You are what you eat - is nutrition helping my Triathlon goals ?

Before I moved into Triathlon, I was mostly running marathons until I got to the point where I started to loose motivation for 2hr training runs and generally lost my appetite for running these longer distances.

At the same time, I was really struggling to put together back-to-back runs.  Recovery just didn't seem to be as good as it might be, mostly I put it down to a lack of motivation....and my ever increasing age !  I probably could have gone out the next day but just didn't want to...not another run.  I had told myself that it was probably time to look at my nutrition...I didn't eat badly, but I could eat better.  I bought a book and that's as far as it went.

And so here we are, a couple of years later and I'm hooked on Triathlon, have completed a few races, including half iron man distance and now often train 6 days out of 7 and in some cases, with double sessions at weekends....what changed ?  

Well, a few things....I got older, that goes without saying, I changed from just running, to swimming, biking and running, so the monotony I'd found with just running all the time has gone, as I was now mixing that up with the other triathlon disciplines.  In fact, I'd started to enjoy running again, as part of triathlon.  

But, the main thing, at least how I see it, was that I changed my approach to nutrition and in turn believe this has had a positive impact on my training and racing.  I've said in previous posts, that I'm not a scientist and I have no compelling evidence to prove anything I'm saying here.  I only have the 'results' of the way I feel and am able to train, following changes to what I eat.

If I think back to how I used to eat, as I said earlier, I tended not to eat badly, but felt I could eat better and for a specific purpose.  A lot of my eating before was what I call 'habit' eating.  I'll give an example.  I would make myself sandwiches for lunch at work and what do you eat with sandwiches....crisps.  So I'd add a pack of crisps to my lunch bag.  After my sandwiches, I'd often make a cup of tea...and what did I always have with tea.....a bar of chocolate...so I'd add a small bar of chocolate to my lunch bag.  I had fruit in there and was eating porridge for breakfast.  I was running a few times a week, so I considered I had balance.  I don't drink (aside from the odd glass of wine) and don't smoke.

So for me, eating was mostly shaped by specific combinations of food, or eating certain things when I drank say a cup of tea.  There was almost certainly an element of 'I can eat what I like', given that I was fairly active.

I felt that, if I was going to try a triathlon, I might need to up my game when it came to food.  I'd hunted around the web and found some basic training plans for shorter distance and half iron man, to see what they looked like.  I soon realised that, If I struggled to put together two runs in two days, I was certainly going to find it hard to handle the volume in some of these example schedules.

So, first off I broke the habit eating.  I stopped bringing sandwiches to work, but instead cooked a piece of chicken or salmon and bought a bag of microwave rice to have with it.  The crisp eating stopped.  And what else I noticed, was that the craving for crisps stopped as well.  I didn't really miss then.  Same for the tea/chocolate habit.  After dinner, instead of making  tea and eating a bag of revels/minstrels with it (I could easily tuck away a whole 'family' bag of either), I'd make myself a bowl of yogurt, fruit and honey.  Then later, when I made the tea, I had no craving for chocolate.  So in those two fairly easy steps, I'd broken that 'habit' eating as I called it. 

Next, I started to think about what I ate more.  What I mean by that is, I started to think about food as a way to prepare for a session, or to recover from one.  If I am going to train in the next hour or so, what is best to eat beforehand, or, if I had trained, what was the best thing to eat to help with recovery.

At this stage, I started to look at protein supplements as a way to help.  Like most supplements, I'd read good things about it and also I read that a glass of milk was just as good.  Anyway, I choose to try protein supplements.  I bought some SIS powdered protein.  It's fair to say, I don't use it religiously, but only tend to use it after harder sessions (for me, typically swims or the rate occasions I do run intervals).  Like I said earlier, no scientific proof, but at times when I'd worked hard in the pool, come home aching, I'd use the protein, add in a banana, some fruit and a spoon of peanut butter and I would ache less the next day.  Was it working? It seemed like it to me.

For evening meals, my wife had bought me the 'lean in 15' cook books.  Not that I needed to be leaner, but the idea was that there were healthy meals in there that could be prepped in 15 mins or so, so both of us would benefit.  If I was going to fit in all the training, plus pull my weight with taking the boys to basketball training etc, then this would help.

And so it did, some great recipes that are ready really quickly.  Healthy ingredients and more veg than we'd been eating previously but, and here's the key bit, they taste good ! And like most things, once you get comfortable with the recipes you can customize them, or if you need some additional carbs, add rice, or potato etc.

So, there you have it.  Not that many radical changes, but sufficient enough, in my mind, to have supported me in my triathlon training efforts and races thus far.  Of course, I've said it before, no scientific proof.  But, I'm training most days of the week and in some cases, double sessions on weekend days.  I still enjoy nice food, at weekends I will still have the odd glass of wine and I still love to empty the fridge of the odd bar of chocolate.  

Nothing is for free.  Preparing my lunches for the next day add's time to my evenings, but the upside is well worth it I think.  Making sure you've got all the ingredients you want to hand means some extra preparation and that is key, else I find I'm tempted to go for rubbish if I don't have decent ingredients to hand.

The other aspect which I think helps is that changing my approach to my everyday eating isn't the same as a diet.  So I'm not on a diet, or following a diet (in fairness, I've never followed one in my life nor do I intend to), but what I'm saying is that, I'm not forcing myself to eat the way I do, I choose to eat that way.  So when I fancy chocolate, or a slice of cake, I'll have no issues eating it.  I don't feel as if I've 'failed' or 'let myself down' or somehow cheated - because I'm not following a religious diet.  I won't beat myself up about it.

I like it that way.  I see a lot of people in work, following diets.  They seem to hate what they are 'forcing' themselves to eat.  There seems to be a feeling that they are 'depriving' themselves of things they'd rather be eating instead, but they have to eat this way to reach a goal.  

I've just decided that the best way to support my triathlon efforts is to change the way I approach food and nutrition.  It seems to working for me, it might not work for everyone.  

I'm sure with the changes I've made, I could do a lot better.  But, I'm not a pro athlete, I don't make my living racing triathlon (which is a god send as I'm not really that good !) so I'm not really going to benefit from the nutritional approach of an elite athlete - and I've seen them post on Instagram...they eat cakes and chocolate sometimes just like me !  So it's all a balance and for now, I feel I've got the balance about right for me.

Race Review - Vitality Big Half 11th March 2019

If all goes to plan, the Vitality 'Big half' marathon was the first of four half marathons I will complete this year.  Two being straight half marathon runs and two being half marathons as part of half iron man (70.3) races.

My A and B races are the 70.3's, so this early half marathon was a marker and a good opportunity to get a half under my belt.  I'd been training fairly well and was feeling good on runs.  I'd done some intervals for the first time and had a couple of good 9 mile runs under my belt.  But the half would be my longest of the year so far.

So how did this first race one go? Actually pretty well.  I was running (well, at least starting) with some friends and they kindly invited me for dinner and to stay the night before.  I never turn this invite down if I can help it...home made pizza and bread sticks - its the perfect pre-race dinner.  The last  time I did the same thing before a half marathon, I had a good run, so I needed to keep that tradition going - even down to the exact specification of Pizza - the four seasons !!

Race morning was an early-ish start (a couple of hours lie in compared to some Triathlon race starts) and breakfast was of course tried and tested, peanut butter bagel, banana and a mug of tea.

Weather wasn't forecast to be great, so with fingers crossed we set off.  I was aiming to meet another mate at the start, so we could run together, but I think our typically bloke approach to arranging to meet back-fired.  Agreeing to meet at Tower Bridge probably was hoping for a bit much with 15k other runners and once my kit bag was in the kit lorry, I had no phone.  I'd have to hope, somehow, that we bumped into each other on the course.

So we set off for our start wave and by now at least the rain had stopped but the wind was still gusting, making it feel colder than it probably was.  The usual pre-start worries set in...for me, mostly, do I need the loo or not?  I decided I did, but it looked as if the loo's were all set up specifically per wave start.  On arriving at our wave, this was in fact quite a decent idea and I was quickly into the luxury surroundings of a portaloo.  All done, it was just then a matter of waiting 25 mins or so for the race to kick off.  The sun started to appear from the clouds and although the wind hadn't died down, it didn't look that bad.

And then of course, it happens....5 minutes before we start, I need the loo again.  I'm not sure if it was the luxury fixtures and fittings of the portaloo tempting me back, or just my awful timing with my hydration approach.  Either way, there were still queues, so I'd put it to the back of my mind, start running and then hopefully forget.

And then we are off, finally we'd started.  I hadn't really warmed up at all beforehand, so I eased into the run.  It was crowded and so that slowed down any ideas about belting off at a pace way above what you could sustain.  The first mile came and went and into the second mile, there was that voice again...toilet...toilet...surely not, I was in the grove now.  But, true to form, I had to stop !  Not the end of the world I'm sure...and I'm convinced it's age related and will only get worse !

Back out and up and running again, I settled into a pace.  I was aiming to keep under 8 minute miles so kept an eye on the garmin.  It was a very packed race, so progress was quite heavy going, picking your way through gaps.  The loo stop had separated me from my two mates and there was no sign of my other mate, so I just selected 'auto', sat back and prepared to enjoy the flight.

And then came the Limehouse link.  It's not often that you run through a tunnel crossing.  I'd ridden through it before as part of the London Triathlon, but never run.  Once inside, the acoustics made it mandatory for an 'oggi oggi oggi' chant to start and there was the matter of a short sharp incline to deal with.  And then, you start to notice how warm it is starting to get inside the tunnel.  There is little or no breeze and soon I felt like I was overheating...and the noise of the machinery being run in the tunnel was at times overwhelming.

It was nice, literally, to see the light at the end of the tunnel and once outside, the body temperature started to fall away a bit as the breeze came back again.  And then I felt a hand on my back and the words 'I knew I'd find you'...it was my other mate Joe..somehow he'd managed to locate me.  That  was nice and we settled in to a nice pace and chatted as we ticked off the miles.  At around mile 10, I noticed Joe had dropped back a bit and it was looking as if he was slowing.  He told me to go ahead...but I'd already said we'd run together and finish together, so that's what we did.  Those last few miles were hard for Joe I'm sure, but he dug in and finished in a PB time !  

I didn't get a PB this time, but I hadn't at all thought I was in shape for one.  As it was, I felt just as good a sense of satisfaction in helping Joe to get across the line for a PB.  

Bags retrieved we managed to find the other two in our party and headed for home, exchanging stories of times, the weather, the course and that awful gusty wind.  As we made our way back, I couldn't help but think to myself how good I felt considering I'd just run a half marathon.  I don't recall ever finishing so comfortably or feeling so good after this sort of distance.  Perhaps some of the training is paying off?!!

So, what of the race, would I do it again?  Yes, I probably would.  The organisation was slick and efficient and there were plenty of marshals and volunteers on hand to help with directions etc.  Putting toilets in each start wave, whilst that doesn't seem like a game-changer, is actually a good idea.  It meant that you could make your way to your start wave and once there, use the toilets, at which, yes, there were queues, but nothing like when you just have one set of toilets to use.  The course itself was ok, but like most routes in London, was quite narrow in places so led to some bunching and therefore the need to be careful in navigating past people.  There was a nice goody bag and medal at the end.  All in all a well presented and organized race.

At the time of writing, it's now Tuesday after the run on Sunday.  I'm fully recovered from the race, or at least feel like I am, so training picks up again today as I try to get in the best shape I can for that first half iron man race !