Tyler takes her training outdoors on a sunny day in Northern California.
Growing up in Connecticut, triathlon was the furthest thing from Tyler Stewart’s mind. In fact, with an intense fear of the water, she was quite happy to stay on dry land doing a variety of sports from track to equestrian. In 2003, she did a triathlon as a dare and has never looked back.
Tyler burst onto the amateur scene, winning back-to-back Overall Female Amateur titles at the 2005 and 2006 Ironman World Championships, breaking the course record each year. She was also named Inside Triathlon’s 2006 Amateur Triathlete of the Year. When Tyler turned pro in 2007, her goal was simple: finish every race with a smile. Her rookie season included a second place finish at Ironman Lake Placid, an overall win at Cancun 70.3 and a third place finish at Ironman Florida, where she recorded the fastest Ironman bike split of all time. At the end of that first year, she was named 2007’s USAT Rookie of the Year for her efforts.
In 2008, she joined the LUNA Pro Team and continued to establish herself as one of America’s brightest stars in the sport of triathlon, finishing near the top of every race she entered. After some time off due to an illness, Tyler emerged back onto the scene in 2009 with a victory at Ironman Coeur d’Alene, setting a new course record in the process, and securing a top 10 finish at the Ironman World Championships in Kona.
Today, Tyler’s life is a constant juggling act. She and her husband, Johnny, are the owners of a thriving dog grooming business in the San Francisco Bay Area called WAGS. She somehow manages to fit in training to compete against the best in the world in between running her business, teaching indoor cycling classes at Velo Collective and TRX clinics at Fitness Anywhere. So how does Tyler do it? Preparation. Here, Tyler shares her top 10 tips for success when preparing for an event.
- Plan ahead. If you want to do a triathlon, sign up and then go through all of your gear. Replace worn or damaged items and make a list of what gear you’ll need to borrow or purchase. This will help get you in the right frame of mind for training.
- Get a partner in crime. Misery loves company, and you will be held accountable to your friend if you bail on a workout.
- Get outside. Spring is a great time of year, so enjoy being outside, and the vitamin D will do you good as well.
- Don’t give up your winter strength training. You have to keep up your resistance work throughout the entire year if you want to continue to benefit from it.
- Be consistent! Even if you can’t do your planned workout every day, get out and do something. Consistency is the key to success.
- Be efficient. We all lack time, so use your workout time wisely. Instead of going for a two hour ride, maybe do an hour at a higher intensity or use the TRX for 15 minutes instead of training for an hour in the gym.
- Be a whole athlete. Even if you are just training for a marathon, make sure you cross train. Different exercises train your body in different ways. The more diverse you are as an athlete, the more it will help you with your chosen sport.
- Schedule time for rest. Make sure you get plenty of sleep and recovery time. If you don’t rest, your training will not make you stronger, it will just make you more tired.
- Consider your nutrition and hydration. Start using what you plan to use on race day. Pick a healthy alternative to whole foods, like Luna or Clif bar products, which are mostly organic and made from real foods. Practice with them so you’re not surprising your body on race day.
- Have fun. Pick something you have always wanted to do and do it. If you don’t love the activity you’re doing, you won’t stick with it.
For more on Tyler Stewart, visit her website (www.tyler-stewart.com).
Most of us take our bodies for granted. Plain and simple, many of us spend more time and money and care on our cars, than we do on our own bodies. We abuse these wonderful, physical machines each day by overeating, not moving enough, sometimes moving too much, pounding them in the gym, on those long runs, etc.
In this article I am going to outline 5 simple ways that we can help our bodies feel better, or somewhat back to normal no matter what the problem. Are there more than 5 ways? Sure there are tons, but I will outline 5 ways that I have used on my athletes and clients, as well as myself with great success. I think anyone can implement these 5 things into their daily lives and help make a real difference.
Now, these methods will not “cure” your ailments, but I can almost guarantee that if you follow these suggestions, in a few short weeks, you will feel better on a daily basis. Even if you are relatively “healthy” and feel fine, it is a good idea that you incorporate some or all of these into your daily routine. Of course, if you have a serious problem, make sure to consult a medical professional.
For a bonus, if you are an athlete, a weight lifter or do any type of exercise where you are looking for improvements, these methods will help you improve in all of those areas.
PLEASE NOTE: If you already have a medical condition, please see your doctor before starting any kind of exercise program or perform and exercises.
5 WAYS TO FEEL BETTER:
1. STRETCH – Yea, I know, you already know this and still don’t want to do it. How about taking a new approach to stretching instead of the one you have stuck in your head from your high school gym class or Pop Warner football team. You can effectively stretch the important parts of your body in less than 5 minutes each day. That’s right, no more than 5 minutes to stretch those important areas!! Everyone has 5 min.
2. FOAM ROLL – What is foam rolling? By using your own body weight and a foam roller, a deep pressure is created and applied across your muscles and muscle tendons. This pressure acts like a deep massage, and helps to rid the areas of tension, scar tissue, and any types of adhesions that may be present and causing pain and inhibiting normal function. In case you are the science type and really want to know the true name for this, it is called Self Myofascial Release. The foam roller is the easiest and most effective way to do it.
3. Control that butt!! – regain control of your hips, especially your glutes!! There are so many reasons to regain control of your butt muscles. Most people have tight hip flexors. When the hip flexors are tight, that causes the glutes to be in a weakened state. This will cause the hamstrings to overcompensate most of your movements. Not only are you setting your self up for more potential injuries to the hammy’s and hip flexor area, you are also going to put way more stress on the low back. Most people in this predicament will have tight hammy’s as well because they are over activated. This ultimately causes low back stress and chronic pain.
4. MOBILITY WORK – No this is not the same as stretching. Static stretching is aimed at increasing the length of the muscle-tendon complex, which is a goal in certain parts of our body. While this is important for overall physical health, it still leaves us short of gaining optimum function. Mobility work will help improve joint mobility, which is not the same as the muscles. When a joint is immobile it can set you up for a load of chronic pain, limits in motion and take away from basic everyday function. Not to mention that if you are an athlete, limited joint range of motion is a precursor for injury.
5. NAP – find time (and a place) to take a 10 minute nap each day. Yep, 10 minutes is all you need. Research has shown that an afternoon nap of even 10 minutes can improve alertness, mood, and mental performance. If you are someone that takes naps, then you already know this, but if you are someone that is not a nap person, give it a try. 10 min. Just be careful not to sleep more than 30 min… you may wake up feeling more tired, and if you are at work, you could lose your job!!
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