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The new year is almost here! 🎉Time to start thinking about your 2022 race calendar 📆 and what goals you’d like to accomplish ✅

Let’s make it happen✨

#endurancecoaching #personaltraining #running #races #training #racing #nutrition #hydration #mountains #asheville #northcarolina #coach #athlete #onlinecoaching #onlinecoach #weightloss #fitness #coaching #runningcoach #runcoach #rrcacoach #nasmpersonaltrainer #5k #10k #halfmarathon #marathon

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We’re excited to announce something a little different we’re doing this new year! Ridge View Coaching will be having it’s own “Veganuary” nutrition based program! Starting January 1st, ending January 31st. Open to ANYONE wanting to try out a plant based diet!

What is it? Veganuary was designed to promote trying a vegan diet. Vegan meaning excluding anything from the diet/lifestyle that would include animals or the products derived from animals.

What does a vegan diet do?A vegan diet has significant health benefits to it, lowering cholesterol, decreasing your risk of diabetes and heart disease, increasing endurance performance and strength as well as helps stop the exploitation of animals for human benefit.

What’s included? -Easy recipes and meal planning -Plant based nutritional tips and guidance -Regular coached emails -Veganuary 2022 T- Shirt at end of month!

What to expect from this program: -Myth busting a vegan diet -How to reach your goals being plant based -Challenges and friendly competition throughout the month! -Health benefits of a whole food,plant based diet -Being vegan for a month, feeling great and doing great things for the planet at the same time!

Price for this plant based, coached experience is $40 You can register to be part of the program anytime between Nov 16th and Dec 20th. To do so just shoot us a DM or email Ridgeviewcoaching@gmail.com

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Let's talk LAYERING!

When it comes to cold weather, do you bundle up too much finding yourself hot quickly? Or are you finding your hands and feet cold throughout the whole run with drafty clothing?

Here's a quick few tips on winter layering!

40-50 Degrees F.- Base layer of a long sleeve non thermal material, long or half length tights or pants, light sweater as an additional insulating layer (may depend on if it's windy or not). Athletic socks of your choice

30-40 Degrees F- Base Layer of a long sleeve thermal material, light gloves, full length tights or pants, light sweater or fleece pull over, wind jacket optional. Athletic socks of your choice

20-30 Degrees F- Long sleeve thermal shirt and long sleeve thermal insulated running tights* both might be insulated with fleece or thermal material. Light running jacket, fleece gloves, wool blend or synthetic winter socks. Hat or insulated headband

Less than 20 Degrees F- Long sleeve thermal shirt and long sleeve thermal insulated running tights* both might be insulated with fleece or thermal material. Thicker running jacket or micro puff jacket without hood (or removable hood). INSULATED- Hat, gloves and wool blend (or synthetic) socks. Neck warmer or gaiter to cover face with are optional and often necessary during these temps!

STAY WARM!

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HYDRATION STATION!

As the warmer months are nearing, we notice we sweat more, it's noticeably warmer earlier in the day, the sunscreen bottles start making their appearance, and so should extra water bottles!

Hydration is crucial to your performance and well being! Some know just how much they need to drink per hour, in combination with an electrolyte or fuel mix, other's simply drink to thirst, while many suffer with not drinking enough paying a toll at the end (or worse, during!)

Having good hydration strategies means you're maintaining the engine that is your body. Fueling and nutrition go together in combination to keep your body at a state of well being. Dehydration can happen easier than you think, leading to your body over heating, completely stressed out, at risk.

Building hydration strategies can be a simple task, that means so much to your performance. Assessments to measure your sweat loss can be done with a coach to assure you're consuming the right amount of liquids in the hotter months (or even indoor training where it can be warmer). From there you'll also be able to establish what electrolyte and/or liquid fuel sources work best for you and your training.

Stay hydrated!

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Spring, here we come!

As we’re half way through February many of us are starting to get anxious about spring races. Many larger events have already been postponed, however many are still set to go on safely and at a smaller turn out. This is very exciting news for runners and cyclists! It’s a fantastic time to solidify that goal, and make it something to look forward to for spring and early summer.

What’s that going to look like for you?

-First half or full marathon?

-Personal best for a selected distance?

-New type of event? (Trail race, OCR, new location)

-First century ride event? (or metric century)

-First time gravel grinder race?

Write a bunch of ideas down as to what you might want your spring goal to be. Could be something big, something small. Bring that to the table and let’s make a manageable plan. With such uncertainty, it does stink for things to change and be cancelled, but it does wonders for the mind to set goals, build training plans and have something to look forward to.

Coaches love building plans that work smoothly for their clients. With everything being a little tough and uncertain, leave that to us to put the pieces together for you.

I hope to see you at the starting line this spring 2021 with us!

-Coach Val

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Exercise for the immune system

There are many factors that go into building a healthy system. Getting enough sleep, staying relatively stress free, consuming minimal alcohol, a healthy diet and exercising regularly all contribute to it. But there are aspects of your life you can tweak just right, to get the most of your health!

A healthy diet protects your body from chronic diseases,  it boosts your immune system as well. The way a healthy diet that includes eating the right foods, getting ample amounts of vitamins and nutrients through fruits and vegetables, your exercise lifestyle also plays a huge role in your immune system health. The way antioxidants and nutrients help cells develop and stay strong to keep your system ready to fight off infections, or keep viruses at bay, exercise plays just an important task in this.

In a time like this, where we are amongst a virus that is seeming to attack the respiratory system of those it infects, more than ever it’s a great time to keep our systems strong. 30-60 minutes of cardiovascular activities ranging from 3-5 times a week have been shown by many sources to boost the immune system and overall health in generally healthy somewhat active people (With Doctor’s approval). Making such activities a habit for 6 months or more greatly boosts your cardiovascular health. Making such activities part of your lifestyle for years can actually boost your health, prolong your life, keep you at a low risk for chronic diseases and increase your immune system’s strength.

One winter, years ago, I found myself sick over and over. It was driving me crazy! I had no idea what was going on. First I caught a cold from work. Next, I ended up with bronchitis. Shortly after, I broke into a fever and was having trouble breathing, turned out to be pneumonia! This went on for about a month and seemed to last forever, I was exhausted. Shortly after that I wanted to get into better shape, that spring I was training for 5ks and 10ks. Then once summer hit I had a 15k to train for end of the summer, and a half marathon in the fall. Training throughout that period not only put me in the best shape of my life and changed my dietary habits, but when winter rolled around the next year, I was kicking Flu season’s butt! Being someone that has allergic asthma, I know what it’s like to have breathing complications and I’ll do anything to take care of my lung health. Being active did just that, and greatly boosted my immune system!

Get out on the bike, lace up and log some miles, lift some weights and plan new goals to train for. All great ways to boost your health and build those immunities!

Image: (thescienceofpsychotherapy)

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Why hire a coach?

First things first, those “tips and tricks”, online training plans, training apps, and google can only do so much. Reading article after article, books, and scrolling through apps you try to find that magic secret as to how to achieve your new goal, why not let someone else give you the exact recipe to make it happen, and the best way possible?  No one’s training is “one size fits all” and when it comes to training plans and workouts, specific plans must be made for each person to achieve their goal. When you read a training plan online for a 5k,10k, or even marathon, you often end up back on google trying to figure out why something isn’t working for you or what you should be doing next. Why try to fit into someone else's generic plan? Why piece together everything you’ve found on the internet, books etc. when there is someone who is completely focused on your exact training and goals?

I’ve put together my top reasons why coaches/trainers work! 

1) They “tune in” on your specific goals. Wether you’re someone who’s never trained for something in particular before, or it’s finally daunting to piece together gathered information from all these sources for your training, and/or you’re not seeing the results you’d like, there’s a person to help with that! Personal trainers and coaches do exactly that. They take your goal and make training for it specific to you. This is training that’s effective for you, and just you. This creates an approach to reaching your goal with greater potential.

2) Motivation is key! How many times while training on your own do you find you either loose interest, burn out or flat out not know where to do next? If that sounds like you, you may greatly benefit from a coach. Coaches make sure the gaps are filled, the workouts are effective, and recovery is appropriate (we’ll talk about that next!). Effective training often takes a melting pot of different components to make a goal happen. When someone is training by themselves, they often tire themselves out with the same routines. Personal trainers and coaches make sure to stay constantly connected with their clients, figuring out exactly what they need in their training to keep them motivated and advancing in their fitness. We keep it fun too! 

3) Overtraining and under training stink!  When you’re self training, it’s hard to know the signs of “doing too much” or “doing too little”. Maybe you’re not running faster, pedaling those hill climbs aren’t getting any easier, you can’t seem to increase lifting weight in strength training, maybe you’re gaining some weight. It’s hard for individuals to tell if these things are caused by overtraining or under training. Coaches make specific plans to make sure to keep you out of those bad places. They mix the right combination of workouts, and watch all of the signs to make sure your training is appropriate and effective as possible to reach your goals. Over training can lead to injuries and setbacks, no one likes that!

4) Fuel is so important! You know yourself, what you like to eat and drink, how much of it you need to properly fuel workouts and recover correctly. Or do you? Many athletes aren’t getting the appropriate nutrition during and after activities, as well as lacking on their hydration. All components that can make or break your workouts! Nutritional coaches specifically know what works best for each athlete based on their activity level. Letting trainers focus on what you need for fuel and your hydration strategies to keep you going, helps you keep your eye on the prize!

If this sounds like you, a coach might be for you, level up your training with a coach! 

Me crushing some goals above!

 (Left) First place 20-29 Female- BigFoot Endurance 5 mile trail race

 (Right) First place 20-24 Female- Delaware Distance Classic 15k

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COVID vs. Coaching?

You’ve gotten email after email probably since February about everything from races being cancelled, your gym being closed and events postponed. With the world in crisis right now, it’s hard to be the best version of yourself, and look ahead into the future with so much being “cancelled”. I watched major races around me become virtual or cancelled, it was no fun, started to bring me down. The best thing you can do for yourself during this time is to switch gears (and maybe that’s literally). Wether you’re a runner that’s been training for a marathon, change things up, perhaps get into biking or start running the trails rather than the road. Cyclists, huge events being moved around and cancelled all around you after you’ve spent all winter with hours on the indoor trainer, put your bike on the back of your car and go explore a new area with a friend or two (safely of course!) Now more than ever is your time to rewire your goals, tap into your abilities and take on new challenges for yourself. Your motivation and athletic abilities will just keep growing from there! 

Coaches play a huge role in helping to keep the motivation there, at first many seemed very intimidated at the fact of everything being “cancelled”, but now more than ever it's a huge opportunity to watch athletes grow! Pre-Covid coaches have been keeping clients motivated and progressing through major life events and the evolving world around them, this being no different. Those who have not had someone on their side seem to have been hitting a “pothole” in life harder than those who had someone keeping them going. If you feel like you were doing great before everything, and things have seemingly gone downhill from there, let someone else on your side to help pick you back up!

A lot of people have been asking “With everything being closed or socially distanced how are coaches even training athletes?” From an outside perspective that’s a really good question to ask. Being on the inside, I’ve watched coaches take off with their clients and broaden their training platform and community throughout this. It may sound surprising to someone who had doubts about what coaching would look like throughout this, but believe it or not many clients actually prefer virtual training versus in person. It really does all depend on the trainer and what the client prefers, some really like to constantly meet up in person, others have gotten really well trained with online platforms, and communicating in different ways than in person. Online you also get to use cool services provided by your coach to physically view your training results, which gives great feedback, and is mentally motivating! Online training has become a growing practice between running and cycling coaches for years, honestly I think COVID may have given coaches the boost to perfect it, and there’s been phenomenal feedback from clients about it! However coaches have been doing the distancing thing pretty well when meeting physically with clients, all within safe practice, anything is possible!

I’m rather excited honestly to see where the rest of 2020 and 2021 takes us, coaching has been evolving rather rapidly throughout this time, technology has seemed to bump it’s self up to the next level to make the experience exactly what the client wants and needs, and it sounds like a great opportunity overall. Once races start back up, I can’t wait to see the performance from many of the socially distanced and virtually trained athletes!

(Image from NY Times)

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What is endurance coaching?

Some of us hear the word “endurance” and automatically feel exhausted, others of us crave activities that require it. For those people, endurance coaching is for them! Running and cycling training, wether it’s a 5k or a 15 mile ride up to marathons and century rides, all require a level of endurance and aerobic fitness. Think of yourself as an engine. You wouldn’t want to be a gas guzzling, power burning machine that doesn’t last long and burns out quickly now would you? Endurance training works to make you an efficient engine, working efficiently, for prolonged periods of time without beating yourself up and causing extreme exhaustion. Between training the muscles, cardiovascular and cardiorespiratory system to efficiently work together to use oxygen, makes you a top of the line engine! Wether it’s a fast 5k you’re looking for, or you want to go for miles after miles, endurance coaching can make you the most efficient version of yourself

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Meet us at the starting line Fall 2020!