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.