Tag Archives: endurance foods

Christine Ohuruogu…Fuelling the Ferrari

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Christine Ohuruogu

Ask people about food and their eyes light up. Beaming with delight, they relish the chance to discuss their culinary achievements…or failures! Elite sportsmen and women are no exception! I was lucky enough to meet some incredible sporting heroes yesterday at the LIW, Leisure Industry Week at the NEC in Birmingham and to interview the awesome and lovely sprinter, Christine Ohuruogu, MBE.

Christine is one of Technogym’s Olympic Ambassadors

 

Christine Ohuruogo started out as a netball player. As an under 17 and under 19 England player, she was pretty talented, but at 16, she joined the Newnham and Essex Beagles Athletics club (no, not just your average athletics club; former members include Mo Farah and the Olympic bronze medallist high jumper Robbie Grabbarz!) and it was here that she got roped into running the 400m; no one else wanted to compete over that distance. It was a wise choice and the start of a highly successful journey, leading to her Gold medal in 2008 at Beijing and of course her Silver here at London 2012. Chrissy’s got brains as well as speed, with a degree in Linguistics from University College London!

Olympic medals….they really are heavy

And so to food…

Gofasterfood- Chrissy, tell me about how you fuel your body and how strict you have to be about diet?

ChrissyO – Once you start doing sport at an elite level you’re working towards a specific goal. You have to accept that diet is not something that you have much choice over any more. You can’t eat for pleasure. First and foremost your job is your body. You’re an elite level performer and you have to see your body as a vehicle for getting to where you need to get to.  You have to see your body as a machine, unfortunately, not as something that you can pamper or treat. You have to be quite tough and basically put in what will help you get to what you need to achieve most efficiently. Once you understand this and come to terms with it, it’s a lot easier to cope with the strict nutritional requirements.

Gofasterfood – That must be quite hard sometimes?

ChrissyO - When I say that I don’t eat cakes or ‘treats’ some people find it hard to believe. They’ll say “oh my God, that’s terrible!”. But you have to shift your state of mind completely, to accept that your body is there to operate at its optimum level to do its job. Then it’s a lot easier to change your diet and stick to strict dietary habits.

Gofasterfood - What does good nutrition mean to you as an elite runner?

ChrissyO – Good nutrition for me is simply about fuelling my body to get the most out of it and then recovering efficiently so that I can train the next day. I eat the right foods to stay fit enough to cope with the demands of heavy training, to avoid injury and to recover well from the stress I put my body through. That’s the only way you can be successful, you have to understand your body and how it operates.

Gofasterfood - At what point in your career did you change from enjoying food to eating strictly to fuel your body for performance?

ChrissyO - I don’t remember having a monumental shift to eating differently, rather it’s something that I’ve learnt over time. Once you’re disciplined in your sport it’s a natural by-product…I mean it is hard, there are times you want to enjoy yourself and eat things you really like eating, you’re only human…and it does get a bit boring eating salads and stuff like that… you want to have some fun! Now and again I give myself a small window where I can just enjoy myself and then after that, it’s back to business.

Gofasterfood - Describe what you would eat on a typical training day?

ChrissyO -  It’s a pretty early start, so I’ll have yoghurts for some protein, nuts, a piece of fruit for some glucose to get the system going. In the winter I might have porridge because it can be pretty cold out there on the track. My typical morning session is pretty full-on so I will eat quite lightly so that I don’t feel too heavy or bloated. I will basically just eat to satisfy the need to eat, not really for any enjoyment or because I’m trying to fill up my stomach. I’m also training my body to work on maximum energy input, to push my body to adapt.

Gofasterfood - Do you stick to natural unprocessed foods?

ChrissyO – Yes, usually it will be long day training, so I’ll always have fruits and nuts to hand to snack on throughout the training session to keep up my energy levels; grapes, bananas, mixed nuts. I kind of get peckish because I haven’t eaten enough breakfast anyway so I need to top up and also it’s really important to get the recovery going as quickly as possible, before the training session has finished. I don’t like to wait until I’m too hungry before I start eating, I try to keep topping up my sugar levels, especially if I’ve got a really long morning.

Gofasterfood - What would you typically have at lunchtime?

ChrissyO – I’ll take some protein on board immediately after the session and then have lunch at about 1 to 1.30 and this, again, will be more protein. If I’m running in the afternoon I don’t want anything too heavy, so I’ll have something like tuna, eggs, mackeral, beans, loads of salad, heaps of fresh veg, rather than the pasta and the carbs.

Gofasterfood – And in the evenings?

ChrissyO – Ah, in the evenings, that’s when I  go kind of carb-crazy! But not too heavy. In the winter season when I’m trying to adapt the body to the extreme I’ll have stock up on a lot more carbs, but I like lighter carbs like couscous or quinoa. Towards the summer I’ll tailor off the amount of carbs I eat.

Gofasterfood - What’s your favourite treat?

ChrissyO - Oh Kate, I’ve so many! Cake, ice cream, fish and chips, pizza, chicken wings, KFC, loads and loads… and cakes, I love my cakes! But only once a year!

Christine was delighted to receive a signed copy of Go Faster Food. She’s going to try out a few recipes and report back, so watch this space for her comments….

 

 

Many thanks to Cheryl Hersey from the Fitness Writers Association and Technogym for organising the interviews.

Read more about Christine’s vision of the future:

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/sport/athletics/article3570272.ece

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Passion for Pancakes

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blueberry pancakestrackfieldandroad.tv are coming round to tomorrow to film me in the Go Faster Food kitchen; I feel a pancake theme coming on. I do feel a bit guilty when Pancake Day comes around each year. We all know that pancakes are to signify the beginning of the 40 days of Lent, traditionally a way of using up the rich food in the larder such as eggs and milk, but I’m afraid, the Go Faster Food family eats pancakes all year round. Why? Because they are delicious, dead easy to make, fabulous recovery food after a long run, and always feel like a decadent treat. The word ‘fasting’ just doesn’t enter the vocabulary I’m afraid! A horrible thought and a horrible word.

Pancakes are a great food for athletes; they make a fantastic post exercise recovery treat and are a fun and tasty way to get some high G.I. carbohydrate and protein into your system after a serious workout. Carbohydrate to replenish your glycogen stores quickly and protein to keep your muscles healthy and help repair any muscle trauma. The quicker you start the recovery process the better, as it’s immediately after exercise that your body will absorb what it needs most efficiently.

What’s really good about pancakes is that you can make the mixture before you leave the house, dream about them when the going gets tough on your run/bike ride and then cook them on your return (or better, get someone to cook them for you) even while you’re doing your stretches.

Of course there are lots of different types of pancake, all delicious. You’ve got the flat light pancakes we see more often in the UK, most delicious in their simplest form with just lemon and sugar, then there are the risen, fluffy american-style pancakes (see my American Blueberry pancake recipe in Go Faster Food), , and if you want to be really sophisticated there are wholesome breton-style ‘galettes au sarassin’, made with buckwheat flour.  Whichever you prefer, all you really need is a basic mix of flour, eggs and milk; you can then add oats, spices, fruit, raising agents to customise your pancake. Just make sure you use the best quality ingredients and really really fresh free range eggs.

Apple power pancakes (good for pre-run endurance and packed with vitamins and oats for endurance)

Breton Buckwheat pancakes (recovery, or as a light supper with a green salad; these work well with savoury fillings such as ham and cheese, smoked salmon and creme fraich, goats cheese and parma ham)

American Blueberry pancakes (post-run recovery, carbo-loading, weekend brunch with friends)

Hot Oatcakes with smoked salmon and scrambled eggs (light as a feather, wholesome with wholemeal flour for a special post-exercise treat)

For the lightest ever English-style pancake  make a batter with about 100g plain four (4 tablespoons), 250ml milk, pinch of salt, 1 egg. Sift the flour into a bowl, add the salt and make a well in the centre. Break the egg into the well and gradually beat in the milk with a wooden spoon, drawing in the flour from the sides to make a smooth batter. Alternatively whizz it all up with an eletric whisk. For the lightest pancakes, my little secret is to add 50 ml of really cold water to the batter mix just before you are ready to start cooking the pancakes.

Heat a knob of butter in a heavy-based frying pan or pancake pan. When it is hot, tip it around the whole base so that it is covered and then pour in just enough batter to thinly coat the bottom of the pan. Cook for a couple of minutes, until it realeases easily from the bottom and then toss and cook the other side until golden. Transfer to a plate and add you favourite filling. Lemon and sugar, maple syrup and bananas, chocolate sauce (yuk, but kids like it), my home made quince jelly (yum), whatever takes your fancy.

Elektrik 3/ The Olly Barkley Rugby Academy/ Training Camp

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I just picked up my two boys, plus French exchange boy, Max, from Elektrik 3, Olly Barkley’s new rubgy academy. They had a truly awesome day!

Olly Barkley, England star and centre and fly-half for Bath, with the help of some of the biggest names in rugby, has launched an amazing rugby academy for children at Colston’s School in Bristol. Four really good training sessions with proper rugby stars – in my boys case, Matt Banahan and Luke Narraway – interim sessions such as nutrition “What do rugby players eat”, how to prepare for and recover after games and what it’s like to be a professional rugby player.

So often at these sort of camps the food is disgraceful, but here the boys were treated to a specially designed high performance nutrition programme, put together with the help of Matt Lovell, England Rugby nutritionist- spag bol for lunch (spag bol always goes down well!) and plenty of healthy freebies from Yeo Valley and Oso Juicy Breakfast Smoothies.  My kids are pretty good on the nutrition front but it does help when the advice comes from someone other than mum!!

The day finished with a Q and A session with Matt Bannahan (parents were invited too which was pretty cool) and the boys went home happy, motivated and full of enthusiasm for the up and coming season….and with a superb goodie bag including Puma Olly Barkley backpack (that’ll do for next year’s school bag), t-shirt, hoodie, water bottle and a Yeo Valle coolbag.

Looking deeper into Olly Barclay’s motivation behind Elektrik 3 I was astounded to discover that the 29-year-old plans to donate all profits from his debut academy to Bristol-based charity NACOA (the National Association for Children of Alcoholics). This is what he has to say:

“When I have been to rugby academies, they have usually had one professional player, who often might not even be an international, over the three days… To me, that isn’t good enough for kids. When you go to an academy, you need to be coached by the stars you see on TV…. With all due respect to camps before, I have not enjoyed coaching at them. I have found them pretty boring and parents have probably spent money they would rather have taken back. I really wanted to start an events company so the transition from rugby into real life is less bumpy – and I didn’t want to run before I could walk, so I thought I would stick to what I know.”

Barkley, who decided to set up Elektrik Events with his agent after suffering the first of two recent serious injuries, already has plans to expand his academy into Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and even London. For further information, visit www.elektrik3.com.

Butternut Squash Cake

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Whilst playing around with butternut squash recipes I fell upon the idea of grating it up and making a cake, just like you might do with carrot or courgette. It works! In fact, it works really, really well and what’s even more surprising, my daughter, who will normally extract any trace of butternut squash from her meal, absolutely adores it!

I think butternut squash is a fabulous vegetable and an excellent addition to any training diet. Bell-like in shape, it has a beautifully smooth, creamy-coloured skin which protects its dense, rich golden-yellow flesh. Its texture is deliciously soft; its taste sweet, buttery, nutty. It’s hard to believe that as little as 10 years ago few people in the UK barely knew what a butternut squash was. Now it’s widely available and has gradually become a much-loved and versatile staple in our shopping trolleys.

We may consider this beautiful tangerine-hued vegetable as just another starchy ‘comfort food’, but butternut squash is in fact a powerhouse of nutrients. It’s a complex carbohydrate loaded with the anti-oxidant beta-carotene, which can reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease, boost immunity and help the healthy funtion of the reproductive system. It’s low in fat, and rich in fibre, vitamin C and potassium. It even contains folic acid, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin B1 and a plethora of essential minerals. Weight Watchers endorses butternut squash as one of its ‘zero foods’ because of its low content of calories and saturated fat.

To cook a butternut squash, peel the skin with a good, sharp vegetable peeler. Cut off the stem and then slice in half lengthwise, from stem to end. Scrape out the seeds and the stringy membrane with a spoon. If you’re roasting or baking squash you don’t need to peel.

Butternut Squash Cake

It’s a rare ocassion that this deliciously moist cake gets iced in my house – it’s always wolfed down as soon as it comes out of the oven. That’s fine! It’s packed with goodness. If you do get to the icing stage you’ll find this cake keeps very well for a few days.

You will need a 20cm round cake tin, greased or lined with greaseproof paper

For the cake

  • 125g unsalted butter
  • 125g caster sugar
  • zest of 1 orange
  • 2 eggs
  • 200g butternut squash, peeled and grated
  • 50g walnuts, roughly chopped
  • juice of 1/2 orange
  • 125g self-raising wholemeal flour, sifted
  • 75g raisins or sultanas
  • ½  tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • ½ tsp ground cinnamon
  • ½ tsp ground ginger
  • ½ tsp salt
  • small handful whole or chopped walnuts to decorate

For the icing

  • 110g full-fat soft cheese
  • 20g unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 40g icing sugar
  • squeeze of lemon or lime juice

  1. Preheat the oven to 170°C/gas mark 3–4.
  2. Cream the butter, sugar and orange zest together until light and fluffy.
  3. Add the eggs, beating well as you add each one.
  4. Fold in the grated butternut squash, raisins and nuts, and add the orange juice.
  5. Fold in the flour, bicarbonate of soda, spice and salt.
  6. Pour into the cake tin and bake for about 45 minutes – you will know the cake is done as the cake comes away from the side of the cake tin and is springy to the touch.
  7. Turn the cake out onto a wire rack to cool.
  8. Cream the cheese and butter together. Add the icing sugar and lemon juice and beat until smooth. Spread the icing generously over the cake.
  9. Decorate with whole or chopped walnuts.

Try my great pre-event dish for carbo-loading too – butternut squash risotto with maple syrup almonds

Rampant Run from Paignton to Twickenham

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I’m struggling to keep my eyes open after completing our 48 hour non-stop 200 mile relay Rampant Run from Paignton Zoo to Twickenham… and still reeling from the fact that I’ve met and run with so many totally amazing people over those two days.. I don’t want to name drop too much, but I’ve just got to, sorry…

Prince Harry (wow :) ), rugby legends Martin Johnson, Phil Vickery, Phil de Glanville, the inspirational Amazon explorer, Ed Stafford, globally renowned magician Chris Korn from the BBC magicians programme, ex Commando Royal Marines double amputee Vince Manley and triple amputee Mark Omrod to name but a few….

And of course, 16 normal (???) runners, all with a common goal – to raise money, to see the rugby and to have a good time! The Rampant Run was an amazing feat of teamwork of all ages (my teenage son James included) and running experience. The brainchild of inspirational distance runner, Charlotte Thompson, Kay Johnson, wife of England Manager, Martin Johnson, and Monique Coulton, the Rampant Run is set to raise £100,000 for LOROS, the Leicester and Rutland Hospice, of which Martin Johnson is patron.

Top runner was Charlotte Thompson, who managed to clock up 100 miles in two days - kept going of course with my honey and fruit energy bars and For Goodness Shakes (nutritional side of things to come later, but needless to say pancakes and roast dinners have been on the menu since our return). I clocked up 54 miles, whilst James completed an impressive 38 miles…pretty good for a teenager who had never run further than 6 miles before.

We finished up under the goal posts at Twickers on Friday and then came into the Saturday 6 Nations England v France match at half-time to meet Prince Harry. Simple as that. I won’t go into the state (and stench!) of the coach after 48 non-stop running, the feeling of running along the A303 in broad daylight with the protection of just one support vehicle between us and the speeding traffic (many thanks to the fantastic guys from For Goodness Shakes for that, couldn’t have done it without you!).

And to top it all, England won!

Three Amazing Runners Run Bristol Half Marathon

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P1010440I’ve just been severely reprimanded for not blogging about the fact that my very own wonderful daughter (aged just 17), my brother-in-law and my best friend Amber, all ran their first 1/2 marathon on 5th September. I’m SO sorry, I AM REALLY PROUD of you, you did BRILLIANTLY – it’s just that I’ve been snowed under with life and just haven’t got round to writing about it! Helena (daughter) and Paul (brother-in-law wiith shin splints who was kind enough to run with Helena almost the whole way – making sure that he sprinted off at the last minute so he wasn’t beaten by his neice!) managed their 13 miles in 1:57. They sprinted from mile 9 however, and had plenty of energy left over….they basically got their pacing wrong because I had been so adamant that they shouldn’t set off too quickly.

They have both declared that they’re going to train properly and get the pacing right for the Bath 1/2 in March 2011. They certainly followed my nutrition advice this time. They hydrated really well over the 3 days prior to the race and I cooked them all a deliciously balanced, low-fat, healthy pre-race meal of spaghetti with my slow-roasted tomato sauce the night before….

Now, my lovely friend Amber is completely new to running. Since recovering from breast cancer a couple of years ago she has worked incredibly hard to get fit. She’s gone from doing no sport at all to a committed runner, working out at least three or four times a week. She has started eating sensibly, she has lost at least two stone, and two years later she is a completely new woman….She ran the Bristol 1/2 in 2 1/2 hours and I have to say that, although this is not incredibly speedy, it is a most incredible achievement, especially as she’s done this on top of her very full time job – she’s one of the top Paediatric Anaesthetists in the country, specialising in saving children with severe burns and head injuries. Check out this thought-provoking video:

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