Author: Modern Athlete

When you exercise, you produce heat, which your body
controls through sweating, thus cooling the body, but you are then at risk of
becoming dehydrated. Athletes can lose anything from 400ml to two litres of
sweat in just one hour, especially if running intensely, or running in high
heat or humidity. As little as 2% dehydration can hurt your athletic
performance, so athletes are told to drink regularly and top up on fluids.

Now if you are running for less than 60 minutes, water
will be enough to stay hydrated and save kilojoules, and sports drinks are not
needed, because research shows they only offer benefits to people exercising
for longer than one hour. Therefore, sports drinks are recommended for
endurance athletes trying to reach peak performance, especially if training
hard, sweating a lot, and wearing protective equipment and clothing, because
they provide

?        
Fluids to cool down
your body and replace what you lost.

?        
Carbohydrates for
quick energy.

?        
Sodium and potassium,
the chief minerals lost in sweat.

Fluid needs vary from person to person, and according
to the type of activity and the length of time that you are active, but as a
general rule of thumb, runners should:

?        
Drink one to one to
two cups of sport drink four hours or less before exercise.

?        
Keep fluids with you
when you run and sip regularly to replace water lost through sweat, but let
your thirst guide you.

?        
Post-run, eat your
meals and snacks and drink as you feel you need to, but especially drink up to 1.5
cup (375 ml) of fluid if you have not produced any urine, or only a small
amount of bright yellow urine.

?        
Water is always a
good option post-run, but you can also drink milk or chocolate milk, 100% fruit
juice or another sports drink.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR

1. Water: Make sure your sports drink is
not carbonated, so it is easy to drink and doesn’t make you feel full.

2. Sodium: The white powder on
your clothes or skin is the salt you lose in sweat, and this loss can lead to
muscle cramps, so sports drinks should contain at least 300 to 700mg of sodium
per litre. Ultra-endurance athletes prone to cramping may require more.

3. Carbohydrate (sugar): Sugar keeps
blood glucose from dropping and helps fuel active muscles and the brain, so 30
to 60 grams of carbohydrate per hour of activity can improve endurance, power
output and delay fatigue. To prevent stomach problems, make sure your drink has
no more than 80 grams of carbohydrate per litre, as that is generally the limit
of what your body can easily absorb.

4. Flavour: Drinks with flavour
are easier to swallow, especially when you’re tired.

SPORT DRINKS VS ENERGY DRINKS

The typical energy drink contains more carbohydrate
than the typical sports drink and gets most carbs from one or two sugars, such
as high fructose corn syrup. Because of this, energy drinks are more likely
than sports drinks to cause a stomach upset during exercise. Many energy drinks
are also carbonated, further increasing the risk of GI distress. Furthermore, energy
drinks usually contain caffeine, which can boost athletic performance, but most
sports drinks do not contain it because your body becomes used to it with
regular use and it loses its boosting effect.

Most importantly, it is important to try a sports
drink in training first before using it in competition, as you don’t want to
find out mid-race that something doesn’t work for you, or disagrees with your
stomach!

I was at a mate’s braai
when I found a scale in the bathroom, took a deep breath, and stepped on with
eyes closed. I waited a few seconds, then opened one eye to peek at the
numbers: 107kg. I had put on exactly 22kg in the 10 years since leaving school!
So I poured the remainder of my beer down the drain and left, feeling very
sorry for myself (and ashamed). Sunday morning, I was at the shops and standing
in front of the shoes, where I decided not to buy an expensive pair, as I
doubted how long this exercise escapade would last… But nonetheless, I had
taken the first step. So, leaving the shops with a pair of shoes, XL shorts and
an XL vest, I was ready to hit the tar.

Monday, 11 January, the alarm
went off at 5:30am. After snoozing for a while, I remembered those evil numbers
on the scale and pulled my lazy butt out of bed. After 15 minutes of stretching,
I set out on a run. I felt like an abandoned car starting up for the first time
and coughed and spluttered down the road. With palpitations starting, lungs burning,
face all red, I had to stop and lie on the pavement. So I did the walk of shame
back home. All 300m I had managed to run. Total time on the road: Seven
minutes. I was shattered and disheartened. But the next day I tried again, and
the day after that, and the week following, until my buddy Kyle and I went for
a 4km run. He ran most of the way with his hand on my back, pushing me, for 47 minutes.

READY TO RACE

My first race was the Om
Die Dam 10km and I set myself a target of one hour. I arrived at the line in
basketball shorts and golf shirt, which provided had my mates chuckling the
whole day, but I finished in 58 minutes and got my first medal – what an awesome
feeling! So I decided to really give this running game a go and a group of
mates and I started a small running club in the Greenstone area, meeting up on
Wednesday and Friday mornings for runs. Slowly the mileage built up and I soon
found myself entering 21km races.

I did marathons (PB 3:52) and
ultra-marathons, as well as the Ironman 70.3 in January 2012. Then I set my
sights on Comrades 2012. Standing on the start line, I had a feeling of “I’ve
made it this far, 89km until everything I have worked so hard for pays off.” I
had my family strategically placed on the route and it was amazing to see them,
stop and refuel, then be off again, each time saying, “See you in Durban.” Ten
hours and 42 minutes later, I accomplished my dream, I had run the Comrades
Marathon, the most awesome accomplishment of my life. I felt like a hero!

My whole lifestyle has changed
for the better, and it’s all because of running. I have now lost 27kg, and it
wouldn’t have been possible without my family and friends. Our little
Greenstone Hooligans running club got me up on those cold mornings and the guys
trained with me to get me through it all. You guys are awesome!

It all started when Monica saw that Argus cyclists were
not getting anything besides their race number when registering for the event,
and she thought it would be a novel concept to give them a goodie bag filled
with product samples. “It took me a year to get my ducks in a row, and once I got
the go ahead, it was a fairly hard sell at first, because my clients had to
give me product and still pay to go into the bag, but the aim was to place their
samples directly in the hands of a targeted consumer, because we guaranteed a 100%
certainty that each bag would go to a cyclist.”

Those first 25 000 goodie bag were packed at Monica’s
home in Constantia, Cape Town, and she says it was a much bigger undertaking than
she had anticipated. “I learnt a lot about logistics, spacing and timelines the
hard way, but it was also a great success, because everybody loves a goodie
bag, no doubt about that!” And that first bag soon led to more, with Monica
asked to supply goodie bags for the Old Mutual Two Oceans Marathon, Discovery
Cape Times Big Walk, Momentum 94.7 Cycle Tour and a number of other premier
cycling, running and walking events.

In recent years Monica has been joined in the business
by her daughter, Kendall, who studied for a BA Business Admin degree
specialising in marketing, and each year the two source products for 365 000
bags across 18 premier sporting events, the biggest being the Discovery 702
Walk the Talk in Johannesburg with 55 000 bags, as well as a few corporate
events, including the prestigious Loerie Awards for the advertising industry. “To
date we have sampled over R700 million of products over 18 years!” says Monica
proudly.

MARKETING OPPORTUNITY

Goodie bags are not always properly understood by
athletes and organisers alike. “A goodie bag is a marketing exercise to attract
new consumers, and for that reason, some people prefer to call it a sample bag,”
explains Monica. “We guarantee our clients exclusivity, with just one product
per category in a bag, such as only one deodorant or shampoo, or one chocolate,
and we can advise them where to send their products, based on the demographics
of the specific events. The bag is therefore not part of the entry fee of an
event, and is not a gift to the athletes. But that said, it is a known fact an
event is often judged on its goodie bag.”

After 18 years of sampling, Monica says she has worked
out what athletes look for in a goodie bag. “They love eating something,
especially chocolates or sweets. I call it the ‘Bar One Dive’ when they go
looking for something to eat in their bags. Sachets of Vaseline, Arnica or
sunscreen that they can carry in a pocket during the event are also popular,
and they love post-event pampering products like bubble bath. People also love
quick breakfast samples that they quickly grab the morning of the event.”

Post-event, Monica asks athletes to rate the goodie
bag content through quick online surveys, with great incentive prizes to do so,
which then gives her clients valuable feedback on their products. “We ask the
athletes to tick what they liked or used from the bag, and we get on average a
12.5% response, which is much bigger than most sampling surveys ever get. Athletes
often want to give feedback on bags.”

GIVING BACK

Monica says that it is very important to her that her
business also gives back, and so she contracts in disability workshops to pack
the bags, using Services for the Blind in Johannesburg, the Alta Du Toit
Aftercare Institution for mentally challenged adults in Cape Town, and the
Durban Coastal Mental Health Challenge Workshop in KZN. “Not only do the
packers get paid for their work, but they benefit from the motor co-ordination
skills work,” says Monica, adding that she also give an event’s official
charity free inclusion in the bag.

“It then takes many truckloads to get the bags from
the packing houses to the expo or registration point, and in Johannesburg we
have Pickfords providing free transport as its contribution to the blind, which
in turn allows me to keep the price for sampling down, so that I can give my
clients great value for money, and the athletes a great goodie bag.”

For more info, go to www.goodiebag.co.za

At the recent Olympic Games in London, former South
African 110-metre hurdles champion and record-holder Wessel Bosman (54) did a
presentation to the IOC about winter sport in southern Africa and then found
himself talking to people like London head organiser Seb Coe, and Prince Albert
and Charlene Wittstock of Monaco, about his vision for a sports university in
the middle of Lesotho. “I went as a guest of the Lesotho Olympic Committee and
had a VIP pass to get into all the events, and I met so many
people that see the value of high altitude training in Lesotho, especially
given that it is in the same time zone as Europe.”

DISCOVERING SNOW

It all started in 1998 when Wessel went to the Winter
Olympics in Nagano, Japan. He’d never seen snow before, let alone skied, but he
took the ski lift to the top of the mountain, and then proceeded to take five
hours to come back down again! “I met a Japanese skier and told him I had never
skied before, so he told me to rather use the service road that circled the
mountain to get down again. When I asked him what to do if I wanted to slow
down, he just said ‘snow plough!’”

When
he got back from Japan, Wessel came up with the idea to start a ski resort in
Lesotho, having found out that a number of South Africans regularly went there
to ski, so he negotiated a land lease with the Lesotho government to establish
Afri Ski. “What I didn’t realise at first was that that building a lift isn’t
enough – you also need a restaurant, toilets, equipment, etc. Luckily I was
joined by passionate people and it all worked out. I believe it was just meant
to be – I started with R5000 and an idea, and today it is worth hundreds of
millions, but these days I’m just the guy that cleans the snow, because I sold my
shares and let the business people take it further.”

“I
also realised that high altitude training was possible there at 3200 metres
above sea level, so right from the beginning I said it had to be a full-year venue,
to include running, cycling, etc. See, I was not just a crazy guy starting a
ski resort in Africa!” Nowadays some of Lesotho’s top runners base themselves at
Afri Ski, including Mamorallo Tjoka and Tsepo Ramonene, who represented Lesotho
in the London Olympic Marathon. Wessel sponsored them and accompanied the
Lesotho team to the Games as a guest of the Lesotho Olympic Committee, which
gave him the opportunity to share his ideas with some of the most influential
people in world sport.

LEAPING HURDLES

Wessel grew up on the family farm near Vivo in the Far
North, then joined the Police Force in Pretoria, where he established himself
as an athlete. Between 1979 and 1989 he won the SA 110-metre hurdles title
three times as well as the 100m dash title once, helped set two 4x100m relay SA
records, and he held the SA record for the 110m hurdles for nearly 17 straight
years – except for one week in 1988. After hanging up his spikes for good,
Wessel dabbled in building wooden houses before heading off to Mozambique for
three years to trade in prawns. Next he imported cars to Swaziland and Lesotho,
and then found himself starting a ski resort.

In 2005, with just one week’s planning, Wessel and
his late son Johan hopped on their motorcycles to ride the ‘Cairo to Cape Town
Winter Olympic Drive,’ and they proceeded to do the trip in 19 days and break
the trans-continental record by one day. Next he decided to ride solo through
West Africa, but fell and broke his leg and shoulder in Angola. “When they took
my boot off, my lower leg was just flapping around, so they splinted it with
pieces of wood and loaded me on a bakkie and took me to the nearest clinic,
50km away.” He was airlifted out by an Angolan army helicopter and returned to
SA, where he underwent various operations. “I was desperate not to lose my leg,
so when I heard about a friend who had almost lost his leg but had a miraculous
recovery after sessions in a hyperbaric chamber, I immediately went for it as
well. Without that I would be in a wheelchair today.”

Despite
his leg still giving him pain, Wessel has not slowed done one bit, and is still
brimming with energy and campaigning for true winter sports to be established
in southern Africa. So who knows, maybe some day soon we
will have a South African bobsledding team…

At
the end of 2008, Caroline Wostman set herself this New Year’s Resolution: Run
the Comrades Marathon. “I was always active, but never took it seriously. After
my first child, though, I put on some weight, and after she turned a year old,
I decided to start running. Now I’m addicted!” says the Senior Lecturer in
Auditing at Wits.

After
competing in a few 5km runs, Caroline joined Breakthru Midrand Striders and was
all set for their 21km club run. “They were all so supportive, even though I
was overly optimistic!” Caroline then entered her first official half marathon
event at the Dis-Chem 21, but she missed the start. “I was such a rookie so I
started right at the back with some walkers. I had no idea that you had to be
at the start well before the time. I didn’t consider things like parking!”

STEPPING IT UP

Shortly
after her Dis-Chem finish, Caroline tackled the Pick n Pay Marathon and was
taken aback with the demanding distance. “At 35km, I hit the wall. At that
point, I doubted whether I’d ever do Comrades. I was completely exhausted at
42km.” Next up was the Deloitte Marathon, where she had to bail, but she bounced
back with a comfortable finish at the Akasia Marathon, followed by the 50km Om-Die-Dam,
where she could feel that she was ready to take Comrades on.

“At
the club, I’m fortunate enough to get advice from everyone. Comrades experts
were willing to share their knowledge and I knew I’d be okay,” says Caroline.
“Still, my first Comrades I was nervous. The first 30km, I was stressing about
finishing. The next 30km, I enjoyed my run. The last 30km, I was thinking ‘Am I
stupid to have taken this on?’” She finished in a time of 9:17:39, exhausted
and relieved. “I took no gels or energy drinks and I didn’t enjoy it like I
should have,” she says, “but I knew I’d be back! On the highway back home, I
was shattered, but already thinking about next time.”

MEDAL-CHASE

Having
earned a bronze medal in 2009, Caroline set her sights on a Bill Rowan in her
next run, but then in 2010 she and husband Haiko were planning their second
child, so she had to watch the race on TV. “I was at home watching the runners come
into the finish, wishing I was there. Comrades is such a special event – it unites
a country and everyone has respect for the race.”

And
so she was back for 2011’s Up Run. “I started slow, ran very conservatively. At
Camperdown I saw my husband and kids and they told me about a club mate who
wasn’t too far ahead, so I wanted to catch him.” Caroline caught up with her
club mate and went on to a 8:33:29 finish and a comfortable Bill Rowan – which
got her thinking about her next goal for 2012: A silver medal. “I knew a lot of
guys at the club who had tried to get a silver, but never made it, so I knew I
had to pick up my training to get there.”

To
achieve this, Caroline asked Midrand Striders Club Captain Leon Baker to coach
her. “We did a lot of hill-training and speedwork, and I tested my speed in the
Chamberlains 21km, getting in under 1:30 and finishing fifth. She also got advice
from Coach Norrie Williamson, who came to talk at the club before Comrades, and
with Leon,
she worked out a race plan of running 6km before walking for a breather, having
tested it at Om-Die-Dam.

TOP 20 SURPRISE

Caroline
received a Super-C seeding for Comrades and says she felt pressured by starting
right in the front, but stuck to her plan. “At five minutes a kay, every half
an hour I’d walk, and I met up with Leon at 30km in. We ran together up
until Cowies Hill before I felt good enough to go ahead and run my race.” That
saw her come home 15^th in the women’s field in a time of 7:16:48,
taking over two hours off her previous Down Run time, and she was elated to get
her silver.

“It
just all went well on the day. Now I want to keep on going and get another
silver!” says Caroline. No doubt there will be quite a few people watching her
progress keenly, because she seems destined for even greater things. Perhaps a top
10 finish and a gold medal? Watch this space.

“Never in a
million years did I imagine that I would become a professional sports person!”
says Chrissie, “I have taken a rather unique path to professional sport. I
didn’t grow up like many other triathletes watching Ironman on TV and wanting
to qualify for the World Championships in Hawaii.” In fact, Chrissie started the sport
in 2004 on a borrowed bike and wearing an old wetsuit that was too big for her,
but having just worked in Nepal
for 16 months, where she cycled to work every day and explored the countryside
on her bike, her fitness was already up there. “I didn’t do any structured
training – just grinding up and down the hills was enough to make me super
strong!”

ROOKIE PRO

In 2006,
Chrissie went back to the UK
and entered a few triathlons and amazed everyone, including herself, by winning
the Shropshire Olympic Triathlon and qualifying for the World Triathlon
Championships in Lausanne, Switzerland. She quickly hired a
coach, trained solidly for 10 weeks and managed to win her first amateur title,
beating her nearest rival by four minutes in 2:17:32. “I seriously couldn’t
believe what I had achieved! Then I had to decide whether or not to take the
risk, give up my job and have a go at professional triathlon. I just knew I
never wanted to look back and think ‘what if’.”

So in 2007,
Chrissie gave it all up to become a pro triathlete, but was still only thinking
of doing the short-course Olympic distance. “I didn’t actually know anything
about Ironman, other than that I thought you had to be crazy to do it! But my
coach suggested that I do Ironman Korea
in 2007, and I won it in 9:54:37 and managed to qualify for the World Ironman Championships
six weeks later in Kona, Hawaii.” Much to her surprise, Chrissie
grabbed her first World Champ title in 9:08:45 – the only athlete, male or
female, to have done that in their first year turning pro. She then won the
next two years as well, to become only the third women to have achieved three
consecutive victories in Hawaii, the other two being Paula Newby-Fraser and
Natascha Badmann.

However, she
describes her fourth World Ironman Championship title in Kona last year as the
pick of the bunch. Despite starting the race with a torn pectoral muscle
resulting from a bike crash two weeks earlier, Chrissie was still determined to
prove herself. “I dug to the very depths of my soul and truly pushed beyond any
limit I thought existed,” she explains. “It was the hard-fought race I have
always dreamed of, and I feel that maybe at this race I proved to myself, and
others, that I really was truly worthy of being called a champion.”

EMBRACING SOUTH AFRICA

Chrissie
visited this country on two occasions before her 2011 Ironman SA win: In 1999,
as a student on an adventure trip passing through Cape Town, and in 2002 as a member of the UK
Government Delegation to the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development. Having
developed a fondness for the place and its people, she says her Ironman win here
was even more meaningful.

“The
course, the crowds and the final finish chute at Ironman SA truly make it one
of the best in the world. I ran down the red carpet with a new World Ironman
Record of 8:33:56 on the clock, a rainbow of confetti raining down, and a
beaming smile on my face.” Chrissie not placed eighth overall and nearly 35
minutes ahead of women’s runner-up Rachel Joyce, but also set new female bike,
run and course records, and her marathon time of 2:52:54 was faster than all of
the men on the day!

A FULL-TIME JOB

For the
champ, triathlon is a lifestyle, and she devotes every minute to her game. “I
believe that triathlon is a 24/7 job. I devote my life to it. Exercise,
resting, sleeping and eating are all part of training. It’s not just about when
you are in the pool, on the bike or running – if you forget to focus on rest
and recovery then you will never fulfil your true potential,” she explains. She
adds that consistency is key: She doesn’t rev up her training hours or mileage just
before a race; she prefers to work consistently hard, only varying her programme
slightly if a big race is coming up. She might try and hit faster times for her
1km track run reps or alternately hit the same times, but with a reduced
recovery, just to test her sharpness.

Chrissie does
six running sessions a week, including a long run of around 32km (in around 2
hours 15) and two interval sessions (one with 800m to 1600m reps, at faster
than race pace, and the second on hills). She also does a brick (bike/run
session) with a three-hour bike straight into a hard 10km tempo run, and two
steady 45-50min run sessions, on top of dedicated bike and swim training
sessions, plus she also does three to four strength and conditioning sessions
of 45–60 minutes each. “But I don’t lift heavy weights, and training also
comprises recovery, nutrition, hydration, massage, physical therapy, and the
all-important hours of sleep!”

When it
comes to food, she says she doesn’t count calories, but still keeps her intake
to about 5 000 a day when in full training. “My diet comprises lots of
fresh fruits and veggies, whole grains like brown rice, quinoa, buckwheat, couscous,
avocados, nuts and seeds. I also eat some type of meat once a day, with red
meat once a week. Biltong was also on the menu when I lived in Stellenbosch,
with a dollop of Mrs Balls on the side!” Come race day, Chrissie’s diet is also
strict: Cream of rice for breakfast and one gram of carbs per kilo of body
weight per hour on route. “Immediately after the race I crave chips, a kebab,
pizza or burgers, and tend to indulge in more than one!”

YES, S*IT HAPPENS!

While
Chrissie has enjoyed many momentous wins in her career, there have been races
and sessions she calls “total turds.” In 2006, racing the Redditch Super
Sprint, her borrowed wetsuit turned out to be too big and water flooded in. “I
couldn’t swim and had to be rescued by a kayaker. Game over!” Injury and
mishaps are all part of the game and she’s happy to have overcome instead of
giving up. “Successful athletes don’t always travel along a path paved with
roses. They overcome disappointment and self-doubt to win. One might say it is
precisely because they endure those turd-like troughs that they can rise to the
peaks of global greatness! A wise Buddha once said that ‘the arrow that hits the bull’s-eye is the result of 100 misses’.”

Chrissie has taken 2012 off from full training and racing. “I
believe that racing should never be the be-all and end-all of my life. I wanted
to inject some variety back into my life this year, some balance, and some
spontaneity.” Therefore, Chrissie is now spending more time with family and
friends, reading more widely, going to concerts, promoting her autobiography, A Life Without Limits, and also working
closely with the charities she supports.
“Sport has a tremendous power and can be a force for considerable change
through fundraising and awareness efforts,” she says.

When asked about her future, Chrissie is happy for it to
remain unknown and exciting. In her book, she writes, “…how can I speculate on
what the future holds, when the present is so astronomically removed from
whatever expectations I might have had in my youth? My only policy throughout
has been to keep an open mind and, whatever I may do, to give it my all. It
still takes my breath away to think where that simple outlook on life has taken
me. I never set out to be a world champion – not many ordinary girls from Norfolk do – but neither
have I ever wanted to be left wondering, ‘What if?’ “

Chrissie’s Best Motivational ADVICE

1.      
Have a clear, realistic goal: Write it down, then post it
somewhere visible. It’s also crucial to know why you want to achieve this. You
must be passionate, excited and energised about the goal.

2.      
Create a plan: To give direction and structure, and prevent procrastination, the plan
should be realistic and tailored to you and your lifestyle.

3.      
Create an environment that supports this plan: For
example, find a gym,
running track and pool that are conveniently close and financially affordable
in the long term.

4.      
Set smaller tasks as stepping-stone
goals: These make the bigger, long-term goals
seem less overwhelming, and ensure that you can enjoy the journey with successes
along the way.

5.      
Use music: Listen to a podcast or lecture, download Chrissie’s AudioFuel workouts
(coaching and motivation combined!), or read your favourite book or watch an
uplifting movie or YouTube clips while spinning.

6.      
Keep a log of your workouts: Make sure you highlight any accomplishments and
successes, note how they make you feel, and then celebrate getting up and over
these little milestones.

7.      
Sometimes we need others to help motivate, guide and encourage us: This could be a coach or
training partner, your spouse and children, a local sports club/group, or even
online chat forums.

8.      
Train your brain: Recognise negative self-talk and
consciously replace those thoughts with positive affirmations!