January was a successful month for me competition wise. I reached a goal of running my personal best in the 55 meter hurdles, and placed second in the Colgate Women’s Games held at Madison Square Garden on 1/31/10 with a time of 8.39 in the 55 meter hurdles. I competed in the 60 meter hurdles in several other competitions throughout January and February, including Boston Invitational, USATF East Regionals (2nd place), and USATF Connecticut Championships (1st place).

I am a life long athlete covering over four decades of training ranging from competitive martial arts, boxing,soccer,basketball, middle distance running and long distance kayaking. I have kayaked since I was a young boy and paddled nearly half way around Australia and peddled a bicycle back . I wrote a book called “Keep Australia On Your Left” which goes into substantial detail.

I feel like Protein Extreme Energy & GSH Ignite have really become an important integral part of my program. I can’t imagine being able to recover and remain injury free at my age without the support of these products. Last Monday I came down with a head cold, which under “normal” circumstances would have knocked me out for at least 2-3 days, but I was able to complete all of my workouts except one run of a double session (it was raining and snowing and windy out and i just couldn’t face it with a cold…:-)

During an intensive bout of exercise, your body can use up to 200 or even 250 grams of carbohydrates depleting your full store of glycogen, or stored glucose. Once your exercise is finished, those carbohydrates need to be replenished quickly to keep you at your peak athletic performance. Refueling your body and rebuilding stores of glycogen, or stored glucose, is the last critical step of training.

All forms of carbohydrates are made with sugar molecules. Carbohydrates were once broken into categories according to the complexity of their molecules, or simple carbohydrates and complex carbohydrates, with the complex variety being much preferred for athletes and others on healthy diets. Now, however, it’s been widely acknowledged that the proper breakdown of carbohydrates doesn’t fall into two clean-cut categories.

Glucose is simply blood sugar, and eating carb-rich foods prior to working out will initially raise your blood sugar. To counteract this flood of glucose, the body releases insulin, which is produced in the pancreas and insulin then moves the glucose out of the bloodstream and into the cells. When glucose arrives in the cells, it is used immediately for energy.

My days are busy and I work full time, nearly everyday. In order to fit in my training schedule, which is normally 2 to 3 hours 5 days a week, I train in the basement of the thrift shop where I work. This is a recent training session focusing on 1 minute endurance sets.

Diets high in carbohydrates are essential for athletes, but as discussed in Carbohydrates: The Body’s Core Fuel For Energy, finding the right balance of fuel for your body is about much more than what you eat. Properly preparing your body for work-outs is a balancing act of what sorts of carbohydrates you eat and when you eat them.

As any athlete with a little experience knows, what you put into your body is what you get out of it. Don’t believe me? Just try eating a burger and fries the night before a big event, maybe indulge in a beer or three. Your performance will suffer. Along with an effective training schedule, what you ingest is the most important factor in determining performance during an event and recovery speed afterwards.