In Mission Apolo: Building a Foundation, it’s a day of training, nutrition and fun for speedskating champion Apolo Ohno and his teammate Jen Ator, Fitness Director at Women’s Health. As part of their training and recovery journey towards the IRONMAN World Championship, they’re coached in open water swimming interval run training by 6X IRONMAN Champion Luke McKenzie, an Aussie endurance sport superstar.
MISSION APOLO Episode 2: Building a Foundation
After an active day, they meet with nutritionist Wendy Bazilian, to learn how to properly fuel for sport and exercise, and recover with lowfat chocolate milk. For Apolo Ohno, this IRONMAN challenge is about transforming himself into an endurance athlete and for Jen Ator, this is the ultimate challenge of her lifetime and to see if she has what it takes to do something extraordinary. Each day brings them one step closer to finding out.
Sports Techie, An 8x Speed Skating World Champion, Ohno begins training in La Jolla Shores, California, with fellow superstars who focus on an open water swim, surfing in the Pacific ocean while wearing wetsuits, followed by an intense track workout to round out a day of cross training. His drive to build his body an athletic foundation comes from years of competitive ice skating.
Warm ups, intervals and race pace training while acclimating to the hot weather conditions leads to recovery time with chocolate milk. Fourth tier training consists of recovery and also nutrition. The fifth tier is to have fun while training, in this case via a surf session.
Ohno has plenty of short track workout outs under his belt so he understands how the body needs to be fueled and refueled by the right combination of proteins, carbohydrates and amino acids, often less than 3o minutes after training and stretching is finished.
Ator speaks for women worldwide who want to improve their body, lose weight and burn fat. Working out is not enough, proper nutrition is as much of a key as good fitting running shoes, a road bike that meets your needs and swimming gear meant for salt or fresh water. Post-workout recovery is as important as knowing your caloric intake and expenditures.
McKenzie shared a chocolate milk story about competing downunder in his first triathlon as a 13-year old teenager. His prize was winning a large of Australian chocolate milk. Like many athletes, both Professional and amateur, Luke gave his Mom a shout out for being his biggest supporter, especially during the races in Hawaii.
The training camps at the cutting edge and relaxing Omni Lacoste Resort & Spa have optimized weather, road biking and water conditions. Ohno has already trained there several times.
Bazilian covered post-exercise recovery with Apolo and Ator. It is crucial to get food into your body 30-90 minutes post-workout according to the leading scientific data. An athlete’s cells during this time are most receptive to refueling glycogen stores, or carbohydrate reserves, rebuilding or resynthesizing protein while minimizing protein breakdown. Chocolate milk has the right combo of carbo’s and protein at a 3-1 ratio.
Triathletes who control their heart rate while open water swimming, find it easier to ease anxiety. Ator faced this exact challenge because of her knee surgery blues and overcame it with determination and positive encouragement from her training partners.
Ohno received words of wisdom from Hines Ward and will look to extend that love to a better performance when competing in a half IRONMAN in Boise, near where my brother and his family live in Idaho. The half-tri spans 70.3 total miles of racing. His countdown to Kona is a little over four months away. Follow hashtag #missionapolo and web site gotchocolatemilk.com.
Aloha means goodbye.
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