The end of the season is upon us. So now what to do? Keep riding!!

Just ‘cause it’s not race season doesn’t mean don’t ride or not

maintain some health. Even outside of riding keeping healthy is a

year long, life long process and should be just as important. The

way we treat our body today will determine how our body will be

in our golden years. As a trainer I find it sad that in training

clients many; don’t care about being healthy just looking good, but

what do they look like on the inside? What ailments will haunt

them as they age because they don’t care about their health? As

mountain bikers that should be more important.

If you are serious about racing then how you treat your body in the

off season can make a big difference when the season starts up

again. If you have had a hard season and need to recover from

injuries then take some time to recover but if possible at least do

some stretching, easy rides or even walking, all these things will

help the blood flow. When the body is getting blood flow recovery

tends to be quicker and you feel better.

As women we have to take into account the “joys” of women-hood

that occurs in our body every month. This biological process pulls

vital nutrients from our body, including the ever important iron.

Without enough iron we can become anemic and as women we are

more prone to anemia then men. Some recommendation would be

to make sure there are enough greens in the diet. There are

products out there that help to those nutrients. Purity Products

makes a product called “Super Greens” this is a better alternative

than isolates you can by at the drug store a.k.a multivitamins or

iron supplements (also iron supplements can cause constipation).

Our body views vitamins as a drug. When we take vitamins the

body goes “huh?” “What is this? Oh I think it is- if I pull this

nutrient from this area and this from there” it does this until it has

enough micro nutrients to actually absorb the isolate-vitamin’s.

You are actually putting a strain on your body in order to absorb

the vitamin’s. Have you noted when one take vitamins the urine is

bright yellow? This is because the body didn’t absorb all the

vitamins and the body are getting rid of it-they are being peed out.

Whereas if you ate some spinach with tomatoes (the tomatoes

actually helps in absorbing the vitamins in spinach or green leafy

vegetable). The iron in the spinach has hundreds of micronutrients

which aid in the absorption of the iron and in that context, the body

will recognize the iron immediately and be able to absorb more

than it could have in the vitamin supplements. You’ll never find

something that complex in a man made vitamin-although man sure

does try.

So on that note eat more greens…spinach, dark green vegetable, or

try some sliced beets over the salad they are also a great source of

iron and taste great in a salad in my opinion. That said don’t forget

to keep riding and have fun in the off season. We’ll talk more

about that next time.

Article by MICHELLE RIVERA