H2Owesomeness

I waited all week in anticipation of my H2O Audio Interval 3G Waterproof Headphone System for my fourth generation iPod Shuffle. I do not want to say I was overly anxious—I mean what—just because I copied the FedEx tracking number and would check its whereabouts at least three times a day. Not to mention the 20 minute trip I made to the local FedEx ground center to see if I could pick it up directly form the warehouse before it got on board the truck to be delivered.

In short, the wait was well worth it. This is one of the coolest pieces of gear that I own. Will it make me as fast as Michael Phelps? No. Will it make me faster? Sure. Look, as a composer, I understand the Doctrine of the Musical Affections and the physiological, psychological and kinesthetic relationship that music has to our psyche and bodies. The Doctrine of the Affections stems from the Baroque era. Composers and theorists believed that certain musical parameters: key area, tempi, consonance and dissonance, and dynamics would elicit a particular involuntary response from the listener. For instance, a quick tempo in a major key would elicit joy, a descending chromatic line would elicit grief. There was no way to measure this this c.1600-1750, nor is there really any concrete way to measure it now. However scientists do study brain activity and measure the performance of athletes who are subjected to different types of musical stimuli. Think about it: are you more likely to be given a shot of adrenaline for that last 200 yard surge by listening to Burt Bacharach singing "What the World Needs Now," or the The Who's "Baba O'Reily?" I will not judge you. Whatever moves you. For me, I love the fact that I can listen to music and let my form happen, instead of being overly conscious of it all the time, not to mention bored to tears watching the bottom of the pool for an hour or more. More, those tunes stimulate those affections and get me energized just a tad more.

The information that came with my H2O Audio Interval—instructions for use and care of the product—were some of the most clear and thorough I have ever seen with any product. I remember getting my cycling computer and thinking I needed a secret decoder ring to decipher the hieroglyphics on that sheet of instructions. Not to mention, I needed a magnifying glass to even read it. The H2O Audio instructions were clear, concise and laid out in an organized manner. The directions ask that you submerge the unit in water for thirty minutes prior to the initial use (without the iPod inside) to test the watertight seal. The verdict: As watertight as a naval submersible vessel. The big test came around 7:30 last night when I brought my Interval to the pool. I have to admit, I have been rather slow on the take the last couple of days and it took me a while to figure out the best configuration for me, but it is really quite simple. I put the top band of my goggles through appropriate slots and slid them on. Then, I looked at my swim cap on the pool floor and decided that it should probably go on before I put the Interval on. This way, I can place my swim cap over the ear buds to help keep them in place, which the instructions suggests. I placed my iPod inside and within minutes, I was doing laps while rocking out to The Flaming Lips, Led Zeppelin, St. Vincent and Prince. I did not measure the exact specifications, but I would estimate the whole unit is approximately three inches long and weighs... I don't know... next to nothing. I did not feel uncomfortable with it on as I was swimming. H2O Audio designed the back of the Interval curved to fit the contour of you head. Honestly, I would have forgotten it was even on if it were not for the earplugs and the music. When I finished my workout, I dried off the Interval and opened up the water tight seal. Sure enough, not a drop of H2O! I had a short workout last night. Luca came to the pool with me, and of course, he also needed to put his stamp of approval on the Interval. He says it is "So cool," and "I should use it when I train for my triathlons."

Okay, you might disagree with my playlist, but if you are spending countless hours in that pool and you would love some company—check H2O Audio and all of their cool gear. The Interval goes for a cool $99 and comes with a reassuring 2-year warranty if you register with H2O online. It fits conveniently into a stocking—nudge nudge,wink wink—for all of your swimmers.

Thanks again H2O Audio for the wonderful sponsorship opportunity. I hope I am able to spread the word about this great product for triathletes and swimmers.

10 Things I Have Learned This Week About Training

1) There is no substitute for sleep.

2) Sleeping in late is no substitute for going to bed early.

3)When you are involved in a Master's Swim that is nearly 3000 yards, and you start feeling terrible in an unfamiliar way 1200 yards in—listen to your body—it does not pay to muscle through a workout.

4) Halloween candy is not a good source of dietary fiber.

5) It is okay to miss a workout for this reason: you're at home with a sick child.

6) It is not okay to miss a workout for this reason: I do not have time. The gym is open at 5:15 a.m.

7) After a grueling brick workout, I am not going to gain back every calorie I expended by drinking a delicious chocolate milkshake.

8) Days off are completely necessary and a day off means a day off... not "... maybe I'll only run a 5k today."

9)Stretching is important, and difficult. I sweat more stretching 20 minutes than I do running a 5k

10) Training is addicting. Now more than ever, with the gains I made this past race season, I am inspired to train even harder.

Soap Box Sermon

While I was at the YMCA yesterday, a woman and her son walked into the room where I was visiting with a friend supervising the area. The woman and her child, a boy in sixth grade, were obese. She dropped him off and asked how long he had. My friend told her she had an hour and a half.

The room, designed for children between the ages of eight to thirteen, is outfitted with a vast array of equipment to make exercise fun. There are high tech pieces of equipment like Espresso Bikes that have screens to allow for virtual racing against the computer and a video game that lets you chase dragons for points up to a half hour, awarding incentives along the way for distance and speed. There is also a DDR (Dance Dance Revolution): a dance game that combines balance, coordination and endurance by trying to sync your feet to corresponding arrows displayed on a large video screen. The music helps serve—for those with rhythm—as a tool to help you place your feet on the beat. There are eight floor pads, so you can compete against seven of your friends. There is also a game that puts a belt with a sensor on kids to play games that work on coordination, agility and speed. Lastly, the crown jewel of the room are the fifteen pieces of Hammer Strength equipment that use weight resistance bands to allow children to learn weight training safely at an early age. The equipment all have pictures attached to them to show the various muscle groups that are being worked.

The boy, who could have benefitted from the use of any of this equipment, instead went straight to the most popular item in the room: a Wii video game counsel. The mother gave a half-hearted "Okay, don't play that the whole time...." on her way out the door. Discouraged that the boy was using the Wii, my friend asked if he wanted to try something different. The boy gave a "Nah, that's okay." It was so discouraging. Worse, the mother came back after only fifteen minutes and announced that she could not get motivated to work out upstairs, so she started working out—barely— in the room on the Hammer Strength equipment. She is not really being a great example. I don't want to change the world. Okay, yes I do! I wish I could have said something to this woman, but that would have been very inappropriate. I wish I also could have said something to the morbidly obese woman I saw at Wegmans last night (a local grocery store) with her already obese young daughter who had a shopping cart filled with large chocolate chip cookies from the bakery, another bag of cookies, soda and she was standing in front of the take-out counter watching her daughter pick out a calzone for dinner. Sure, I admit it, I was eavesdropping. All I could think is "What the hell is this woman thinking?!" This surely constitutes child abuse. No one is reporting this woman instilling a lifetime of bad habits and health problems for her daughter. Am I out of line? Am I way too judgmental? Do people really enjoy being fat? Do they think, "..hey, I'll eat these last boxes of cookies, then I'll start getting into shape? Do they just think it's pointless?

My secret wish—perhaps in another life—is to start a camp, like on the show The Biggest Loser, where I could work with unhealthy people turning them on to diet and exercise. Of course, it would have to be a residential treatment program. You would have to teach people how to cook healthier food. Like I said before, working with my cousin and my once out-of-shape, couch potato, rock star-lifestyle training partner and watching them become fit, fast, healthy eating athletes has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. I don't have a degree in exercise science, or nutrition. I am not a certified personal trainer or a former professional athlete, but I do have a real passion for helping people and exercise.

Okay, I will try not to get on the soap box much more. Who am I kidding?

H2O

When I started swimming two years ago—I mean really swimming—I never thought that I would enjoy it as much as I do now. I look forward to getting in the pool and training. The great thing about my swim workouts is that every time I train in the pool, I feel like I am still making significant gains with my form, rhythm and breathing. I even spent about 10 minutes working on my flip turns last night... and they are actually improving! Now my swim workouts will be so much more enjoyable thanks to the very generous sponsorship that I received from H2O Audio. Swimming 3000+ yards and spending over an hour and a half in the pool in preparation for an Ironman will be a little easier knowing I can rock out to my favorite inspiring tunes while I am doing it. I will be posting a review of their Interval 3G waterproof system for the iPod shuffle shortly after I receive it sometime next week. Thanks again H2O Audio, I am looking forward to a great season using your gear!

Thoughts on School Lunches, Pt. II

I was encouraged and optimistic when I heard a couple of years ago that action was being taken to remove soda machines from schools throughout the United States. That takes a lot of courage (and good old common sense) considering the contracts that school districts signed with beverage companies had to be very profitable. It came at the heels of the rather leery comment "The school system is where you build brand loyalty" - John Alm, president, Coca-Cola Enterprises, quoted in AJC, April 6, 2003.

However, I am disheartened by the fact that many schools replaced these machines for other beverages that are just as high in sugar: Snapple, Gatorade, fruit juices just to name a few. Don't get me wrong, I drink Gatorade frequently, especially before, during and after exercise. I do not allow my children to drink it though. I remember there being one option to quench my thirst in grade school and high school: water. You remember, they were little white

porcelain or stainless steel units connected to the wall? They now come in a variety of different shapes, materials and sizes. I especially like the granite enclosed ones that are inside community parks and playgrounds. You know, when I was a child I would ask my mom if I could have orange juice or milk an hour or two after dinner. Her response to me (and the rest of her children) was always "drink water." I would respond with "...but I am not thirsty for water." To which my mom would respond in her matter-of-fact tone "Well, then you're not really thirsty then." Wow, my mom, who knows very little about nutrition, knew enough not to let us consume ridiculous amount of sugar before bedtime. Thanks mom!

Is this one of those crazy ideas again about giving middle school and high school student choices to make them feel all warm and fuzzy? I think my mom ought to sit down with school boards across the country when they are contemplating putting beverage machines in schools so that she can remind them that students can drink water when they're thirsty.

Thoughts on School Lunches, Pt. I

About two or three times a month, I like to meet my boys at their school for lunch and talk about how their day is going. I usually come unannounced because I love watching their faces light up when they see me. Of course, it is exciting for me as well, to know that I had such a positive impact on their day. I remember the first time I ever showed up to Luca's school—he spent half his lunch going around the lunch table introducing me to everyone— "This is my dad, Mr. Olivieri," he would say. The last time I went in to their school for lunch, I witnessed Luca at the "allergy-free" table eating lunch with a girl from his class who has a severe peanut allergy. They were the only two at the table. I asked him why he was sitting there. He told me that he did not want her to sit alone. I was incredibly proud of him.

Most of the time, I sit at the tables with his entire class. Even the first time I went into have lunch with him, I immediately noticed that Luca was one of the only children at the table who brought his lunch from home. Approximately 90-95% of his class purchases lunch at school on a daily basis. My wife and I prepare our children's lunch every day, which invariably consists of a sandwich—peanut butter and jelly on whole wheat, tuna fish with mustard, salami on ciabatta, a cheese stick, yogurt, some kind of fruit and vegetable: apple, strawberries, grapes, raspberries, pears and the usual lunchtime vegetables: carrots, celery sticks, or edamame beans. The students around us who had purchased their lunches were literally eating foods that I could not even identify. Honest. One student had a side of corn. The corn was completely unappealing to me. It had a light brown hue and looked liked it was drenched in butter or some sort of mystery brine. So, with the risk of sounding overly dramatic, I am absolutely appalled at the choices our district/state/country makes with regard to school lunch choices, and the scores of parents who willingly allow their children to eat these foods. Here are some of the choices at my children's school during the month of October:

Hot dogs, chicken nuggets (although sometimes in the form of the always popular "popcorn chicken," grilled cheese (at least five times during the month), pizza (at least five times during the month,) chicken tenders with dipping sauce, mozzarella sticks (a shoddy bar-food appetizer at best,) with red dipping sauce and french toast sticks—French freaking toast sticks!

The secondary choices on one of the days—to accompany the already stellar, highly nutritious first course of foods like the aforementioned french freaking toast sticks—consisted of seasoned spiral fries, glazed carrots and sliced cinnamon apples. Seriously, is it that difficult or costly to prepare carrot sticks or edamame beans, or some type of fresh fruit?

I have neither the time or energy to lead yet another crusade, directed at school boards, who award multi-million dollar contracts to food service corporations like Aramark. Their are plenty of well-intentioned, brave souls who fight that battle. Food service corporations supply school districts across the country with high volume troff-style feedings. Perhaps I am being extremely cynical, but the real bottom line of food service corporations (or any corporation for that matter) is to make money. I understand that. To be fair, Aramark's education website: (http://www.aramarkschools.com/food nutrition/index.php) uses language that would lead one to believe that they care a lot about nutrition and the health of students. Perhaps the real problem is how the food is prepared. Do carrots or snow pea pods need to be glazed with anything? They are pretty sweet already if you ask me. My children eat them willingly, and even request them often! Apples do not need cinnamon. What's wrong with children learning how to eat this food without all the excess sugars?

Nutritionists often site the high rate of diabetes in low income, African-American communities as a result of consuming low cost , high fat, fast food. Even on the way in to work this morning, I saw one fast food restaurant offering a one dollar double cheeseburger and I have to admit that I felt a little like Ivan Pavlov's puppy for a second or two. I think we are all witness to the long-term cost and outcome of eating poorly and a sedentary lifestyle. Heart disease, diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and a laundry list of other ailments await those who practice poor eating habits and do not exercise.

Part of my job as a parent is to educate my children the best I can about making smart choices with regard to what they put into their bodies. Apparently, the school lunch programs do have something referred to as "sensible choices." I guess what I want to know is why all the choices are not well-balanced "sensible" meals. One glaringly obvious fact I've learned about nutrition is that when we eat well, we feel well, and we perform better. Many of the foods on my children's school lunch menu are foods that would make most healthy eaters feel sick, groggy, even cranky. I do not want any child to eat that way. Unfortunately, like my cousin Matthew who lost 72 pounds over his two and a half month stay with us two summers ago, the solution (as I see it,) requires a massive lobotomy on the part of all the parents and food preparers. If you give children a choice between pizza and grilled cheese as your primary options, they are allowed to choose from two relatively unhealthy choices.

Children go to school to receive an education. Why not turn lunch into a place of learning as well? Instead of presenting these unimaginative choices to students, why not stretch their young palettes with fresh fruit (that does not need to contain extra sugar,) new vegetables—artichokes, asparagus, spinach salad, arugula, the myriad of legumes: red and brown lentils, pinto, garbanzo, black and red beans, and fruits that they might not be familiar with like kiwi, pomegranate, figs, quinces, kumquat. You could even make theme months like "Tree Fruit Month:" cherries, apricots, apples, plums, pears, or "Citrus Fruit Month:" Oranges, Clementine, Lemon, Limes. Children could also learn the nutritional information of the food they are eating as well. Their is a great resource that I learned about that lists the nutritional information for all different types of fruits: http://www.thefruitpages.com/sitemap.shtml

Coming Soon: Thoughts on School Lunches, Pt. II: Replacing soda machines for Snapple and Gatorade.

As always, I look forward to your comments, criticisms, and expertise!

What I eat in a week

For some strange reason—perhaps because several individuals notice that I consume as much food as a large barnyard animal—I am often asked what my diet consists of. So, on Sunday, I made the decision to write down everything I eat during a one week period. Like my flip turns, I found it incredibly difficult and the result was unsuccessful. Writing down everything you consume during the course of a day is very, VERY difficult. Don't believe me? Try it for just one day. It is not that I do not know what I eat during the course of a day, but trying to figure out the relative portion size and calories for say, two pieces of lasagna is nearly impossible. I mean, how thick was the lasagna? How large did I cut the pieces? How much mozzarella cheese did my wife grate on to the top when she made it? How much ricotta, parmesan and mozzarella did she put inside? I can measure two cups of my favorite breakfast cereal in a bowl, but what I do for lasagna? Do I weigh my food on a scale? I need to think of a good plan to count, or even estimate my daily caloric intake. I am also going to start logging my workouts and weigh myself throughout the course of one week.

I did take some things away from trying to keep track of my food. I was very conscious about all my decisions throughout the day. I found myself agonizing over whether a chocolate fiber granola bar or a Honey Crisp apple would make me look like a healthier eater. It also made consider my fluid intake—or lack thereof—throughout the day. Tuesday, I had coffee in the morning and then not much else until my camel-like intake of water later late in the evening. So, here is what I definitely ate on Monday:

Monday:

Breakfast : 2 cups of Kelloggs Frosted Mini Wheats, 1 cup of skim milk.

post Breakfast snack: "everything" bagel with cream cheese

Lunch: peanut butter sandwich on whole wheat, banana

Snack: 1/4 cup of teriyaki beef jerkey, cup of mixed salted assorted nuts—whoa sodium intake!

Dinner: approximately 2 cups of potato's and 2 cups of veal in tomato sauce, 1 cup of green beans, 3 cups pasta fagioli soup, one ciabatta panini.

Evening "snack:" 2 1/2 cup of cheerios, 2 cups skim milk

Monday Workout: Weight Training (chest), core, 2.25 mile run

Weigh In: 182

Workouts: My workouts this past week still consist heavily of swimming and core and strength training with some bike mixed in. I am swimming nearly a mile every day, sometimes 1.25 miles. I never though I would actually enjoy swimming this much, but when that is all you can do, you better grow to like it quickly.

The Running News: I ran 2.25 miles on Tuesday. My right knee got a little tight around mile 2 and instead of pushing it, I decided to play it safe and leave well enough alone. The good news is that I did not have any pain that evening or the following day. I think all the stretching and time off is really finally paying dividends—even though it is sometimes difficult to lay off because I feel like I'm slacking.

Friends in the News: Good luck to my friend Vanessa Taylor (Medievalist Running in Circles), who will be running the Marine Core Marathon on Sunday 25 October in our Nation's capitol. She will be running for a bid to race in the Boston Marathon. Vanessa graciously trained a group of my fellow triathletes this summer to prepare us for the half-Ironman. She is a super runner and an even more wonderful human being.