Consider sharing your passion with food with friends, family and coworkers in your life. Having accountability with like-minded people will surely get you into the kitchen.

If you have a recipe you want us to try, shoot us an e-mail at haley@pureaustin.com.

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My clients ask me all the time how can I keep up with my training with a 14 months old baby. I always tell them: commitment, discipline and organization. If you want to do it you can do it. It is hard and it takes time but it is possible!

I went to the Georgetown Sprint Tri as part of my training for the Half-Ironman that I am getting ready for. I am training between an hour and 3 hours a day. Running, swimming, riding and lifting weights, and I can say that the secret it is taking advantage of any minute on your day. I am following a training plan, and that helps me to be disciplined. I make my training one of my priorities, so I organize my day and just find the time to do it.

If I don’t have any free time between clients, I do the running with the stroller (pushing a 23 pounds baby is definitely going to make me stronger), or I ride on the bike trainer while he is taking his nap. I can say that the hardest thing it is not to find the time to complete the training, it is definitely trying to find the time to rest! When you have an awesome husband and baby that support what you do, sometimes they let you take a nap! So, moms don’t hesitate, go hard, go fast because your baby is going to be waiting for you on the finish line and that is priceless.

The post How to be a Mom and an Athlete! by Marggy Pabon appeared first on Pure Austin Fitness.

I got into fitness after I lost my dad to cancer over 10 years ago.   I realized that I needed to take better care of myself so I started taking spin classes at my local gym and loved it.  My favorite instructor just assumed that I rode outside and asked if I wanted to participate in a charity ride with him.  The next day I bought a very basic road bike.  In a few weeks, after falling a couple times I learned how to clip-in and shift and was able to ride over 100 miles in the Tour de Cure. 

Years passed, I started teaching group fitness, had a child, continued to ride tons of miles and forgot about racing until one day while out on a group ride someone mentioned a local road race, The Tour of New Braunfels.  I decided to try it out and ended up doing very well.  I’ve been racing every since.  I now work for Austin Tri Cyclist which is the shop that sponsors my team, ATC Racing.

This season has been great so far with many top ten finishes in Women’s P123 field including 5th at the Fayettville Stage Race.  Recently I placed 2nd in the women’s amatuer field at the Joe Martin Stage Race.  I was pretty stoked because it is a tough national event.  

My next stage race is Corsicana on May 11-12 and my next out-of-state race is Tulsa Tough which is four days of really hard crits in July.  I have an amazing coach that plans my work-outs each week.  On the bike I do interval training, pedal-stroke drills, tempo sprints, long endurance rides and hill repeats.  My workouts depend on what races I have coming up.  I always get one rest day which consists of an hour easy spin.  Off the bike I do a lot of core work, yoga and foam-rolling.  I also teach Pump once a week which is the only weight training I do.  

Another big component of my training that both my coach and I agree on is eating a clean, plant-based diet.  I have been vegetarian for 10+ years and cut gluten out of my diet a year ago.  Many people ask ‘what DO you eat?!’…well, it’s lots of potatoes, rice, beans and veggies including beets which have become my favorite lately.

I love teaching at Pure because it is a gym that attracts real athletes.  Pure members don’t just workout to look good, they train with a purpose whether it’s for The Rookie Triathlon, an Ironman, that first century bike ride or a Marathon.  Pure is the hub of activity for athletes in Austin and is also the title sponsor of my favorite weekly race, The Driveway Series.  Every Thursday night I get to race in the best crit in the country then wake up the next morning to teach my 6am Cycle class.  How could a gym be any better? 

I teach Pure Cycle at Town Lake Monday at 6am, Pump at Quarry Lake Tuesday at 5:30pm followed by 90 min. Endurance Cycling at 6:15pm and Pure Cycle at Quarry Lake Friday at 6am        

On Tue, Apr 30, 2013 at 3:00 PM, allison atkinson <atkinson.allison@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Laura,

That sounds awesome.  I’ll have something to you by tomorrow.

Thanks!

Allison

The post Allison inspires with her commitment and RESULTS! appeared first on Pure Austin Fitness.

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Recently, I have been reading about the incidence of injury that occurs from sports in our youth.  We have discussed this topic at great length in Phoenix (when I am brushing up on the latest neurology-based wellness programming) at Z-Health’s Headquarters.  Z-Health founder, Dr. Cobb, has always been a proponent of using sport to create a basis for lifelong movement and exercise.  Lifelong exercise participation is a popular ideal of organizations such as the President’s Council on Physical Fitness, the Surgeon General, the Department of Health and Human Services and countless other government based health facilitators as well.   As a result, I will not bore, or bury you, with the countless reasons as to why lifelong exercise participation should be a goal of your own.  However, I do want to make those of you who are parents think more about how you introduce your kids to sport.  After all, I think it is safe to say that your children’s perception of physical activity is formed during their adolescence.  Think of your own early experiences in sport and physical education classes, I am sure you will either have a positive or negative association that influenced much of your adolescent and adulthood physical activity choices.  Many kids are scarred at a young age when they are taunted and jeered by peers in sports – and this leads to negative views of physical activity and exercise that impact our entire lives.

Let me pose a question to you.  Much of how our society has set up “the youth sport experience” centers upon early specialization.  We have sport-specific camps for our kids in the US beginning at age 7, along with leagues for children as young as 3.  Yet if we think back to our youth, I am sure most of you would agree that when we were below the age of 10, we would not describe ourselves as ‘focused’.  So why try to force your kid into one area of sport?  We also can probably all remember the ‘not so gifted’ child who never really wanted to play youth baseball, football, or ___________  -  given sport we played.  This child would have been far better served by allowing them a setting in which they could develop basic movement and coordination.  Research backs up this statement, indicating that early specialization is NOT beneficial.  In fact, early specialization is accompanied by greater injury risk.

I am not saying your son or daughter, should not choose a sport to focus their efforts upon.  Rather I am suggesting that we need to change our focus when working with young kids (up to the age of 9 according to the US and Canadian youth sports development models) to get back to basics.  We need to focus more on agility, balance, and coordination that will allow for enjoyment of sport experiences.  Research has shown that children who spend more time participating in ‘informal’ free play type scenarios are less prone to injury.  I would also pose that these kids enjoy their experiences with sport much more.  Perhaps instead of encouraging your son or daughter to take up a specific sport, think about whether it might benefit them more to play several different sports (greater exposure to a variety of skills).  Introduce them to gymnastics, martial arts, dance or any other form of basic movement based fitness.  These fundamental skill developing activities provide your child with an environment to develop a solid base for other sports, and they also will allow your child to craft better ‘experiences’ with physical activity.  These better early ‘experiences’ have long term ramifications that will influence your child’s health throughout their lifespan.

By Phil Swain, MS, CSCS, Med., Z-Health Master Trainer and Instructor

DiFiori, J.  (April 23, 2013).  Effectiveness of early sport specialization limited in most sports, sport diversification may be better approach at young age.  [electronic version]  Science Daily.

Dugas, L., Jayanthi, N., LaBella, C. and Patrick, P.  (April 19, 2013).  Intense, specialized training in youth athletes linked to serious overuse injuries. [electronic version]  Science Daily.

Jayanthi, N. (January 11, 2013).  To prevent injuries young athletes may need to play more just for fun.  [electronic version]  Science Daily.

Jayanthi, N. (May 3, 2011).  Kids who specialize in one sport have higher injury risk.  [electronic version]  Science Daily.

Canadian Sport For Life, Long Term Athletic Development Model (http://www.canadiansportforlife.ca/)

USA Athlete Development Program, Canoe/Kayak

Kidzaustin.com, kidzsportz page

The post Youth + Sports – Setting our Children Up for Lifelong Success appeared first on Pure Austin Fitness.

Loaded Sweet Potato

Wash the sweet potato and poke several times with a fork.

Microwave until cooked (6-8 minutes; varies with size). Rotate every 1-2 minutes for even cooking.

While sweet potato is cooking, fry an egg on the stove. I love using my cast iron skillet

Microwave ½ cup of black beans.

Cut open sweet potato. Sprinkle with cinnamon and cumin (or your favorite spices.

Fill with black beans.

Serve with veggies – steamed broccoli, carrot sticks, etc.

The post Haley’s Favorite 10-Minute Meal: Loaded Sweet Potato appeared first on Pure Austin Fitness.

 Two years ago, I enlisted the help of resident Pure Austin swim instructor Shawn Bostad to teach me to swim for a triathlon I planned to do a year later. After just a few sessions,

Shawn told me I was ready, not to wait for next year, and to register for a sprint triathlon just a month later. Hesitantly, I took on his challenge, then completed my first sprint triathlon and fell in love with the sport. Over the last two triathlon seasons, I competed in over ten sprint triathlons earning four podium spots and an invitation to USAT age group nationals.

At the end of my second season, I decided as I moved to the 25-29 age group, I needed to take on a new distance: the half ironman. I knew the task would be challenging, but I also knew I had the resources at Pure Austin to reach my goal. After hours on the bike, countless runs around Town Lake, a few dips in Quarry Lake, and a couple meetings with Pure Austin’s nutritionist, Haley Hall, I felt ready to go.

Sunday, I completed Ironman Texas 70.3. I finished the race happy and healthy and looking forward to my next one. Though the race was tough, on many occasions I found myself completely elated to be participating in an event I could not imagine myself doing just a few short years ago.

I could not have done it without the help and support from everyone at Pure Austin Fitness and Pure Austin Coaching. So, thank you, Pure Austin! For anyone looking for a new challenge, try out triathlon. The tri community here is wonderful and always willing to offer encouragement and support. Happy racing!

Swim:    43:13

Bike:    3:15:11

Run:    2:35:10

Overall:    6:43:16

The post Mindy finishes her first Half-Ironman! Way to Go!! appeared first on Pure Austin Fitness.

How was Skratch created? 

Skratch originally began in 2008 when I was working with the Garmin Professional Cycling team as their Director of Sport Science. Many of the athletes were diluting their sports drink, complaining that at full strength commercially available sports drinks left a bad taste in their mouth and upset their stomach. Unfortunately, the problem with diluting most sports drinks is that this also dilutes the electrolytes, in particular sodium, that are lost in sweat. So Skratch initially began as a home made brew of cut drink mix that we added extra sodium back to. Eventually, the drink mix evolved as we realized that there were still a lot of problems with conventional sports drink – primarily all of the excess ingredients that are used to color and flavor drinks. So, literally starting from scratch, we began making different formulations in my kitchen. What we ended up with was an incredibly simple drink mix that provided only the most basic ingredients necessary to make a sports drink work – less calories, more electrolytes, and actual fruit for flavor. At first, we just made the mix for athletes that I was coaching, but demand grew rapidly by word of mouth so last February of 2012 with a group of close friends we officially launched Skratch here in Boulder, Colorado.

How did you come up with the idea for Skratch? 

Skratch didn’t start as an idea, it started as a solution to a problem. That problem was the constant complaints of “gut rot” and gastrointestinal problems caused by commercially available sports drinks – too much sugar, funky artificial flavors, excess ingredients, and not enough electrolytes. We just addressed those problems and Skratch was born.

There are a lot of hydration mixes out on the market.  How do your ingredients make Skratch stand out?

Our ingredients are as simple as it gets for replacing what you lose in your sweat and for helping to fuel active muscle while exercising. There’s not much to our ingredient list and we only use extremely simple all natural ingredients to make our hydration mix. There’s a lot of misconception and misnomer about sports drinks out in the market. We’re all led to believe that we need the latest new chemical or formula to make us go faster. All we’ve done with Skratch is create a very simple all natural sports drink that provides a little bit of calories, a light flavor, and an electrolyte profile that matches what you lose in your sweat. Nothing less. Nothing more. 

Is Skratch aimed toward a specific diet? or intended for pre/during/post workout?

Skratch is not aimed toward a specific diet or trend. It’s just aimed to hydrate people who sweat. That’s all.

 What is the Feed Zone and how does it correlate with Skratch?

 The Feed Zone is a cookbook I co-wrote with Chef Biju Thomas. It’s a list of simple and healthy recipes that anyone (even kids) can use to create great meals geared for an active lifestyle. It’s a no-nonsense approach to fueling for people on the goal using whole and fresh ingredients - a book that imparts our belief that cooking from scratch is still the best way to nourish oneself when you’re active and on the go. 

 Is there anything else you would like to tell us about your tasty drink mix?

You said it – our drink is tasty. But beyond our drink, Skratch for us is a lifestyle. For almost all of us who work at Skratch, it’s not only the first drink mix we’ve ever made, it’s also the first time we’ve ever run a business. As scary as that is, it’s also been an incredible opportunity to take a common sense approach not only to the often confusing world of sports nutrition but to business itself. With that in mind, our entire business is about our customers and about helping to inspire them to be their best. If you’ve ever got a question, idea, or concern, all you have to do is pick up the phone and call us at 1-800-735-8904 and we’ll be happy to help and talk.

The post SKRATCH Labs Sport Drink Mix: the hows and the whys from the who behind it all! appeared first on Pure Austin Fitness.

Are you getting married and your worry about dropping size for your wedding dress? Do you have the perfect strapless dress but need to tone your arms to look amazing on it? Our trainer Marggy Pabon is going to help you achieve your goals and look gorgeous on your big day! Doesn’t matter how much time until your wedding day, she will focus on your needs and make it happen. Here are some testimonials from real brides who decided to train with Marggy for the big day and keep training with her after the wedding!

Marggy is the best trainer I’ve ever worked with. She understood my goals and helped me get in the best shape I’ve ever been in for my wedding. I loved working with her, she made the workouts fun and different so nothing ever got boring. She knows just the right way to push you so you really try your hardest without getting down on yourself. I would recommend Marggy to anyone! She is a great trainer and a an all around great person!

-Aleah Strano

Marggy helped me achieve all the fitness goals I set out to accomplish for my wedding. She is very motivating, encouraging and helps her clients look great!

- Emily Mullins

I started training with Marggy about two months before my wedding.  With not much time before the big day, and given that I had never trained in my life, Marggy made no false promises that I would be transformed.  But she said that I would see changes — and I did.  Marggy started my sessions with a low level of difficulty to get me going, but she gradually increased the difficulty so that I always felt the right amount of “push” with each session.  The sessions were extremely challenging but not impossible, and because of that, I was able to see changes in time for my wedding.  She is a great teacher who cares about the overall well-being of her clients, and it’s why I continue to train with her!

- Alma Lagarda

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