I want to share my race day secret sauce with you- peanut butter on toast. Trust me on this one. My last four races have exceeded my performance expectations, and I'm now intrigued as to why peanut butter on toast works so well for me.
I've noticed a few of my teammates have yellow patches on their arms, which are blood sugar monitors. They're participating in ZOE, the personalized nutrition program from the world's largest nutrition-science study. It's a study to understand how food affects your body.
My coach and my team emphasise daily the importance of nutrition, and to be honest, nutrition is not one of my key strengths. I know my race day fueling strategy needs to improve by 100%. One of my favourite meals is steak and kidney pie and chips. I regularly eat Chinese takeaways, but I recently had a run of fortune cookie messages that were exactly what I have been manifesting.
I have recently discovered Leon restaurants' natural fast food, a far better alternative to other fast food chains, and they have become my go-to. My favourite meal is a Leon Crunchy Korean Chicken Wrap and their famous Baked Fries Crispy Criss-cut. If that is a choice when travelling, I would say it's an excellent go-to for a healthy, nutritious meal.
But I would be lying if I said I didn't go off the rails occasionally and indulge in a McDonald's or Starbucks Iced Frappe or two the night before or after a race. I also love pinball bags of sweets; they are a weakness of mine. Occasionally, I get up to two or three packets in a day!
A typical day when I am focused includes banana and Weetabix with honey for breakfast, a chicken wrap with salad, fruit, and a cereal bar for lunch. I vary between chicken and rice, salmon vegetable pasta, fish cakes, rice and vegetables, and tuna pasta for the evening meal. I use frozen mixed vegetables for convenience.
I know this is an area I need to work on, and writing it down in a blog might help me on my quest. I have been told by friends who have been on the same journey and have nailed their daily fueling strategies that it takes time, and small adjustments will eventually evolve into a new way of fueling my body. This will not only boost my athletic performance but make my daily life better, too, not derailing with sugar crashes and mood highs and lows.
I have recently had my eyes open to the importance of sleep. I will be honest again and say I haven't prioritised it in the past, being up to the small hours watching films or watching YouTube content on running and sport. But my new Coros Pace 3 has focused me on my sleep.
The Coros Pace 3 will also monitor your sleep to keep tabs on your well-being, and how much rested sleep you're getting each night. Using a Pulse Ox sensor, the watch estimates your blood oxygen saturation so you can see how well your body absorbs oxygen when you sleep.
This technology also shows when your body will likely be at optimum performance so you can plan your day around peak activity times. It's quite addictive to hit sleep goals, similar to hitting training goals. I feel like I have more energy and a lot more recovered, especially if I've done a hard session. My takeaway is you need a good night's kip to recover.
Best, David