Healthy Eating on a budget

Couldn't help myself on this one, Robb Wolf is the man when it comes to food.  I can also confirm that if you shop the perimeter of the grocery store, your shopping bill will be way less. It's all those foods found in the aisles that raise the price. As a general rule of thumb I suggest "walking the square."

In his recent blog found HERE, Rob has some great suggestions for eating healthy on a budget. Have a read.

As for this weekend, GOODLUCKS to everyone running in the Vancouver 1/2 or Full Marathon. We will be cheering for you.  I'm going to be chopping fire wood and secretly wishing that I was out running with you :)  For everyone staying home, the new FULL NELSON mountain bike trail opens this Saturday.  Check out the SORCA website for details.  JF and I will see you out there for sure.
 


Don't forget to mark your calendars either for May 12th, fitness testing. Everyone welcome, sign in as usual.

Busyness on the Race Scene

I actually can't keep up with everyone right now as I think there are races happening every Saturday and Sunday.  Some people are hitting events that we know about while others are stepping in last minute because they feel fit and ready and just want a fun weekend challenge. To say the least, we are proud coaches.  We hope that more of you realize your potential to race too, we have some incredibly fit people in our CBC community and even more so, we have some very mentally tough men and women training with us and if I can share some knowledge, racing is really 90% mental!!  You just have to want to get out there and get the job done, kind of like a C3 class :)

Congrats to Trina Whittaker and Stephanie Masterman at Suburban Rush down in Port Moody.  Volker Schneider is now in Time Trial racing mode and preparing for the Vancouver Marathon.  We had Di Adams and Sheena Williams at the April Fools 1/2 and countless people running in the Vancouver Sun Run 10km.  Adventure racing monsters Kyle Peters and Marco Amselem just won the world qualifier in Costa Rica (500km+ of multi sport racing) and will be headed to France in September to compete at World's.  I just got back from my 100km in Ireland with a 1st place victory and few shorter races in Greece. Handfuls of CBC'ers are out for the WED night toonies already and many are training hard for the Ore Crusher and the Test of Metal.   Congrats to everyone, keep training hard.

    Volker in TT mode at Golden Ears this past weekend.

DON'T FORGET:
Early bird entry pricing ends today for Loop the Lakes on May 27th.  Get those registrations in today and save some money! 

Stand Up Paddleboarding and C3???
YES - we are bringing back the Paddlefit - SUP WOD's that Norm Hann of www.mountainsurfadventures.com and I created a few years ago. These are going to be awesome summer workouts with about 1-2 happening a month starting in June.  What do you need to be able to participate?  Be a member of CBC and have some paddleboarding experience. We highly suggest the intro class with Norm.  Details coming but these are going to be FUN and awesome summer evening workouts!

Triathlon Coaching
JF and I just spent the weekend getting triathlon coaching certified through the NCCP system so that we can actually coach swim and bike outside (for insurance purposes).  It was an awesome weekend of learning and interacting with other coaches.  Stay tuned for some cool stuff coming down the pipes.

The Sweet Potato

I wanted to share this book with you all as I'm about to get my hands on a copy. Many of you who I coach through nutrition and best eating practices hear me preach over and over to get away from the mindset that "carbs" are "pasta's, breads and cereals" and to start thinking about a great source of fuel as one which comes from your veggies.



Read on for this great review of Sweet Potato Power by Ashley Tudor.

EAT + ENJOY.

Mountain Bike Clinics - now happening

JF had 4 rippin ladies out today for some skills on the trails.  This was the first mountain biking 4hr clinic of the season and there will be lots more.  Great to see folks who have been training hard all winter apply their fitness on the bike. 

Contact jf@challengebychoice.ca to book mountain biking coaching.  CBC is proud to contract out the biking program to such an awesome course.

MEC takes on COOL Project

MEC Victoria is an awesome group of people with a very cool undertaking.  For over 3 months now, I've been coaching 15+ staff members in prep for some crazy big goals this summer.  As a group, the MEC runners will head to 3 of the west coast's most difficult and challenging trails and together, we will run these epics non-stop.  The trails in order of how we will run them are the Juan de Fuca (42km), Nootka (35km) and then the West Coast Trail (75km).

I am so excited to be programming, guiding and coaching this group towards their goal.  Most of the runners had never run over 15km before but they have embraced the program and are doing amazingly well. Consistency and progression have been the key.  This group more then inspires me!  How cool that a big company like MEC has programs in place to challenge their staff and support them on once in a lifetime projects like this? MEC you rock!

I've been traveling to the Island monthly to conduct in-person, on-trail sessions with the group.  We are now just over 1 month from the Juan de Fuca and the group is getting pumped.  I think they are getting the hardest trail over first.  If you think that the JDF is flat, you are so wrong. Its crazy mud and constantly undulating. Tough running!  I've got good friend and very knowledgeable runner Don Peterson co-guiding this with me.  Don and I have done lots of cool adventures over the years and we run the JDF together each year.  Stoked to have him on my coaching team!

ONWARDS MEC runners!

Food 4 Thought....

Interesting link between Depression + Nutrition........  CLICK HERE FOR THE ARTICLE

Other CBC things......

Newsletter coming out on Tuesday - be sure to have a good read as it highlights some cool programs and items that you need to know about. These include:

Custom CBC Cycling Clothing - jersey's & shorts

5 month long "Fondo Training" Program (co-ed, so awesome, we can't wait to launch)

A new Sunday evening Stretch, Roll + Release class and a Monday evening 90mins C3 Endurance class

We hope everyone has had a great Spring Break.  Looking forward to seeing everyone back to class this week.........

Enjoy the sun!

Dirty Duo-ing

Busy weekend on the race front as lots of CBC'ers headed down to Vancouver's North Shore for the annual Dirty Duo race. Lots of categories to choose from, it's a great pre-season race.  Gotta hand it to the following athletes for great performances:
Jenni Chancey - 25km (8th female, prepping for the Gorge 50k, she's gonna rock)
Erin Donnelly 50km  (super ill and still hung in there)
Michelle Jackson - 25km (first big trail race - yeeeehaw)
Isabelle Julien - 30km bike  (1st female - wahooo)
Jay Fairchels - 30km bike (shaved 1hr off his time from last year)
Britt Jonat - 50km (first 50km ever!!!)

On our extended CBC family front we have Sarah Dixon and Barb Wilkins who do everything with a smile.  Congrats ladies on getting the 15km and 25km done.  I also hear that our favourite Mary Betts was out volunteering and cheering everyone on.  It was a no run day for me but I did get out for a great mountain bike ride in the rain with Maggie Phillips. Trails here are cleaning nicely which is great.

Speaking of mountain biking, we have a cool new program about to launch. Details coming in a newsletter this week.

And a kind reminder, please be sure to not wear perfumes when you are coming to the gym to train.  I know it's not that you are "spraying it on" pre workout (lol) but we have a few people who are very sensitive to smells like that when they are training.  Friendly reminder, thanks.

The trail running clinics are going great. We have 30+ people taking part and it's been a magical moment for me as a coach.  Congrats to everyone. We've had some good challenging workouts so far and there are more to come. However, each of you is just getting them done and embracing the opportunity to learn and improve. I think it's awesome, JF thinks it's awesome and we are the proudest coaches ever.  And I gotta say, even I get a twinge of jealousy as I watched you all tackle those intervals.  The energy on the track the other night was incredible, to have lots of other people to work out with is a rare thing.  I had to hit my intervals before I coached you and let me say, they are a million times better in a group when EVERYONE works hard.  In short, I wish I was doing them with you :) but as you know, that is now how I coach.

Let's have a great week!  We know it's Spring Break so please plan accordingly with your schedules.

Rippin' Young Guns

So cool when your strength and conditioning coach gets to actually be there on the mountain to see you take first place!  Today at Grouse, Maja Wooley took first place at the Tyee Championship and coach Alicia was there.  This is one of the most rewarding feelings as a coach, when you get to witness first hand goals being achieved.  I'm really proud of Maja and all our young guns.  They are working hard and their efforts are paying off!

Next semester of Young Guns (ages 10-14) starts in March.  WED is full but there is some space left on THURS.  Let me know if you have kids who are keen to attend.

Winter Racing

I'm having a heck of a time keeping up with everyone at CBC.  So many people have been off racing on the weekends.  Hard to tell who is still in full ski mode and those who are already ripping on the bike.  I know lots of people are run focused now and are cursing at the new fallen snow.  Either way, people are out there, getting it done and we think it's AWESOME.  Keep us informed so we can post about it.  Your actions inspire others so just remember that.

 Our Young Guns have been working extremely hard with Aleisha for the past few months. Watching these kids progress over the past 4+ months has been so cool. We are seeing top finishes from many of them on the ski front including Kasper Wooley who had an amazing 1st place finish day #1 at the BC Winter Games.  Mikayla Martin is winning nearly every race she enters and we are all following along in the newspaper each week.  Congrats to all the Young Guns.

The Payak Loppet was this past weekend and JF was up there cheering! He reports back as it being "awesome." I don't know everyone's results yet but congrats to B, Rua Reed and Richard Savage who I know for sure were out there hammering hard.



Last weekend was the "First 1/2" half marathon in the city.  Di Adams, Sheena Harris and Ciara McCoughlin all had great runs.

Those who ride compu trainer know that Carena Dean, one of our amazing multi-sport endurance athletes has been prepping all winter for the 1000km+ bike ride in Nepal called the Yak Attack. She has now left and we are wishing her all the best on this awesome race course!

Meanwhile down in the USA, two of my Californian athletes just ripped up the 4 day adventure race course in Ecuador, finishing a solid second. The team only missed 1st by a few hours. Congrats Kyle and Marco. You guys are legends.

I've written about my Hong Kong 100km experience on my own blog.  You can also join my new "athlete page" JEN SEGGER on FB to keep current on my adventures.

This week starts the Loop the Lakes Clinics!  26 people signed up and I can't wait to get coaching again on the trail and get everyone ready. We have all levels coming out, setting goals and ready for 3 months of quality training.

While I have your attention, please note the new MARCH calendar. A few more changes will happen in April as it all has to do with coaches switching around to cover different classes as we enter into trail running season and as outdoor riding starts next month. We have lots of mountain biking programs about to start in April too - keep posted!

Mid Month Update

Hola from Hong Kong folks!  I'm just getting set to race in my first 100km run of 2012.  I'm very excited to get on the course and experience some trail madness. I appreciate all the emails that are coming in to wish me luck, it feels great to know I have the CBC community behind me.

In the mean time, a few quick updates:

Feb 16th - would you believe it!  CBC has been opened for 1 year. Thankyou to all of you who have made it possible for us to be rocking and rolling as a first year business. We are stoked about the future of where things are going.  Being that I am away, we couldn't plan an official CBC Birthday party but we will look to do something soon!

Trail Clinics get underway in 2 weeks time. This is the only trail coaching that I will be doing this year so if you are keen to learn and train with purpose, I highly recommend you check it out. We are near capacity but I think there is always room to squeeze a few more in.