Victoria (makes a lovely sponge!)Every now and then I get a craving to keep hens in the back garden but I’ve always chickened out (excuse the pun, I will now try to refrain from any further egg puns although so eggstremely tempting). Lucky for me, my lovely friend Jane Evans of Birdcombe Court Farm keeps me supplied with delicious freshly-laid beauties.
So as athletes, why should we eat eggs? Well,
Happy New Year and best wishes for an awesomely fit 2012.
What is all this fuss about
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
Try this really tasty soup – it’s so easy, packed with goodness and excellent for a midweek supper. The whole family wolfed it down
I can’t believe a whole week has passed since I completed the Virgin London Marathon – in 3 hours 39 minutes – not my PB by any means, but I was relatively pleased with it anyway, as I’d missed 4 weeks of my 12 week training progra
mme for various reasons. More importantly it was a fantastic experience: the weather was perfect, the support from the crowds phenomenal and my family came to cheer me on. I also managed to put lots of names to faces and met some lovely Facebook friends and supporters of Go Faster Food.
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:
It’s a fairly tough week
I have started my training for next year’s London Marathon this week and have come to the gloomy realisation that the larger part of my training is going to be through the cold, dark winter months of wind, rain and ice! Running long distances in the cold just makes my appetite kick in with a
Triple Chocolate Cake- Recipe for a perfect treatAs athletes, we do need a certain amount of fat in our diets, although of course it is important that we don’t over do it. Fat is important for transporting fat-soluble vitamins around our body and for releasing energy from carbohydrates, but too much fat will prevent us getting enough essential calories, vitamins and minerals from the carbohydrates and protein necessary for energy and muscle health.
My theory is that if you avoid processed foods as much as possible, you will automatically cut out unnecessary saturated fats from your diet – take a look at my training diet page.
There are three main types of fat: saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated. Most foods contain a mixture of these:
Unsaturated fats – omega-3 and omega-6 are actually good for us! They can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and may even play a role in improving mood and brain power. These foods generally come from non-meat sources – avocados, oily fish, nuts and seeds, cold-pressed vegetable oils etc.
Saturated fats, on the other hand, tend to come from animal sources – butter, the juicy bit of fat on your steak, the clotted cream on your apple crumble, cheese, fats found in processed foods such as cakes, biscuits and pastries. We all know that we should keep these fats to the minimum as they can raise blood cholesterol and are not heart-friendly. An easy way to do this is to avoid processed foods and enjoy butter and cream etc in moderation (spread butter thinly rather than in great big slabs, for instance!)
When it comes to celebrations, I’m afraid to say that saturated fats are on the menu big time in my house. My son was 14 yesterday (but not as tall as me yet!) and I made him a triple chocolate cake to die for (quite literally if you ate it every day, but I do believe in a good treat once in a while, otherwise what is the point!). This makes a great dessert too, especially accompanied with strawberries or raspberries to take away a bit of the sweetness….possibly perfect as a treat after a really long and tough workout to replenish glycogen stores too. The white chocolate cream in the middle is light and airy and a fantastic contrast to the rich dark chocolate cream icing.
Here’s the recipe – the raspberry arrangement on the top is a 14 – not very clear in the photo!
Chocolate sponge:
White chocolate filling
Dark chocolate icing
Method:
