Core Daily
The Performance Life
Mark Verstegen and a team of experts and writers provide useful strategies to perform great, while talking about their own goals and challenges as they practice the Core Performance tenets in their daily lives.
The Performance Life
Best Moves for Mountain Bikers
Peter Macdonald Photo on flickr.com
As the rest of the country is under snow, I’m absolutely envious but just wanted to share what I’m up to from the southwest. One of my passions is mountain biking and I just rode in this morning on my bike (that's it, pictured below). I had an unbelievable ride, I’m feeling great, and just loving the fact that I can mountain bike year round.
The Performance Life
Coping With a Stress Fracture
This week, I received some bad news: I have a stress fracture in my tibia. So much for keeping up with my running plan. Also, not paying the utmost attention to prehab, movement prep, and, most importantly, regeneration while adapting to long distance running has backfired big time.
I had to come up with some solutions to make the best out of this situation. While I won’t be able to run a certain mileage or do interval work or tempo runs, I can still work on my endurance in other ways. Here's how I plan to adapt my program:
The Performance Life
Racing for Youth Sports
by Stewart Dawson on flickr.com
The other week I had one of those awful days that turned around by simply not allowing myself to miss a run. Well, Karma is bound to come back around.
When looking at potential marathons in the spring, the Boston Marathon popped up as the only major marathon on the East Coast. Now, as some of you may know, there is a qualification requirement for this particular marathon. I was ready to give up on my dream of debuting at a big marathon until I heard from a friend that if you make a commitment to fundraise for certain organizations, they would give you a starting spot in return. I checked back on the marathon website, and she was right.
The Performance Life
When You Just Don't Want to Train
by stuart pilbrow on flickr.com
Earlier this week, I had one of those days.
Finishing up homework until the early morning hours the night before, I woke up after only about two and a half hours of sleep. My schedule didn’t cut me a break either: Classes all morning, a three-hour seminar in the afternoon, and a lecture in the evening. I’m sure you all know what kind of day it was going to be.
But on top of that, my training calendar informed me that I was supposed to run eight miles as well, the longest run so far. I was about ready to turn around and call it a day.
The Performance Life
Squashing Fear with Sport
naemick from flickr
At the start of this year, I set a goal of completing eight sprint-distance triathlons. The idea was to do eight races in 2008, when I would be 38 for most of the year. On October 25, I reached the milestone, finishing race No.8, the Suncoast Triathlon in St. Petersburg, Florida. Having just taken up the sport in September of 2007, not long after the publication of Core Performance Endurance, I felt a great sense of accomplishment. I couldn’t have imagined, however, the lessons I would learn along the way.
The Performance Life
Track Your Progress
I've started to realize how fundamentally different the approach to endurance running is compared to my previous training for soccer.
Since I haven't had the time to do a lot of prehab, movement prep, and strength training due to school obligations, I've been focusing on my running and regeneration work.
But the main difference is that tracking my progress is no longer an option. It's a necessity. I've been using http://www.mapmyrun.com to plan my runs and record my mile average afterwards. So far, I'm shooting for a sub 8-minute mile or maybe even a 7:30 mile.
The Performance Life
Gabby Reece at the Top of Her Game
Gabby Reece is training for her next big challenge, but these days it doesn’t involve skying for blocks on Manhattan Beach, but winning a game in her own kitchen.
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Daily Quick
"Hitting either slice or topspin will take the pressure off and will force your opponent to have to make decisions about how to handle heavy, high bounces or low, short shots."
—Brad Dancer, University of Illinois men's head tennis coach in "5 Tips to Win a Tiebreaker"
"The biggest determinant of calorie burning is your metabolism. And the biggest factor in that is your lean muscle mass. Build more lean muscle, increase your metabolism. "
— fat loss expert Alwyn Cosgrove in "5 Keys to Fat Loss".
Master the World's Greatest Stretch
Performance specialist Nick Winkelman explains why this is our favorite movement.
Click here for more videos from our experts.
"While alcohol can make you sleepy initially, it should never be used as a sedative because it disrupts your sleep cycles, especially REM. This stage is particularly important to athletes because it’s when you consolidate and commit to long-term memory what you learned during the day."
— from "6 Ways Alcohol Disrupts Performance".
Live Better
Play Better
Blogs
One Small Change
6 Ways Alcohol Disrupts Performance
Before you reach for a drink, consider how alcohol affects your muscles, metabolism, and sports performance.
Live Better
Strong Thighs, Healthy Knees
A new study found that strong thighs can decrease the likelihood of painful knee arthritis in women.
The Performance Life
How One Guy Eased Pain and Raised His Golf Game
After waking up in a world of hurt, Jay Lavender decided to finally commit to his health.
News
New Core Performance Book for Women Coming Soon!
Core Performance founder Mark Verstegen and noted author Pete Williams have written a new book specifically for women.
Secrets to Success
Tony Stewart on Taking Charge
NASCAR driver Tony Stewart shares his tips for making the jump from employee to owner.
