New Iron Girl Energy Bars

Iron Girl sent me two packs of their new release, energy bars made with women's nutrition in mind. Iron Girl event series is comprised of 13 races nationwide, ranging from shorter distances like the 5/10k to half marathhon, duathlon, and triathlon. Iron Girl is part of World Triathlon Corporation, producers of the Ironman World Championship in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. It makes sense that with all these events for women, they'd figure up an energy bar for their audience base. So, teaming up with Power Bar, they've released two flavors of fortified energy bars you can eat to fuel up a workout, or satiate your hunger between meals during a busy day.

With women's nutrition in mind, Iron Girl made sure to include some essential minerals to help us stay strong. Containing calcium, iron, and B vitamins, you have a nutrition packed energy bar that provides taste and substance. Iron Girl energy bars contains 40% of the Daily Value (DV) for iron, 20% DV for calcium, and the B vitamin blend contains: 45% DV riboflavin, 35% DV niacin, 40% DV vitamin B6, 20% DV folate, and 25% DV pantothenic acid.

As we all know, iron is important to the female athlete, as iron deficiencies greatly affect our performance. Iron helps carry oxygen around the body and muscles. If your iron stores are low, it can cause fatigue and negatively impact performance, not just during workouts but throughout the day.

Calcium plays an important role for bone health. Inadequate calcium effects include low bone mineral density and stress fractures.

B vitamins convert food to energy. Adequate B vitamin intakes is important to ensure our energy production remains revved and help our bodies build and repair muscle tissue.

So not only do the bars taste good, but they're good for you, too. Two birds with one stone.

Their bars, made with whole grains, real fruit, and cocoa, are soft and chewy and lightly sweet. The two flavors, strawberry & cranberry and cocoa crunch are available at Target beginning mid-April, $0.99 for individual bars and $4.99 for a six pack. Power bar is also offering a special on their website. Register on www.powerbar.com/irongirloffer and receive a "buy one, get one FREE" coupon.

My favorite flavor between the two was the strawberry & cranberry. The bar was studded with fruit pieces. I liked the contrast between the tart cranberries and chewy, sweet oats, and who can resist strawberry? This bar was 160 calories, not really enough for a snack but enough to get me through a run if I'm a bit on the hungry side. It wasn't heavy and didn't sit like a log in my stomach. I ate 1 1/2 bars about 45 minutes before going out on a 4 miler, and it never felt like I could feel the effects of the bar in my stomach, like ingredients that made you feel bloated and didn't digest quickly. A definite plus.

Next up was the cocoa crunch, a bar made from the same chewy whole oats, plus crispy rice cereal and cocoa powder. To me, this bar tasted deeply earthy and it didn't seem as sweet as the strawberry bar. I didn't really enjoy this one as I felt that it lacked enough sweetness to balance the cocoa so I probably won't be buying it on my own. One of my brothers liked it, though, so it's definitely an individual thing. I just likened it to a taste I didn't want in sweet foods.

If you are looking for a new bar to try, check out these Iron Girl bars. Thank you again for letting me try them out!

Iron Girl Gift Pack

My gift pack arrived in the mail today packed full of really cool things. Let's take a look, shall we?

I obviously couldn't help from micro-shaking the camera because ALL these pictures include a hint of blur. Fail.

Anyway.

First there is this really cool turquoise and pink visor. The cool part is that there's a terry cloth sweatband thing along the section that sits on your head/forehead. Then instead of a traditional backing, the backing is like this elastic band that you can can be tightened, and it also has the words "Iron Girl" printed on it. At first I asked myself if I'd feel a little weird wearing a hat for an event in which I've never participated, but I'll get over it when I run tomorrow. Because these are MY colors.

There is also a pair of pink goggles to use for swimming, or to wear whilst peeling onions in the kitchen (I've been told that it helps).

I'm really excited about these socks! They're a nylon, "cool-max fresh FX", and lycra blend, and on the thin side. I will test these out tomorrow, too. They look pretty snazzy!

And also for the feet we have a giant 2 pound bag of Dr. Teal's Peppermint Foot Soak, which is Epsom salt with peppermint essential odor and baking soda, in case you smell (it's what the bag says, not what happens to me). The peppermint oil is supposed to revitalize your senses, which is always a good thing after you're tired from a run or anything.

Included is also a Bodycology body wash, specifically for the softeningog skin, with silk and avocado oil, and a cucumber melon body mist from the same company. It smells pretty good, though a little sugary sweet for my tastes.

Next are two different types of eye drop samples from Rohto, one for dry eyes to restore moisture, relieve irritation, and cool. The next is for redness relief. (I'm thinking this is mostly for the swimming aspect of triathlons?)

In front is a "homeopathic flex power" pain relief cream. With gradual heat and a light scent for "active women", you can put some on specific muscles and joints experiencing minor aches and pains for temporary relief. The major ingredients are arnica, green tea, vitamins, aloe, msm and glucosamine. You are supposed to apply at least 10 minutes prior to exercise as well as afterwards. I put some on my foot earlier because it feels weird, and I can't report anything because I forgot I put it on and didn't think about if it was working or not. Fail. I'm sorry. I'll reapply in a moment. But this is the official sports cream for the USAT(rialthlon), USA weight lifitng, US snowboarding, ski team, and cycling.

There is also a Luna white chocolate macadamia bar as well as a Luna protein chocolate peanut butter bar.

Finally, there's a DVD for Coach Troy's "Runervals" with Iron Girl, which is a series of three workouts, all thirty minutes, but varying in intensity. The interval workouts are designed to "maximize your fitness safely and efficiently". The workouts aim to improve leg speed, burn body fat, and prep you for races of all distances, as stated on the back of the DVD. If I had a treadmill, I'd love to review this for you. However, I figure I can watch the DVD and mimic the workout on the road and see how it goes.

Also, the bag all this loot comes in is HUGE. It's one of those giant drawstring bags you can wear like a backpack with a front zippered pouch, the giant middle pouch, and a mesh pocket in the back. Can't wait to use this for races since the bag I am using is a tight fit for all my stuff.

Really cool stuff. Thanks again, Iron Girl!

Iron Girl Gift Bag Giveaway Winner

What's up, everyone! It's time to announce the winner of the giveaway. I wish I had a gift bag to give to everyone, but I don't. =(

Anyway, the winner is...

Chika from Anti-Bland! Congrats! Please email me at caudagaliATyahooDOTcom to send me your mailing info.

Thanks to everyone who entered, and thanks especially to Iron Girl and Fitness Magazine.

Running - Pain and Injury

When is it serious and what can you do to prevent it? The panel of the Iron Girl and Fitness Magazine had some pretty decent tips to keep in mind when you go about training.

First, though, I have an update about another addition to the Iron Girl gift bag giveaway, that update being the opportunity for you and a friend to sign up to one of the Iron Girl triathlon events in Tahoe, Boulder, or Racine! How cool is that! So you get the gift bag, plus two optional race slots. Enter the drawing today if you haven't already done so.

So back to the topic. The whole point of the webinar was how to make it to the finish line safely, mostly if you're new to running or triathlons, but also beneficial for everyone.

When it comes to running and pain, how do you know when to listen to the pain versus when the pain is simply you whining (yeah, we all do it!)? The panel was in unison on the idea that your body pretty much can sense when you're entering serious physical harm, especially the nagging injuries that never seem to go away. Sometimes they aren't serious, but can often benefit by a week of minimal to no running. (In my instance, earlier in February, April, and May my foot kept feeling really bad after running - not to the point where I couldn't walk, but that I needed to ice it all the time. One week running just wasn't happening for me, but after that week off I noticed my foot pain started clearing up.) "An injured athlete means you're not an athlete." What Coach Troy meant by this is that if you can't train at the level you need for the goals you've set, you're not doing much for yourself by continuing to push through an injury.

This proves to be easier said than done. No one likes to stop an activity they find pleasure in doing, even if it means doing harm to ourselves. However, we often focus on the "here and now" instead of looking at it as a long-term lifestyle approach. If we train in a way to keep ourselves healthy for years to come, we're doing more for ourselves than simply training by calendar dates. It's always a bummer when we can't hit a goal we set because of an injury, though long-term it's probably the best for us.

One way to avoid injuries, especially for those new to the sport or are reentering, is to begin your program slowly and proceed with steady progress. If it took you a long time to reach an unhealthy state, it'll take you a while to get back to a healthy state. Again, this isn't something that changes overnight. There's no need to rush into a race distance or training program that's beyond what you're physically capable of doing.

Another good point they brought up, one also linked to preventing injuries, is strength training. Coach Troy suggested strength training 2-3 times a week as a way to aid endurance and muscles, especially for those over the age of 30. If your muscles are "sound", they're less likely to not be able to roll with the punches. You don't need to look like Starla, though, which actually would be a deterrent to running successfully.

Coach Troy said that the best time to focus on strength training is during the winter, when no one really wants to be running outdoors anyway. He brought up the idea of using the winter months as off training to increase your strength, work on technique, and gain a little lean mass. By following a 12-16 week progression plan, you can develop your strength much like a running plan develops your endurance.
When finding a routine, focus on one that promotes building strength and endurance rather than simply mass. In fact, any activity that includes resistance, such as pilates and yoga, are beneficial. When the spring and summer approaches, you can back off the weight training and focus on training in actual sports-specific exercises when you're nearing the dates of the actual event.

That's all for now. There were a few more training and nutrition related tips you guys probably would like to hear about that they mentioned, so I'll work on summarizing that up for one more post.

Training Tip from Iron Girl and Fitness Magazine, and Iron Girl Gift Bag Giveaway

The webinar concluded earlier today and I've compiled notes of some of the topic discussed that stuck out to me. Much of the information I heard I've either heard before, or is available in books and magazines, but they spoke about subjects I've often thought about that have made me curious to know what an "official" perspective would be about it.

Training

Self Awareness - Developing self awareness of how your body reacts to training is crucial to your success. Oftentimes, during exercise, we'll try and distract ourselves so as to make the time pass by quicker. While this isn't always a problem, being in tune to how your body handles different kinds of training will really give you insight into how you, personally, work and handle different levels of stress. This will also come in handy during races and such.

Focusing on Technique - Instead of simply going out and running, or cycling, or whatever, it pays to focus on how you're doing it, and what happens when you change things up or try something new. No matter how minute, practice what you would like to do before you need it, like in a race.

From personal experience, when I have a curiosity on how I'd run with a different foot strike, leg stride, or whatever I look it up and ask others who would know, then when I run next I try out a few new things to see how I respond to it. If you find one that clicks, practice it over and over again to commit it to your muscle memory.

Efficiency - Practice efficiency so you can do more with less effort. Strides or intervals are a good way to quicken your stride and focus on proper technique and leg turnover. If you have an efficient form, it takes less effort to go faster or farther.

Again, personally, I found this when I adapted my stride to suit the "chi running" method of striking midfoot. I didn't feel like I was trying to constantly move my legs faster, which for me usually means I am overstriding.

Training in the Gray Area Coach Troy said that when you train in the same intensity zone multiple times a week at a moderately hard pace (the "gray zone"), your body adapts to running at a specific speed, and you won't improve. You might also increase your risk of injury, as well. While training aerobically is good for your running, training in this gray zone won't maximize the effort of your training like training at different paces would. Training at your threshold pace or above will help you improve, so try to limit the gray zone training if your goal is to get faster.

I'll bring up more points in the next post. However...

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Giveaway!

Iron Girl is giving me an extra gift bag to give to one of my readers. I'm not sure of the content, but I've been told that it includes some pretty cool stuff. (US residents only, please)

To enter:

• Leave a comment saying you'd like to enter - 1 entry


• Blog about this giveaway and leave another comment - 1 entry


• Become a follower on Twitter if you aren't, and retwit this giveaway, leaving a another comment - 1 entry

Giveaway ends Sunday, 27 June, and the winner will be posted on Monday. Good luck!

Make it to the Finish Line: Training Tips from Iron Girl and Fitness Magazine

Hey Readers!

I recently was invited to join in on a "webinar" hosted by Mary Anderson, Fitness director for Fitness Magazine, Judy Molnar, Race Director from Iron Girl, along with Iron Girl's official coach, Coach Troy Jacobson. They'll be hosting a presentation centering around nutrition and training tips for your first race. I've been asked by some readers about reentering the field of running, and I thought of you guys when I was asked to sit in on the talk.

The presentation ends with a Q&A session and here is where I'll be able to ask them some of your questions about nutrition, gaining a competitive edge in your racing, general training tips, fitting in training and exercise around your schedule, and more. If you have a question you'd like me to ask, leave it in the comments. Although I probably won't be able to ask every question, I'll make my way through as many of your comments as possible.

Also, Iron Girl is giving me a goodie bag filled with loads of cool stuff! I'm not sure exactly what's in it, as I'll find out on Wednesday, but they're also giving me an extra bag to giveaway to one of my readers! I'll be hosting that giveaway on either Wednesday or Thursday, when I relay the information I learn from the webinar.

Make sure to leave your questions! I'll probably be Twitting during the webinar, so if you're not already a Twit follower, go ahead and follow now.