Nutrition…. Proper Nutrition has made ALL the Difference!

I grew up in a very health conscious home. My Mother never allowed; sugar filled breakfast cereals, almost any type of processed snacks, no Pop Tarts or potato chips or soda; even white refined sugar was replaced with natural brown sugar on the rare occasions we got to use that! She was shopping at Randall's Health Food Store in town when that was considered very "weird". Today that has taken a 180 degree turn to becoming more the normal than the "weird" it was back then.

So I show up to SRQ Masters rowing, in basic street gym clothes and the coach said "nice to meet you grab that end of the single" and out to the dock we went and I was off in a single (1x) with pontoons. As things progressed I was added into quad or 4x (a 4 person shell) line ups. One day one of the other rowers asked me "don't you bring water?" To which I replied "no.. I'm good". I have since learned how critical proper hydration is! (Look for a future post specifically on this topic)

Four months after I joined SRQ Masters I find myself in my first 1x or single shell race at the Sarasota Invitational Regatta, (SIR) at Nathan Benderson Park (NBP). I didn't know much of anything at the time, I had never been at the starting dock, hadn't thought about a race plan, didn't know I had to join US Rowing to compete in a sanctioned regatta, I even did not know the distance of the race! I thought it was 2,000 meters, and was disappointed when I found out the distance was just 1,000 meters. At the 500 meter mark, my heart is beating out of my chest, I have been hyperventilating since my 5th stroke and could not get my breathing under control. I think "thank God this isn't 2,000 meters I'm gonna die before I finish 1,000 meters".

In between my first race at the SIR and my second SIR race a year later, we had the good fortune to have Olympic Gold Medal winning Rower, Lindsay Shoop, join the coaching staff. Lindsay brings a long and distinguished career as a rower, coach, author (of Better Great Than Never — see the book review in our Books section), Key Note Speaker and Commentator, Sport Analyst. After her arrival and impact on our daily workouts, I would find myself on the couch after practices until lunch so exhausted I wasn't interested in doing much else. Then my second SIR came on the schedule and that year I was again racing my single(1x) and added a mens quad (4x) race. My 1x race was at 8:30 AM and the quad was at 3 or 3:30. In between I did nothing but sit around and rest and talk with other rowers, watch a few races.

During our warm up for the 4x I could tell I had not recovered even a little bit from the mornings race and knew I was in trouble. When warming up for a race you row several 20+ stroke "pieces" at race pace. They say if you want that pace in a race you have to do it in the warm up. Sure enough at the 500m mark I'm exhausted and losing my ability to do just about anything, to the point I was hitting oars with the rower in front and behind me (I was in seat three). While there is NEVER a good time in a race to do this, I was doing it just as we were coming in to view of the main spectator viewing area 300 meters from the Finish Tower at NBP. This was one of those moments that gets burned in to your soul and makes a profound and lasting mark. The only saving grace from that horrific experience is from the mindset that there are only two outcomes, success or feedback.

You only get one body and spare parts are not widely available.

So I took that feedback and knew I needed to change something so I would never be in that position again. I had attended a Rowing Symposium offered at NBP each year a week or two before the SIR. There were rowers from all over the US and coaches from the UK National Rowing Team, two a day rowing sessions, video analysis, and after lunch speakers on topics of Nutrition for Rowers, Sports Psychology and other related topics. I had seen Robin Brown talking on Nutrition. Robin is a former collegiate rower, rowing coach, a Registered Dietician and has a Masters of Science in Nutrition from the University of Pittsburgh. So I contacted Robin and set up a Nutrition Consultation.

The consultation consisted of a one hour meeting where Robin asked me questions on lifestyle, activity level, current food intake, goals, frustrations on what's not working. As a part of this process I provided Robin a complete list of the food, drinks and supplements I take. She analysed that and a week later we meet to go over her findings and recommendations.

Keep in mind I "thought" I was pretty well informed on what a healthy diet looked like and I was doing some of the right things. Robin pointed out I was taking in only about 50% of the calories she would recommend to me given my activity and goals. Not only do I row 8-12k meters 3-4 days a week I golf regularly and lift weights 3-4 times a week. She provided specific foods to add and when to add them and a race day nutrition plan of what and when.

Let me pause here for a second and just say, if you hear anything even remotely similar to your situation in this so far, contact Robin immediately, do not pass GO and do not collect $200! She'll change your life as she did mine!!

Here is a link to Robin's website:

Ok, back to the results.

After making the changes she recommended, I was amazed at the difference. I went from spending hours on the couch to playing 18 holes of golf in the Florida heat, even after rowing that morning. One day after a 5k head race, The Benderson Chase, where I raced in a quad, and won the Gold medal. I headed home looking forward to a well deserved afternoon on the couch. Then my phone rang and my golf buddies talked me into playing 18 holes a few hours later and shot the best round of my life!

The following SIR I competed in three races and performed well and while I was tired after I was not the exhausted I felt in prior races. Needless to say Robin is one of several world class resources that are attracted to NBP, one of the top two or three rowing venues in the world! (More on that in another post) Who I have had the great opportunity to work with and that have had profound positive impacts on my life!

There is so much information, mis-information and dis-information on health and nutrition that I could not stress it enough that everyone interested in a better "health span" should have a nutrition coach, at least get the initial Nutrition Consultation. Let me define the term health span. The goal isn't to live to 100 or some other number, the goal is to live as long as possible WHILE remaining fully capable and fully functioning. Living 20-30 years in a long slow physical decline where one by one everyday activities or physical functions are slowly taken away does not sound like any fun, and it is not a certainty of the passing of time.

I strongly recommend having a yearly "check up, or Check in" with someone like Robin, or actually Robin! You get your cars oil changed regularly, you may go for a yearly physical, visit your financial planner for quarterly or yearly reviews. None of these are as important as your nutrition and your health! Nutrition…. Proper nutrition IS the fuel your body needs to operate efficiently. You only get one body and spare parts are not widely available.