Tips for the Merrell Eden Duo

Monday, 02 August 2010 11:51

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Tips for the Merrell Eden Duo

Guidelines to get you racing off the beaten track at the end of October 2010. Experience South Africa's fabled Garden Route in all its splendour.

Tips provided by Jan Heenop - MED Race Director since 2000

1. Why do Eden?

Weekend warriors as they say, are all the so-called normal people with day jobs, who are just as committed to multisport as the professionals. Why would you put yourself under pressure out in the bundu for a whole day with only a friend as backup? Well, for starters you will enjoy the best in forests, mountains, coastlines and lakes you could imagine. Second to this, the experience will be fresh with the atmosphere of enthusiasm and excitement... without any infamous vuvuzela to assure a loud full sound to fill the air!
The Merrell Eden Duo (MED) will give everyone the chance to experience the thrill of multisport. It will help if you prepare yourself though. So herewith we offer you some easy training tips to enjoy the day out there on 30 October 2010. Read more at www.24-7adventure.com

2. Multisport training

This is exactly what the word says... train for more than one discipline at a time. In the case of the MED - you will trail run, mountain bike and paddle, as well as swim up the Kaaimansriver Gorge. This implies that it’s even possible for a family with normal day jobs to come and experience an adventurous day out in the wild.
Let’s say you can train 5 days a week for between 60 - 90 minutes at a time. If this is possible for you, you can easily complete the 150km’s of the MED, not to mention the shorter course options. The programme you must look at will imply that you’ll spend about 4 of the 5 days on your legs and one day in a kayak or canoe of choice per week for the next 13 weeks, to be ready by week 14 for the MED 2010. A programme may be handy, but your daily routine is the most valuable tool to enable you to train or not. Create a routine to bike 3 times a week, run at least 2 times and paddle during the weekend. This gives you 6 training sessions a week. To start off with, you can rest any 1 day in a 7 day cycle. If you can train for only 5 days a week you’ll see that it offers 2 days rest but one day you’ll have to train two disciplines.
A more technical routine will follow and you can contact a coach or a biokinetist or personal trainer to improve your performance. Important to note is that it will help if you log your training. The simple reason for this is to be able to refer to it in the following season. Learn more about Merrell Eden Duo at www.24-7adventure.com

3. Diet and Nutrition

I always believe in the KISS principle... "keep it simple stupid". Eat healthy food and drink enough water. By doing this you will grow old enough to see your grandchildren grow old around you and maybe you will even get to see another World Cup down south.
The diet and nutrition lifestyle is a total by-product of the sport of multisport, but it’s something worth investing in. In my opinion the basic skill in training is to understand yourself and your body. To train is to understand that you need power and energy. Power is protein and energy is carbohydrates... it is not that simple but is effective for these guidelines.

During training you need energy and during recovery you need rest for the body and ligaments and protein/amino acids and muscles to recover. We can learn a lot by looking at the diet of diabetic patients when considering endurance training and racing. Low GI products help us to distribute our energy to the rest of our bodies more evenly. Diet and nutrition is not a simple topic, what is very important for me is to put emphasis on the following; You can only train as hard as you rest/recover. Performance is very much related to diet and or nutrition, and knowledge on the topic of nutrition will motivate you to be healthy and out there for years to come.
Multisport training is a lifestyle. It’s not about the equipment and the image, but more about experiencing life, the outdoors and sharing friendship.

24-7Adventure
www.24-7adventure.com 

For more information regarding the Merrell Eden Duo, turn to page 72 in the July/August issue of Go Multi Magazine

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