with nutrition and recovery (inspired by a blurb in a recent email from my ski club here). The sports drink and nutritional supplement market is a huge money-maker, but are expensive sports drinks worth it? Supplements and sports drinks can certainly play an important role in an athlete's nutrition/recovery; however, the use of lots of supplements suggests that one does not trust their own nutritional choices (paraphrasing the head coach of the Finnish Natl team as well as my dad here...). A well-balanced and adequate diet that is made up of a variety of foods should be able to reasonably fulfill your daily nutrient requirements and besides that, the bioavailability of nutrients is typically higher in foods than in pills and powders. (The mini disclaimer: some supplements may be necessary, for example, calcium and iron for women...).br /br /A recent study by BlogItemURLa href="http://www.jissn.com/content/6/1/11"Kammer et al. 2009/aBlogItemURL published in Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition reports that cereal and non-fat milk are as effective in promoting muscle recovery following 2 hours of cycling at 60-65% VO2max. br /br /A quick explanation: Long bouts of endurance exercise deplete muscle glycogen stores (your fuel) and increases the rate of protein synthesis while at the same increasing the rate of protein degradation (which typically exceeds the rate of synthesis). In order for the muscles to recover from endurance exercise (so you can get back out there and do it again), glycogen stores need to be replenished and a positive net protein balanced needs to be achieved. Glucose is needed for glycogen synthesis and amino acids are needed for protein synthesis, so simply put: carbs and protein are needed for recovery. br /br /In this study by Kammer et al., subjects randomly performed two trials after whcih they were given either Wheaties and non-fat milk or a commercially available sports drink. Similar positive results were achieved with cereal and milk as with the commercial recovery drink. This suggests that cereal and milk are an effective recovery food. (A BlogItemURLa href="http://ovidsp.uk.ovid.com/spa/ovidweb.cgi?QS2=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"previous study/aBlogItemURL by the same research group concurs).br /br /For more details on these studies, my embedded links should bring you to the articles. Until next time, eat your Wheaties (or insert other whole grain cereal here)!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1572647974447867713-2572115942064772155?l=vakavaraceteam.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

I've had cronic tendonitis in my left knee forever, classic IT band problems that makes the outside of my knee very sore. I'd learned to sort of work around it and be careful running, especially in the spring after not running all winter. But then both knees started bothering me at the top of the knee caps, although they didn't really bother me skiing so I continued to pretend it wasn't a real problem. Same with my left shoulder. It was bothering me lifting weights, but not skiing. But by the end of the ski season last year they both started bothering me skiing so I could no longer pretend. I went to the doctor and the xrays were normal so she told me I was just VERY tight and needed massage or yoga or something to loosen up. I went to The Fix Studio for some massage and it's helped a ton. I also got a foam roller to roll my legs on and am trying to stretch more. My knees are no longer bothering me and I can run as much as I want to now and the shoulder is much better, but still needs work. I can lift weights without pain but it's not as strong or stable as the right side. Last winter my legs were sore and achy a lot and I would wake up in the middle of the night with achy legs, but no more. I can get out of bed in the morning now without feeling like a stiff old woman. I think I've gotten my legs to the point where I can keep them loose enough on my own through rolling and stretching and will do a few more massages to hopefully get the shoulder to that point as well. I guess that keeping the muscles loose is increasingly important as we age. I think I've learned my lesson now and will take the time to keep them looser since it seems that I won't be able to keep skiing pain free if I don't!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1572647974447867713-414520307447402011?l=vakavaraceteam.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

Thats right. I don't know if people caught this in the skinnyski newsletter, but Grinnell College made a star wars video, and a Jedi knight's favorite mode of transportation are his Marwe combi rollerskis.br /br /a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LjSzV1R8Us"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LjSzV1R8Us/a (check out 1:43 into the video)br /br /Not bad technique. The skier/Jedi is Alex Reich of Mahtomedi (11th at the MN state meet in 2007).div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1572647974447867713-8382964898896338336?l=vakavaraceteam.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

My sister and I started home brewing beer a little over a year ago. After we'd brewed several kinds we had a beer tasting party at my house last summer and the beer was a big hit. Several people familiar with homebrew have commented on how good it is and that some homebrew can be pretty bad. We've never really had a bad batch and I can only assume it's because we're women and know how to follow instructions! It's really not that complicated. I started bringing the latest batch to various ski gatherings and have begun to be known for my beer in our small circle of skiers. We brewed a bunch at the end of the racing season and had several kinds ready so it was time for another party. I decided that a beer tasting would be a great way to kick off the new training season. Many people came, including some of the new team members. It was nice to have some social time to get to know everyone better besides standing around sweaty after practice. It was nice to see everyone in something other than sweaty work out clothes. We all clean up pretty good! I hope to have more parties this summer since many people were out of town or at the Cable Offroad Classic. It's hard to find a weekend when half the skiers you know aren't at some race, so I guess I'll just have to have them often so that everyone can come to at least one. There isn't as much emphasis on performance as a master skier as there was when I was trying to make the US team since we have more going on in our lives now. But I don't miss that too much since there is more of an emphasis on friends and the social aspects of the ski community. I think that's a fine trade at this stage in my ski career and something that I know I'll never feel burn-out from like I did with high-level racing. I'm so glad to be a part of this community again.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1572647974447867713-5608188549910072701?l=vakavaraceteam.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_hvZteNu0E40/SgZbQDW8ZQI/AAAAAAAAADs/BMts8tJ9PSc/s1600-h/P1030013.JPG"img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5334051140004504834" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_hvZteNu0E40/SgZbQDW8ZQI/AAAAAAAAADs/BMts8tJ9PSc/s320/P1030013.JPG" border="0" //aSo a few members of the Vakava race team were up in Fargo this weekend participating in the festivities in conjunction with the Fargo Marathon. Nichole has been focused on this marathon for a few months now (check out her a href="http://nicholerunning.blogspot.com/"blog/a for a full recap), and I figured it would be a lot more fun to spectate from in the race than on the sidelines, so I was in the half marathon. I have actually been putting in a lot of running lately (for me at least), so I am in pretty good running shape (once again, for me). While I tend to be a reasonably patient ski racer, I am horribly impatient in running races. At the Earth Day half marathon a few weeks back I had gone out like gang-busters and had still been able to hold on for a pretty good PR just due to fitness, but today I was going to try a different strategy: I was going to pace Nichole (and her training partner Jenny) through the 10 or 11 mile mark at 6:50 pace, and then I was going to kick it in to the finish. This was a lot of fun, but it sure was tough to keep from bolting ahead. I spent the first 10 miles making sure they took the tangents around the corners, got their feeds, and pushing through groups of slower runners (which makes to pass the time really well!). At the 10 mile mark I told Nichole that I was going to go, and she gave me her long sleeve and I was off. It was amazing to actually have a kick at the end, and I finished the last 3 miles in 6:22, 6:20, and 6:19 (all with a hot pick long-sleeve tied around my waist) for a new PR by 35 seconds of 1:28:13!br /br /Mary Beth was also in the area helping her sister clean up after all the flooding in the Fargo area, and decided to jump into the 5k to run with her niece. So just for good measure she won the race (19:40). Her 13 yr old niece was 4th! :)br /divimg id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5334050898543596418" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_hvZteNu0E40/SgZbB_2LU4I/AAAAAAAAADk/o8zpOZ_FU8A/s320/P1030017.JPG" border="0" //divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1572647974447867713-5027216026471136956?l=vakavaraceteam.blogspot.com' alt='' //div