How to Overcome Exercise-Caused Dizziness? Olympian and Ironman Champ Shares How

JZ-Wins-Half-MarathonJoanna Zeiger, who had been swimming from age 7 through college, got hooked on triathlons when she won her age group in her first race in 1994.

“I was looking for a new challenge,” she recalls. “Once I did my first race, I got hooked. I knew early on I had some talent for triathlon. When I first started running I didn’t like it much. It took several years before my running legs really came under me. I took to cycling pretty quickly. When you come from a swim background, you’re going to have an advantage in the swim over people who start later in life. I came to balance out my bike and run as well.”

Zeiger turned pro in 1998, after winning her age group at the Hawaii Ironman. She raced 10 to 12 triathlons a year, placing fourth in the Sydney Olympics in 2000 and 5 weeks later placed 5th in the Hawaii Ironman, making her the first person to compete in the Olympics and the Hawaii Ironman in the same year. Zeiger’s diversity led her to national championships in three distances: Olympic in 2001, Ironman in 2005, and 70.3 in 2008. In 2008, Joanna won the Ironman 70.3 World Championship in world record time.

I’ve been able to manage the dizziness better with the product (The Right Stuff).

Zeiger had experienced ongoing light-headedness and dizziness during races which peaked in 2009 during a triathlon in Boulder, Colorado.  She passed out and was taken to the hospital.  She found and researched the NASA-developed formula and began using The Right Stuff to solve the chronic racing-induced dizziness. “I was looking for some different sources to get more sodium intake,” she says. “I knew that increasing my sodium intake helped with the dizziness.  She tested it twice before implementing it into her race regimens.

The first time she used The Right Stuff was while training for a triathlon during a five and a half hour bike ride plus an 8-mile run.  She said she felt great!

The second test was a 100-mile bike ride with 1000’s of feet of climbing. It really solved her issue and she still uses it regularly. I’ve been able to manage the dizziness much better with The Right Stuff. I recommend it to the people that I coach; most of them end up doing better when they use The Right Stuff to help increase their sodium intake.”

Joanna retired from triathlons in 2010 after an injury during the 70.3 World Championship but continues to run – setting a Colorado state half-marathon record in her age group at the Revel Rockies Half Marathon in 2014. JZ-Run-cropped

Meanwhile, Zeiger, who has coached since 2003, established Race Ready Coaching (www.racereadycoaching.com) two years ago.

“We coach athletes of all ages and all abilities for all distances,” she says. “All my years of experience have made the coaching fun. It’s fun not only to work on your own goals but to see other people achieve their goals.”