Gels or Sports Drink?

Posted on January 24, 2013 by Kate

Gels or Sports Drink?

When I race, should I choose gels or sports drinks? Or a combination of both?

During a race of 90 minutes or more glycogen levels need to be topped up on a regular basis or they’ll become depleted, you’ll run out of steam and you’ll ‘bonk’ or ‘hit the wall’. Drinking water is not enough! You’ll need to rapidly replenish depleted muscle glycogen and restore body salts lost through sweat. That’s why we have to take on board gels and sports drinks. Unfortunately, most of them are disgusting, unpalatable and sickly…that’s because they’re more or less pure glucose, designed to be digested as quickly as possible. Using homemade sports drinks in training is fine, but this is usually an impractical solution for racing. The only option is to try out different brands to find one you can stomach.

With the ongoing success of FuelSmart for Race Day, I’m frequently asked whether it’s best to top up these glycogen levels with gels or with sports drinks during triathlon, half-marathon and marathon endurance training and races, and whether there is any difference between them.

Discover your ideal personal strategy.

Firstly and most importantly, what works for you is unlikely to work for your fellow competitor! You need to practice different strategies in training to discover what will suit you and your physiology best. Whether you choose gels, sports drink or a combo depends more on your personal preference than on any performance advantage.

Download the FuelSmart Series

Optimise your performance with Go Faster Food FuelSmart.

Nutritionally-formulated meal plans and delicious recipes to help you go further, faster.

FuelSmart for Race Day

Gels – don’t forget to wash them down with water

Gels, designed to be rapidly digested to replenish muscle glycogen as quickly as possible, provide between 20-30 grams of carbohydrate. Your body requires 30-60 grams of carbohydrate per hour, depending on workout intensity, so you’d need 2-3 gels per hour. Each gel must be washed down with plenty of water, for good hydration and for the effective absorption of the gel.

What about Sports Drinks?

Sports drinks are essentially gels with water, providing you ‘two for one’: hydration and carbohydrates. 500 ml typically contains between 30-45 grams carbohydrate, so you would need around 600 ml per hour, again depending on your workout.

Try a Gel/Sports Drink Combo to minimise Gastrointestinal discomfort

If, like me, you find sports drinks and gels too sickly-sticky, and water boring, try my combo method which maintains good hydration, body salt and glycogen levels.; a gel every 30-40 minutes, washed down with a 50% diluted sports drink. You never know, it might work for you!

Don’t forget electrolytes and protein

For best performance and recovery, choose a gel or sports drink which also contains protein and electrolytes; this helps prevent muscle damage and replaces lost body salts.

Solids can be kinder to the stomach

Overconsumption of gels and sports drinks can leave your gut feeling extremely uncomfortable. Energy bars, dried fruit, marmite, cheese or honey sandwiches, bananas and rice balls can be kinder to the stomach and many cyclists find it more pleasant and effective to eat these on the bike. Solids on the bike works for triathletes and ironman competitors, followed by sports drink and/or gels on the run to minimise gastrointestinal discomfort.

If you suffer GI problems, keep it simple!

Your stomach comes under all sorts of stress during endurance events. Many competitors suffer gastrointestinal problems. The more gunk you put inside you the likelihood is that the more uncomfortable your stomach will feel!

Practice different options in training to discover what is comfortable for you as an individual.

Christine Ohuruogu…Fuelling the Ferrari

Posted on September 20, 2012 by Kate

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

Elektrik 3/ The Olly Barkley Rugby Academy/ Training Camp

Posted on July 27, 2011 by Kate

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.

Recovery Rice Pudding

Posted on February 22, 2010 by Kate

I really didn’t like rice pudding until I started running. It was too sweet, too creamy and just too much like nursery food for my liking. How things have changed…I can’t get enough of the stuff now! Rice Pudding is FANTASTIC recovery food!!!!! After a big bike ride, swim or long run out in the cold, it not only warms you up but it has a great combination of fast-acting high G.I. carbohydrate (short-grain pudding rice) to replenish your depleted glycogen stores, plus protein and calcium from the milk to help towards muscle repair.

Rice pudding is particularly good as it takes minutes to prepare before you leave the house – pop it into the oven at a low temperature and its ready two to three hours later on your return! All you have to do it take it out of the oven and eat it up. Yum Yum.

Take a look at Go Faster Food for some more rice pudding ideas, but here’s a basic version you can just leave in the oven while you are out for your long training session:

100g short-grain pudding rice
1.2 litre semi-skimmed milk (you can use skimmed, full fat, soya milk, rice milk, whatever you prefer)
3 tbsp demerara sugar (less if using sweetened soya or rice milk)
good grating of nutmeg
1 cinnamon stick (optional)
1 bay leaf (optional)

Preheat the oven – fan oven 130°C to cook in 3 hours, 150°C to cook in 2 hours.
Place all the ingredients in an oven-proof dish and stir. Add an extra grating of nutmeg on top.
Put in the oven and leave for 2-3 hours, depending on the temperature you have chosen until a lovely brown skin has formed on the surface.

This tastes good on its own as soon as you get back from training, eaten with a spoon straight out of the dish. Alternatively you could serve it with some fruit compote (rhubarb or apricots is good). Some like it cold as well, but not me.

Short-grain ‘pudding’ rice has a very high G.I. and is a great way to

get a serious amount of carbohydrate into your system after an

event like a triathlon or marathon or after one of your big training

sessions. There are hundreds of different recipes for rice pudding

and everyone has their particular likes and dislikes – some adore

the skin, some hate it; some like it cold, some hot. Whilst still fairly

traditional, this recipe uses semi-skimmed milk and no butter, but

don’t worry, it is still really creamy. You can cook it the fast way to

avoid skin or bake it slowly in the oven; you can even keep it in the

fridge to attack as soon as you get home.

Nutrition per serving

Energy (kcal) 250 Protein (g) 10

Carbohydrate (g) 44 Fat (g) 5

Of which sugars (g) 23 Of which saturates (g) 3

Salt (g) 0.3 Fibre (g) neg

Serves 4

Prep time – 2 minutes/Cooking time – 1½ hours

100g short-grain pudding rice

1 litre semi-skimmed milk

2 tbsp caster sugar

1 tsp demerara to serve

good grating of nutmeg

½–1 tsp cinnamon (or 1 cinnamon stick)

1 bay leaf (optional)

Method One – creamed rice

1. Mix all the ingredients together in a heavy-bottomed saucepan

and bring to the boil.

2. Simmer on the lowest heat possible, using a diffuser if you Short-grain ‘pudding’ rice has a very high G.I. and is a great way to