Congrats on a great event

Congratulations to all competitors, spectators and volunteers for your enthusiastic participation in the 2011 iiNet Team Sprint Cup and for a tremendous afternoon of spirited rivalry, friendly competition and team work.

Sports Fever are very proud to be a sponsor of the Sprint Cup, it is fantastic to be associated with such a worthwhile event. We were excited to hear that in excess of $150,000 has been raised this year from the 2011 iiNet Team Sprint Cup, the Autism West Raffle, and the Lavan Legal Breakfast for Autism West.

Your generous donations and attendance fulfilled an aim of Autism West to increase the awareness of the challenges faced every day by families with children who are on the Autism Spectrum and the work seeking to be done by Autism West to assist these families.

The monies raised will be applied to subsidise direct services to the families who find it financially difficult to meet the costs associated with support services for their children required to cope with the lifelong condition of an Autism Spectrum Disorder.

More information on the event and results are available here: www.teamsprintcup.com.

Upcoming SMA protein seminar

On Tuesday April 5, Sports Medicine Australia are holding a once off professional education seminar entitled Protein, Meat and More.

The seminar will take a look at the latest research and practical advice on protein relating to such topics as daily requirements for both the athlete and non-athlete, influence of nutrients on protein
balance, the role of protein in weight loss, body and resistance training as well as risk and the benefits of protein supplements.

Guest speakers include Boris Kazakov an Accredited Practising Dietitian and the principal of Diet Biz, a nutrition consultancy business in Subiaco. The other is Brendyn Appleby the Assistant Strength & Contitioning Coach for the Emirates Western Force.

The event will be held between 7.30pm and 9.00pm at the FJ Clarke Lecture Theatre at the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Nedlands. Tickets are $22 for SMA members and $44 for non-members. Register online at www.smawa.asn.au.

HBF Freeway Bike Hike For Asthma 2011

A great video encompassing the entire HBF Freeway Bike HIke for Asthma and what it means to the participants. If you were part of it you may see yourself - if you thought about doing it but didn't, this may be the motivation you need to sign up for next year.

Athlete Q&A: Katrina Mercer Part 2

Last week we introduced you to Katrina Mercer, an elite triathlete sponsored by Sports Fever. Here's part two of our chat as Katrina shares her nutrition and training routine.

What is your nutrition like on a normal day? 

Nutrition on a normal day includes a lot of carbohydrate and protein based foods. I tend to limit saturated fat intake. I need to make sure I eat certain foods before, during and after training sessions to ensure proper recovery – especially as at the moment as I am training for the Busselton Half Ironman and a lot of the sessions are 2 – 4 hours twice a day.

The type of foods I eat include wholegrain cereals, breads, rice, lots of fruit and vegetables, red meat (for iron), fish, chicken, tofu, low fat yogurt and diary, most days will also include a treat too!

What is your training routine like? 

A typical training week will be about 12 – 14 sessions broken into 4 swims, 4 cycle sessions, 4 run sessions & some yoga/core strength work.

Swimming: each session is about 4km in duration and focuses on speed, endurance, open water swim skills.

Cycling: the sessions vary from 50km – 120km. Some will be endurance sessions, which involve rides to the hills or down the freeway. Others focus on strength & speed and will be intervals or hill climbing.

Running: varies from 10km – 25km. Some will be longer endurance runs for up to 2hours and others are focused on strength & speed. My runs are usually around Kings Park, Nedlands, Perry Lakes & Cottesloe.

I also attend two yoga classes per week and practice core strength exercises to ensure I recover well and don’t get any injuries.

Athlete Q&A: Katrina Mercer

At Sports Fever we’ve always been proud to support the local sporting industry and of course, our local athletes. Katrina Mercer is an elite triathlete and one of the athletes we sponsor.

Katrina was happy to take some time out of her busy training schedule to answer some of our questions.

How did you get into triathlon? 

I started swimming and little athletics when I was in early primary school then began competing in running events through school before following my dad and brother into triathlon when I was 15. From there I competed in National Schools Triathlon Championships & National Cross Country Championships. My parents have always been very fitness focused which lead me on the same path.

What drew you to compete in triathlon? 

Because I had competed in so many different sports when I was young, I found it hard to just focus on one and leave all the others. I was doing well in both swimming and running in high school and decided to give triathlon a go so I could pursue both of them. The challenge of getting all three disciplines going well at once is addictive.

What are your main achievements to date? 

• Triathlon Western Australia 2010 Open Female Triathlete of the Year 
• 3rd Professional – Busselton Half Ironman 2010 
• 8th World Age-Group Champs – Goldcoast 2009 
• 4th World Age-Group Champs – Vancouver 2008 
• 1st State Road Run Champs - Perth 2009 
• 1st State Sprint Triathlon Champs - Rockingham 2008 

Make sure you check back to our blog next week for part 2 of our Q&A where Katrina talks about her nutrition and training routines. 

New products in store

Need some new fitness gear? A lot of great new stock has arrived in store this week. We've got a heap of new Adidas and Nike apparel and the new Brasilfit range is now in store at Cottesloe and Subiaco.

Make sure you pop down and check it out! 

2XU Womens Triathlon 2011

Check out this great video of the 2XU Women’s Triathlon held on March 6, 2011!

Meet Nathalie Brockman

Earlier this year we introduced you to the lovely Alice Coakley, now this month we’re introducing you to Sports Fever sales assistant Nathalie Brockman.

Nathalie has been working at Sports Fever for three years and is actually well on her way to becoming a doctor! Nathalie is a fifth year medical students and says she loves combining her passion for health and medicine with her work with Sports Fever customers.

“It's very useful understanding the anatomy and underlying pathology when serving customers with complaints like pain and instability,” she explains. “It helps to apply anatomical knowledge and product-specific technologies to find the perfect fit for a customer's foot.

“It has also been particularly useful when explaining how products like Skins work. TEDS stockings are used in the hospitals and work through a similar mechanism (but they're a lot less aesthetically pleasing!). It's very easy to sell a product when its efficacy and reliability has been proven time and again.”

Nathalie says she decided to study medicine as she has always been fascinated by how the human body works and how doctors can help when it doesn’t work properly. “Things like pregnancy and birth amaze me,” she says. “I'm constantly impressed at the advances being made in medicine to improve well-being and I hope one day to be able to optimise peoples' quality of life through my practice.”

If that’s not impressive enough, Nathalie also recently worked in a mobile clinic in Kenya. “I saw some very interesting tropical medicine, made some very good friends and saw a lot of a very beautiful country,” she says.

Nathalie says one of the things she loves about both her medical studies is also one of her favourite things about working at Sports Fever – meeting new people and working as part of a team. “Our staff all seem to be very happy people and we all get along really well. It's great to work with friends.

“I also love the relationship we have with physios, podiatrists and sports doctors. I think customers appreciate that we have the backing of health professionals and are able to use our training to work with their recommendations.”

Make sure to say hi to Nathalie next time you’re in the Subiaco or Cottesloe store!

Kids Feet and Exercise

The make-up of children’s feet may discourage them from being active, a new study has shown. The study featured in the January 2011 issue of The Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, is the first to determine whether foot pressures generated during walking by preschool children were related to time spent in physical activity and sedentary behaviour.

Results showed children who experience greater pressures on the plantar surface of the foot may suffer more pain and discomfort during weight bearing activities which in turn may act as a barrier to physical activity.

Author of the study, Karen Mickle from the Biomechanics Research Laboratory, School of Health Sciences, University of Wollongong said further research needs to be done to reduce plantar pressures in inactive children so they can enjoy the benefits associated with participating in a more active lifestyle.

“Participation in physical activity provides numerous benefits for children including improved cardiovascular risk factors, muscular strength and endurance, skeletal health, mental health and academic performance,” she said.

“Given the health benefits of physical activity for preschool children and the proportions who do not meet recommended levels for physical activity, better understanding of the factors that influence such behaviours among young children is paramount for successful efforts and for public health promotion.

“Identifying children who have foot discomfort associated with high plantar pressures may be an important step in removing a potential barrier to these children participating in physical activity."

How to act on your child’s foot discomfort:

• Provide comfortable, well fitting shoes that reduce pressure under the foot. This may reduce foot discomfort whilst children participate in physical activity.
• Promote activities that reduce loading on the feet, such as cycling and swimming, as this may also encourage children with foot discomfort to be more physically active.

2XU Women's Triathlon this Week

Attention ladies! The 2XU Women's Triathlon is on this Sunday March 6. Online entries are still open or you can register in person this Saturday. You can choose between a number of events including the Tadpoles Triathlon, Casa Dairy Mini Triathlon, Specialised Short Course Triathlon or Long Course Triathlon. These range from 100m swim to 750m, 3km ride to 20km and 500m run to 5km run. 

Even if you have already registered online, you must attend the registration day on Saturday to collect your participants pack. The venue is the Whitfords Nodes Beach Park at Hillarys form between 1pm and 4pm. 

For more information visit the 2XU website.