Thursday, July 10, 2014
Tuning rather than "Behaviour Change": the Make Better Normal Quest
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Have you heard about behaviour change (we have standards in the UK about even this)? If you have a "bad" habit, it's a behaviour that you need to persuaded or nudged to be different, because we don't know what's good for us, and wouldn't do it if we were told to.
Ever felt you needed "behaviour change" - maybe you'd like to stop reflexively reaching for that cookie, so you need to change that behaviour? Ya, ok. that's one way of seeing the situation, but what if it were one of the worst ways to address that particular foible? Behaviour change says a lot of stuff that frames YOU as the problem - it's as if we carry these diseases - that are our fault for catching in the first place - and we need to be cured - either
This paradigm of finding ways to change behaviours is becoming an increasingly dominant trope - i see it in research grant funding calls under the Health umbrella: how can we support technology to support Behaviour Change? There's the guidance mentioned above. There is a Center of Behaviour Change
Indeed, Behaviour Change is a very "health as a medical condition" model - it comes out of clinical psychology - which comes out of working with troubled people. I'd also like to suggest that "Behaviour Change" as a big C concept that one needs like one need any medical intervention may be distinct from Theories of Behaviour Change - which is more about - why do our behaviours change? That's more exploratory than application. Nope, i'm talking about the assertion that the right way to go about a problem with health or wellbeing is, right off the bat "behaviour change" as in, from the above guidelines "train staff to help people change their behaviour." Right.
What if we postulate that Behaviour Change as this concept, might not be the best model for non-clinical people? for every day interactions and wellbeing? What if health weren't a medical condition?
I'd like to share a few thoughts on why i think "behaviour change" as a paradigm for wellbeing for the rest of us is often (not always but way way too often) a systemic, political cop out, and propose something else that may be more meaningful and actionable in the every day: tuning.
Why bother with language change? As Debra Cameron pointed out in the 80s - she wasn't alone - and a host of dead white guys before her - language frames/creates culture, and culture is what becomes the status quo. And if the status quo is mainly expressed as a language of blame the individual for their oppression, we are caving in to crap rather than addressing the context of our servitude.
The following is a set of idea sketches around tuning. Your thoughts appreciated.
Colleagues of mine argue yeah but sometimes a person really DOES need to change in that transformational way. Indeed, but isn't that the rare case rather than the norm? The extreme end perhaps of tuning?
Exactly. We all eat. If we "change" eating to not eating, we have about 40 days, give or take,and then death ensues. If we include drinking in that - so no fluids, esp water, it goes to three days. Really simple. Eat or die (cake or death?)
Depending on our aspirations, we may find that we can eat better to support those desires. IF we want to be more creative and alert at work, we might dial up the whole foods like dark greens and dark berries, and dial back the nutrient poor calorie dense foods like cookies in the afternoon. We might dial back overall amount of food for awhile too to find our sweet spot.
You can see, there's a lot of knowledge happening in there, there's some skills about potentially how to access these foods efficiently and prep them, say, for work; there's a context that plays a role around opportunities to go get these foods. I just saw a story where teaching assistants in the UK are paid less than the minimum wages and have to work on average two extra jobs to get by. What support do they have to get brain foods, or do experiments to tune in what ratios work for them? And if we can't practice something with some regularity, we do not develop skills. we do not reinforce knowledge.
If we don't have knowledge, skills, opportunities to practice, how can we make choices? how can we make informed choices?
So the concept of TUNING vs Change says, you probably don't need to change around eating - you may need some knowledge about how food choices align with your values and aspirations; you might need some skills about how to execute that knowledge, and you might need some access and social support to build that practice.
My humble hypothesis is, if we had a better normal, there wouldn't have to be behaviour change.
Why do we need behaviour change? Does Normal Suck?
What is an example of make better normal. If there isn't an elevator, except for parcel delivery and handicap access (sort of like designated parking spaces) people would take the stairs. Why does that little bolus of stair taking matter? Because our sedentary lifestyles, research indicates, are having an effect similar to smoking: they're killing us. More movement more of the time is key physiologically.
Another example of making better normal: put sit stand desks in people's workspaces. Again research shows that given the option, people will make use of standing positions 50-60% of the time. More movement: better health, and standing does the trick. (Here's an overview of this sit/stand related research)
Another example of making better normal: stop subsidising corn and feedlot beef - driven by fast food - and why have we elevated fast food to an art form? so more people can eat in the car (1 in 5 meals in the US is consumed in the car) because they are too tired to get up early enough to have breakfast, or too tired to make dinner. Work sucks. Do you eat lunch at your desk? is any of it processed food? See? Now what's going on there?
This cycle that reinforces the status quo is what i'm talking about: normal sucks. Normal in a knowledge worker culture is sedentarism, long hours, poor pay and crap food choices at the grocery store.
And you tell me i have bad behaviours and need to change? That it's my fault i'm overweight/obese?
What if there was technology that coordinated fresh veg that stores were getting rid of (stores have made public how much fresh food gets binned each day) and rather than wasting could be used by this food truck posse at reduced cost? so that rather than using food subsidy coupons to go to a fast food joint, they got tasty delicious meals?
i keep imagining food trucks like those hannah grant has for team support of her Saxo bike team - filled with people over 50 who have been laid off and love to cook, and now they get wages and great meals as a perk to take home and new skills. They work with high tech info systems that coordinate food disbursement. Maybe they go on to open their own businesses. Or run the food trucks, or coordination or...
Social options to engage in volunteer activities at times you're available? Colleague Ryan Andrews found a garden activity, i think, where he can work in a garden during the week, and the food goes to folks in need. Isn't that cool? That would do so much for us over watching TV at night. Blending movement, socialising, getting tired in the body, recovering in the mind. awesome. Here's an example of this kind of activity.
 |
| hmm - proximity of grocery stores to low income areas. Right and YOUR behaviour is what needs to change? |
This paradigm of finding ways to change behaviours is becoming an increasingly dominant trope - i see it in research grant funding calls under the Health umbrella: how can we support technology to support Behaviour Change? There's the guidance mentioned above. There is a Center of Behaviour Change
Indeed, Behaviour Change is a very "health as a medical condition" model - it comes out of clinical psychology - which comes out of working with troubled people. I'd also like to suggest that "Behaviour Change" as a big C concept that one needs like one need any medical intervention may be distinct from Theories of Behaviour Change - which is more about - why do our behaviours change? That's more exploratory than application. Nope, i'm talking about the assertion that the right way to go about a problem with health or wellbeing is, right off the bat "behaviour change" as in, from the above guidelines "train staff to help people change their behaviour." Right.
What if we postulate that Behaviour Change as this concept, might not be the best model for non-clinical people? for every day interactions and wellbeing? What if health weren't a medical condition?
I'd like to share a few thoughts on why i think "behaviour change" as a paradigm for wellbeing for the rest of us is often (not always but way way too often) a systemic, political cop out, and propose something else that may be more meaningful and actionable in the every day: tuning.
Why bother with language change? As Debra Cameron pointed out in the 80s - she wasn't alone - and a host of dead white guys before her - language frames/creates culture, and culture is what becomes the status quo. And if the status quo is mainly expressed as a language of blame the individual for their oppression, we are caving in to crap rather than addressing the context of our servitude.
The following is a set of idea sketches around tuning. Your thoughts appreciated.
put the load right on me - or not
Where is this angst with a term coming from? When i hear change, i hear that as an expression of significant transformation: change from one state to another - almost two different things. When i hear about behaviour change, and setting scenes from clockwork orange aside, there seems to be an assumption that i'm doing something wrong, and that must change. Again, that's my vibe, but if we look at the literature around this phrasing, you'll likely recognise this. |
| Now, there's an app for that |
What's Tuning vs Change
Which brings us to the tuning concept: it's a range of values. Let's look at eating for instance, and why change breaks down as a paradigm. As a colleague at microsoft research, Natasa Millic-Frayling puts it "we all eat. do we need to change that?"Exactly. We all eat. If we "change" eating to not eating, we have about 40 days, give or take,and then death ensues. If we include drinking in that - so no fluids, esp water, it goes to three days. Really simple. Eat or die (cake or death?)
Depending on our aspirations, we may find that we can eat better to support those desires. IF we want to be more creative and alert at work, we might dial up the whole foods like dark greens and dark berries, and dial back the nutrient poor calorie dense foods like cookies in the afternoon. We might dial back overall amount of food for awhile too to find our sweet spot.
Skills, Knowledge, Practice, Context: choice?
These ideas may sound very simple, but there's actually a hell of a lot going on in there. How would someone even begin to know to pick those combinations to spark the brain? to beat a slump? How would they figure out which bits are working or not? How would they sustain that practice if all their buddies are still serving up the Krispy Kremes?You can see, there's a lot of knowledge happening in there, there's some skills about potentially how to access these foods efficiently and prep them, say, for work; there's a context that plays a role around opportunities to go get these foods. I just saw a story where teaching assistants in the UK are paid less than the minimum wages and have to work on average two extra jobs to get by. What support do they have to get brain foods, or do experiments to tune in what ratios work for them? And if we can't practice something with some regularity, we do not develop skills. we do not reinforce knowledge.
If we don't have knowledge, skills, opportunities to practice, how can we make choices? how can we make informed choices?
 |
| Want to learn more about Tuning for Creativity? try this slide share on in5 for creative excellence |
So the concept of TUNING vs Change says, you probably don't need to change around eating - you may need some knowledge about how food choices align with your values and aspirations; you might need some skills about how to execute that knowledge, and you might need some access and social support to build that practice.
TUNING THE ENVIRONMENT: MAKE BETTER NORMAL
Tuning isn't also just about the individual. Tuning can be about how do we better design our environments and infrastructures to support better creativity, better quality of life - better health?My humble hypothesis is, if we had a better normal, there wouldn't have to be behaviour change.
Why do we need behaviour change? Does Normal Suck?
What is an example of make better normal. If there isn't an elevator, except for parcel delivery and handicap access (sort of like designated parking spaces) people would take the stairs. Why does that little bolus of stair taking matter? Because our sedentary lifestyles, research indicates, are having an effect similar to smoking: they're killing us. More movement more of the time is key physiologically.
 |
| What cultural priorities are expressed in these technological marriages? |
Another example of making better normal: stop subsidising corn and feedlot beef - driven by fast food - and why have we elevated fast food to an art form? so more people can eat in the car (1 in 5 meals in the US is consumed in the car) because they are too tired to get up early enough to have breakfast, or too tired to make dinner. Work sucks. Do you eat lunch at your desk? is any of it processed food? See? Now what's going on there?
This cycle that reinforces the status quo is what i'm talking about: normal sucks. Normal in a knowledge worker culture is sedentarism, long hours, poor pay and crap food choices at the grocery store.
And you tell me i have bad behaviours and need to change? That it's my fault i'm overweight/obese?
The Un Status Quo - Design to Make Better Normal; Make Normal Better
What if meal trucks that served healthy foods to time starved workers running three jobs, had it there in the am and prepapred great food to take home for their families? What if that business model were the norm? So many folks out of work - so many folks who can learn and maybe love cooking skills. This idea came out of a great chat with Casey Choosewood of NIOSH/CDC who care about wellbeing at work as a whole person issue.What if there was technology that coordinated fresh veg that stores were getting rid of (stores have made public how much fresh food gets binned each day) and rather than wasting could be used by this food truck posse at reduced cost? so that rather than using food subsidy coupons to go to a fast food joint, they got tasty delicious meals?
i keep imagining food trucks like those hannah grant has for team support of her Saxo bike team - filled with people over 50 who have been laid off and love to cook, and now they get wages and great meals as a perk to take home and new skills. They work with high tech info systems that coordinate food disbursement. Maybe they go on to open their own businesses. Or run the food trucks, or coordination or...
Behaviour change: mistaking the site of pain for the source of pain
You'll hear a lot of movement specialists say "the site of pain is not the source of pain" - in other words having a sore shoulder doesn't mean the issue is in the shoulder. It could be a visual issue; could be scar tissue triggering something; could be something happening in the liver
From just the number of folks i've worked with, this lesson comes back over and over again - work with someone with shoulder pain; affect considerable change by looking at visual performance (can you stair at a dot? some people find this really challenging): deal with that, wow, look what happens with range of motion in the shoulder.
TUNING - it's not about the site of pain; it's options; exploration - having the skills/knowledge/context to find what works for you, for now. Tuning the environment to find what supports a better normal
For me, what i'm finding is that behaviour change - perhaps especially in the hands of popular press or even energised researchers who are not subject experts around cognitive behavioural therapy, it's really easy to jump on the behaviour change band wagon: you there, you're overeating. stop that. wait, i have an app that will fix that and persuade you and build new habits. You won't even know you're being manipulated into this new habit.
Yes that's extreme - maybe - but i'm having a moment.
Tuning says - i don't actually know exactly what optimal is - i have some heuristics that we can start from to get to alignment - to dial in practice to values and aspiration -
imagine a gifted mechanic working with a car that seems to be making that funny pinging sound - sure sometimes that person might know - or might believe they know - exactly what it is right off - but how often does that happen? what's more likely the case? They work the problem.
We're way cooler than cars. When we work a problem it's not to find THE solution - who knows what THE solution is or even if one exists but AN APPROACH THAT WORKS and adds to our resilience.
imagine a gifted mechanic working with a car that seems to be making that funny pinging sound - sure sometimes that person might know - or might believe they know - exactly what it is right off - but how often does that happen? what's more likely the case? They work the problem.
We're way cooler than cars. When we work a problem it's not to find THE solution - who knows what THE solution is or even if one exists but AN APPROACH THAT WORKS and adds to our resilience.
Hence, Tuning also says there are multiple paths to an effect. For instance - having trouble burning fat? Maybe some food tuning could happen, but if that feels insurmountable what about looking at sleeps? what about looking at having a coffee with friends? Un huh, as i've written about elsewhere - because we're complex systems we have many ways to tune in better performance, better alignment
Tuning says: make better normal - how do we tune our environments so that it is effortless to be optimal?
does this mean better quality food in the canteens at work? group support to walk? Better ways to coordinate work for optimal sleep?
Social options to engage in volunteer activities at times you're available? Colleague Ryan Andrews found a garden activity, i think, where he can work in a garden during the week, and the food goes to folks in need. Isn't that cool? That would do so much for us over watching TV at night. Blending movement, socialising, getting tired in the body, recovering in the mind. awesome. Here's an example of this kind of activity.
And again, for some folks trying to get by with multiple jobs, who are "time starved" - they have no time to give - and that's not a behaviour change issue - at least not theirs, right? How do we design systems to support this wellbeing, systemically? back to Food Trucks? Do we pick on ourselves and each other because it's easier than say, taking on fast food or monsanto (more on that point here)?
Yup, what i'm proposing by tuning is to find paths to design against the status quo to make better normal, and evolve the status quo into where better is normal. And while we do that, stop looking at each other as if we're sick rather than the system that produces illness.
We know the story right? 19th C work conditions folks weren't obese as food was not abundant, but all sorts of other diseases associated with work conditions were rife and killing people. These were systemic. In the knowledge economy calorie dense nutrient poor, sedentary LIFESTYLES reinforced status quo - resistance is - well, challenging. Make Better Normal - help tune in better. Less effort more "better normal."
Yup, what i'm proposing by tuning is to find paths to design against the status quo to make better normal, and evolve the status quo into where better is normal. And while we do that, stop looking at each other as if we're sick rather than the system that produces illness.
We know the story right? 19th C work conditions folks weren't obese as food was not abundant, but all sorts of other diseases associated with work conditions were rife and killing people. These were systemic. In the knowledge economy calorie dense nutrient poor, sedentary LIFESTYLES reinforced status quo - resistance is - well, challenging. Make Better Normal - help tune in better. Less effort more "better normal."
Tuning is More Complex than Behaviour Change - Respect the Complex
For me, the idea of tuning and that it's about exploring multiple paths to find those sweet harmonics that make things click, individually, socially, who knows, maybe politically, is that it's not a single factor, big pill solution. "behaviour change' says "you there: you eat too many cookies: stop eating cookies"
Why? Maybe if we looked at the work place we'd see there's no social interaction or support, and if we looked at improving workplace interaction quality, the cookie thing would fall away - effortlessly.
Our complexity is a gift - it means we have thousands of ways to make progress over thousands of paths. Tuning is a gentle dialing in or tweaking of possible paths of things we already do to help them get closer in tune, to push a metaphor, with what we value - for ourselves, our families, our community, our work, our lives together.
Tuning asks what in the whole context - not just me - can be tuned better to support a better normal for all of us, all the time.
How do we design to make better normal/make normal better? IF we do that, doesn't behaviour change largely just go away?
food for thought, anyway.
As said, the above is some sketches - keen to hear your thoughts.
to me, Tuning feels more explorable, testable, safer, and less "your fault" than the medical/clinical model of behaviour change. That reduced threat may also make that change you seek more doable. And being motivated to design better tuned systems may reduce the need for changed anything anyway, eh?
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As said, the above is some sketches - keen to hear your thoughts.
to me, Tuning feels more explorable, testable, safer, and less "your fault" than the medical/clinical model of behaviour change. That reduced threat may also make that change you seek more doable. And being motivated to design better tuned systems may reduce the need for changed anything anyway, eh?
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Wednesday, July 9, 2014
What's the Right Fish to Eat and How Travel Healthy When Road Food is Crap
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What kind of protein is the right protein to eat? how eat right on the road? does age matter - for working out or eating?
At a recent workshop a variety of colleagues asked me about food. Actually, that's not quite right.
Words like Protein and Calories came up - food not so much - we'll come back to that one.
I have a wonderful email from a colleague asking a few more of these "things we consume" type questions, so i thought, why not share? We've all i bet had some of these questions ourselves, so let's dig in. Here's the note:
So how approach this?
in a word: mackerel (N. Atlantic, Chub)
Another word: sardines.
here's why:
The kinds of things going on in my head are
- well yes fish is a whole protein so good stuff - but the reason a lot of people eat fish is for the double benefit of the types of fats in it (omega 3's in particular) as well as protein.
Vegetarians have the wonderful opportunity to get a rich variety of protein by combining deep rich colors on the plate - thereby doing better than many meat eaters in getting the phytochemicals we need to help process food and recharge the electrochemical soup that is us.
Quick aside: Various kinds of phytochemicals help the minerals and vitamins in our foods do what we need them to do. They also have cool assistive properties - like Lutein found in spinach - great for eyes (more on phytos here)
Indeed, meat eaters are encouraged to have as many awesome vegetarian days a week as possible. Why? we need more kinds of nutrients than are in muscle meat alone. And yup, even if you're getting your weekly shots of liver for example most of us still need the phyto mineral vitamin goodness of whole foods whole colour palette.
Colour combinations: An easy way to eat for whole health?
COLOUR (see info graphic here). Take this challenge: what's
the most number of rich colors you ever get on a plate - from the darks of black beans to the rich purples of beats, greens of kale or spinach, whites of cauliflower, deep yellows/oranges - where will you go for these? Focus on colours, striving for that over a day, over the course of a week, the phytos and related come for free. And we're talking whole food here, not processed food with colouring, eh?
Protein by Colour Combination - and yup, if the focus is on optimising colour, you'll get all the protein you need - and it's not the old beans and rice combo you may have thought was essential (overview on whole proteins via veggies and legumes here)
FISH CHOICE! i digress - to the fish choice posed...THAT DEPENDS
Tuna or salmon? if one plans on having more than one meal for the rest of their lives - if fish is a regular part of the diet - it doesn't matter - variety is good.
Salmon - in the wild - may have higher protein per gram than tuna. But again, in a headspace focused on optimising colour and whole food variety, it all evens out.
That said, you'll notice i also said about salmon "in the wild" - most salmon in the stores in the EU is farmed. (Oh to be in washington state in june/july when wild king salmon is everywhere and dirt cheap). But this is a choice about farmed or chose for not farmed. How make that choice?
It's not clear to me that farmed salmon is ecologically viable or that it has the same bits to it that attracts people to it in the first place (previous post outlining concerns about farmed salmon): we are what we eat; fish, no different - if farmed salmon are getting fed a lot of corn as food (not their natural food source for sure, right?), not only is that odd, it also has physiological side effects: they are not going to be producing the omega3's in their fats in the same way that a fish chowing on algae is. And we kinda need omega 3's to balance all the omega 6's in our lives (more on that balance equation here) So for both the issues around farmed salmon practices and around nutrient quality of farmed salmon personally i tend to avoid farmed salmon.
The other consideration of fish that's netted up out of the waters is mercury levels. What do we know about these? Typically not going over a pound of big oily fish a week is good - in fact the recommendations may be for less, pending type of fish - because of the mercury concerns.
But there is a fish one can have without fear of wrecking stocks or ingesting poison, and so far that's been the little guys like mackerel (from the north atlantic) and sardines. Awesome in the morning to kick off the day with good stuff. Half a mackerel and some spinach, perhaps serve the spinach in a home-made broth (i have to tell you about pressure cookers and broth. oh wow! another time). Wow.
So how's that for the fish/protein thing?
TIP for LEAN DESIRE - Even if there is food at the venue, esp if you're trying to cut weight, having a wee protein shake (just protein and water) before going out to dine can let you eat less of the served food and still feel good.
There are all sorts of greens powders where various combinations of various good things have been pulverised to optimise available goodness. In this space, I dig a particular brand of greens made in canada and available in the UK and North america - by Enerex. In the US a lovely company, enerexUSA.com takes care of distributing and working with Enerex canada. I mean it: these are passionate people. In the UK, you can get the greens from bodykind (i like the ones with mixed berries to change it up, too).
I like this brand because it's been used in research studies. You may have a greens that you like - that's cool - i just like the results on these. so it's the one i recommend - no affiliate ties - nothing - just like the stuff.
WHOLE FOOD FALL BACK - please note - i'm talking about protein and greens here rather than whole foods by way of travel expedient.
The reason that whole food is better more times than not is that it comes prepackaged with all the wrappers of phytos and vits we need to make the most use of what's in these foods. Same with vitamins - these are SUPPLEMENTS to whole foods, gap fillers for occasional use. ANd they're ok too as we learn to get better and more efficient about finding and prepping those whole foods. In short: go for whole foods in your travels whenever possible - not processed crap served at a buffet or slathered in goodness knows what - but stuff you can identify.
Other travel strategies that i use: stay at a hotel that has a fridge and possibly a stove top and then get some food at a local grocery. Locations of such things can be sourced in advance of travel. Marriott seems to have a variety of hotel types that have the kitchenette options. I like Residence Inn's for these reasons. And residence inns will go and get your groceries as part of your stay. Just give them the list; the stuff will be in your room.
Folks at PrecisionNutrition have even more strategies for travel - and they also have a pretty durn good plan towards food in general (overview of Precision Nutrition v3) I think they've also recently cut the price in half for PNv4, too. You can check it out for free with these Strategies for Success (43page pdf)
If not into cooking, Just having a fridge can be awesome. You may need to ask the hotel: if the fridge is one of those you get charged for anything you take out? ask housekeeping to take everything out for your stay - they may get a little stroppy about it, but they will do it. Then you have your fridge.
Cans of sardines are also easy to source at most stores, and will keep in the fridge. So will cans of black beans (high ratio of protein).
Other SUPS for travel
i like to take vitamin d, and for vegetarians a b supplement. In fact this is one time a multivitamin may not be a bad idea since food quality may be uncertain.
Ok, i also take zinc and magnesium with me. Zinc can be v.useful when fending off a cold - a constant travel risk - and zinc, magnesium and b6 have been shown to help sleep if you're low on these minerals/vits - and sleep is a toughy on the road. And most of us are low on magnesium. So i use a chelated zinc and chelated magnesium - that means they have proteins with them that let the minerals cross from the gut into the rest of the body.
FISH OIL ASIDE Also, while i take fishoil in liquid form at home, travelling with fish oil pills is awesome.
There's loads of brands - i recommend looking for triglyceride based rather than ethyl esthers purely for absorption rates. Take less of the natural stuff for better return.
If you're looking for a brand, I love nordic naturals again because it's used in a lot of fish oil research. If you're in the states, and would like to try this brand, here's a way you can get a discount
1. go to http://www.nordicnaturals.com/professionals.php
2. click on "patients referred by practitioners". for a product and order page.
KIT
Here's another geek thing for travel - take a bowl, and possibly a steal travel mug
For bowels i love correll - unbreakable, washable pseudo china. i can travel with a bowl, have little packages of miso soup, and, if there's a fridge i can get spinach or even dehydrated sea weed that blossoms in the hot water - make the miso soup, put in some greens - the hot water blanches the greens and i'm off.
The only thing to ask the hotel about in advance is: can i have an electric kettle put in my room. In canada and the UK this is pretty standard (we like our tea) but in the US, not so much anymore, but usually easy to get.
Think whole food rather than macronutrients, so asking about fish is great rather than protein, for example, awesome (we eat food not macronutrients - unless we're living on supplements)
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NEXT complement to food: having a plan for getting your body jazzed up if there's no gym at the hotel, or the gym at the hotel just has cardio machines. Maybe we can talk about those strategies in the future?
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Hope some of these suggestions help.
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At a recent workshop a variety of colleagues asked me about food. Actually, that's not quite right.
Words like Protein and Calories came up - food not so much - we'll come back to that one.
I have a wonderful email from a colleague asking a few more of these "things we consume" type questions, so i thought, why not share? We've all i bet had some of these questions ourselves, so let's dig in. Here's the note:
What fish is good for protein? All everyone seems to talk about is Tuna and Salmon. As a fish/veggie it’s interesting to see how many blogs etc. are chicken-centric.
Also I meant to ask, I can spend weeks away from home, what were the greens and protein that you mentioned?
"What fish is good for protein?"
I love that question: there's so much going on in it, isn't there? What i'm seeing is a sense that fish is a good thing, in this case for Protein, and what is good for that? There's a special interest around fish because it seems the person doesn't do red meat - so the only thing in the "with eyes" category of food, would be fish.So how approach this?
in a word: mackerel (N. Atlantic, Chub)
Another word: sardines.
here's why:
The kinds of things going on in my head are
- well yes fish is a whole protein so good stuff - but the reason a lot of people eat fish is for the double benefit of the types of fats in it (omega 3's in particular) as well as protein.
 |
| easy heuristics to get colours on your plate for whole food health |
Quick aside: Various kinds of phytochemicals help the minerals and vitamins in our foods do what we need them to do. They also have cool assistive properties - like Lutein found in spinach - great for eyes (more on phytos here)
Indeed, meat eaters are encouraged to have as many awesome vegetarian days a week as possible. Why? we need more kinds of nutrients than are in muscle meat alone. And yup, even if you're getting your weekly shots of liver for example most of us still need the phyto mineral vitamin goodness of whole foods whole colour palette.
Colour combinations: An easy way to eat for whole health?
COLOUR (see info graphic here). Take this challenge: what's
the most number of rich colors you ever get on a plate - from the darks of black beans to the rich purples of beats, greens of kale or spinach, whites of cauliflower, deep yellows/oranges - where will you go for these? Focus on colours, striving for that over a day, over the course of a week, the phytos and related come for free. And we're talking whole food here, not processed food with colouring, eh?
Protein by Colour Combination - and yup, if the focus is on optimising colour, you'll get all the protein you need - and it's not the old beans and rice combo you may have thought was essential (overview on whole proteins via veggies and legumes here)
FISH CHOICE! i digress - to the fish choice posed...THAT DEPENDS
Tuna or salmon? if one plans on having more than one meal for the rest of their lives - if fish is a regular part of the diet - it doesn't matter - variety is good.
Salmon - in the wild - may have higher protein per gram than tuna. But again, in a headspace focused on optimising colour and whole food variety, it all evens out.
That said, you'll notice i also said about salmon "in the wild" - most salmon in the stores in the EU is farmed. (Oh to be in washington state in june/july when wild king salmon is everywhere and dirt cheap). But this is a choice about farmed or chose for not farmed. How make that choice?
It's not clear to me that farmed salmon is ecologically viable or that it has the same bits to it that attracts people to it in the first place (previous post outlining concerns about farmed salmon): we are what we eat; fish, no different - if farmed salmon are getting fed a lot of corn as food (not their natural food source for sure, right?), not only is that odd, it also has physiological side effects: they are not going to be producing the omega3's in their fats in the same way that a fish chowing on algae is. And we kinda need omega 3's to balance all the omega 6's in our lives (more on that balance equation here) So for both the issues around farmed salmon practices and around nutrient quality of farmed salmon personally i tend to avoid farmed salmon.
The other consideration of fish that's netted up out of the waters is mercury levels. What do we know about these? Typically not going over a pound of big oily fish a week is good - in fact the recommendations may be for less, pending type of fish - because of the mercury concerns.
But there is a fish one can have without fear of wrecking stocks or ingesting poison, and so far that's been the little guys like mackerel (from the north atlantic) and sardines. Awesome in the morning to kick off the day with good stuff. Half a mackerel and some spinach, perhaps serve the spinach in a home-made broth (i have to tell you about pressure cookers and broth. oh wow! another time). Wow.
So how's that for the fish/protein thing?
q2: TRAVEL and keeping up decent food values.
As a travel back up when i have no idea what the veggies will be like or the protein source (what to do when the only thing with eyes is farmed salmon?) i travel with supplements. Two in particular: protein powder and greens.Protein
i like rice based protein powders and i get them from truenutrition.com in the US(try code MCS110 if you order for 5% off) or i like sun warrior in the UK or US.TIP for LEAN DESIRE - Even if there is food at the venue, esp if you're trying to cut weight, having a wee protein shake (just protein and water) before going out to dine can let you eat less of the served food and still feel good.
Greens
We've touched on the wonders of phytochemicals. Well, veggies/fruits have more happening in them than phytos. So how travel with the goodness of greens? Dehydrate them, of course.There are all sorts of greens powders where various combinations of various good things have been pulverised to optimise available goodness. In this space, I dig a particular brand of greens made in canada and available in the UK and North america - by Enerex. In the US a lovely company, enerexUSA.com takes care of distributing and working with Enerex canada. I mean it: these are passionate people. In the UK, you can get the greens from bodykind (i like the ones with mixed berries to change it up, too).
I like this brand because it's been used in research studies. You may have a greens that you like - that's cool - i just like the results on these. so it's the one i recommend - no affiliate ties - nothing - just like the stuff.
WHOLE FOOD FALL BACK - please note - i'm talking about protein and greens here rather than whole foods by way of travel expedient.
The reason that whole food is better more times than not is that it comes prepackaged with all the wrappers of phytos and vits we need to make the most use of what's in these foods. Same with vitamins - these are SUPPLEMENTS to whole foods, gap fillers for occasional use. ANd they're ok too as we learn to get better and more efficient about finding and prepping those whole foods. In short: go for whole foods in your travels whenever possible - not processed crap served at a buffet or slathered in goodness knows what - but stuff you can identify.
Other travel strategies that i use: stay at a hotel that has a fridge and possibly a stove top and then get some food at a local grocery. Locations of such things can be sourced in advance of travel. Marriott seems to have a variety of hotel types that have the kitchenette options. I like Residence Inn's for these reasons. And residence inns will go and get your groceries as part of your stay. Just give them the list; the stuff will be in your room.
Folks at PrecisionNutrition have even more strategies for travel - and they also have a pretty durn good plan towards food in general (overview of Precision Nutrition v3) I think they've also recently cut the price in half for PNv4, too. You can check it out for free with these Strategies for Success (43page pdf)
If not into cooking, Just having a fridge can be awesome. You may need to ask the hotel: if the fridge is one of those you get charged for anything you take out? ask housekeeping to take everything out for your stay - they may get a little stroppy about it, but they will do it. Then you have your fridge.
Cans of sardines are also easy to source at most stores, and will keep in the fridge. So will cans of black beans (high ratio of protein).
Other SUPS for travel
i like to take vitamin d, and for vegetarians a b supplement. In fact this is one time a multivitamin may not be a bad idea since food quality may be uncertain.
Ok, i also take zinc and magnesium with me. Zinc can be v.useful when fending off a cold - a constant travel risk - and zinc, magnesium and b6 have been shown to help sleep if you're low on these minerals/vits - and sleep is a toughy on the road. And most of us are low on magnesium. So i use a chelated zinc and chelated magnesium - that means they have proteins with them that let the minerals cross from the gut into the rest of the body.
FISH OIL ASIDE Also, while i take fishoil in liquid form at home, travelling with fish oil pills is awesome.
There's loads of brands - i recommend looking for triglyceride based rather than ethyl esthers purely for absorption rates. Take less of the natural stuff for better return.
If you're looking for a brand, I love nordic naturals again because it's used in a lot of fish oil research. If you're in the states, and would like to try this brand, here's a way you can get a discount
1. go to http://www.nordicnaturals.com/professionals.php
2. click on "patients referred by practitioners". for a product and order page.
3. use code 88791 for “patient self sign up” when asked
4. and i'd recommend hit Arctic Omega Liquid - 8 oz
here's a note: YOU get a discount this way; not me. it's not an affiliate thing. it's just folks coming to this company via me get better than standard retail prices for great quality.
KIT
Here's another geek thing for travel - take a bowl, and possibly a steal travel mug
For bowels i love correll - unbreakable, washable pseudo china. i can travel with a bowl, have little packages of miso soup, and, if there's a fridge i can get spinach or even dehydrated sea weed that blossoms in the hot water - make the miso soup, put in some greens - the hot water blanches the greens and i'm off.
The only thing to ask the hotel about in advance is: can i have an electric kettle put in my room. In canada and the UK this is pretty standard (we like our tea) but in the US, not so much anymore, but usually easy to get.
Complicated?
There's a lot of info here, but the heuristics are simple: get loads of rich colours on your plate and you don't have to think about anything.Think whole food rather than macronutrients, so asking about fish is great rather than protein, for example, awesome (we eat food not macronutrients - unless we're living on supplements)
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NEXT complement to food: having a plan for getting your body jazzed up if there's no gym at the hotel, or the gym at the hotel just has cardio machines. Maybe we can talk about those strategies in the future?
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Hope some of these suggestions help.
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Friday, March 14, 2014
Delightfully Lost in Translation: When a Hill is Not a Hill
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Sometimes distraction is a great way to learn new things about yourself. Have you ever experienced that? where you're doing one thing while doing another and suddenly you realise that you're doing something you didn't think you could do - or that was hard before but this time, you didn't notice?
That's what's happened to me these past couple sessions on the road with the bike: by following a structured workout (the new distraction) i found i'd gotten over hills that previously had been daunting, more or less without noticing them. Such that i'm thinking "is this the same route? you mean that was the last killer hill? really? what just happened?" Here's my take on that "what just happened" - and how a perspective shift can be an awesome enabler for better performance - without even trying (seemingly)
The parameters of this work out killed speed. No speed. couldn't think about speed. -instead the objectives were: time, heart rate and cadence. On some work intervals, the focus was on cadence (number of revolutions of the pedals per minute); on some the focus was on heart rate. On the recovery intervals, it was all about heart rate.
This dual focus of either cadence/time or heart rate/time meant that the terrain in front of me was incidental: my priority was to find the gearing that would let me get the heart rate or the cadence for the specific interval.
That experience was really pretty cool. For instance, if i hit the start of a hill when i was about to start a recovery interval after an intense interval, and the target was to get my heart rated down - i had to go up that hill at pretty much of a crawl. I could hear this voice in my head saying "what will those cars passing you be thinking of you going this slowly!" - absolutely nothing. The other voice inside was going ok ok you're just about in the zone, slow down a touch - yes got it ok, keep it, get ready to gear up for the descent how are you going to keep your heart from dropping more going down??
That hill became something else entirely than THE CLIMB - just because of that shift in focus. By knowing the particular road i was on, it was also interesting to be able to anticipate where different parts of the ride were going to present different terrain for the various intervals - there was a wee bit of planning - perhaps even strategizing - about how to make those shifts work as best as possible. That kind of planning was fun too - oh look - i chose a slightly different path for this part to make sure when i hit the work interval i wasn't going down hill. Cool.
Is this altered state, stating the obvious?
Now for folks who have been riding and training on the road awhile this approach is likely eliciting a great big "duh" - yes that's what training is about: you have a plan and you execute the plan within the context of the terrain and the weather. If you're seriously trying to build for an event (like a first sportive...)you do the plan.
Perhaps it's that if presented with a hill - a usual daunting challenge - one need not treat it as A Hill and a Climb but as a gearing or heart rate or cadence problem. The key bit there is that when it is a gearing or a heart rate or a cadence problem for set temporal intervals, that problem becomes, it seems, more interesting, more tractable, more FUN, perhaps more rewarding even?
What makes this translation important to me? It kept me riding today. Rather than go through the psychological torment of "oh god there's that hill, too, actually three of them..." it's it doesn't matter about SPEED - today is not about speed - it's about maintaining other parameters. It's not always about speed. That's just one measure. Wow. that's just one measure.
Right now, in fact, it's apparently more important to get miles on the bike into my body than just about anything else.
Having that template today to focus on exploring cadence and heart rate and time let me get more miles in than anticipated, let me experience delight about hills, learn something new about my relationship to that particular terrain challenge, and weirdly, not feel like scarfing down lunch afterwards - but that's an aside.
Will be keen to hear. And in the mean time, here's to Translation. And Hills not always being Hills.
Related Links
6 minutes to Health on a bike (research overview)
Getting Lean for Power on the bike (research)
Using the bike to burn fat - protocols (research)
Tweet Follow @begin2dig
 |
| so far the greatest grade i've done is a little over 8%....wow this thing says its 27% - have you ridden that? |
Sometimes distraction is a great way to learn new things about yourself. Have you ever experienced that? where you're doing one thing while doing another and suddenly you realise that you're doing something you didn't think you could do - or that was hard before but this time, you didn't notice?
That's what's happened to me these past couple sessions on the road with the bike: by following a structured workout (the new distraction) i found i'd gotten over hills that previously had been daunting, more or less without noticing them. Such that i'm thinking "is this the same route? you mean that was the last killer hill? really? what just happened?" Here's my take on that "what just happened" - and how a perspective shift can be an awesome enabler for better performance - without even trying (seemingly)
FOCUS.
Usually when i'm on the bike, i'm going out for two things: time and speed. How long can i stay out; how fast can i go in that time. Push push push.The parameters of this work out killed speed. No speed. couldn't think about speed. -instead the objectives were: time, heart rate and cadence. On some work intervals, the focus was on cadence (number of revolutions of the pedals per minute); on some the focus was on heart rate. On the recovery intervals, it was all about heart rate.
This dual focus of either cadence/time or heart rate/time meant that the terrain in front of me was incidental: my priority was to find the gearing that would let me get the heart rate or the cadence for the specific interval.
That experience was really pretty cool. For instance, if i hit the start of a hill when i was about to start a recovery interval after an intense interval, and the target was to get my heart rated down - i had to go up that hill at pretty much of a crawl. I could hear this voice in my head saying "what will those cars passing you be thinking of you going this slowly!" - absolutely nothing. The other voice inside was going ok ok you're just about in the zone, slow down a touch - yes got it ok, keep it, get ready to gear up for the descent how are you going to keep your heart from dropping more going down??
That hill became something else entirely than THE CLIMB - just because of that shift in focus. By knowing the particular road i was on, it was also interesting to be able to anticipate where different parts of the ride were going to present different terrain for the various intervals - there was a wee bit of planning - perhaps even strategizing - about how to make those shifts work as best as possible. That kind of planning was fun too - oh look - i chose a slightly different path for this part to make sure when i hit the work interval i wasn't going down hill. Cool.
It's Not ABOUT the HILL - proactive terrain
A lovely side effect of this altered state of focus - that is, where the terrain is another variable in the mix rather than the Daunting Prospect - is that i learned i can do more shaping around the experience of the hill based on what my priorities are for the skills i'm working to develop: just because there's a hill doesn't mean i have to see it as a hill, as a thing which must be gotten over as quickly as possible, isn't that the point of hills? Well, perhaps not. Today the hills were interesting variables to situate within effects of gearing and heart rate to do a particular kind of practice. For my next outing, they may become climbs again. Or perhaps something else.Is this altered state, stating the obvious?
Now for folks who have been riding and training on the road awhile this approach is likely eliciting a great big "duh" - yes that's what training is about: you have a plan and you execute the plan within the context of the terrain and the weather. If you're seriously trying to build for an event (like a first sportive...)you do the plan.
the Translation of the Hill from Speed to Performance
But there's something else going on here: once upon a time i ran x-country, and if we were doing repeats we went to the track; if we were doing hill repeats, we went to the hills. We found terrain that mapped to the goals of the training, you see? Today, the terrain/weather was incidental. Now i suppose if the goal is to do hills it's bloody challenging to do that workout without hills, so what am i saying?Perhaps it's that if presented with a hill - a usual daunting challenge - one need not treat it as A Hill and a Climb but as a gearing or heart rate or cadence problem. The key bit there is that when it is a gearing or a heart rate or a cadence problem for set temporal intervals, that problem becomes, it seems, more interesting, more tractable, more FUN, perhaps more rewarding even?
What makes this translation important to me? It kept me riding today. Rather than go through the psychological torment of "oh god there's that hill, too, actually three of them..." it's it doesn't matter about SPEED - today is not about speed - it's about maintaining other parameters. It's not always about speed. That's just one measure. Wow. that's just one measure.
Right now, in fact, it's apparently more important to get miles on the bike into my body than just about anything else.
Having that template today to focus on exploring cadence and heart rate and time let me get more miles in than anticipated, let me experience delight about hills, learn something new about my relationship to that particular terrain challenge, and weirdly, not feel like scarfing down lunch afterwards - but that's an aside.
Do you get Lost in Translation?
Have you had moments of translation like this? where you were taken by surprise that you had just done something because it was recontextualised as something else? Maybe a hike became doable because it was primarily a walk with a colleague instead? and suddenly the miles dropped away? Or maybe it was some job of work that got completed because rather than being a statistical anaylsis, it was helping a friend solve a problem??Will be keen to hear. And in the mean time, here's to Translation. And Hills not always being Hills.
Related Links
6 minutes to Health on a bike (research overview)
Getting Lean for Power on the bike (research)
Using the bike to burn fat - protocols (research)
Tweet Follow @begin2dig
my inner belgian hardman
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There's a concept in road cycling called "the belgian hard man"
- it seems it's a kind of guy fetish in its "true" context where
there's some deep respect for stories of riders who go out in all kinds
of inclement weather and nasty roads and just BIKE (see gals to left
getting sprayed by passing flemmish truck: complete promo vid here).
Somehow, doing it "getting it done" all that stuff gets big respect points. As bikesnob notes in his wonderful book Systematically and Mercilessly Realigning the World of Cycling, there's a big celebration of suffering with road biking, and the cult of the Flahute seems to epitomize it. But what if that's all a ruse? and these folks are having FUN!
For example: today, i went out in real british shite wind blowing rain pouring bleck at about high noon with good light. With the miracle of modern technical fabrics - and some clever use of traditional ones (like wool - nothing like it) - i stayed, well, comfortable. And as such, i was delighted with the ride: few people on the roads; fewer on the limited bike path areas, and the delight of saying "yes" to a training ride rather than turning around and saying i'm baggin' it; headng for the trainer. Truly, v. little in the way of suffering here other than bits of the ride designed as a test of current levels.
And then that test fell apart. I'd had it all nicely programmed so i wouldn't have to think about it: could just read a screen and see data recording, and then it seems i'd mis-set a 1 min interval to an hour forty. IT did seem like something was a bit off. So there's my test ride sozzled - For those who have done these, you know part of the point is to build up to a particular intensity for a test phase. So having to stop figure out what's wrong, try to reset etc - it's not optimal.
Now, i could get all annoyed as i'd built a week up towards this effortful thing, but what would that do? And the joy if it all was it seemed in the first half of the test when i wasn't sure what had happened, i'd actually ridden out further than i'd thought would be likely. That's a Good Thing - may mean i'm a wee bit better tuned than i'd anticipated. Anyway more miles under my belt right now - and more get Fit minutes - it's all good.
So, with a real head shift for me, i let go of the test, and focused on seeing how well i could enjoy the ride home - focusing on tempo and the such like - where the wind and rain were excellent resistance for assessing power, pace, heart rate, etc. And heck, really, what fun. I'm outside - outside is good.
One of the things about outside being quite so good relative to inside is that quite often it calls more systems into play than inside - we have to be aware of stuff. On a bike, it's still life and death (you should see the UK stats). Balance, cognitive challenge of awareness, strength, effort.
The main thing: the ride was FUN.
And this got me thinking about the whole belgian hard man thing - maybe it's fun for them too? maybe the suffering thing is either inaccurate or a cover?
I mean, it COULD be miserable - if i'd been wet and cold that would have been crap. really - i don't find that a great celebratory experience - or particularly intelligent. So perhaps what i'm suggesting is that what looks hard to southerners perhaps or west coasters looking at belgian guys riding in the muck - ain't so hard to people raised in that terrain. It might even be fun.
I admit: i could have this whole thing wrong. Maybe the belgian hard man revels in misery, and my belgian state of mind to love whatever the envirnoment presents is not a belgian hard man of the mind.
But i figure, today, out pretty much alone on the roads, going for a training test so pushing hard, and finding a love in the elements as a help rather than a hinderence - that was sweet. It was unexpected and fun and heck, i did it - and that means i'm actually, measurably, perhaps also spiritually better for it.
joy
you?
Related Links:
Somehow, doing it "getting it done" all that stuff gets big respect points. As bikesnob notes in his wonderful book Systematically and Mercilessly Realigning the World of Cycling, there's a big celebration of suffering with road biking, and the cult of the Flahute seems to epitomize it. But what if that's all a ruse? and these folks are having FUN!
For example: today, i went out in real british shite wind blowing rain pouring bleck at about high noon with good light. With the miracle of modern technical fabrics - and some clever use of traditional ones (like wool - nothing like it) - i stayed, well, comfortable. And as such, i was delighted with the ride: few people on the roads; fewer on the limited bike path areas, and the delight of saying "yes" to a training ride rather than turning around and saying i'm baggin' it; headng for the trainer. Truly, v. little in the way of suffering here other than bits of the ride designed as a test of current levels.
And then that test fell apart. I'd had it all nicely programmed so i wouldn't have to think about it: could just read a screen and see data recording, and then it seems i'd mis-set a 1 min interval to an hour forty. IT did seem like something was a bit off. So there's my test ride sozzled - For those who have done these, you know part of the point is to build up to a particular intensity for a test phase. So having to stop figure out what's wrong, try to reset etc - it's not optimal.
Now, i could get all annoyed as i'd built a week up towards this effortful thing, but what would that do? And the joy if it all was it seemed in the first half of the test when i wasn't sure what had happened, i'd actually ridden out further than i'd thought would be likely. That's a Good Thing - may mean i'm a wee bit better tuned than i'd anticipated. Anyway more miles under my belt right now - and more get Fit minutes - it's all good.
So, with a real head shift for me, i let go of the test, and focused on seeing how well i could enjoy the ride home - focusing on tempo and the such like - where the wind and rain were excellent resistance for assessing power, pace, heart rate, etc. And heck, really, what fun. I'm outside - outside is good.
One of the things about outside being quite so good relative to inside is that quite often it calls more systems into play than inside - we have to be aware of stuff. On a bike, it's still life and death (you should see the UK stats). Balance, cognitive challenge of awareness, strength, effort.
The main thing: the ride was FUN.
And this got me thinking about the whole belgian hard man thing - maybe it's fun for them too? maybe the suffering thing is either inaccurate or a cover?
I mean, it COULD be miserable - if i'd been wet and cold that would have been crap. really - i don't find that a great celebratory experience - or particularly intelligent. So perhaps what i'm suggesting is that what looks hard to southerners perhaps or west coasters looking at belgian guys riding in the muck - ain't so hard to people raised in that terrain. It might even be fun.
I admit: i could have this whole thing wrong. Maybe the belgian hard man revels in misery, and my belgian state of mind to love whatever the envirnoment presents is not a belgian hard man of the mind.
But i figure, today, out pretty much alone on the roads, going for a training test so pushing hard, and finding a love in the elements as a help rather than a hinderence - that was sweet. It was unexpected and fun and heck, i did it - and that means i'm actually, measurably, perhaps also spiritually better for it.
joy
you?
- Getting back on the bike, Part 2
- The Joy of Technologically effective Wear
- Happy Fenders
- getting rid of crap around goals
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
UK Winter Cycling Comfort and Joy(pt2) Rapha Pro Team Jacket - review - women in men's clothing
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Want an all rounder jacket for crap winter weather cycling in at least the southern UK if not the entire Pacific North West and darker winter places of Europe? Have you looked at the Rapha Pro Team jacket?
When asking folks about cycling attire for UK winters, where one may get caught in the rain from time to time, but perhaps is not going out for a long ride in such deliberately, there are a range of suggestions from wind jacket that's water repellent, to, well, a rain jacket. And i spent quite a few cycles going back and forth with base layers and jersey plus wind breaker or rain jacket. One suggestion that's came up a few more times (including from The Steve), though, is: get a soft shell.
What is a softshell jacket? Nice discussion of jacket types from wind to water proof, from hard shell to soft here at road.cc My take away is that a soft shell has some insulation while offering breathability, some wind stopping and some water resistance but not what you'd call waterproof. As road.cc puts it, with these attributes,
What i've also learned is that riding togs are very personal. While i'm riding with knee warmers and oversox on the shoes, riding partner Steve has his longs on with his winter booties. This is 6-7C.
Personally, i've been finding the clothing recommendations at Bicycling Magazine's What to Wear interactive chart to be really close to working for me, suggesting that the most i'd want taking riding to occasional sub 0C.
I phoned Rapha, a british cycling garment company, and i am sad sad not to have noted the person's name in Portland who helped me out, but we had an awesome conversation about riding styles and temperatures.
Portland weather is not unlike the UK's, and this person and i seemed to be on the same wave-length. He recommended the Pro Team Jacket as not too warm, where a variety of base layers could make it warmer as necessary; it could be worn like a jersey or as a jacket over a baselayer and jersey.
I thought this sounds ideal.
You may ask yourself: ideal? how could it be ideal given
My sense was that the Pro Team Jacket Would Work, and for a few reasons. Because the more racey (ie trim and shorter) cut would actually work for a small gal, and based on the predicted weather, the layering approach would be just the ticket. And as for tempo, i think that just means 2 things: the primary activity is not the stop and start commuting can be that may require extra warmth for non-moving moments; this is a jacket that warms up with you: you're moving, it's keeping you warm. All fine for the intended application: deliberate rides.
Oh! and i also wanted something visible but not garish. The orange seemed to fit the bill.
The jacket kept off the wind incredibly well, while, as i got hot (perhaps i was tempo'ing after all), the back let the heat out to keep body temp just awesome.
The next ride, 4C, provided an even greater demo. It was a sunny day after torrential rains. The road in
one point was crossed with water - pretty deep - four inches or so right across the road. I was moving through the middle, very carefully, and what should come speeding the other way, but a car, going fast.
Maybe they didn't see me; maybe they thought it would be fun to drench someone, see how hight they could get the water to fountain up.
Maybe they were drunk. I dunno. All i do know is that this wave came over me and i wasn't surfing. That was the last time i'd seen water from the inside like that. It was like time slowed down.
I was expecting the ride to be ruined. That i'd be soaked - and my new jacket to be wrecked and would have to turn around like a wet rat and crawl home. Didn't happen. I was laughing (and pedalling ) out loud.
I was still comfy and dry. My legs were feeling damp from the soaking but my body felt dry. I couldn't believe it. Still dry, still warm, still riding. The ride continued. It just became Epic Ride. Today i was a Belgian Hard Man. I was out; others were not. I got a soaking and was able to keep going. Ain't techno grand?
I still expected the jacket to be covered in black road gunk, but when i got home, the jacket was amazingly fine. I don't know quite how, but wow.
I've now worn the Pro Team Jacket from -1C to about 7C usually on about 24 or so mile rides, so not huge long tests, but it's been great.
It's been easy to fling a windbreaker or gillet over this when getting the first few miles in, just to get that tempo-heat going, then stuff the layer into the capacious back pocket. The obvious extra garment also being a rain jacket/hard shell, but it just hasn't hit the cold for long enough to need - but it would definitely give at least five more degrees.
Often the back pocket has glove liners in it when it's these temps: the gloves can get a bit sweaty inside and not dry out after a mid day cafe stop; having the liners is a cheap way to keep hands warm in slightly damp gloves
When it's 5-7C, i've been wearing it over a base layer and take a vest or windbreaker with me, pending on the wind chill. I've yet to be caught in a real rain pour that was more than a minute or two.
When it's 0-5C i've been wearing a heavier base layer and jersey, then the jacket. that's LOTS. Starting up from a cafe stop, i'm glad to have a vest/gillet or windbreaker to warm up a bit before that "tempo" think kicks in.
When it's 7-9C, it's not on: i find it's just too hot and prefer a base layer, jersey, vest or windbreaker; shorts and knee warmers.
The warmth plus breathability are the Pro Team Jacket's functional star features. These functions come from its bevy of well considered materials and composition.
Classy design touches: there is a slight contrast between the back fabric and the windproof front and arms panels
Check out Sizes? EASY. If this sounds like a jacket you'd like to explore, Rapha makes this pretty
easy if you're not on the doorstep of one of their shops.
In the interim, the Pro Team mark currently says "guys" tho some customer support folks say it's not really "men's" it's "unisex."Hmm. I'm not sure if gals wearing men's clothes makes them "unisex"but it's something most of us are used to in sport gear.
Talking with a Rapha customer service before x-mas, they did say they had a whole lot more women's stuff planned for spring. Will be interesting to see what that means.
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| rapha pro team jacket: manly yes, but i like it too |
Oh, you're a gal so you gave these a miss as another "man garment" and that's just one too many? Understood, but maybe reconsider. Here's why.
Two things have been a revelation about how southern UK wet winter riding, in those 0C-4C mornings have gone from a head-shaking grimace to a smile: one has been the crud roadracer mk2 fenders, discussed in the last post. The other has been this incredibly versatile Pro Team Jacket by Rapha.
When asking folks about cycling attire for UK winters, where one may get caught in the rain from time to time, but perhaps is not going out for a long ride in such deliberately, there are a range of suggestions from wind jacket that's water repellent, to, well, a rain jacket. And i spent quite a few cycles going back and forth with base layers and jersey plus wind breaker or rain jacket. One suggestion that's came up a few more times (including from The Steve), though, is: get a soft shell.
What is a softshell jacket? Nice discussion of jacket types from wind to water proof, from hard shell to soft here at road.cc My take away is that a soft shell has some insulation while offering breathability, some wind stopping and some water resistance but not what you'd call waterproof. As road.cc puts it, with these attributes,
Soft shells [...] can simply be worn over a base layer of your choice when it’s not too cold. Add a thicker long sleeve mid-layer for really cold days and you begin to see that soft shells are the best solution for cyclists looking for a do-everything winter jacket. Paired with a lightweight, packable waterproof jacket, it’s a good combination.
bicycle magazine's
what to wear
But what soft shell?
It seemed from what i could find that many softshell jackets were for weather colder than what the UKsouth tends to get as regular brrr. Or at least for me.What i've also learned is that riding togs are very personal. While i'm riding with knee warmers and oversox on the shoes, riding partner Steve has his longs on with his winter booties. This is 6-7C.
Personally, i've been finding the clothing recommendations at Bicycling Magazine's What to Wear interactive chart to be really close to working for me, suggesting that the most i'd want taking riding to occasional sub 0C.
Customer Conversation
What's a gal to do?I phoned Rapha, a british cycling garment company, and i am sad sad not to have noted the person's name in Portland who helped me out, but we had an awesome conversation about riding styles and temperatures.
Portland weather is not unlike the UK's, and this person and i seemed to be on the same wave-length. He recommended the Pro Team Jacket as not too warm, where a variety of base layers could make it warmer as necessary; it could be worn like a jersey or as a jacket over a baselayer and jersey.
I thought this sounds ideal.
You may ask yourself: ideal? how could it be ideal given
- it's PRO (and i'm not),
- its made for guys (and i'm not),
- the site says it's for "high tempo" winter training. That sounds intimidating.
- its cited review on road.cc says "It doesn't have the warmth of some other winter jackets "
My sense was that the Pro Team Jacket Would Work, and for a few reasons. Because the more racey (ie trim and shorter) cut would actually work for a small gal, and based on the predicted weather, the layering approach would be just the ticket. And as for tempo, i think that just means 2 things: the primary activity is not the stop and start commuting can be that may require extra warmth for non-moving moments; this is a jacket that warms up with you: you're moving, it's keeping you warm. All fine for the intended application: deliberate rides.
Oh! and i also wanted something visible but not garish. The orange seemed to fit the bill.
Does The Pro Team Jacket Work?
Does it work? Oh my goodness! Happiness and joy. I kept waiting for the weather to break - to get cold enough to give it a try - for it to drop below 7. And then it happened: a -1C morning over the holidays. I was off. I wore a light long sleeve base, a marino jersey over that, and then the jacket. With tights, neck gaitor, marino toque and some overshoes and mitts, i was in a very happy place. Cold? what's that?The jacket kept off the wind incredibly well, while, as i got hot (perhaps i was tempo'ing after all), the back let the heat out to keep body temp just awesome.
The über test: the flood, the car and the fountain.
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| this is the kind of thing that hit me yet - Pro Team Jacket keepin me dry - amazingly |
one point was crossed with water - pretty deep - four inches or so right across the road. I was moving through the middle, very carefully, and what should come speeding the other way, but a car, going fast.
Maybe they didn't see me; maybe they thought it would be fun to drench someone, see how hight they could get the water to fountain up.
Maybe they were drunk. I dunno. All i do know is that this wave came over me and i wasn't surfing. That was the last time i'd seen water from the inside like that. It was like time slowed down.
I was expecting the ride to be ruined. That i'd be soaked - and my new jacket to be wrecked and would have to turn around like a wet rat and crawl home. Didn't happen. I was laughing (and pedalling ) out loud.
I was still comfy and dry. My legs were feeling damp from the soaking but my body felt dry. I couldn't believe it. Still dry, still warm, still riding. The ride continued. It just became Epic Ride. Today i was a Belgian Hard Man. I was out; others were not. I got a soaking and was able to keep going. Ain't techno grand?
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| side view: the back's Super-Roubaix rear and underarm panels are stretchier than the Polartec windproof/water resistant chest shoulders and arms. Rapha calls this a "softshell membrane" - it's certainly light and lovely. Yes those grey stripes are reflective |
Temperature Ranges
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| inside the jacket, two types of fleece on the windproof bits and the stretchy back. Also you can see the seams are taped inside. The grey fleck on the arm is reflective; the cuffs are elasticised and slip well under mitt or glove cuffs. |
It's been easy to fling a windbreaker or gillet over this when getting the first few miles in, just to get that tempo-heat going, then stuff the layer into the capacious back pocket. The obvious extra garment also being a rain jacket/hard shell, but it just hasn't hit the cold for long enough to need - but it would definitely give at least five more degrees.
Often the back pocket has glove liners in it when it's these temps: the gloves can get a bit sweaty inside and not dry out after a mid day cafe stop; having the liners is a cheap way to keep hands warm in slightly damp gloves
When it's 5-7C, i've been wearing it over a base layer and take a vest or windbreaker with me, pending on the wind chill. I've yet to be caught in a real rain pour that was more than a minute or two.
When it's 0-5C i've been wearing a heavier base layer and jersey, then the jacket. that's LOTS. Starting up from a cafe stop, i'm glad to have a vest/gillet or windbreaker to warm up a bit before that "tempo" think kicks in.
When it's 7-9C, it's not on: i find it's just too hot and prefer a base layer, jersey, vest or windbreaker; shorts and knee warmers.
The warmth plus breathability are the Pro Team Jacket's functional star features. These functions come from its bevy of well considered materials and composition.
Pro Team Jacket Composition
Some of the things that seem to make the jacket work are the way it does the windproof water resistant slightly stretchy polartec on the front, and the very stretchy more breathable (and water resistant) material on the back.Classy design touches: there is a slight contrast between the back fabric and the windproof front and arms panels
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| the collar comes up for good protection, with give or a neck gaitor, soft material facing for against the neck and zip garage. (click for bigger image). Hanger is obvious useful touch inside. |
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| top/front of arms, shoulders and front panels windproofed polartec (click for larger view) Power Shield Pro softshell material, exclusive to Rapha, used for the front-facing panels in the chest, arms and shoulders |
There are the Rapha trad three big pockes on the back for food, wind or water proof and Other Stuff. There's a wee zip pocket in the front - great for a phone/id.
Fit - for Women?
For me, my use, so far, this jacket seems pretty durn perfect. And now i make the requisite comment that for the price it should be. My expectation is that like other quality gear - like Patagonia or Assos - it will last. Wherever possible i like the "buy once" approach to things (eg "steel is real") .
That's me taken care of, but how well will this design would work for gals more generally? Usually, i take a women's small; this is a men's small. Men's stuff can often be either a bit big or too long.
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| nice having the id/phone pocket in front Trim lines and room in the sleeves for layers. just click for larger image/detail |
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| 3 big Jersey pockets, in back with reflective stripes |
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| men's small for a gal (5'6", 128) who takes women's small gives room for baselayer and jersey (and gillet if needed) underneath no problem or just as easily with just base layer |
The advantage - it seems - with the Pro Team Jacket is that because it is "aero" it is smaller/snugger perhaps than a usual guys piece for a given size. Looking at reviews of the jacket, this has been an observation by the men (eg this latest by road.cc). For gals, this guy snugness is perhaps a help.
Would love to know from other women, if you've tried it on, what your experience has been?
Check out Sizes? EASY. If this sounds like a jacket you'd like to explore, Rapha makes this pretty
One of the extremely nice things about Rapha is that it's easy to order a couple sizes and send back what doesn't work. In the US and UK in any case, it's free postage back to the mother ship. Their returns process is also easy (returns policy here) - it assumes only that you have access to a printer to print out the return information, though if stuck you could likely write out all the information by hand.
Their mailing envelops are robust so it's also easy to reuse the bag that the garments came in to send back.
Their mailing envelops are robust so it's also easy to reuse the bag that the garments came in to send back.
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| Rapha mail bag reused for size return |
Women's Pro Kit? Meanwhile, it would be lovely for Rapha to consider making some of its pro kit for gals. It makes its "classic" pieces in a women specific cut. Some commenters argue that the women's versions aren't really as "women's" as they could be. Would be keen to hear what other garment makers see?
In the interim, the Pro Team mark currently says "guys" tho some customer support folks say it's not really "men's" it's "unisex."Hmm. I'm not sure if gals wearing men's clothes makes them "unisex"but it's something most of us are used to in sport gear.
Talking with a Rapha customer service before x-mas, they did say they had a whole lot more women's stuff planned for spring. Will be interesting to see what that means.
Quick Aside: Customer Service
But speaking of customer service, i've written before about how what can keep someone coming back to a brand is not just a great product, but also the pre and post sale contact. Rapha does this side of the business really well. I have to write a post about that - there are some pretty cool stories and awesome people. Such stories of folks going above and beyond the call of customer duty, consistently, mean that, where financially possible, i will try to connect with a Rapha product: ya get the whole pre post and during support along with a well made product.
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| "Today" - based on a very UK winter day by Mark Fairhurst, Zeitgeist Images |
Overall: Pro Team Jacket - it's a keeper.
The happiness about this jacket - what's it's meant for me in terms of the Joy Factor - is that i can go for bike rides through the winter. I can keep riding. moving. Now i'm sure there are other jackets that would likely work, but this is the one i've found, and it surprises and delights me every time i'm out in the wind and the muck and i feel just right and keep turning the cranks. Keeping the tempo. Finding the flow. Joy.
Have you tried the Pro Team Jacket? what kit keeps your winter joy turning?
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