Just a quick post about the most delicious, healthy and, most importantly, FAST, 10-minute supper we had tonight. An excellent training meal, cod is an really good, tasty and low fat source of protein. I served it with potatoes in their skins, crushed with a little olive oil and fresh spinach with a little nutmeg and

Mark Cooper planning 50 marathons in 56 days
Be inspired!
I’m getting loads of really encouraging comments about my chickpea, sweet potato and spinach soup – one of my favourites too, and brilliant for a Monday night’s supper if you’re into making stock out of the leftover bones from you Sunday roast!
Being involved involved in the world of endurance sports can make you feel really rather humble. I thought my running a couple of marathons a year, plus the odd fell run, cross country escapade and canoeing down rivers was pretty active….but then I come across people who make my pursuits sound really quite pedestrian (excuse the pun…). What fuels their desire to push themselves to the very extreme, not just physically but mentally too? I would love to know! Take a look at their websites:
- Jonathan Bradshaw – training to swim the Atlantic! How wrinkly is his skin going to be? He likes to load up with my butternut squash risotto
- Mark Cooper – training to run 50 marathons in 56 days – that’s 1300 miles apparently (!), running from Amsterdam to Barcelona, and he wants to do each marathon in under 4 hours! Unbelievable – he’s looking for sponsorship and raising money for charity so take a look and support him if you can…find him on twitter
- Steve Blethyn – walking from Glasgow to Reading in 10 days (that’s 2 marathons a day for 10 days), he’s on twitter too, he’s quite a life force
- Charlotte Thompson – amazing mother of 4 who took up running only
A lovely lady called Annabel Lee at a new start-up sports nutrition venture called Orbana very kindly sent me some samples of their new energy drink to try out. Many of my followers will know that I am not one to get enthused by commercial sports nutrition products, all of which seem to claim that their product will be your answer to improved performance/recovery because of its unique blend of carbohydrate, minerals, protein etc etc. I find that most of these drinks and gels wither play havoc with my stomach or make me gag. They also tend to leave a sweet and sickly artificial taste in your mouth. I am much happier with the home made variety



BEST (Bristol English Channel Swim Team)
I’ve been given the great privilege of helping out on the foodie front for BEST (Bristol English Channel Swim Team), a totally inspirational group of 11-12 year olds who are training to be the youngest ever relay team to cross the English Channel.
Anyone feeling disillusioned with the youth of today should take a look at the BEST website. These kids are phenomenal! 11 year-old Lewis decided that he would like more than anything to swim the English Channel and the idea blossomed from here – his parents took him seriously and established a superb professional team to take this initial idea to a whole new level. This team includes