You are what you eat could not be more true when you are an athlete. The time of the year where I feel the worst is in the off season when I take my two weeks break. Good nutrition is the last thing on my mind and I feel tired, lethargic and unwell. If you want to perform well at training and racing, good nutrition needs to be part of your routine. Avoid cheap oils, simple sugars and processed food as these are your main enemies. They will inflame your body and make you feel heavy and sore.
Why would you want to create more inflammation when your body already has to deal with the toxins and inflammation created by the hard training and the race? Drink heaps of water. At least 30ml per kilo of body weight per day outside of training. So if you are 80kgs, you need to drink 2.4lt of water per day. You can include tea in that. I’m a big fan of my home made detox tea. I have a couple of 1lt jug per day when I write my training program.
Here is what I do:
- 2 passion fruits and 1 lemon squeezed in the jug
- 1 large tea spoon of organic creamed honey
- 2 bags of green tea, 2 of black tea and 2 of lemon/ginger tea. Organic please.
Train safe and refuel with quality and fresh ingredients!
