‘Tis the season… to not get sick!
BY KENNETH LUNDGREN
Hey Gang!
Hope everyone has been able to enjoy the New Year and maintain a steady training schedule… This time of year, however, and especially THIS time of year specifically right now, everyone seems to be getting sick… Elite Endurance athletes have been e-mailing me, many getting sick here and there, and I’ve been sending back quick remedies, other ways to avoid getting sick, etc…
Here are a few quick fixes you can take to try to get over that cold you feel coming on, and also for preventative measures…
Concoction #1: you’ve see Emergen-C tablets or those powder vitamin packets in the stores… Well, don’t shy away — they work! Take your B-vitamin complex in liquid form, dump it into a cup. Then take a C-tablet or your powder liquimins, dump into a cup. Then, take 2 FULL droppers full of Echinacea Goldenseal — not 1-2 drops, but the FULL DROPPER, dump the full contents into cup. Mix with water or even orange juice… Repeat up to 4 times a day. Yum.
Also, athletes I coach who drink green tea regularly seem to get sick less. FACT. Brew it up, and then let it cool down to when it’s warm, then put 100% raw, natural honey in it (it comes in blocks, like putty), two heaping teaspoons of this chunky honey, and then 3 full droppers of Echinacea. This is a valid Concoction #2.
Sore throats are a death curse for endurance athletes… It seems to be what plagues us the most… For a quick fix and shorter recovery time, here is a “secret” remedy that WORKS: take 3 or 4 cloves of garlic, finely diced. Dump into a bowl. Squeeze half a lemon over the top. Dump in 3 shakes from cayenne pepper shaker (you should ALL have a cayenne pepper shaker!). And then smoosh it up into a paste. Put full glob into a spoon, and then swallow. Do a bunch of them. Do not wash down it down — do NOT chase it with anything, just let it go down your throat and sit in your stomach… MAGIC =)
One meal you may want to consider during flu season is to eat more soups — or, rather, MAKE your own soups… Buy some organic chicken broth. 3 or 4 cloves of garlic, diced. 1/3 teaspoon of cayenne pepper. Half a lemon squeezed. And then half a bag of fresh spinach. Put all into a pot, simmer until the spinach is wilted into broth, like a soup. And then yum
I recommend using these “concoctions” a few times during the week — or even a few times during the DAY. Hey, the best athletes I know also seem to have the LEAST amount of setbacks — coincidence here? NO. Superior athletes also live superior lives… Training is just not physical exertion but also the lifestyle you lead… Be smart and 100% control what you put into your body. In training and racing, you can’t control the weather, you can’t control your competition, you can’t control even how you’ll feel and respond once performing — but one thing you have 100% control over is what you put into you body…
And, to me, that is an awesome responsibility.
We are doing a social, non-murder MTB ride at Allaire Park on Sunday, wheels down at 10. Ride time 2.5-3h, will be good times for everyone involved. If interested, come on out or e-mail me at Coach@EliteEndurance.com. We are meeting at the big lot off Hospital Road, Farmingdale NJ…
Happy Training!
