If you insert a 20 to 40-minute easy swim after our weights sessions, the post workout muscle soreness (24-48 hours) is significantly reduced. Not 100% sure why this is the case, but wanted to share this recovery tip with you.

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Run Speed

Many of you are writing to me talking about run speed. During your race season, you will not get a lot of run volume from me. Why is that? Because all of you can already run slowly for a long time -- more volume will simply increase your ability to run long slowly. What you will get from me is focused, faster run volume. It is very important that you do the run workouts as structured. As well, remember that your nutrition will have a large impact on your run speed. The answer to your desire to run faster is a mixture of nutrition, focus and specific run training.

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Traveling Triathletes

How to travel in G-World -- When travelling any long distances, ensure that you stop every 90 minutes and stretch. Also bring plenty of fresh fruit and water with you. This will make a huge difference to how you arrive at your destination. Many of you are driving long distances to your A Races -- this is an essential travel tip.

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Paleo and Your Teeth

As many of you know, I eat a high fruit diet. As a result the acidity level in my mouth is relatively high most of the day. My dentist pointed out that this has led to some erosion of my tooth enamel at the gum line (also could have been caused by fizzy drinks or acidic sports drinks, eg Cytomax). He suggested that I rinse with water following my fruit eating sessions and when I consume lots of fizzy/sugary/sports beverages. He also mentioned that a light mid-day brush could be helpful following my largest fruit serving (I didn't have the heart to tell him that would meaning non-stop brushing from 6A to 10P!).

Paleo, Sodium, Water and the Female Athlete

Living with Shan, an elite female athlete, has been great as it gives me an insight into a whole new aspect of elite female physiology.

The first thing that we have noticed is that a high carbohydrate diet leads to water retention. In Shan, this is particularly prevalent with the consumption of breads (and I suspect cereals). Shan eats Paleo, but we had a big training push where we found ourselves eating a huge amount of starch in a 36 hour period -- the result was bloating.

So, I wanted to make the point to each of you that given our unique physiology, we will likely have different tolerances for different foods. Given the huge amounts that we need to eat -- certain foods may leave you holding water, passing gas or feeling rather poorly. To combat bloating, Shan likes to source the bulk of her recovery carbos from millet, twelve grain cereal and rice. She does eat breads but in clear moderation. This is not confined to females, I feel much better when I follow the "Shan-Plan".

It's also worth noting that she's able to eat "perfect athlete paleo" (see Joe's summary) and have high quality training at 20-25 hours per week. Ladies, you may notice that you are susceptible to bloating around the time of your period. Shan drops the starch right down around this period and we ease off the volume a bit. [Shan notes, 'the approach varies each cycle and you have to listen to yourself']

Another point that we have noticed is that she performs better on a relatively low sodium diet. For those of us that enjoy high sodium diets and/or use heavy sodium supplementation in our training -- you may find that you retain water. I am NOT recommending that you cease sodium supplementation -- rather -- I am pointing out that retained water could be a side effect of a high sodium diet. At present, I have stopped all sodium supplementation in my training (but still have a fairly high sodium diet, hooked on soy sauce). If you are still eating processed foods then you will have a high sodium diet due to all the salt found in these products.

A switch in carbo source and a reduction in sodium caused an easy reduction in Shan's water weight. For a short course athlete, this is a useful side effect and likely better for her long term health.